On Monday, Sept. 15, music lovers were in for a treat when cellist Daniel Gaisford, accompanied by SUU professor and pianist Dr. Christian Bohnenstengel, performed a classical music recital.
The event was free and featured pieces by composers such as DeBussy and Brahms. The recital hall was packed with students, professors and classical music enthusiasts alike, and ended with a minute-long ovation for the expert musicians.
Gaisford has been playing cello for over 30 years, and has been featured in the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, National Review, Washington Post and NPR. After leaving his hometown of Salt Lake City, Gaisford studied at Julliard School of Music where he was first cello in the symphony orchestra and won the Shostakovich Cello Competition. He then performed at the prestigious Lincoln Center and has since played for multiple orchestras across the United States and Canada.
Gaisford met Dr. Bohnenstengel while filling in for an SUU professor. The duo decided they should play together upon realizing how much rapport they had, both in personality and music. Their first and Gaisford’s favorite composition of the night was DeBussy’s Cello Sonata, which consisted of abstract, percussive and seemingly improvisational elements. Bohnenstengel hadn’t played the piece until the lead-up to the recital and the various compositional elements made it difficult for him to lean into at first.
“I go, ‘hey, you just gotta relax in it…I know it’s really strict, but you have to make it feel like we’re just making it up,’ and he did it. He was great,” said Gaisford after the recital.
DeBussy’s piece wasn’t just Gaisford’s favorite; it was also the favorite of many attendees, including stage manager Alana Schimdt.
“It was so beautiful. It caught me off guard, honestly…it made my heart stop for a second. You can tell that Daniel is such a skilled cellist…[he’s] not scared to sound abrasive. …It adds so much more emotion when there’s multiple aspects to a song besides melodic aspects,” Schmidt said.
Many attendees shared the sentiment that Gaisford’s emotion and expressivity transformed their idea of what cello could accomplish.
“[Gaisford] transformed the cello into a multidimensional instrument…it makes you think of all music that way. It’s like, what could I do with other instruments?” Schmidt said.
Gaisford, in his vast knowledge of the history of the cello, explained that at the turn of the 20th century, what the Russian school wrote for the cello was nothing that had ever been seen before. Beethoven wrote 5 sonatas for cello, Brahms wrote 2 and Mozart wrote nothing.
“But [at] the Russian school, [composers] like Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Kabalevsky…started writing unbelievably difficult music for Mstislav Rostropovich, arguably the greatest cellist of all time,” said Gaisford. “He told me he would go up to composers and say, ‘Compose for me!’…so, what was amazing was they based their compositional ideas off what they saw him do on the cello, and that’s what changed everything…the cello’s not really just an orchestra instrument anymore.”
The SUU Music Department’s upcoming events include the Satellite Salon Series on Sept. 20 from 5 to 6 p.m., featuring Grammy finalists Natalie Cressman and Ian Faquini playing jazz fusion in the Thorley Recital Hall. In addition, the Homecoming Alumni Band Concert is on Sept. 26 from 7:30 to 9 p.m. in the Heritage Center Theater. Both are free to attend.
