Cellist Allison Eldredge, rose to the attention of classical music audiences when she was invited to perform the Elgar Cello Concerto with the Chicago Symphony by Music Director and Pianist Daniel Barenboim. This would be the first time Daniel Barenboim would perform the Elgar Cello Concerto since performing it with his late, renowned wife, the late great cellist Jacqueline Du Pre, who brought the piece to fame. The Chicago Tribune heralded Allison Eldredge as "a musician of remarkable gifts" and the Chicago Tribune hailed her as “a cellist afraid of nothing.”

Ms. Eldredge was awarded the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant and Musical America's “Young Artist of the Year” Award in 1989. She has since been performing in the concert halls of North America, Europe, Israel, Latin America and the Far East, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, New York's 92nd St. Y, the Kennedy Center, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, Royal Concertgebouw Hall in Amsterdam, Moscow Grand Hall and Tokyo's Suntory Hall.

As a soloist, Ms. Eldredge has performed with the world's premiere orchestras, including the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Royal Philharmonic, Moscow Virtuosi, Berlin Symphoniker, Montreal Symphony, Hague Philharmonic, Netherlands Symphony, Enschede Symphony, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Budapest Symphony, Milan Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic, Ukraine State Symphony, Royal Flanders Philharmonic, Sinfonia Warsovia and Polish Radio Symphony. In Asia, she has appeared with the China National Symphony, Yomiuri Symphony, Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, Osaka Philharmonic and the Tokyo Philharmonic.

Other distinctions include a critically-acclaimed sold-out debut as soloist at Carnegie Hall, a special performance in tribute to cellist Pablo Casals at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, a guest invitation as soloist with the Juilliard Orchestra at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall and an invitation to play at the White House.

In recital, Ms. Eldredge has toured the world's major capitals including London, New York, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland, Tokyo, Moscow, St. Petersburg and Amsterdam.

An advocate for living composers, Ms. Eldredge has toured the U.S. and Europe with composer Krzysztof Penderecki performing his Viola Concerto transcribed for cello and orchestra. In 2013, she performed his Concerto Grosso No. 1 for 3 Cellos as first cellist with the composer at the podium in Poland. In 2014, she will perform his new Double Concerto for Violin and Viola with violinist Chee-Yun.

In 2008, Strad Magazine raved about “Eldredge's..high-voltage perfomance” in New York celebrating American composer Paul Schoenfield's works with the composer. She has collaborated with composers Leon Kirchner, Shigeaki Saegusa, Lukas Foss, Marc O' Connor, Andy Vores and performed the works of many other living composers including Joan Tower, Bright Sheng, George Crumb and Ellen Taafe Zwillich.

Ms. Eldredge has been the featured soloist of orchestral tours throughout Great Britain with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields and has made four tours of Israel with the Haifa Symphony. She toured Russia for performances with the Moscow Virtuosi and Vladimir Spivakov, which culminated in a nationally televised gala concert, at the Moscow Conservatory Grand Hall. In America, she has been invited as soloist with the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Boston Pops, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Juilliard Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic, Westchester Philharmonic and the New World, Pacific, Milwaukee, Utah, Vermont, Pasadena, San Diego, Miami, Indianapolis, Peoria and El Paso Symphonies among many others. She has collaborated with such distinguished conductors as Zubin Mehta, Andre Previn, Charles Dutoit, Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop, Krzysztof Penderecki, Yevgeny Svetlanov, Hans Vonk, Lukas Foss, Sergiu Commissiona, Joseph Silverstein, Keith Lockhart, JoAnn Falletta, Stanislaw Skrowacewski, Eiji Oue, Jorge Mester, Mark Elder, Otto-Werner Mueller, David Afkham and Jaap van Sweden.

She has been the soloist of orchestral tours throughout the major music capitals of Western and Eastern Europe with the Berlin Symphonie, the Netherlands Symphony, the Budapest Symphony Orchestra and the Polish Radio Symphony. She has toured every music capital of Eastern Europe with the Moscow Virtuosi, Sinfonia Varsovia and the Ukraine State Symphony.

The Artist’s discography includes releases in 2010 of Haydn and Elgar Concerti for Arizona University Records and Denon Essentials. Following her release of Saint-Saens and Lalo Concerti with the Royal Philharmonic and conductor Hans Vonk, American Record Guide wrote, “ Hers is virtuosity wholly at the service of the music.” Additionally, her recordings can be heard on Denon Records, Pony Canyon Classics and BMG.

