From: "izmo"

From: "izmo" To: "Jeff Epstein" <[email protected]> Subject: FW: NY Times Review of Yesterday's Wonderful New York String Orchestra Concert Date: Mon, 26 Dec 2011 17:01:42 +0000 From: Frank Salomon [mailto: Sent: Sunday, December 25, 2011 8:08 PM Cc: Rohana Kenin Subject: NY Times Review of Yesterday's Wonderful New York String Orchestra Concert Hi - Each year I wonder how can this year's edition of the New York String Orchestra match the wonderful music- making of the one the year before. But Jaime and the kids did it again last night to an enthusiastic full house. To end the year hearing music made with such musicality, warmth and passion, not to speak of instrumental virtuosity, is a wonderful way to close the year and look forward to the new one with renewed hope for music and what it brings and can bring to so many of us. Thanks so much for helping to make it all possible. Merry Christmas Frank Nev: York Tin,es Music MUSIC REVIEW Young Artists, Playing With the Stars By ALLAN KOZINN Published: December 25. 2011 • Unlike students in most other fields, fledgling musicians never really take vacations from their training. They can't. If they stop practicing for a few weeks simply because school is out, they will only need to work harder to get back in trim. Besides, setting • aside their instruments is not, typically, what they want to do. Every winter about 60 musicians between 15 and 22 years old put their winter vacations to good use by coming to Manhattan for the New York String Orchestra Seminar, a io-day program • in which they are coached by a starry roster of soloists and chamber players. • RECOMMEND TWITTER LINKEDIN E-MAIL PRINT REPRINTS EFTA00719136 Enlarge This SHARE 2 Ian Douglas for The New York Times New York String Orchestra: Jaime Laredo conducted this Christmas Eve concert at Camegie Hall. Pj ArtsBeat Breaking news about the arts, coverage of live events, critical reviews, multimedia and more. Go to Arts Beat » r P j Arts & Entertainment Guide A sortable calendar of noteworthy cultural events in the New York region, selected by Times critics. Go to Event Listings » The program, in its 43rd year, is offered by Mannes College the New School for Music. Musicians who have been through it have described the seminar as an intensive experience, and a pair of annual public performances at Carnegie Hall leave listeners with little reason to doubt that. The first of these concerts is always on Christmas Eve and is always played to a full house. For concertgoers interested in the future of classical music performance, this first New York String Orchestra concert is a holiday tradition, as firmly entrenched as the season's run of "Messiah" and "Brandenburg" Concertos performances. The violinist .Jaime Laredo has conducted these concerts since 1993 and has built on the tradition of Romantic flexibility established by his predecessor, the orchestra's founding conductor, Alexander Schneider. This year Mr. Laredo began with a work he could lead from the fiddle — Bach's Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra in D minor (BWV 1043), with Bella Hristova as the other soloist. Ms. Hristova has some experience with this orchestra: She participated twice, in 2004 and as the orchestra's concertmaster in 2006. Both Mr. Laredo and Ms. Hristova played with a supple, rounded tone, and often their sound and phrasing were so closely matched that when Bach shifted the focus from one violin to the other, the transitions were seamless. Their account of the slow movement was particularly well shaped, and the orchestra matched the energy it brought to the fast outer movements. Ms. Hristova had the spotlight to herself in Dvorak's lush, sweetly melodic Romance in F (Op. and Saint-Sans's unabashedly showy Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (Op. 28), and she acquitted herself beautifully. In the Dvorak she produced a lovely, often soaring tone and was deftly supported by EFTA00719137 the orchestra's trim woodwind and brass sections. And she built the Saint-Satins showpiece with an effective dramatic sense that proceeded from the work's graceful beginning to its sizzling finale. Mr. Laredo closed the program with a vital, broad-boned performance of Mozart's Symphony No. 35 in D (K. 385), the "Haffner." One might quibble with one interpretive decision or another — for me the triple beat of the Menuetto seemed overstated — but there was no arguing with the passion and precision of the performance, or the richness of the sound that Mr. Laredo drew from his young players. The New York String Orchestra performs with the pianist Andre Watts at 8 p.m. on Wednesday at Carnegie Hall. EFTA00719138