East Coast Chamber Orchestra

MUSIC
MONDAY, MARCH 1, 2021
7:30 PM

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This seems like another one of those concerts where some pieces by young female composers of color are laminated onto some Boring Old Stuff. But, maybe because string orchestra music is such an appealing genre in general, the Boring Old Stuff is nice: no one's gonna complain about hearing Barber's Adagio, and even we Tchaikovsky-haters have to admit that his Serenade for Strings is quite attractive. Hell, Osvaldo Golijov's high-energy Last Round (memorializing Piazzolla — not that you'd necessarily know it if Golijov didn't tell you) isn't even Old or Boring. The new stuff, though, is interesting. Jesse Montgomery of the Lower East Side is a star in the NYC Alt Classical firmament. But Hanna Benn, from the Pacific Northwest, presents a poser. Like the BK Alt Classical crew, she does "classical" and she does "pop". But with our guys and gals, the two melt into each other, without clear borders between them. Benn, on the other hand, turns out "classical" pieces like the one on this program, Where Springs Not Fail, that sound like updated Herbert Howells or something. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Cafe de Paris: pour 2 oz. Gin, 1/2 oz. each of cream and Simple Syrup, 1/4 oz. Absinthe, and 1 egg white into a cocktail shaker WITHOUT ICE. Dry shake. Add ice. Shake some more. Strain into a chilled Nick and Nora glass.