The Artist’s radio and television credits include appearances on New York's WQXR, Boston's WGBH, Japan's NHK-National Television and Radio, ABC's Good Morning America and a documentary in which she appeared with Isaac Stern and Yo-Yo Ma for Japanese television. Her commitment to the arts in Vermont have made her a frequent live performer on Vermont's Public Radio (VPR).

Highly acclaimed for her ensemble-playing, Ms. Eldredge has shared the stage with Artists, such as Andre Previn, Joshua Bell, Yo-Yo Ma, and Gil Shaham. She was a member of the acclaimed ensemble the Boston Trio from 2001-2011. She has been a frequent guest artist of Bay Chamber Music Festival, the San Juan Chamber Music Festival. Her summer music festival appearances include Ravinia, Casals, Caramoor, Santa Fe, Rockport Chamber, Salt Bay, Waterloo, Colmar Festival (France), Davos Festival (Switzerland), Dvorak Festival in Prague, Johanessen International Festival in Victoria, BC, the Killington Music Festival and Rutger's Summerfest in New Jersey.

In 2012, Ms. Eldredge Founded the Foulger International Music Festival, sponsored by the Sid and Mary Foulger Family Foundation. As Founder and Artistic Director, she is able to bring renowned Artists and Peadagogues together to teach and to perform with talented music students from around the world in an intensive 4-week summer program. The entire student body is presented in concerts in Northern New Jersey via live video-stream from Gene and Shelley Enlow Recital Hall at Kean University through the Festival website at www.foulgermusic.org. All students are also presented in concert at the Stanley Kaplan Penthouse at New York’s Lincoln Center. The next Foulger International Music Festival will be held in July 2014. Previously, she served as Artistic Director of the Killington Music Festival in Killington, Vermont from 2004-11

Ms. Eldredge has visited schools and music programs around the country each year to promote music education, a passion which has taken her into more than a hundred school programs.

Ms. Eldredge lives in Boston with her husband, Pianist Max Levinson and their two daughters. She currently serves on the faculty the New England Conservatory Preparatory School. She has also served on the faculty of Harvard University Music Department between 2008-2012. - See more at: http://www.pricerubin.com/classical/index.php?summarynumber=613#sthash.db6OcmmG.dpuf

A musician of remarkable gifts
Chicago Tribune

She revealed an ample technique and lyricism that got straight to the point.
Los Angeles Times

She gives the audience a confident superior quality performance. Bright tone color with assurance throughout and she entices the listener with passion and sensuality.
Record Art Magazine

Eldredge, a young power who has been hailed as a “genius” by Yo-Yo Ma, at her young age. Not only does she display her exquisitly beautiful tone and her effortless finger work technique, she has the sense for making music sing and feel deeply. At the same time she is magnificently focused. A great future is expected.
Stereo Magazine

Today’s brightest hope, cellist Allison Eldredge has exhibited an uninhibited but magnificently elastic and beautiful tone. Her playing has a serenity and nobility and yet it echoes a remarkable clarity and brightness
FM Fan

Allison Eldrege was an impassioned and focused soloist.
New York Times

No power on Earth could dilute the passion of her playing.
Salt Lake Tribune

It was obvoius that she was born with music deeply in her. She has a big sound and almost manly technical power and strength as well as deep singing tone.
Friends of Music (Tokyo)

A performer of fiery temperament, displaying a broad range of emotions and overwhelming energy…she amazed the listener with a powerful and deeply sonorous tone.
Mainichi Daily News (Japan)

The cellist has an exceptionally robust, colorful tone.
Baltimore Sun

Allison Eldredge returns the tradition of virtuoso cello playing to women. Like Jacqueline Du Pre and Willamina Suggia before her, Eldredge captures an audience with her technical ease and passionate phrasing.
Daily Bruin


"Allison Eldredge, a talented young cellist, contributed a vibrant, well-conceived account of Haydn's C-Major Concerto.".
New York Times


"Keep your ears on this cellist."
Chicago Tribune


"Eldredge, who has already wowed Chicago Symphony audiences with her unique artistry, was even more dazzling in her rendition of this one-movement concerto (Penderecki)...the concerto is a tour de force for a cellist who is capable of displaying as wide an aural palette as Eldredge can.
Chicago Tribune


