In Sunday’s (10/25) St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Sarah Bryan Miller writes, “Music director David Robertson and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra will make their annual trip to New York’s famed Carnegie Hall on Nov. 4. This time, they’re not a part of the orchestral series, but of a very special festival. This coming weekend they’ll provide a preview at Powell Symphony Hall. The festival in question is ‘Ancient Paths, Modern Voices: Celebrating Chinese Culture.’ It will take place in both New York City and Costa Mesa, Calif., with assorted artists taking part. Says Robertson, ‘The Carnegie concert is a real honor for the orchestra in a special way,’ because it’s one of just two professional American orchestras—the other is the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra—to take part in the New York component. … The program includes two percussion concertos by Chinese composers, Tan Dun’s ‘Water Concerto’ and Bright Sheng’s ‘Colors of Crimson.’ They’ll both be performed by the amazing virtuoso Colin Currie. … Acting as bookends to the concertos are two Western works that use Chinese themes: Igor Stravinsky’s ‘Song of the Nightingale’ and Bela Bartok’s wonderful ‘The Miraculous Mandarin,’ which Robertson calls ‘the inspiration of the mirror which we hold up to ourselves when we meet a different culture.’ ”
Photo by Tim Parker
Posted October 28, 2009
