Theofanidis: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra & Concerto for Viola and Chamber Orchestra

Album review

This recording earned a 2020 Grammy nomination for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for violist Richard O'Neill in the Concerto for viola and chamber orchestra of Christopher Theofanidis. Indeed O'Neill, lately of the Takács Quartet, steps confidently into a solo role with a notably warm performance of Theofanidis' concerto, originally written for Kim Kashkashian. In truth, the nomination could probably have gone to either soloist here; Theofanidis' Violin Concerto was composed for Sarah Chang but reworked according to suggestions from the present violinist, Chee-Yun, and the result is a virtuoso idiom, flawlessly executed, of a sort rarely encountered in contemporary music. Theofanidis is a crowd-pleasing composer with a gift for Romantic lyricism that's saved from a backward gaze by considerable rhythmic subtlety and flexibility, and the Albany Symphony under conductor David Allan Miller captures its deliberate manner. Theofanidis' compositions have an impressive record of programming by major symphony orchestras, but, after a flurry when he came on the scene in the early 1990s, he has been somewhat underrepresented on recordings. Listeners who have heard Theofanidis' warm music in a concert setting will be among the many who will welcome this album, which is admirably supported by engineers working in an Albany-area studio and the acoustically splendid Troy Savings Bank Music Hall.

© TiVo