"The cello concerto (Elgar), superbly played by Eldredge, is an outpouring of the most intimate kinds of passion and pain. Eldredge sounded like a young cellist afraid of nothing.".
Chicago Sun-Times


"Eldredge has a good technique and a soaring sound....Eldredge speaks with fluency and passion...You won't go wrong with Eldredge." American Record Guide


"She gives the audience a confident superior quality performance. Bright tone color with assurance throughout and she entices the listener with passion and sensuality."
Record Art Magazine


"Allison Eldredge...has a wonderful technique and natural rapport with that instrument, evident at her Kennedy Center Terrace Theater recital. Chopin's Introduction and Polonaise Brillante, Op.3, and a movement from the beautiful G minor Cello Sonata offered rich lyric possibilities, which found Eldredge's sound to be firm yet relaxed and capable of the full range of nuance and expression."
Washington Post


"She seems destined to become one of the greatest U.S. cellists..." Richmond Times-Dispatch


"The popular Cafe Music,...featured cellist Allison Eldredge, whose experience in the Boston Trio clearly paid dividends in this high-voltage performance. Indeed, in the outer movements each player seemed to push the other towards quicker tempos, while the slow movement featured tasteful portamentos and rubatos.".
The Strad (August 2008)


"Allison Eldredge returns the tradition of virtuoso cello playing to women. Like Jacqueline Du Pre and Willamina Suggia before her, Eldredge captures an audience with her technical ease and passionate phrasing. The brilliance and style she gave to even the most difficult technical passages marks her as a class-A artist."
Daily Bruin, Los Angeles


"Young cellist Allison Eldredge made the audience believe Casals had re-incarnated in a soulful rendition of his "Song of theBirds". San Juan Star


"Allison Eldredge's 'If I Loved You' CD has to be one of the most outstanding CD's of its type on the market.".
Record Geijutsu, Japan


"...what subtlety and meaning she found in the waltzlike second theme! It was at once lilting and elegiac, like an aged man's recollection of a ballroom of his youth. Eldredge is eloquent and communicative -- she makes you think "opera" and, just as often, "lieder," in terms of both sound and phrasing. Her pianissimo floats effortlessly and resonantly; at forte and fortissimo,her sound intensifies as it expands in volume. Her legato is liquid. Vibrato and bow placement and angle translate into a huge spectrum of color, which Eldredge applies tellingly."
Milwaukee Journal


"...Illuminating and always enchanting. Eldredge aptly zeros in on the salient characteristics...she finds and distills their common essences and offers them via virtually perfect intonation. Her spot-on double-stopping in the Chopin Polonaise Brillante is, alone, worth the price of admission. Hers is virtuosity wholly at the service of the music. She is a cellist worth watching."
Fanfare(American Record Guide)


"The cellist, Allison Eldredge, played with such intensity, that, accompanied by virtuosic accessories, the wildest bumblebee-like runs and cascading doublestops, a passionate statement was made."
Der Tagesspiegel, Berlin


"Out came the cellist Allison Eldredge, a vision in red. Her beauty could not disguise the fact that she belongs to "the creme de la creme" of cello talents. Her playing can be summarized in two words: Pure Passion."
Het Noord Hollands Dagblad, Amsterdam


"The cellist Allison Eldredge plays with the agility of a Puma. One could hear singing voices come from within her instrument. She is a true performer, with a great feel for drama."
Het Leidsch Dagblad, Amsterdam


"Ms. Eldredge and Ms. Akimoto were rock-solid. The finale was an essay in technical surety and seamless collaboration. This late Debussian mix...seemed tailor-made for Ms. Eldredge's flawless technique and intelligent musicianship. ...the extremities of range, from the most resonant low notes to ascents into the higher reaches of the fingerboard, were scant challenges for this accomplished cellist.
New Jersey's Classical Music Weekly


"Eldredge was absolutely stunning in her performance."
Deseret News, Salt Lake City


"Eldredge 'played like a dream.'
News and Record


"Cellist Allison Eldredge is a genuine, 24-carat prodigy...Her playing of the Dvorak Cello Concerto was a revelation."
The Register-Guard


"Her tone is at once both deep and silky...Her sotto voce was so beautiful and her nuances were sensuous and enticing...The passion of her soul sang in a melancholic, poetic way and she brought subtle expression to each phrase. It was an exquisite performance."
Ongaku no Tomo, Japan (Japan's Premiere Classical Music Magazine)


