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The conference room was packed with fitness professionals looking for the latest thing to bring home to their health clubs and senior centers. But instead of yoga mats and dumbbells lining the floor, everyone was outfitted with just one thing: a conductor’s baton.
The “musical zelig” Michael Boriskin gave a recital of the piano works of Lou Harrison as part of Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series and curated an exhibition in conjunction with the performance. He spoke to the New York Times in advance of the concert.
Boriskin brings “brilliant pianism” to an album of Gershwin’s complete piano and orchestra works, which the Penguin Guide gave one of its coveted rosettes. “This is the most seductive pairing of the Rhapsody in Blue and Concerto in F to have come our way for a long time. The performances have a superb sense of style, and are for today what Bernstein’s famous versions were for the 1950’s and ‘60’s.”
The New York Philharmonic and League of American Orchestras co-commissioned a new viola concerto for Principal Violist Cynthia Phelps from young composer Julia Adolphe, which premiered in 2017.
Kernis’ writing here is still sophisticated, just not busy or overly complex. Sometimes he takes the orchestra in unexpected directions, as when a setting of Rumi’s earthy and philosophical poems take on high pitched urgency. “Mrs. Midas,” is more like a monodrama or a scene from an opera.”
As the principal violist of the New York Philharmonic, Cynthia Phelps is at the pinnacle of her field – she talks to NPR’s Morning Edition about guiding the orchestra’s inner voice.
