Performer: Colorado Music Festival Orchestra

When Alisa Weilerstein stepped on stage to play Joan Tower's new cello concerto during a Colorado thunderstorm, it was a case of three elemental powers conspiring to create.

The world premiere of Hannah Lash's Forestallings, rooted in her childhood love of Beethoven's Second Symphony, links to Peter Oundjian's arrangement of the Op.131 string quartet later in the program.