In Sunday’s (9/18) Post-Dispatch (St. Louis), Sarah Bryan Miller writes, “To say that pianist Orli Shaham is looking forward to her performances next weekend with her husband, David Robertson, and St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is to be guilty of serious understatement. ‘I can’t even describe how exciting this is,’ Shaham says. ‘This concerto was written for me! How lucky am I?’ The new concerto is ‘Stumble to Grace,’ composed by Steven Mackey. ‘I wrote it knowing it would be premiered by a soloist-conductor team,’ Mackey says. Usually, he notes, ‘the soloist just has an hour meeting with the conductor before the performance,’ which doesn’t leave a lot of time for exploring nuance. ‘Writing for David and Orli together allowed me to try some things: at one point, Orli is playing in (one rhythm) while David and the orchestra are going against every fiber of her being.’ … Other orchestras liked the idea, too; ‘Stumble’ was co-commissioned by the SLSO, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and it will have more performances in other cities in the coming months.”
Posted September 19, 2011
