“Maybe someday Terre Haute Symphony patrons will cease being amazed at the high caliber of programming that is offered concert after concert after concert. Nov. 6 was not that day,” writes Stephanie Salter in Thursday’s (11/11) Tribune-Star (Terre-Haute, IN). “Three works that would challenge the Vienna Philharmonic made up the program: Berlioz’s overture to ‘Beatrice and Benedict,’ Brahms’s Concerto in A Minor for Violin and Cello [with soloists Benjamin and Natania Hoffman], and the greatest symphony almost no one has heard, Beach’s ‘Gaelic’ [Symphony] in E Minor. The latter two, especially, are killers, which is part of why they are not often performed…. The Beach, well, raise your hands if you’ve even heard of Amy Beach, let alone listened to the only symphony she ever composed? Artistic Director David Bowden, now in his 25th year on the THSO podium, likes to take on killers from time to time. And his orchestra … is up to each challenge, as they proved throughout the Berlioz-Brahms-Beach evening in Tilson Auditorium…. Finally, the Beach. A revelation. Little wonder Bowden maintains she is the greatest American composer—male or female—of the 19th century and her symphony ‘is worthy of being called a masterpiece.’ ”
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