World-class faculty to accompany first-year violinists in Antonio Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”

Scotch-taped to the front of strings Professor Movses Pogossian’s studio door is a quote from Russian violinist Yehudi Menuhin: “The violinist is that peculiarly human phenomenon distilled to a rare potency ““ half tiger, half poet.” This evening, a group of UCLA’s first-year violin students will attempt to live up to those words.

Strings faculty Pogossian, Guillaume Sutre, Richard O’Neill and Antonio Lysy will accompany first-year students from the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music tonight to perform the third annual concert of Antonio Vivaldi’s celebrated “Four Seasons” in the Powell Rotunda.

“It gives (the first-years) an initiation ceremony of sorts. Usually freshmen are just busy getting used to things, but this immediately puts them front and center and welcomes them, makes them stars,” Pogossian said.

This year the ensemble will play Vivaldi’s “Concerto for Two Cellos” and J.S. Bach’s “Brandenburg Concerto No. 6″ in addition to Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.” The “Four Seasons” is comprised of four movements ““ Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter ““ and one first-year violinist will play each of the seasons while the faculty will back up their performance.

“You will have a freshman student, standing, playing a concerto by Vivaldi. And the people who will be sitting there, accompanying that student, will be world-famous violinists,” Pogossian said.

O’Neill is a member of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, while cellist Lysy was recently nominated for a Latin Grammy for his album. Both artists will accompany the students tonight.
Trina Bowman, a first-year music student who plays the Spring solo in the concert, said she was excited to play with such distinguished faculty.

“It’s really an honor, I think this is an opportunity you don’t get very often,” Bowman said.

The students began the piece during fall quarter and have been rehearsing since then. First-year music student Michael Perry, who will be playing the Summer solo, says that the group has developed a comfortable companionship.

“We’re friends, we’re in a lot of the same classes, and I mean, when you’re practicing around three or four hours a day, you all just know each other,” Perry said.

The students are not the only ones who have bonded over practice, the professors have as well.
“By a lucky combination it seems that we are a particularly well-fitting group of faculty,” Pogossian said of his colleagues. “Each of us feels equally strong about our priorities and how to support our students ““ everyone is very giving.”

Pogossian said the vaulted ceilings and open atmosphere of the Rotunda offer an ideal setting for performing Baroque music. He added that his favorite part of the “Four Seasons” is a movement in the middle of Autumn that is particularly compelling.

“Everyone puts mutes on, and there is this absolutely mesmerizing, Zen-like, almost meditative journey through the different tonalities,” Pogossian said. “The harpsichord is rolling in different harmonies up and down, and the strings are playing in one breath, and all of us together, it’s quite a magical moment.”