concerto

The concluding work turned out to be George Lewis’ “Lonnie and Lonie,” a double concerto that found common musical ground for two uncles with opposing views of the world.

Payare’s program, moreover, demonstrated both how the orchestra could come across in a traditional Beethoven concerto as well as in an orchestral showpiece.

The concerto is full of sonic imagery that travels above and below ground, down to the rivers in deep caverns and up in the skies to the environmentally threatened toh bird.

The group was the concerto soloist, of a kind, in “Natural History” by Michael Gordon, one of the Bang on a Can composers who infused Minimalism with rough, rebellious energy in the 1980s.

A rare performance of one of the piano’s most gargantuan concertos.