“Currently teaching at Occidental College in Los Angeles, [Adam Schoenberg]’s a rising star, his tonal, tuneful, colourfully scored music performed by orchestras across the US. … [Finding Rothko] successfully mirrors Rothko’s art — atmospheric, meditative and imposing, with shimmering colours that effectively play against each other in unexpected ways.… Schoenberg’s five-movement American Symphony (2011) begins and ends with buoyant optimism, powered by quasi- minimalist ostinatos. Two solemn, slow movements, built on sustained Coplandesque pastoral harmonies, frame the jazzy, syncopated middle movement. … The brilliantly orchestrated [Picture Studies] is variously perky, sentimental, vehement and exultant. Conductor Michael Stern elicits playing with rhythmic brio, precision and wide dynamics in these audience-pleasing works.” —Michael Schulman, The Whole Note
Full Review on TheWholeNote.com