Reviews: Azul at SLSO Opening Night

Reviews from the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra opening night performance of Azul featuring cellist Daniel Lee.

Jason Makansi
Examiner
St. Louis Today

Tetro Soundtrack Released

The soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola's Tetro will be released in September by Deutsche Grammophon.

Further information is here : Tetro Soundtrack
Listen to some of the tracks for free here : Tetro Eplayer
Buy online

Reviews: Azul at Cabrillo Festival

Reviews from the Cabrillo Festival performance of Azul featuring cellist Alisa Weilerstein.

Metro Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz Sentinel
Financial Times
The Sacremento Bee
Mercury News

Some quotes:

"Weilerstein sang through Golijov's long-noted lines, storming or gossamer-light or evoking the slow, earthy grandeur of Bach. They mixed and merged with the reedy folk-techno-whoosh of the accordion (Michael Ward-Bergemen) and the Dionysian rustlings of percussion (Baptista and Jamey Haddad), while the orchestra hovered, a luminous cloud (those trombones! those horns!), with Alsop fine-tuning the proceedings across four movements.

And yet some of the work's best moments happened when the orchestra melted away, like precious metals vanishing to leave Weilerstein and the other soloists — perhaps representing Bach and all the musicians of the world — to a Baroque-raga jam session. Crazy, beautiful stuff."

"...an accordionist (playing a whooshing, digitally enhanced instrument, like a folk musician from outer space..."

"...wizardly Cyro Baptista, sporting a pair of gigantic red eyeglasses, looking like Merlin as a rock star."

"Osvaldo Golijov’s uncategorisable Azul, in its revised version, simply beguiled. The Argentine-born composer mines Indian ragas, finds inspiration in baroque forms and the poetry of Neruda and conjures sonorities that seem both to hover in the air and pierce the heart. Cellist Alisa Weilerstein has succeeded Yo-Yo Ma as this work’s prime interpreter; her collaboration with hyper-accordionist Michael Ward-Bergeman and percussionists Jamey Haddad and Cyro Baptista, both rhapsodic and visceral, set the standard for the festival."

Photo selected for Schmap Oxford Guide

Michael's photo of a Sheldonian Theatre Emperor Head in Oxford has been selected for inclusion in the newly released eighth edition of the Schmap Oxford Guide.

Check it out here: Sheldonian Theatre

Reviews of "Three Roads" performance in Chicago

Reviews of the June 8 MusicNow performance of Three Roads featuring Christina Courtin.

Amarillo Symphony Blog
Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Classical Review
Chicago Tribune

Reviews of Dawn Upshaw Recital in Boston

Michael's Treny (Laments) was performed by Dawn Upshaw at her recital at the New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall in Boston on May 3. Works by Ives, Fauré, Debussy, Ravel, Messiaen, Golijov, and Bolcom were also on the program.
Nonesuch Journal article on Dawn Upshaw
Boston Globe review of recital.

Carnegie Hall Offers Recordings of Recently Commissioned Works Online

Carnegie Hall has announced that select new works recently commissioned are available online for free -here-
Michael's Three Roads is among esteemed company and some incredible music (Steve Reich's Double Sextet just won the Pulitzer)
Read more -here-