Phil Muse reviews The Kansas City Symphony, Michael Stern, Stephen Powell, and Joyce Yang’s recording of Leshnoff: Symphony No. 3; Piano Concerto in the Atlanta Audio Society‘s December Newsletter:

“Once again, an exploration of the music of American composer Jonathan Leshnoff proves rewarding. … What makes this composer so distinguishable from his contemporaries is easy to divine: it is the concentrated emotion, the lyricism, cohesive construction, and economy of his music. In the last-cited, Leshnoff reminds me of a similar economy we find in works of Ravel and Prokofiev… The understated poignancy in his settings of these letters [in Symphony No. 3] is epitomized by one in which the writer says to his wife “My greatest wish is to be with you this night… Should the God of all call upon me and I never see you again, know that I died with your name upon my lips.” A lyric like that comes across with greatest conviction when sung naturally, as it is here by baritone Stephen Powell. … pianist Joyce Yang, whose sensational intensity and keyboard speed has impressed Leshnoff for some time. Both these qualities come into play in the present work in an energetic conversation between piano and orchestra in the opening movement… [Yang] brings the supple structures in [the final] movement immediately into a full, vibrant life that is enhanced by the sensitive partnership of Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony.”

—Phil Muse, Atlanta Audio Society