“It was nice to have Leonard Slatkin back in town, if only for a single concert with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra Saturday night,” writes Tim Smith in Monday’s (4/17) Baltimore Sun. “The conductor has done terrific work as music director of the Detroit Symphony for nearly a decade…. Throughout a meaty concert, there was no mistaking the rapport Slatkin had with the Peabody students, who seemed keenly attuned to his firm, unshowy beat and expressive phrase-molding…. Saturday’s concert contained [Kernis’s] Flute Concerto from 2015, written for and dedicated to flutist Marina Piccinini, one of Peabody’s excellent faculty artists…. The flute is both protagonist and commentator in this eclectic drama, which ends with a nod to Jethro Tull…. Kernis provides a multilayered orchestral fabric that includes, to delectable effect, a mandolin…. To cap the evening, Slatkin led the Peabody Symphony in a terrific account of Elgar’s Enigma Variations…. The conductor stopped the hearty ovation to say a few, well-chosen words to the audience about the value of classical music…. He urged people to ‘be vocal,’ to ‘let everyone know how much music is touching you.’ ”
Posted April 19, 2017
