“It was a relief to finally hear the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in Bass Performance Hall … with the full-sized orchestra” conducted by Kevin John Edusei, writes Tim Diovanni in Sunday’s (9/19) Dallas Morning News. “The 2,042-seat venue is operating at full capacity, and the orchestra reported about 660 audience members. Masks are required in the audience, and string and percussion players wore them onstage. Inspired by his experiences growing up in Birmingham, Ala., Brian Raphael Nabors’ Pulse (2019) is a mostly brisk rhapsody unfolding in several continuous episodes over 12 minutes…. [Soloist] Ray Chen attacked Sibelius’ Violin Concerto with white-hot intensity…. Edusei elicited expressive nuances from the orchestra, which supported Chen’s intensity…. In Dvořák’s bright and rustic Eighth Symphony, Edusei again got expressive results from the orchestra. He gently tapered the ends of phrases in the introductory theme…. In the third movement scherzo, he coaxed a graceful lilt out of Bohemian dances. The finale exuded both feverish abandon and elegiac melancholy. Although there were some fine dynamic contrasts and mysterious pianos, the reading often needed more on the softer end of the dynamic spectrum…. Edusei proved to be an effective leader with a sure grasp of musical architecture.”
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