Review: Women Composers and Musicians in the Spotlight at Dallas Symphony

In Saturday’s (11/2) Texas Classical Review, William McGinney writes, “The Dallas Symphony Orchestra under the baton of guest conductor Anu Tali delivered an engrossing program Friday night featuring music of Amy Beach and Alisson Kruusmaa, closing with Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations. Kruusmaa’s Five Arabesques, scored for string orchestra …features a wide variety of string textures that are juxtaposed and contrasted over the course of the set…. The last movement broke with this pattern, completing the set with soft yet richly sounded chords encompassing the full register of the strings, each guided by Tali’s distinct and serene gestures…. Kruusmaa … shared the applause with Tali and the DSO. (Tali and Kruusmaa will also be panelists for the Sunday session of the DSO’s sixth annual ‘Women in Classical Music’ Symposium.) Five Arabesques was followed by the Piano Concerto of Amy Cheney Beach. As the longest piece on the program and a nexus for the concert’s theme of Women in Music, this work served as a centerpiece for the performance…. Highly virtuosic, the piano part [allowed] soloist Anne-Marie McDermott to cast the instrument as a true partner in dialogue with the orchestra…. Tali’s interpretation of Elgar’s musical sketches of friends and associates made for a rousing and satisfactory conclusion.”