This is the Naxos label’s fifth album devoted to the music of leading American composer, Jonathan Leshnoff. He was Grammy-nominated for his album Violins of Hope and is among the most frequently performed of living composers. The themes of these recent works are remembrance, memorialization, and hopefulness. Elegy addresses ideas of harmony and discord through contrasting thematic ideas. His Violin Concerto No. 2 follows the “symphony-concerto” model with a resonant and lyrical slow movement inspired by Jewish mysticism. Pulsating harmonies eventually subside into serene and hopeful writing in Of Thee I Sing, composed to commemorate the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
Jonathan Leshnoff: Elegy, Violin Concerto No. 2, Of Thee I Sing – Noah Bendix-Balgley, Canterbury Voices, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Alexander Mickelthwate
