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The Chee-McDermott electricity also sparked on the D Minor piano trio by Mendelssohn, joined by Alisa Weilerstein, who has become the festival's go-to cello virtuoso in recent years. Two of the three concerts we attended featured Wadsworth accompanying on piano -- he'll be playing harpsichord, too, before the festival is done -- indicating that he wishes to go out swinging. Or at least justifying the extra events in his honor.
Wadsworth also seems to be indulging himself by programming favorite pieces and pet composers. At the "Wadsworth & Friends" musical celebration, Jean-Yves Thibaudet returned to Spoleto USA for the first time since 1989 to join the St. Lawrence String Quartet in the majestic Cesar Franck piano quintet, one of my most treasured memories from Spoleto, where I first heard it back in another century.
On a more intimate scale, Wadsworth programmed a solo piece for cello, "Omaramor," by Osvaldo Golijov, who was a Spoleto composer-in-residence while his reputation was still on its meteoric rise. This fresh bonbon had Weilerstein bowing and strumming her instrument simultaneously! Four soloists making their Charleston debuts this year may be on the rise right now. Of the three I've heard so far, clarinetist Jose Franch-Ballester was the clear standout, nearly upstaging soprano Courtenay Budd on a Schubert lied, "Hirt auf dem Felsen," and making me want desperately to hear more of Kenji Bunch's music after his advocacy of "La ultima noche en la Casa de Flamenco."
What Wadsworth and friends accomplish with their lunchtime vitality and virtuosity may be best expressed by a first-timer I overheard after Chee-Yun and McDermott joined the St. Lawrence in Ernst Chausson's rarely-encountered Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Quartet. Out in the Memminger lobby, I overheard him saying to a companion: "I'm going to have to investigate this chamber music thing a little further." (Through June 7)
Bankruptcies
A special shout-out goes to Carolina First Bank for sponsoring Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and the entire 2009 Spoleto Festival Dance Series. On the other hand, extra-loud Bronx cheers for Bank of America and Wachovia, the mighty Charlotte banking giants who -- wait for it -- withdrew.
Must have happened rather late in the run-up to this year's Festival. In the season brochures, BofA Chamber Music and Wachovia Jazz are listed just as they had been in previous years. But they must have yanked their sponsorships before the official 2009 Spoleto program book went to press. Weasels.
