It's John Adams night at aworks...
Mark Wigglesworth conducts the Pittsburgh with Leila Josefowicz playing John Adams' Violin Concerto. Mark Kanny likes the violinist's performance:
Josefowicz played the lyrical opening movement with exceptional beauty of tone and rhythmic acuity. The slow movement is a chaconne subtitled, "Body through which the dream flows," and was far more beautiful last night than the premiere recording by Gidon Kremer. For the all the beauty of her playing, Josefowicz has plenty of bite to her attacks, and virtuosity to burn in the rapid finale.
Andrew Druckenbrod also likes Josefowicz's playing but doesn't like the conducting:
The violinist, in this case the talented Leila Josefowicz, interacts in marvelous ways, from soaring above it to grooving in the trenches with it.
But Wigglesworth inexplicably pushed this underlying framework down, turning the interaction of rhythms into a quiet muddle. While this allowed Josefowicz to be heard, the notes she plays mean more when complemented by the harmonic and rhythmic context...
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