As if presaging the emotional turbulence given sonic form soon to come, four-time Grammy nominated violinist Curtis Stewart seemed to be summoning his energy from his core. All was quiet in the hall. It was a dramatic silence. While Stewart gathered his chi, Experiential Orchestra Founder and Director James Blachly kept his baton at the ready, looking over his shoulder for Stewart’s prelude meditation to end and the music to begin.
From the very first notes we feel long forgotten composer Julia Perry’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra draw attention to an interior life at odds with its surrounds. Mostly atonal, but never screaming or harsh, Perry’s concerto felt to this reviewer like a walking tour of a recurring dream more bad than good. Planted in a variant of Warrior stance, Stewart would squeeze his eyes in concentration whenever the orchestra took over, carrying the music to the border of melody, a line that it never quite crosses. Stewart’s physical person looks strong, and we feel that it takes such muscularity to give Perry’s music its due.
This performance coincided with the release of Stewart and the Experiential Orchestra’s recording of this work, the world’s first. Perry’s body of work is being showcased by the African Diaspora Music Project, which Blachly helps lead with its founder and lead editor, soprano Louise Toppin.