"A performer of fiery temperament, displaying a broad range of emotions and overwhelming energy...She amazed the listener with a powerful and deeply sonorous tone."
Mainichi Daily News. Japan


"In the Chopin and Faure disc, it is as if her sound was made for these composers. In her movie-broadway musical album ('If I Loved You'), she plays with unspeakably noble sensuality."
Otonapia Magazine, Japan


"Cellist Allison Eldredge only had to pull her bow across the strings, and every ear...woke up. All the elements of great playing were evident within the first few minutes."
Classical New Jersey


"Eldredge is the mistress of her instrument,playing with warmth and strength and technical mastery."
El Paso Times


"At the risk of being criticized by feminists, we admit we used the word "stunning" for two reasons. She's as easy on the eyes as she is on the ears."
El Paso Herald-Post

The alter ego of Victor Herbert, the famed operetta composer, was heard in his 1894 Cello Concerto No. 2, featuring the striking young cellist Allison Eldredge as soloist. The sturdy, almost chunky opening motif expresses the resolute character of the concerto, in three movements played without pause.

Eldredge immediately entered with a firm, cleanly shaped recounting of the main subject. Her shaping of the lyric lines was sensitively fluid, while her tone was full and warm. The most captivating projection of her musicianship came in the slow middle movement, where she managed to infect the beguiling melodic line with a caressing quality that never crossed the line into sentimentality, and gave an expressive account of the cello’s warmth in the lower register.

The concerto’s final Allegro was an extension of the first movement’s character, but with a more bravura expressiveness, coming full circle with a satisfying return referencing the big opening theme.
Herman Trotter, Buffalo News(12/06/09) - See more at: http://www.pricerubin.com/classical/index.php?summarynumber=613#sthash.db6OcmmG.dpuf

f I Loved You

DENON COCQ 83397
Allison Eldredge, cello
Phillip Bush, piano

Richard Rodgers/ If I Loved You from Carousel
Andrew Lloyd Webber/ You Must Love Me from Evita
Frederick Loewe/ I Could Have Danced All Night from My Fair Lady
John Barry/ Somewhere In Time from Somewhere In Time
Claude M. Schonberg/ On My Own from Les Miserables
Richard Rodgers/ Shall We Dance from The King And I
Jean Michel Legrand/ Where Is It Written from Yentl
Jean Michel Legrand/ Papa, Can You Hear Me from Yentl
Richard Rodgers/ Some Enchanted Evening from South Pacific
Stephen Warbeck/ Love Theme from Shakespeare In Love
Manuel Ponce/ Estrellita from Like Water For Chocolate
Richard Rodgers/ I Have Dreamed from The King And I
Frederick Loewe/ I Loved You Once In Silence from Camelot
Richard Rodgers/ Edelweiss from The Sound Of Music





Chopin & Fauré

DENON COCQ 83398
Allison Eldredge, cello
Vadim Sakharov, piano
Yoshie Akimoto, piano

Fauré/ Après une Rêve
Chopin/ Nocturne in C-sharp, op. posth. (arr. by Allison Eldredge)
Chopin/ Polonaise Brillante in C Major, op. 3
Fauré/ Romance, op. 69
Fauré/ Papillon. Op. 77
Fauré/ Berceuse, op. 16
Fauré/ Elégie, op. 24
Chopin/ Sonata for Piano & Violoncello in G Minor, op. 65


Romantic Duets

RCA Victor Red Seal 74321 386152
Allison Eldredge, cello
van het Oosten Orchestra
Alun Francis, conductor
Jaap van Zweden, violin

Verdi/ Brindisi from La Traviata
Verdi/ Parigi, o cara from La Traviata
Catalani/ Ebben?… Ne andrò lontana from La Wally
Donizetti/ Una furtiva lagrima from L’Elisir d’Amore
Puccini/ O mio babbino caro from Gianni Schicci
Nessun dorma! from Turandot
Leoncavallo/ E allor perchè from Pagliacci
Puccini/ Che gelida manina from La Bohème
Mi chiamano Mimi from La Bohème
O soave fanciulla from La Bohème
Bizet/ Au fond du temple saint from De Parelvissers
Habanera from Carmen
Delibes/ Sous le dôme épais from Lakmé
Massenet/ Gavotte from Manon
Offenbach/ Belle nuit (Barcarolle) from Contes d’Hoffmann


