“The Fort Worth Symphony under its longtime conductor, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, offered a jam-packed program that was at once unfamiliar and festive” on Tuesday at the Shift festival of North American orchestras at the Kennedy Center, writes Anne Midgette in Thursday’s (4/11) Washington Post. “Shift isn’t necessarily supposed to be a festival of American music, but when a small orchestra is aiming to define itself to a new audience, new music is one clear way to go. Fort Worth embraced that by showcasing its two visiting composers, Anna Clyne and Jimmy Lopez. The evening opened with a wonderful 20-minute piece by Clyne, titled ‘Rift’ (2016), which murmured and pulsed lyrically … sounding like something you’ve always known but forgotten. It was accompanied—not overshadowed—by equally strong choreography by Kitty McNamee for excellent dancers from the Texas Ballet Theater…. For this festival, the orchestra brought out the violinist Augustin Hadelich for as compelling a performance of Leonard Bernstein’s ‘Serenade’ as I’ve ever heard.… The final piece was Lopez’s new orchestral arrangement of his 2015 opera ‘Bel Canto.’ … The orchestra sounded involved and vivid in a lovely concert.”
Posted April 16, 2018
