|
Your result for "Alsop" from 01/01/2000 to 03/10/2010 in Reviews
| TYPE |
DATE |
|
| |
|
|
Review |
January 17, 2010 |
Roy Harris, Symphonies Nos. 5 and 6 performed by Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marin Alsop (Naxos). He was born on Lincoln’s birthday and he never seemed to tire of ways to embarrass symphonic music. At first, in the ’30s and earliest ’40s, a wildly idiosyncratic composer who had been a farmer and once drove a milk truck seemed made to order for Depression and wartime America. But here we are, 67 years later, with a very strong 1942 Symphony No. 5 dedicated to “the heroic and freedom-loving people of our great ally, the Union of Soviet Republics,” and we’re in just as much discomfort as he provided in old age with one cranky opinion after another (all of which paled, of course, compared with the semi-rabid anti-Semitism of Carl Ruggles). Roy Harris was far from a “primitive” as some explicators would have it; he was a great and distinctively athletic prairie composer who could inspire others (the contrastingly cosmopolitan William Schuman) but remain inimitable. Alsop’s current efforts to record Harris’ unjustly neglected symphonies are tremendous. ★★★½ (J. S.)
http://www.buffalonews.com/494/story/925576.html
|
Review |
December 17, 2009 |
Naxos of America Staff Picks of 2009: Part I
By Sean Hickey, Naxos of America National Sales Manager
I will admit that I was certainly never a fan of Lenny’s most controversial piece. I remember not making heads or tails of it in college, determining that it was slightly more interesting than Andrew Lloyd Webber. The amazing Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony have – to use an obvious pun – made me a convert of this moving piece, a quest for spirituality in the modern world.”
|
Review |
September 14, 2009 |
Charles T. Downey
BALTIMORE -- The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra opened its season with a black-tie gala concert on Saturday night, and it was heartening to see Meyerhoff Hall nearly full for a change, especially given the poor state of the economy.
Conductor Marin Alsop delivered the sort of program expected in these circumstances -- peppy, pretty and peppered with audience-pleasing fare. She gave homage once again to Leonard Bernstein with a raucous reading of the "Candide" overture.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/13/AR2009091302540.html
|
Review |
September 8, 2009 |
Marin Alsop, internationally-acclaimed conductor and music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, will receive an honorary degree from the University of Minnesota at the U of M School of Music Fall Convocation program at 10 a.m., Oct. 6 in Ted Mann Concert Hall, 2128 Fourth St. S., Minneapolis.
The convocation program will include a keynote address by Maestra Alsop on “Education and the Arts: Musicians as Engaged Leaders” and a performance of Leonard Bernstein’s “Make Our Garden Grow” by the U of M Symphony Orchestra and Combined Choirs. The School of Music will host Alsop in residence on October 5-6, where she will talk with students and faculty.
The Doctor of Humane Letters is the highest award conferred by the University of Minnesota Board of Regents, recognizing individuals who have achieved acknowledged eminence in their field.
“Maestra Alsop has been invited to the university as the quintessential professional model of integrated artistry, publicly engaged musicianship and civic leadership in the world today," said School of Music director David Myers. "She is an artist-conductor who succeeds creatively across musical styles and genres, and is widely respected for her ability to relate to a wide range of audiences and constituencies. She is highly regarded for her mentorship to young musicians, universally recognized as a role model for contributing to the public good, and deeply valued as an articulate spokesperson for American music and the place of classical music in society.
"Ms. Alsop is the logical musician-leader to inspire faculty and students around public engagement, and to energize collaborative potential among the university and Twin Cities communities for nurturing attitudes of public value and service among musicians," said Myers.
http://www1.umn.edu/news/news-releases/2009/UR_CONTENT_128937.html
|
Review |
September 5, 2009 |
Thanks to the recommendations of the Alb and the Mac, I filled in at the Cabrillo Festival of contemporary orchestral music in Santa Cruz, CA, in early August. Apart from the sheer joy of playing principal flute in a professional orchestra again (it had been three years), and the fact that two Aussie composer friends (Brett Dean and Matthew Hindson) were represented at the festival, I just loved working with the spectacular Marin Alsop. Maestra Alsop is “all that,” and then some. Cabrillo is clearly an orchestra that she loves (walking onto the podium at the first rehearsal she announced in a very no-nonsense way that it was great to be back with “my favorite orchestra”), and although the workload is heavy and schedule is quite brutal, every last member in the orchestra consistently and enthusiastically gave their all to realize her musical vision. It is, essentially, a grown up youth orchestra.
Highlights of the two-week festival? Brett Dean’s darkly humorous, hugely intense, dazzlingly orchestrated Moments of Bliss (bleeding chunks from Dean’s forthcoming opera based on Peter Carey’s first novel, Bliss) brought out the best in Marin. She was so no-nonsense during rehearsals that I was completely unprepared for the blindingly intense reading she gave of the work’s final, dramatic slow movement, a moving musical portrait of the complex but ultimately tragic wife of Bliss’ main “good bloke” protagonist. Even Brett was suitably impressed. Then there was Aaron Jay Kernis’ phenomenally difficult Invisible Mosaic III, surely the most difficult piece of orchestral music I’ve ever played. Despite a packed rehearsal schedule, Marin seemed determined to bring this wonderful, misshapen beast to heel, and during the work’s second performance, on the festival’s final evening, everything came together to make me realize that the piece really was more than the sum of its over-complex parts.
http://www.eighthblackbird.com/blog/2009/09/05/late-night-nostalgia/
|
Review |
August 17, 2009 |
Craig Morris
Cabrillo. Marin Alsop. Santa Cruz. This is where it’s at if you want to know what is actually happening in art music today. For two short weeks in Santa Cruz, some of the best musicians in the world convene for a musical exploration that is unparalleled and truly out of this world, and the 2009 edition certainly did not disappoint.
You may wonder about the basis on which I stake these grandiose claims. If so, pull up a google window and check these names out.
Composers in attendance in 2009: Oswaldo Golijov, Avner Dorman, Brett Dean, David Heath, Enrico Chapela, Joby Talbot, Kevin Puts, Ingraham Marshall.
Other notable composers who had pieces featured in 2009: Aaron Jay Kernis, James MacMillan, Magnus Lindberg.
Throw in a fantastic orchestra, an incredibly efficient management team, and an out-of-this-world music director in Marin Alsop — one of the foremost champions of new music, a leader with artistic vision, musical integrity of the highest caliber, and a work ethic that would make Paul Bunyan weep — and the result is a sort of musical perfect storm: a two week Santa Cruzian Nirvana for music and musicians.
http://www.livmusic.com/2009/08/17/cabrillo-in-the-rear-view-mirror/
|
|
