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Carte Blanche: Rainer Crosett & Victor Santiago Asunción
Thursday, April 2, 2026 at 07:00 PM
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Description
This Carte Blanche offers an intimate preview of the program that Rainer Crosett will perform at his Carnegie Hall recital debut in April 2026. Joined by the internationally celebrated pianist Victor Santiago Asunción, he traces the expressive evolution of the cello across two centuries: Beethoven’s Seven Variations on “Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen” from The Magic Flute (1801) display wit, charm, and Classical poise; César Franck’s Sonata in A Major (1886), originally for violin, blooms in its cello version with impassioned lyricism and harmonic luxuriance; Shostakovich’s Cello Sonata (1934) delves into a world of irony and wit beneath its neo-romantic surface; and György Ligeti’s Sonata for Solo Cello (1948–53) propels the instrument into the modern era with dazzling virtuosity and raw, rhythmic intensity.
Program
Ludwig van Beethoven: 7 Variations on 'Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen' from Mozart's 'The Magic Flute', WoO 46 for Cello and Piano ~10'
György Ligeti: Sonata for Solo Cello (1948/1953) ~8'
Dmitri Shostakovich: Cello Sonata in D minor, Op. 40 ~25'
César Franck: Sonata in A Major, M. 8 ~29'
Artists
© Clara Evens
Rainer Crosett
cello
American cellist Rainer Crosett, a co-founder of Tonhain Kollektiv, performs throughout the U.S. and Europe as a soloist and chamber musician. As a recipient of the 2018 Pierre Fournier Award, he made his recital debut at Wigmore Hall and his concerto debut with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London. A passionate chamber musician, he regularly performs at festivals such as Yellow Barn, the Perlman Music Program, Prussia Cove, the Trondheim Chamber Music Festival, and Music@Menlo. In recent years he has performed with renowned musicians* such as Robert Levin, Laurence Lesser, Donald Weilerstein, Cho-Liang Lin, the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, and Kim Kashkashian. Since 2014, he has been Artistic Director of Project LENS, an interdisciplinary ensemble founded in Boston, USA. Rainer is currently completing his studies at the University of the Arts with Prof. Jens Peter Maintz.
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Victor Santiago Asunción
piano
The Filipino-American pianist Victor Santiago Asuncion made his debut at the age of eighteen with the Manila Chamber Orchestra, before going on to perform in New York at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in 1999. In chamber music, he has appeared with artists such as Lynn Harrell, Zuill Bailey, Andres Diaz, James Dunham, Antonio Meneses, Joshua Roman, Cho-Liang Lin, and Giora Schmidt and the Emerson, Serafin, São Paulo, and Vega quartets. Victor Santiago Asuncion was the pianist of the Garth Newel Piano Quartet for three seasons. He was a member of the chamber music faculty of the Aspen Music Festival and has been a guest at other festivals, including the Amelia Island, Highland-Cashiers, Music in the Vineyards, and Santa Fe festivals. His discography includes the complete Beethoven sonatas with the cellist Tobias Werner, the Shostakovich and Rachmaninov sonatas with the cellist Joseph Johnson, and the Grieg, Chopin, and Rachmaninov sonatas with the cellist Eva Drachman. He also played on Lynn Harell’s award-winning disc ‘Songs My Father Taught Me’. Victor Santiago Asuncion is the founder and Artistic Director of the FilAm Music Foundation, which promotes Filipino classical musicians. He obtained a Doctorate of Musical Arts in 2007 from the University of Maryland and is a Steinway artist.
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