Leila Josefowicz at The Met
Tuesday, February 16, 7 p.m.
Bach’s Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004, performed in Gallery 919, Modern and Contemporary Art, and a new work by Matthias Pintscher, performed in The Met’s 16th-century Spanish courtyard, the Vélez Blanco Patio.
Classical violinist Leila Josefowicz’s busy touring career was abruptly cut short last spring due to the global pandemic, and during this past year she has turned her attention to repertoire for solo violin. Josefowicz performs a work recently composed for her by celebrated German composer Matthias Pintscher and, for the first time, Bach’s monumental D Minor Partita.
After visiting dozens of galleries within The Met, she chose to set Bach’s work in a gallery that features Mark Rothko’s No. 3 and Jackson Pollock’s Number 28,1950. The result is a bold and passionate performance that reimagines the viewer’s relationship with these beloved masterpieces. The Partita concludes with the Chaconne, which the composer Johannes Brahms said contained “a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful feelings.”
Amid the striking architecture of the Vélez Blanco Patio and Bernini’s lively and expressive sculptures, Josefowicz plays A Linea Evocativa (2020) A Drawing for Violin Solo (Dedicated to George and Leila)—written specifically for her by Pintscher and commissioned by artist George Condo during quarantine.
This performance was recorded in January 2021 while the Museum was closed to the public.
Cadence: The Sounds of Justice, The Sounds of a Movement
Conceived by Anthony McGill
With Catalyst Quartet
Tuesday, March 9, 7 p.m.
Performed in Gallery 915, Modern and Contemporary Art
Clarinetist Anthony McGill returns to The Met to perform a program that explores his family’s 20th-century migration from the Deep South to Chicago. McGill selected Kerry James Marshall’s Untitled (Studio) along with other contemporary works in The Met’s collection to contextualize and enter into dialogue with the music. The concert features the world premiere and MetLiveArts commission Four Angels (2021) by Richard Danielpour.
McGill is one of classical music’s most recognizable and brilliantly multifaceted figures. First-chair clarinet of the New York Philharmonic—and the orchestra’s first African-American principal player—he recently won the Avery Fisher Prize for his achievements as an instrumentalist and advocate for social change.
Catalyst Quartet: Karla Donehew Perez, violin; Abi Fayette, violin; Paul Laraia, viola; and Karlos Rodriguez, cello.
Program
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Quintet in F-sharp Minor for Clarinet and Strings, Opus 10, performed with Catalyst Quartet
Richard Danielpour’s Four Angel, performed with Catalyst Quartet
Adolphus Hailstork’s Three Smiles for Tracey
This program was recorded in February 2021 while the Museum was closed to the public.
Note from the artist:
Art is life. Music is life. Music and art live inside of us.
2020 was a year in which I thought a lot about what it means to be a musician. As we begin 2021, I’d like to continue to expand the capacity for art and music to reach more people and change the world for the better. We live in a world of separation and segregation. I desire to live in a world where there is no more separation, segregation, or injustice and where art and music unite us.
Art is a necessity, a value and a gift that everyone should be allowed to experience. I grew up in a household where music and art were a part of everyday life. It was how you went through the world. Creating, appreciating, and learning without hesitation. We were taught that to live a full life you needed to fully experience music and art. My parents were visual artists, and even though our house was cozy, we had a designated art room. We always had music on in the house. My father was painting or drawing, mother was constantly dancing and singing, and they were always creating. I was surrounded by inspiration. This centering of all forms of art and music created a fertile environment of love through learning. This mindset made absolutely anything possible. Live your life as an artwork of your design is what I was taught. This is freedom. This is love. This is life. I’m grateful for this education.
I dedicate this program to all the artists and educators in the world. You are necessary, you are irreplaceable, you are valuable. To be able to make music in this space, The Met, in this time is a dream come true—a song worth singing, and a piece worth playing.
—Anthony McGill
MetLiveArts Digital Premieres are free to stream and are available on The Met's website, YouTube channel, and Facebook. Videos remain online indefinitely. Images are available upon request.
Previous Digital Premieres
They Will Take My Island (digital premiere: Jan. 26, 2021)
Handel and Haydn Society: Monteverdi Vespers of 1610 (digital premiere: Dec. 15, 2020; live: Apr. 8, 2017)
Seasons: A Song Cycle for Guitar Quartet (digital premiere: Dec. 1, 2020; live: Apr. 10, 2011)
Rosanne Cash and A. M. Homes: Eye of the Collector (digital premiere: Nov. 17, 2020)
John Holiday: Hold On! Freedom Is Coming! (digital premiere: Oct. 27, 2020)
Lee Mingwei and Bill T. Jones: Our Labyrinth (live digital premiere: Sep. 16, 23, and 30, 2020)
Nativity Reconsidered: El Nino (digital premiere: Aug. 8, 2020; live: Dec. 21, 2018)
Nrityagram: Samhāra Revisited (digital premiere: Jul. 18, 2020; live: Oct. 27 and 28, 2018)
The Ninth Hour: The Beowulf Story (digital premiere: Jun. 27, 2020; live: Jun. 28, 2019)
Thapelo Masita at The Met Cloisters (digital premiere: Jun. 21, 2020)
Silas Farley: Songs from the Spirit (digital premiere: Jun. 6, 2020; live: Mar. 8, 2020)
Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi: there is no Other (digital premiere: May 16, 2020; live: Oct. 4, 2019)
Baaba Maal: Songs of the Sahel (digital premiere: May 1, 2020; live: Mar. 9, 2020)
Black Rock Coalition: History of Our Future (digital premiere: Apr. 25, 2020; live: Sep. 7, 2019)
The Mother of Us All: An Opera by Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson (digital premiere: Apr. 3, 2020; live: Feb. 8, 2020)
Program Credits
Leila Josefowicz at The Met is made possible by The Howard & Sarah D. Solomon Foundation, the Consulate General of Canada in New York, and is presented in partnership with George Condo.
Cadence: The Sounds of Justice, The Sounds of a Movement is made possible by William H. Wright II and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Adrienne Arsht Fund for Resilience through Art, and The Howard & Sarah D. Solomon Foundation.
About MetLiveArts
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Department of Live Arts commissions and presents new works of performance: music, words, movement, sound, and related hybrids. With its singular, artistically rigorous body of work, Live Arts furthers The Met’s position as a center for shared understanding and an active creative center for living artists. The department deepens connections between audiences and works of art and encourages the discovery of untested modes of performance. Commissions by the department generate new scholarship and bring art in The Met's collection into conversation with contemporary creators. Live Arts produces the most expansive season of new and large-scale works in any museum-based performance series in the United States.
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February 15, 2021
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