Quoted from a review I wrote last week for the Post-Gazette. Once they get my writings, I relinquish any editorial control. Usually they will clean my writing up, saving me from journalistic style errors. With this review though, a key sentence from my copy was omitted...
Scored for percussion, violin and string orchestra, "Kyoto" was marked by thoughtful and quiet music, punctuated with the occasional rhythmic flurry and the final movement's punchy ending.
[composer] Timothy Adams ... showed he is at his best writing for the myriad percussion instruments in his battery. His opening gesture -- scarcely audible marimba rolls -- was particularly evocative of his musical intent to depict the rising sun.
Before the quartet even entered, Cardenes brought out voicing subtleties in the orchestra, especially the linking of the themes as they traveled throughout the sections.
WHAT QUARTET? (wind? string? babershop?)
The omitted sentence read:
The interpretive highlight of the concert was Mozart’s “Sinfonia Concertante,” a work that features a wind quartet as “soloist” to the orchestra.
The editing makes it seem as if a quartet were waiting with bated breath to enter into Tim Adams' piece for violin, percussion and strings. I make a lot of writing errors and this shows that editors are not infallible either. I did receive a nice, heartfelt apology from the PG.
This reminds me of a conversation I had with composer Carl Bettendorf in 2003 about the importance of transitions in Brahms. We both agreed that in transitions is where the real craft of composition takes place, and that with Brahms, you can almost hear the furrowing of his brows as he transitions from one arrival point to another. It is the transitions that link the "big ideas" together and make a seamless narrative trajectory. Something this review as published is noticeably missing.
