Tonight was an event when The Orchestra Now Performs Barber, Strauss, and Schumann in a fantastic concert of challenging, diverse, and intriguing music. The musicians performed with intensity, purpose, and virtuosic brilliance. They delivered moments of excitement, adulation, passion, pathos, and profound serenity.
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.
This notable variety of musical works is apposite for The Orchestra Now, an ensemble of young professionals assembling to hone their skills for careers in music around the world. This evening, under the able baton of conductor Zachary Schwartzman, these artists expanded their repertoire and contexts for their future challenges. Each work provided ample opportunity for solos, marvelous brass, string and wind tuttis, lush strings, and musical poetry.
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.
The Orchestra Now presents The Lost Generation Maestro Botstein and The Orchestra Now demonstrated their capacity to express powerful rich intones, frenetic fugatos, and exquisite, intense subtleties.
The Orchestra Now stands proudly in the well-earned tradition of excellence among the superb symphony orchestras that regularly perform in New York City. And while they celebrate major standard repertoire (sometimes called the three B’s – Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms), they take care to include adventurous works that warrant recognition and performance before eager patrons.
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.
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”