“Dvořák’s ‘New World’ Symphony is the centerpiece of the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra’s March concert,” reads an unsigned Friday (3/9) article in the La Crosse Tribune (Wisconsin). “His ninth and last symphony … is a major part of the ‘American Visions’ theme concert on … March 17…. The concert features the two winners in the orchestra’s Rising Stars Concerto Competition. And one of the winners, 18-year-old Madeline Sheard of Maple Grove, Minn., performs the first movement of Dvořák’s cello concerto … ‘[reminding] us all of the incredible inspiration this Bohemian master derived from our land,’ said Alexander Platt, the orchestra’s music director and conductor…. The piano concerto winner, 15-year-old Emma Taggart of Blaine, Minn., also performs Saturday, playing the first movement of Edvard Grieg’s first piano concerto with the orchestra…. The orchestra opens the concert with an American work, ‘Ash,’ by Michael Torke, a Wauwatosa native…. Platt said, ‘It’s one of the finest examples of Torke’s truly unique and very American style, in which the world of 1980s’ pop music is allied with the spirit of Beethoven, Handel and Brahms…. It’s like nothing else—like the New World Symphony, an American original,’ Platt said.”
Posted March 12, 2018
