“Saturday’s MusicNOW concert presented by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in Music Hall was an evening to showcase the orchestra,” writes Janelle Gelfand in Monday’s (3/21) Cincinnati Enquirer. “The second night of MusicNOW curated by [MusicNOW founder Bryce] Dessner juxtaposed music of the 20th century with music of today. The centerpiece was Dessner’s own tribute to a famous work by the great 20th-century Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski. Music director Louis Langrée opened with Lutoslawski’s ‘Funeral Music’ for string orchestra (in memory of Bela Bartok).… Langrée kept it interesting, shaping the opening canons to mesmerizing effect and inspiring dark, intense color in the strings…. Dessner … took his cue from Lutoslawski in his own ‘Réponse Lutoslawski,’ performed on Saturday in its American premiere…. Dessner’s tribute was nearly twice as long as Lutoslawski’s … sophisticated and well-crafted…. In one of the most arresting moments, a long-breathed melody swelled out of the depths of the basses and gradually took over the orchestra. The musicians provided refined playing.” Also on the program were Terry Riley’s The Sands, with the Kronos Quartet; and Magnus Lindberg’s Feria, “given a blockbuster performance [that] included cascades of brass fanfares and a brilliant cadenza for piano (Michael Chertock).”
Posted March 22, 2016