Allison Eldredge, cello

Canyon Classics EC 3694-2
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Hans Vonk, conductor

Saint-Saëns/ Cello Concerto No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 33
Fauré/ Elégie, Op. 24
Lalo/ Cello Concerto No. 1 in D Minor
Glazunov/ Chant du Ménestrel, Op. 71


Allison Eldredge, cello

Pony Canyon PCCL-00098
Yoshi Akimoto, piano

Debussy/ Sonata for Cello and Piano
Ravel/ Habanéra
Dvorak/Kreisler/ Songs My Mother Taught Me
Davidoff/ At the Fountain
Casals/ Song of the Birds
Chopin/ Introduction and polonaise brillante, Op. 3
Saint-Saëns/ The Swan
Rachmaninoff/ Vocalise
Schumann/ Adagio and Allegro - See more at: http://www.pricerubin.com/classical/index.php?summarynumber=613#sthash.db6OcmmG.dpuf

C.P.E. BACH
Concerto in A minor, Wq.170, H. 432
Concerto in B-Flat major, Wq.171, H. 436
Concerto in A major, Wq. 172, H. 439

J.C. BACH
Concerto in C minor

BARBER
Concerto in A minor, Op. 22

BEETHOVEN
Triple Concerto, Op. 56

BERNSTEIN
Three Meditations from Mass, (1971)

BIZET
Carmen Habanera

BLOCH
Schelomo (Hebrew rhapsody)

BOCCHERINI
Concerto in B-flat major, G.482 (Gruetzmacher)
Concerto No. 2 in D Major, G.479
Concerto in C major, G 573
Concerto in C Major, G. 477
Concerto in G major, G 480
Concerto in E-Flat major
Concerto in A major
Concerto in D major
Concerto in D major

BRAHMS
Double Concerto, Op. 102

BRITTEN
Cello Symphony (1963)

BRUCH
Kol Nidrei, Op. 47

CASSADO
Concerto in D minor

DANZI
Concerto in E minor

DONIZETTI
“Una furtiva lagrime” from L’elisir d’amore

DVORAK
Concerto in B minor
Silent Woods, Op. 68/5
Rondo in G minor, Op. 94

ELGAR
Concerto in E minor, Op. 85

FAURE
Elegie, Op. 24

FINZI
Concerto, Op. 40 (1955)

GARTH
Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 1, No. 1
Concerto in B-Flat major, Op. 1, No. 2
Concerto in A major, Op. 1, No. 3
Concerto in B-Flat major, Op. 1, No.4
Concerto in D minor, Op. 1, No. 5
Concerto in G major, Op. 1, No. 6


GLAZUNOV
Chant du menestrel, Op. 71

GOLTERMANN
Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 14
Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 30
Concerto No. 3 in B minor, Op. 51
Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 65
Concerto No. 5 in D minor, Op. 76

HAYDN
Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Hob. VIIb/1
Concerto No. 2 in D Major, Hob. VIIb/2
Divertimento in D Major

HERAS
Fantasia Concertante


HINDEMITH
Concerto in E Flat major, Op. 3 (1916)
Concerto in G (1940)

HERBERT, VICTOR
Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 8
Concerto No. 2 in E minor, Op. 30

HONEGGER
Concerto (1934)

KABALEVSKY
Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 49 (1949)
Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 77 (1964)

KHACHATURIAN
Concerto in E minor (1946)
Concerto Rhapsody in D minor

KOPPEL
Concerto, Op. 56

KORNGOLD
Concerto, Op. 37

LALO
Concerto in D minor

LEO
Concerto in D major
Concerto in F minor
Concerto in A major
Concerto in D major
Concerto in A major
Sinfonia Concertante in C minor

LIGETI
Concerto (1966)

LUTOSLAWSKI
Concerto (1969-70)

MOZART
Concerto No. 4 in E-Flat major for Horn K. 495 (arranged for cello)

MYASKOVSKY
Concerto in C minor, Op. 66

PENDERECKI
Viola Concerto (transcribed for cello by the composer)
Concerto No. 1 (1972)
Concerto No. 2 (1982)

