From the New World

Two symphony concert programmes last week offered delightful contrasts: Florian Csizmadia and the Neue Lausitzer Philharmonie juxtaposed the bubbling and grooving hustle and bustle of Time Square in Leonard Bernstein’s “On the Town” with the vastness of Finland’s lake-rich landscape in Sibelius’s 1st Symphony. In the flute concerto by the American Lowell Liebermann, with its melodic
and racy passages, Zofia Neugebauer thrilled the audience with breathtaking virtuosity.

Ewa Strusińska and the Brandenburg State Orchestra Frankfurt/Oder contrasted the uncompromising wildness of Rolf Liebermann’s “Furioso” with reminiscences of the sound world of the 18th century in Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations (soloist: Maximilian Hornung) and the grandiose 9th Symphony by Antonín Dvořák inspired by American music.