North/South Consonance's 30th Anniversary Gala Reviewed by the NY Times!

“ Music critic Steve Smith attended the March 8 concert at the Merkin Hall. Read his thoughts and reactions. ”

Arthur Campbell and Max Lifchitz with the North/South Chamber Orchestra

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(eMusicWire.Org) – Strolling Through Castles and Labyrinths
By STEVE SMITH

The concert presented by Max Lifchitz and his North/South Chamber Orchestra at Merkin Concert Hall on Monday night was billed as a 30th-anniversary gala. Since founding North/South Consonance in 1980, Mr. Lifchitz, a Mexican-born composer, conductor and pianist, has devoted copious effort to promoting the work of composers underserved elsewhere, through a regular series of concerts in New York and on CDs released by North/South Recordings.
But if you were looking for regal finery, flowery speeches and Champagne, you were in the wrong place. This particular gala was celebrated with business as usual. Works by Hilary Tann, Stephen Yip, Edward Green and Mr. Lifchitz received their first performances. A solitary nod to the past, Elizabeth Bell’s “Andromeda,” was featured in a 2002 North/South Consonance event, the first presented at Merkin.
In all of his endeavors, Mr. Lifchitz has adhered to no particular stylistic dogma, and this concert was accordingly notable for its range. Ms. Tann, Welsh-born and now based in upstate New York, reworked a 1998 trio for oboe, viola and cello, “The Walls of Morlais Castle,” into a handsome piece for string orchestra, with dusky melodies and bracing, rustic rhythms.
Mr. Yip’s “Spirit Labyrinth II” also dealt in folk-inspired notions, calling on a solo harpist, Megan Levin, and the string players to slap, thump and slide through a ritualistic sequence of gestures, conjuring calm meditation, frenetic enlightenment and eventual repose.
Mr. Green’s Concerto for Clarinet and Strings, revised from an earlier work for saxophone and string orchestra, opened with a relaxed lyricism reminiscent of Hollywood’s take on Copland’s music. Wistful motifs never overstayed their welcome; indeed, you often wished one or another idea would linger to bloom fully. A suave, peppy second part eventually bustled its way back to the first movement’s relaxation. Arthur Campbell was the eloquent soloist, sounding especially strong in his rich lower register.
Ms. Bell, a student of Vittorio Giannini and Peter Mennin, showed the most refined grasp of structure and pacing in “Andromeda,” less a piano concerto than a well-wrought celestial fantasy in which piano figured prominently. Helen Lin, the soloist, dexterously grappled with contrasting meters and hand-over-hand legerdemain, chorused by strings and two percussionists.
In Mr. Lifchitz’s “Night Voices No. 16,” for clarinet, strings and percussion, Mr. Campbell was more clearly the focus. Unaccompanied for long stretches, his clarinet sang, purred and growled ornate soliloquies during the fitful work, as strings murmured and a percussionist punctuated the flow.
Throughout the evening you could wish for greater clarity and bite from the ensemble. But the sound the North/South players made was seldom less than respectable; their cause is still more so.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/arts/music/10north.html