PROKOFIEV
Sinfonia Concertante, Op. 125

PUCCINI
“Nessun Dorma” from Turandot
“Che gelida manina” from La Boheme

ROSSINI
“Una voce poco fa” from The Barber of Seville

ROTA
Concerto No. 2

SAINT-SAENS
Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 33
Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 119
Allegro Appassionato, Op. 43

SARASATE
Zigeunerweisen (arranged for cello and orchestra)

SCHUMANN
Concerto in A minor, Op. 129

SHOSTAKOVICH
Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major, Op. 107 (1959)
Concerto No. 2 in G, Op. 126 (1966)

STAMITZ
Concerto No. 2 in A major

STRAUSS
Don Quixote

TARTINI
Concerto in C minor
Concerto in D major

TCHAIKOVSKY
Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33
Pezzo Capriccioso in B minor, Op. 62

TOVEY
Concerto

VILLA-LOBOS
Concerto No. 1
Concerto No. 2

VIEUXTEMPS
Concerto in A minor, Op. 46
Concerto in B minor, Op. 50


VIVALDI
Cello Concerto RV 398 in C major
Cello Concerto RV 400 in C major
Cello Concerto RV 401 in C major
Cello Concerto RV 402 in C minor
Cello Concerto RV 403 in D major
Cello Concerto RV 404 in D major
Cello Concerto RV 405 in D minor
Cello Concerto RV 406 in D minor (related to RV 481)
Cello Concerto RV 407 in D minor
Cello Concerto RV 408 in E-flat major
Cello Concerto RV 410 in F major
Cello Concerto RV 411 in F major
Cello Concerto RV 412 in F major
Cello Concerto RV 413 in G major
Cello Concerto RV 414 in G major
Cello Concerto RV 415 in G major
Cello Concerto RV 416 in G minor
Cello Concerto RV 417 in G minor
Cello Concerto RV 418 in A minor
Cello Concerto RV 419 in A minor
Cello Concerto RV 420 in A minor
Cello Concerto RV 421 in A minor
Cello Concerto RV 422 in A minor
Cello Concerto RV 423 in B-flat major
Cello Concerto RV 424 in B minor
Double Concerto for Cello and Bassoon RV 409 in E minor
Double Concerto for 2 Cellos RV 531 in G minor

WILLIAM WALTON
Concerto (1955-6)
WEBER, Carl Von Weber
Grand Pot-Pourri in D major, Op. 20 - See more at: http://www.pricerubin.com/classical/index.php?summarynumber=613#sthash.db6OcmmG.dpuf

Review: Miami Symphony opens its season with energy, eloquence(10/19/09)

BY DAVID FLESHLER

South Florida Classical Review.com

At the end of World War II, the heroism and suffering of the Soviet people demanded a monumental work from their leading composer, and Dmitri Shostakovich responded with his light, almost Mozartean Symphony No. 9.

The Miami Symphony Orchestra opened its new season with an energetic, elegantly played performance of that work, along with the world premiere of a student composition and a big-hearted, dramatic account of Dvorak's Cello Concerto. The concert was part of the University of Miami Frost School of Music's Festival Miami series, which runs through Oct. 30.

Led by music director Eduardo Marturet, the orchestra opened with La Luz y su Desvio (Light and Its Deviations) by Andres Cremisini, a UM composition major who had moved as a child from Venezuela to Weston. Like many such ominous, atonal compositions, this well-crafted work sounds like the score for a horror movie. It begins quietly, with menacing sounds in the percussion and soft, swooping figures in the strings that build in clarity, volume and intensity before fading.

Boston-based Allison Eldredge took the stage for a performance of the Dvorak Cello Concerto that was big, dramatic and virtuosic, going deeper into the work than the typical crowd-pleasing account. At darker moments of the first movement, her playing was so probing that the work sounded as bleak as the Elgar concerto. Eldredge handled the formidable technical demands easily, and she had the big cello tone -- throaty in the middle register, golden and soaring in the upper -- the piece requires.

Orchestra and conductor were at their best in the Shostakovich symphony. The orchestra's tight, focused violin section, after that of the New World Symphony the finest in South Florida, gave a precise, well-phrased account of its part. And despite an occasional mistake, the winds played brilliantly in a work that makes enormous demands, especially at the blazing speed Marturet took the Presto.

Particularly effective was the mournful bassoon solo in the Largo, taken over a pedal point in the lower strings. Marturet drew an energetic performance, bringing out the shadows of the work and delivering big, clanking climaxes in a fine opening to its 21st season.


