Ifetayo Ali
(Julie Ingelfinger)
Ifetayo Ali Takes Boston!
by Julie Ingelfinger
The young cellist Ifetayo Ali enchanted a sold-out Calderwood Hall at
the Gardner in her Boston debut this past Sunday, along with able and
intuitive pianist, Lorena Tecu. Regal and poised, Ali is a phenom from
Chicago who started Suzuki violin as a toddler under her musician
mother’s tutelage, switched to cello at ~age 4, and first concertized at
about age 6 years. She has much under her belt already, including her
status as first-place laureate for 2017 in the Sphinx Competition Junior
Division and solo engagements with various US-wide orchestras. She
plays a gorgeous Peter Staszel cello with a focused yet rapturous look
in her eyes. It is hard to believe she is only 16, given her mature
interpretations (and perhaps her hair, currently a starkly-stripped
white). Romanian-born Tecu, a locally and internationally known
collaborative pianist, enhanced the concert with her sensitively
intelligent musicianship.
In Bach’s Suite No. 1 for Unaccompanied Cello in G Major, written in
around 1720 (BWV 1007) Ali’s mastery of the phrasing—nuanced, sensitive
and definitive—set the tone for a memorable concert. The prelude sounded
as the exquisite tone poem it is, though with an occasional low-note
growl. Ali’s version of the Allemande, sweet and tentative, with its
theme and variations, wafted delicately. The Courante, rushed and
mobile, flowed well, followed by the majestic, serious Sarabande. The
two minuets contrasted, and defined, left us wanting more, and the final
Gigue hornpiped with energy.
***
African American composer and conductor Coleridge Taylor-Perkinson
(1932-2004), named for the British-African poet and composer, similarly
brought multifaceted arts to fruition. Ali chose the last of his
Lamentations-Black Folk Song Suite for solo cello, written in 1973—Perpetual Motion, which recalls Bach in a novel voice. Ali’s version stunned with its verve, shaping and tone.
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