Author: hengjin_park@yahoo.com

Quote | The Boston Musical Intelligencer . October 2018

The Boston Musical Intelligencer | Dvořák Cello Concerto | Boston Philharmonic Orchestra | October 2018

“… Jonah Ellsworth, the soloist in the concerto, brought total concentration to an intense and warmly inflected performance. Who can forget his fine appearance in February of last year in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Boston Phil in Sanders? … ”

Quote | Pundicity . February 2018

Pundicity | Haydn Cello Concerto No. 1 in C Major | Maui Chamber Orchestra | February 2018

“… Ellsworth takes charge from the very first note. His sound is rich, and richly varied. He shows hair-trigger reflexes in matters of color, dynamic, phrasing, and attack, yet he never forces or reaches for effect. From the midst of passages for the full orchestra, he takes flight like an eagle. … ”

Quote | Worcester Telegram & Gazette . January 2016

Worcester Telegram & Gazette | Schumann Cello Concerto | Symphony Pro Musica | January 2016

“The second piece, Schumann’s cello concerto in A minor, featured soloist Jonah Ellsworth, a young, world-class virtuoso of remarkable gifts. Ellsworth leaned into the music so quickly and thoroughly that he seemed inside Schumann’s intentions, however evanescently rational those might have been. Schumann revised the piece several times in an asylum before madness shortly consumed him. There was melting poignancy to Ellsworth’s playing of the tender second movement and wonderful energy to the conclusion.”

Quote | Florida Times Union . January 2016

The Florida Times Union | Schumann Cello Concerto | Jacksonville Philharmonic | January 2016

“The challenges of playing Robert Schumann’s Cello Concerto are many and the work was once considered by cellists to be a thankless task. The concerto was composed within a two-week time period during 1850 but was never performed during Schumann’s lifetime. Today it is played with some frequency. The issues of performance are interpretive because Schumann’s fragile mental state is displayed in his writing. Guest cellist Jonah Ellsworth met these compositional quirks straight on. The quick changes between the very confident and the very fragile Schumann, those happy moments disappearing in an instant were completely under this young cellist’s emotional control. Ellsworth took his seat, cocked his head to his right shoulder, placed his chin, as it were, on the fingerboard and wowed the audience. His bow technique, his articulation in virtuosic passages, and the melancholy singing of his cello in the second movement brought the audience to its feet.”