“Princeton Symphony Orchestra welcomed a live audience to Morven Museum & Garden for the first time in months last Thursday night with a presentation … featuring guitarist Rupert Boyd and cellist Laura Metcalf,” writes Nancy Plum in Wednesday’s (5/19) Town Topics (Princeton, NJ). “The ‘pods’ of audience members on the lawn of Morven’s pool house were clearly elated to be out on a warm night of music…. Boyd and Metcalf, a married couple …, presented … music ranging from the 19th to 21st centuries, crossing genres from Romantic masterpieces to contemporary classical to the Beatles…. Debussy’s Arabesque No. 1, originally composed for solo piano, was played with a sweet cello melody and with both instruments executing the polyrhythms well…. The most powerful moment of the performance was a movement from Oliver Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time…. Two selections from [Robert] Beaser’s Mountain Songs set story-telling Appalachian folk songs in an open and airy musical texture…. Boyd and Metcalf [performed] arrangements of songs by Beyoncé and the Beatles…. The duo played ‘Eleanor Rigby’ nimbly…. Boyd and Metcalf’s performance of ‘Blackbird’ [incorporated] bird sounds to complement those naturally heard in the Morven Garden.”
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