Concert Review: Tessa Lark performs a new violin concerto by Lisa Bielawa in a Naumburg Concert

Review from Seen and Heard International

Author Daniele Sahr

For one hundred summers, the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts have been offering some of the best outdoor music in New York City. They are easy to access in the heart of Central Park; the audience is overflowing (and provided with an uncommonly plentiful number of chairs) and the musicians are afforded excellent acoustic conditions in the neo-classically designed limestone Naumburg Bandshell – which was saved from near-demolition in 1993.

The series has become home to many internationally renowned groups who, like The Knights, often have a New York City origin story. This intrepid ensemble features a roster of players and composers whose fresh perspectives have made their mark in American music over the past 20 years. Their recent performance was an all-American program ranging from the instantly recognizable opening B-flat chord of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings to a stirring encore and timely orchestral rendition of ‘I’ll Fly Away’, a gospel hymn arranged and sung by one of their own violinists, Christina Courtin. Along the way. contemporary fare was served with unabashed skill.