Violinist Yevgeny Kutik spoke with IPR's Nancy Deneen on Friday, ahead of his two concerts this weekend playing Philip Glass's Violin Concerto No. 2, also known as "The American Four Seasons," with conductor Kevin Rhodes and the Traverse City Philharmonic.
Live in the studio at IPR, Kutik shared his experiences performing this concerto with orchestras, how he paces himself to perform on stage multiple days in a row and what he does to wind down on the road as a traveling musician.
He shared the reasons behind his repertoire choice of Glass's Violin Concerto No. 2, which Glass himself wrote as a "modern counterpart" to Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons." However, Glass did not assign a season to each movement, leaving it open for audience interpretation.
"It's a bit of a mystery to everyone, including me and Kevin [Rhodes]," he said. "But it's a cool counterpart to 'The Four Seasons.' I like the idea of it being the 'American Four Seasons.' With Philip Glass's musical language, I can see this landscape of America all over this piece."
Hear the entire interview by clicking "Listen" below.
Between each movement of this concerto, Glass incorporates solo violin interludes that he calls "songs." Kutik performed Song 2 live on air.
Kutik spoke to IPR about his most recent release called "Going Home," an arrangement for violin and piano of the melody from the slow movement of Antonín Dvořák's "New World" Symphony.
"Being an immigrant myself, this feeling of 'new world, new land' but also perhaps homesickness and longing — I think that Dvořák so perfectly encapsulates that in this music," he said.
Yevgeny Kutik will appear with the TC Phil on Saturday, Sept. 27 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 28 at 3 p.m. at Milliken Auditorium, Traverse City.
Kutik will be launching the third year of The Birch Festival, a festival he and his wife co-founded. Based in the Berkshires, the festival connects musicians and expands access to performances to the Berkshire community year-round.
Kutik has performed across the U.S. and worldwide, appearing in recitals and soloing with orchestras to premiere and give repeat performances of new works by celebrated modern composers. In the following months, Kutik will be touring and performing concertos by Mozart, Sibelius and Shostakovich.
