Wednesdays Strad for Lunch Review

Yesterday, our "Strad for Lunch" concert featured the cellist Thomas Mesa on our "Vatican Strad." cello made by Nicolo Amati circa 1660 and Alexandra Joan on our Bosendorfer piano. Thomas is a native of Miami, Florida and is currently a student of Timothy Eddy at the Julliard School.  Alexandra a graduate of the Paris Conservatory and the Julliard School. She has an active international performance career and is the artistic director of the Kaleidoscope Series this season at WMP Concert Hall. We witnessed a beautiful collaboration between both performers. For the  Sonata for Cello and Piano by C. Debussy, our french pianist really understood Debussy's music and it showed in her performance together with Thomas who showed how strong his relationship is with the cello, in coupling his interpretation with the piano. Showing his beautiful right hand technique, his bow getting a great powerful sound. The communication between them in the Sonata for cello and piano was beautiful. The second piece performed was the cello solo in Messiaen  Quartet for the End of Time "Praise to the Eternity of Jesus". It was very intimate, strong and moved everyone in the audience. This is such an important music. The final piece of the concert was  J. Brahms Cello Sonata No. 2 in F major. A great ending to the recital. Thomas played with strong, romantic emotion and precision. What a wonderful artist, giving us a great array of colors, feelings and moods. This recital was another example of the multitude of talented musicians that have performed on our stage, at WMP. We look forward to seeing both of these musicians perform again as their careers blossom. Oh, yes... we will get to see Alexandra perform one more time this season on June 1st. Visit wmpconcerthall.com for more details about this concert and all the activities at WMP.