Impresario Leon Botstein and The Orchestra Now of Bard College presented at Carnegie Hall – Exodus: Jewish Composers in Exile. This intriguing program title represented the product of Botstein’s brilliant artistic craft and expertise. In addition to a set of rare musical gems bound by history, two New York City premieres were on the program.
Tonight’s concert was entitled Organ and Orchestra by the American Symphony Orchestra! St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church on Park Ave in New York City was the apposite venue for Maestro Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra. They performed two works incorporating the rich sounds of the marvelous Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ with organist Paolo Bordignon, the Bard Festival Chorale directed by James Bagwell, and vocal soloists Soprano Anya Matanovič, Mezzo-soprano Eve Gigliotti, Tenor Joshua Blue, and Bass Adam Lau.
Today was a splendid example of the expressive power of visual and auditory art articulated with a fine orchestra, magnificent art exhibit, and stimulating repartee. Be sure to visit the Tudor exhibit that runs through January 8, 2023, and see the links below to exciting and equally stimulating and entertaining adventures through the arts by the nonpareil Maestro Leon Botstein and The Orchestra Now.
Conductor Zachary Schwartzman guides the orchestra with dramatic precision to ultimately express a kaleidoscope of coruscating musical colors. He delivers cues, tempo changes, metrical nuances, and expression with aplomb. He draws energy, excitement, and sheer musicality from the young artists.
This American Symphony Orchestra masterfully employed a sumptuous mix of 19th century symphonic intones and swing band idioms, commanding energetic themes, instrumental soloists as jazz tradition demands, rich tone colors, and moments of sublime beauty with lush strings, harp, flute, cello solos, and Ellington’s beautiful melodies.
The Orchestra Now Celebrates Beethoven akin to the Beethoven Symphony No. 5 in C minor’s premiere on December 22, 1808, in Vienna, Maestro Botstein raised his baton in this unique setting, summoning the dramatic opening four-note motif, this streak of lightning, conceived by Beethoven as “Fate knocking on the door”