Keri-Lynn Wilson conducts the New York Philharmonic with William Kentridge’s projections for Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10. Photo by Chris Lee.
In Friday’s (12/6) New York Times, Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim writes, “On Thursday, the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Keri-Lynn Wilson turned David Geffen Hall into a … museum of Soviet history. This one was a film designed by the South African artist William Kentridge, with Constructivist puppets cavorting in dollhouse galleries projected over the orchestra’s reading of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10. Titled ‘Oh to Believe in Another World,’ this dazzling, sly and subversive show is infused with nostalgia for the utopian fervor that fueled the Soviet experiment. It probes the idealism that initially drew in artists like Shostakovich … In animated collages of sinister whimsy, Kentridge presents this particular dance of art and politics as an unrequited love story in which a political ideology devours its most persuasive proponents…. In her Philharmonic debut, Wilson led a burnished performance that glowed with contained energy, allowing individual wind voices to unfold their emotional power, notably the bassoon in some hauntingly melancholic solos. Kentridge’s film, which was commissioned by the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, molds itself to each performance with the projectionist reacting to trigger points in the score.” The program also included Shostakovich’s “Festival Overture” and Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 featuring Philharmonic Concertmaster Frank Huang.
