“The Boston Modern Orchestra Project’s Saturday concert at Jordan Hall, ‘Klezmer Madness,’ [featured] two recent concertos for clarinet and orchestra [with] the outstanding klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer,” writes David Weininger in Sunday’s (11/24) Boston Globe. “Bookending the concertos were two [non-klezmer] orchestral works by the Israeli-born composer Avner Dorman … four very different works given committed and energetic readings by this intrepid ensemble under Gil Rose’s sure direction. Opening the evening was Dorman’s ‘Uriah’ (2009), a terse, blistering tone poem on the biblical story of King David and Bathsheba from the point of view of Bathsheba’s husband … Almost as impressive was Dorman’s ‘Ellef Symphony,’ named for the Hebrew word meaning one thousand…. The two concertos were Mathew Rosenblum’s ‘Lament/Witches’ Sabbath’ (2017) and Wlad Marhulets’ Concerto for Klezmer Clarinet (2008). Rosenblum’s work is grounded in his grandmother’s harrowing story of escaping from Ukraine in 1919…. A blazing cadenza for the soloist unleashed a stew of sorrow and incantation: here was the madness advertised in the concert’s title. Marhulets’ concerto is more modest in ambition … full of conventional klezmer-style melodies and rhythms…. It’s well scored and offered Krakauer the opportunity to put the soulful, lyrical side of his artistry on display.”
Posted November 27, 2019
