Toledo Blade review of my performances last week with the Toledo Symphony.
“The performance was stunning. Solzhenitsyn played with a breathtaking fluidity, grace, and agility; the scope of his timbre, astounding. The symphony supported with sensitivity, subtlety, and nuance. Between them was a symbiotic bond of pure artistry.
In the Shostakovich, Solzhenitsyn brought the soul of his heritage as he took the conductor’s platform, leading the entire 50minute work without a score. He held a clear understanding of the 20th century Russian aesthetic; the orchestra bristled with an underlying artistic longing, colorful, cold, searching and finally overwhelmingly triumphant.
Solzhenitsyn is one of the great musical voices of our age. Educing the soul of this music with a voice that, as the subtitle suggested, not only refused to be silenced, but demanded the listener hear and understand.”