Exploring Schumann… and Film Acting

Cellist Lynn Harrell already had quite an impressive resume before his latest achievement, starring as an actor in a short film. He’ll be soloing in two works with Symphony Silicon Valley on the weekend of the 20th, a dramatic concerto by Schumann, and with three colleagues from within the orchestra, the Sinfonia Concertante by Haydn.

There’s more information about the concerts at the Symphony Silicon Valley website.

Harrell says Schumann’s cello concerto wasn’t always as popular as it is now. “The concerto was neglected, particularly because Schumann, shortly after (still working on touching up details) went into an insane asylum. At that time, of course, there was very very little known about conditions that exist in the mind that bring on dementia and manic depression and schizophrenia. I think that sort of sealed the lid of the coffin for the Shumann cello concerto. But very early in the 20th century, Piatigorsky championed the work, and played it all over, and made the first full-length recording. And since then it’s been recorgnized more and more as being just the masterpiece it is.” There’s a double dose of Schumann, with the Manfred Overture opening the concerts, and Harrell will also be playing in a quartet of soloists in a work by Haydn. “I’ve wanted to play – sometime before I retire – this wonderful Sinfonia Concertante (Hob I/105) by Haydn. It shows a great deal of virtuosity for all of the solo instruments, and of course is absolutely marvelous.” The concert concludes with Kodály’s Dances of Galánta.

Here’s the trailer for the short film in which Lynn Harrell stars, called Cello.