Azul at Tanglewood and the New York Philharmonic
Azul, Osvaldo Golijov’s cello concerto, recently received two major performances.
At Tanglewood, on August 9, cellist Christine Lee’s performance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and conductor Sammy Rachid, marked the 20th anniversary of the work’s premiere. Azul, a BSO 125th Anniversary Commission, was first performed at Tanglewood by Yo-Yo Ma and the BSO in August 2006.
On October 2, Yo-Yo Ma was the soloist with Gustavo Dudamel and the New York Philharmonic. The concert was one of a series of special non-subscription concerts marking the opening weeks of Maestro Dudamel's tenure in New York as music and artistic director.
Osvaldo Golijov congratulates soloist Christine Lee after her performance of Azul at Tanglewood on August 9, 2026. Credit: Hilary Scott
Accordionist Michael Ward-Bergeman, conductor Gustavo Dudamel, percussionist Jamey Haddad, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and percussionist Cyro Baptista in discussion at the rehearsal for Azul at the New York Philharmonic, October 2, 2026. Credit: Osvaldo Golijov
Osvaldo Golijov embraces Yo-Yo Ma after his performance of Azul with the New York Philharmonic on October 2, 2026.
Cuadros del Sur: “unmissable” world premiere recording
Pianist Daniil Trifonov’s latest album, Mi Historia Americana – Sur, released on October 2 by Deutsche Grammophon, features the world premiere recording of Cuadros del Sur. In the work, inspired by Pictures at an Exhibition, Gonzalo Grau sets selections from Osvaldo Golijov’s La Pasión según San Marcos (for orchestra, choir and soloists), here setting it for piano and orchestra. Trifanov is joined by Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo (OSESP) in what marks the first appearance on a DG recording by any Brazilian orchestra.
The recording is featured in Gramophone magazine's “Five Unmissable New Classical Recordings”.
Podcast discussion explores Ever Yours recording
Osvaldo Golijov joined Stephen Prutsman, Barry Shiffman and host Sarah Cahill on Phenotypic Recordings's Musical Minds & Missions podcast, to discuss the album Ever Yours, released on the label earlier this year. The album takes its title from the work of the same name—presented here by the Arethusa and Animato Quartets with Nicholas Schwartz, bass—that is dedicated to Geoff Nutall, the late, founding first violinist of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, and is inspired by letters between Vincent van Gogh and his brother, Theo. On the podcast, the three guests—all friends and musical colleagues of Nutall—remember their friendship, music making, and the origins of Golijov's close relationship with Nutall and the SLSQ. "Geoff Nuttall was and is my brother in life and in music," states Golijov.
The podcast features excerpts from the title work, as well as other pieces on the recording: Esperanza, the love theme from Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis; and two works featuring Shiffman on viola with the Arethusa Quartet. Golijov discusses his love of the sonority of a string quartet joined by a second viola, in Tintype as a viola quintet, and in K'vakarat as a quartet with solo viola. The latter work, originally written for cantorial voice and later for clarinet, is presented here in Shiffman's arrangement for viola. Says Golijov, "I love this record," and, noting the roles of friendship, love and trust in music making, "the personal is much more important in all the good things—especially chamber music—than what we think it is."
Pondering musical legacies, Golijov says: "We take life; we put in on paper, so to speak, or into patterns of rhythms and pitches and expressions, and... we will all be gone but something of us will continue through a score or a recording or a memory."
Musical Minds & Missions podcast, episode 12 is availabe on YouTube. Ever Yours can be purchased or streamed at bandcamp.com.
