In Wednesday’s (3/2) Republican (Springfield, MA), Clifton Noble Jr. writes about the Springfield Symphony Orchestra’s March 12 concert, during which “Maestro Kevin Rhodes, the SSO and piano soloist Jeffrey Biegel … present the world premiere of composer Kenneth Fuchs’s Piano Concerto (‘Spiritualist’).… The new concerto is inspired by three canvases, ‘Spiritualist,’ ‘Silent Wish,’ and ‘Natural Answer’ by the American abstract expressionist painter Helen Frankenthaler.… The concerto is the result of one of Biegel’s trademark consortium commissions, involving more than one performing organization in the creation of a single new work, thereby extending the performing life of the piece and broadening its audience at a single stroke. ‘Spiritualist’ will be played first by the SSO on Mar. 12, and subsequently by the Wheeling WV Symphony on May 20.… As companions to the new concerto, Maestro Rhodes has selected some of the best-loved ballet music in the western canon, Stravinsky’s ‘Firebird’ Suite, and Copland’s ‘Appalachian Spring’ Suite.”
Posted March 3, 2016
