The concerto reconstructed: Detroit Symphony plays Sorey premiere

By Annie Nikunen, 08 November 2020

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“haunting, creating skeletal frames of textures and gradually filling them”

Reviewed at Orchestra Hall, Detroit on 6 November 2020

Sorey, For Marcos Balter, for violin and orchestra (World premiere)

Price, Five Folk Songs in Counterpoint

Jennifer Koh, Violin

Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Xian Zhang, Conductor

Bignamini conducts Detroit Symphony in a resplendent Beethoven 9

Sam Jacobson, 14th May

DSO music director Jader Bignamini leads his ensemble in the glory of Beethoven’s Ninth, prefaced by a recent work written as a companion piece to the symphony.

****1

A triple serving of Salome from Fabien Gabel in Detroit

Phillip Nones, 22nd April

The French conductor leads a “Salome-centric” concert high on drama and color, joined by Nicolas Altstaedt in presenting a cello concerto new to American audiences.

****1

France meets Russia at the Detroit Symphony

Erica Miner, 3rd December

Enrique Mazzola conducts an intriguing combination of a French work and a Russian work with a French title focusing on turn-of-the-century France.

***11

Jacquelyn Stucker thrills in Strauss with the Detroit Symphony

Timothy Robson, 23rd October

Donald Runnicles conducted an imaginative chamber version of Strauss' testamentary Lieder, plus Elgar's own take on the concerto grosso form in his Introduction and Allegro.

***11

Jader Bignamini makes a strong impression with the Detroit Symphony

Timothy Robson, 18th September

In one of his first assignments as Music Director in Detroit, Bignamini conducts rarely-heard works by two Americans, along with an 18th-century Classical symphony by the Chevalier de Saint-Georges.

***11

Shostakovich the stand-out in a half-hearted Detroit program

Brian Wigman, 10th December

An uninspired evening of classics, that nonetheless showed off the many sides of Shostakovich.

**111

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Annie Nikunen

A NYC-based flutist, composer, writer and radio broadcaster, Annie studies composition/music theory at Barnard College, Columbia University, and flute at Manhattan School of Music. She performs contemporary, classical, jazz, Taizè and film styles, and is a founding member of Blackbox Ensemble. Annie has written for International Contemporary Ensemble, Yarn/Wire and Fonema Consort, among others. A ballet dancer of many years, she loves researching sound-body connections. She is a DJ and former Business Manager/Classical Head at WKCR, hosting a show highlighting contemporary ballet music of New York City Ballet and lesser-known orchestral/choral/flute repertoire.

The concerto reconstructed: Detroit Symphony plays Tyshawn Sorey world premiere