Chicago Symphony Orchestra Principal Percussionist Cynthia Yeh performs the world premiere of Jessie Montgomery’s “Procession” with the CSO and conductor Manfred Honeck. Photo by Todd Rosenberg.
In Friday’s (4/31) WTTW (Chicago), Hedy Weiss writes, “Cynthia Yeh, who has been the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s principal percussionist since 2007 … was at the center of ‘Procession,’ a world-premiere CSO commission by the award-winning composer Jessie Montgomery, who is now in her final season as the orchestra’s incredibly productive Mead composer-in-residence. And these two women clearly stirred up an intriguing, richly dramatic work for the orchestra in which the bold, mood-shifting sounds of percussion (on a drum set, djembe/bass drum, vibraphone and glockenspiel) burst into an intriguing, dramatically varied 20-minute piece full of musical surprises…. Yeh captured the work’s big, fast, drum-beating opening followed by the cellos and winds, with others on drums and timpani. And while she supplied wild rhythms on a giant drum—and at times deftly operated four sticks to capture the beats on both drums and other instruments—the rest of the orchestra tapped into the beauty of Montgomery’s sometimes lyrical, sometimes brassy, sometimes dreamy, sometimes march-like score that even includes the sound of church bells.” Manfred Honeck led the concert, which also included Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7.
