South Florida Classical Review

Stefan Asbury

The New World Symphony’s Sounds of the Times series turns to music from the British Isles Saturday night. Stefan Asbury, a contemporary music specialist and director of the conducting program at the Tanglewood Music Center, returns to the New World  podium after nearly a decade’s absence.

The program opens with A Cold Spring, a 2009 score for chamber orchestra  by Scottish composer Helen Grime. Thomas Adès is considered by many to be England’s finest composer since Benjamin Britten. His Violin Concerto “Concentric Paths” (written in 2005) has been widely performed and enthusiastically received. Previously played in Miami in 2010 by Leila Josefowicz with the Cleveland Orchestra, Saturday’s concert features British violinist Anthony Marwood who gave the concerto’s first performances in Los Angeles and Berlin.

The music of Sir Michael Tippett (1905-1998) represents a different generation of England’s creative artists. His Symphony No. 4 concludes the program. Written in 1977, the score was a commissioned by Sir Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Since Tippett wrote the work for that high voltage conductor-orchestra combination, the score should put the New World players through their paces.

Stefan Asbury conducts the New World Symphony 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the New World Center in Miami Beach. nws.edu; 305-673-3331.

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