Sunday (2/13) on the Herald-Leader music blog LexGo Listen (Lexington, Kentucky), Rich Copley writes, “Daniel Thomas Davis thought this was going to happen in Charleston, S.C. The premiere of his award-winning piano quintet, Book of Songs and Visions, had been at the Chamber Music Festival of Lexington, here in the Bluegrass, the land that inspired the sounds and textures of the work. But the conductor who took an interest in bringing the debut of the orchestral version of the piece to the stage was with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra: Scott Terrell. Call it fate, but when Terrell was hired as the music director of the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra in 2009, that world premiere came back to Lexington with him. … As it turns out, what Terrell really liked in the piece were things that emerged from Davis’ winter 2008 trip to the Bluegrass. … Davis says he didn’t write the piano quintet as any sort of outline for a larger, orchestral piece. But he has enjoyed the challenge of the ‘massive edit’ required to reimagine the five-musician piece for 70 players. … Resetting Songs and Visions gives Davis a rare opportunity to revisit a work after its premiere.”
Posted February 14, 2011