Miami Symphony Makes Move to Bigger Future(10/21/09)
By Gregory Stepanich

Allison Eldredge solos with the Miami Symphony on Sunday.

How does one go about rebranding a symphony orchestra?

If you’re the Miami Symphony Orchestra, you get this message across: We want to be a world-class orchestra, and we’re taking big steps to get there. The group has hired its first director of development, has a new executive director, and has named the Venezuelan conductor Eduardo Marturet as its music director.
And judging by what I heard Sunday evening at Gusman Hall, it really is an orchestra with promise, and perhaps there may be something to its dream of becoming a world-class band.

The Miami orchestra presented three widely varied works, including the Dvorak Cello Concerto (with Allison Eldredge as soloist) and the Shostakovich Ninth Symphony, and opening with a world premiere: La Luz y Su Desvio (Light and Its Changes), a brief tone poem by a University of Miami composition student named Andres Cremisini.
It was good of Marturet to program something brand-new for the concert, when he could easily have gone a much safer route. Cremisini’s piece was very much in the style of many contemporary compositions — largely atonal, and concerned more with sound patterns than narrative — and shows that he’s learned his lessons well. La Luz y Su Desvio began with a low rumble that led to string players moving their hands up and down their fingerboards for a squeaky chorus of harmonics, perhaps suggesting shimmers of light.
The heart of the work consisted of several lines playing against each other, with minor seconds and major sevenths prominent, creating a kind of busy sound collage that was interesting if not very purposeful, but that built to a powerful climax.

Cremisini orchestrates effectively, and knows how to get a wide variety of sounds out of the instruments, so his piece made a forceful impression. La Luz y Su Desvio is not original in any significant way, but it is competently and honestly crafted, and its composer could have a career in film music in his future.
Allison Eldredge, a cellist who teaches at the New England Conservatory, proved to be a fine advocate for the Dvorak, which is by common consent the greatest of all cello concerti. She produces a beautiful, dark tone quality that was well-suited for the composer’s late Romantic idiom, and for this work’s abundance of rich, memorable melody. Eldredge’s technique was admirable as well, and the multiple moments of virtuoso display held no terrors for her.

This was a fine reading of this concerto, and one in which huge, aggressive attacks were not to be found; Eldredge played with a kind of tense lyricism that was very attractive.

Eldredge and Marturet were good collaborators, frequently checking with each other about tempos; there were a couple moments throughout the concerto in which it took some time for the Miamians to match Eldredge, but soon everyone was on the same page. The orchestra accompanied its soloist snugly other than that, and aside from an inaccurate entrance from the trumpets in the coda of the first movement (through which the orchestra gamely soldiered on), its performance was laudable.

It was the Shostakovich symphony, a Prokofiev-style jeu d’esprit that requires nimble work from each section of the orchestra, particularly the winds and violins, that was most impressive. Strings played with precision and fire, as did the winds, which bubbled away with the sparkle requisite to give this music the proper feeling of athleticism.
The large, round sound bassoonist Geoffrey Hale gave to his fourth-movement solo added nobility and dignity, and Marturet judged this very exposed music well, making a sharp contrast between the unison brass motifs and the soft low-string chords that followed. Overall, it was a spirited, strong rendition of this symphony, and one that says encouraging things about this orchestra as it attempts to carve out a bigger role for itself on the South Florida classical scene.

The alter ego of Victor Herbert, the famed operetta composer, was heard in his 1894 Cello Concerto No. 2, featuring the striking young cellist Allison Eldredge as soloist. The sturdy, almost chunky opening motif expresses the resolute character of the concerto, in three movements played without pause.

Eldredge immediately entered with a firm, cleanly shaped recounting of the main subject. Her shaping of the lyric lines was sensitively fluid, while her tone was full and warm. The most captivating projection of her musicianship came in the slow middle movement, where she managed to infect the beguiling melodic line with a caressing quality that never crossed the line into sentimentality, and gave an expressive account of the cello’s warmth in the lower register.

The concerto’s final Allegro was an extension of the first movement’s character, but with a more bravura expressiveness, coming full circle with a satisfying return referencing the big opening theme.
Herman Trotter, Buffalo News(12/06/09) - See more at: http://www.pricerubin.com/classical/index.php?summarynumber=613#sthash.db6OcmmG.dpuf