The Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Christopher Zimmerman.
North Dakota’s Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra “closes out its season on a high note,” writes John Lamb in Sunday’s (4/23) InForum (Fargo, ND). At “Saturday night’s concert … the personality was in the programming, combining selections from one of the most popular ballets with a major symphony and a post-modern composition…. The five Masterworks concerts this year each featured a fifth symphony by a well-known composer…. Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5 was a fitting finale for the season. The work helped form the concert’s theme, Music Takes Wing, as the composer was inspired by seeing a flock of swans in flight. What’s become known as ‘The Swan Theme’ in the third movement is a stirring melody.” Also on the program were Valentin Silvestrov’s Elegy for Strings and selections from Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake.” “David Amado from the Delaware Symphony Orchestra [led the concert]. His relaxed personality comes out in his conducting, and he seemed to have developed a quick rapport with the musicians … His pre-show talk … was personable, humorous and informative … [Music Director Christopher] Zimmerman and outgoing Executive Director Linda Boyd deserve kudos for introducing listeners to … contemporary composers … That will carry over into next year” with works by Quinn Mason, Dang Hong Anh, Jonathan Leshnoff, and Peter Boyer.
