“A near sell-out audience was treated to riveting performances anchored by a landmark U.S. premiere at Friday’s Delaware Symphony Orchestra classical concert ‘Fantastic Guitars,’ ” writes Gail Obenreder in Saturday’s (2/27) News Journal (Delaware). “The first half of the evening featured the Brasil Guitar Duo—João Luiz and Douglas Lora [and] varying DSO forces…. Kudos all around—to Maestro David Amado for adventurous programming, to DSO musicians for rising to the evening’s musical challenges and to guest artists Brasil Guitar Duo, who played with charm and consummate musicality.… The three markedly different guitar works were being recorded by major classical music label Naxos for a CD [and included] ‘El Libro de Los Signos (The Book of Signs),’ written in three movements for two guitars and string orchestra by the much-lauded Cuban Leo Brouwer.… The double concerto was written in 2003 and has been played world-wide; timed with the recent thaw in US-Cuban relations, Friday’s performance was a groundbreaking United States premiere.… Closing out the concert’s … first half was the warm and engaging ‘Concerto Caboclo for Two Guitars and Orchestra,’ written for the Brasil Guitar Duo by Paulo Bellinati.” The orchestra’s performance of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique was played “with passion and dazzling technicality.”
Posted March 2, 2016
