Tuesday, December 16, 2008

NY Times Reveiw of Axiom's Messiaen Performance!

The deft conductor Jeffrey Milarsky led the Axiom Ensemble, a flexible group of Julliard School students who have palpable enthusiasm for challenging contemporary music and the technical skills to play it...
In the Introduction to this Messiaen work, there is also simultaneity: the violins play a long searching melody, the brasses and metallic percussion instruments crackle with Indian-derived rhythmic patterns, the solo piano erupts with staggered cluster chords, and more. Yet Messiaen seems to be inviting you to turn off the part of your brain that demands to grasp what you are hearing intellectually. Instead you listen awestruck, as if hovering amid the wondrous sounds of life spinning around you. The performance, with the excellent pianist Matthew Odell, was vibrant and compelling.

Read the rest.

I was so sorry to have had to miss this performance. So little time, so many wonderful concerts...

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