“The wall between classical music and indie rock is plenty porous these days,” writes Preston Jones in Saturday’s (3/12) Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, TX). “As The National guitarist and composer Bryce Dessner explained Saturday, on the final evening of his two-night stint with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, presented as part of the DSO’s ingenious ReMix concert series … [he] grew up playing the flute, before being bitten by ‘the rock and roll bug,’ but eventually earning degrees in classical composition and classical guitar…. Two of Dessner’s compositions (2012’s Lachrimae, for strings, and 2011’s St. Carolyn by the Sea, for the full orchestra) were on the hour-long program conducted by guest maestro Brett Mitchell Saturday, complemented by Wojciech Kilar’s Orawa for string chamber orchestra and Adam Schoenberg’s Finding Rothko…. Orawa was a finely wrought opener…. Finding Rothko proved equally compelling, its inspiration drawn from a series of Mark Rothko paintings…. Dessner and Travis Andrews … joined the DSO for the final number, St. Carolyn by the Sea…. The pair was subsumed by the orchestra, apart from it, but also a part of it. The effect was mildly hypnotic…. Taken together, the program proved to be a fascinating fusion of artistic disciplines.”
Posted March 15, 2016
