In Thursday’s (6/3) Plain Dealer (Cleveland), Zachary Lewis writes, “Opera may not be on the bill, but the Cleveland Orchestra’s concerts Saturday are still operatic in scope. That’s because they spotlight contemporary music. In lieu of sets and costumes, the orchestra is dealing with wildly challenging scores, tricky stage setups, and a huge percussion force entailing countless instruments. ‘It’s a hard job,’ said Matthias Pintscher, guest conductor of the special two-part evening called ‘Composers Connect.’ ‘These are incredibly complex pieces.’ … Between two hour-long concerts, the last at Severance Hall before the 2010 Blossom Festival, the orchestra will perform four works composed over the last decade by its former Daniel R. Lewis Young Composer Fellows. All four works had their premieres here. On tap are ‘Translucence,’ by Cleveland native Susan Botti (2005), ‘On Comparative Meteorology,’ by Johannes Maria Staud (2009), and Marc-Andre Dalbavie’s ‘Concertate il Suono’ (2000), which splits the orchestra into multiple units and spreads them across the stage and around Severance Hall for unusual spatial effects. … Pintscher himself was one of the orchestra’s composer fellows, and used the opportunity to write ‘With Lilies White’ (2001), the fourth work on the program.”
Posted June 4, 2010
