In what must be something of a first for any sort of ensemble, let alone a new music group, the Washington Post’s Anne Midgette gave our The Only Moving Thing program its second review in the same major newspaper! Anne travelled to the Richmond VA world premiere performance of TOMT and wrote this earlier review. Then, clearly wanting to see how our performance had changed or grown after eight performances on the road, she decided to revisit the experience in DC a month later:
It can take a few months to tell what a new baby is actually going to look like. New pieces of music have a similar biology. When they are first performed they have a quality of startling rawness, no matter how often they have been rehearsed; but on a second or third hearing their character becomes more clearly defined, with certain traits coming to the fore and others receding that initially seemed prominent…
There were no faults in the March performance, but the players’ increased familiarity with the works made a notable difference on Tuesday…
[L]oosening up suited the Bang on a Can piece, “singing in the dead of night,” very well. The work felt more cohesive, and the understated choreography by Susan Marshall, which basically involves the musicians moving about the stage as part of their musicmaking, seemed more natural. If the music was less crisp, the underlying narratives showed all the more clearly.
The program received a more mixed review on ionarts, a popular classical music blog based in DC. Despite the fact that reviewer Charles Downey thought the evening, “for all its appeal,” was “overburgeoning with ideas, and…could benefit from some cuts,” he also found that ”the playing was all excellent” and 8bb ”pushed the boundaries of concertizing.”
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