“Inspired by the work of jazz sax legend John Coltrane, for the American Premiere this weekend, Mr. McAllister played all three movements with superb virtuosity and artistic sensitivity…this is the music Philip Marlowe would hear as he sat in a late-night jazz club where the air was thick with smoke and regret. Mr. McAllister’s performance was moving and compelling.”
“Mackey’s sonic imagination is coupled with a deep mastery of craft”
“The pieces performed by McAllister, in tandem with the talented pianist Liz Ames, stand out for their melodic inventiveness and liveliness and rhythmic intensity. In most cases, the authors summoned here draw liberally from extra-cultured music - jazz primarily, but also funk, rock and even Balkan music -, mixing classical, contemporary and vernacular languages with imagination and consistency…a beautiful and exhilarating CD.”
“…the world premiere of his new saxophone concerto was, therefore, a very special moment indeed. John Adams’ saxophone concerto is written for classical saxophonist Timothy McAllister. He gave an astonishing performance. Adams has thrown down the gauntlet with a solo line which demands speed, flexibility, musicality and, above all, stamina to keep going with barely a bar’s rest. McAllister delivered, punching out the “nervous bebop” sound (Adams’ description) with manic intensity, like a...
“McAllister was phenomenal, giving a dazzling performance that rocked the audience to its feet for a prolonged and well-deserved ovation”
“Couched in Adams’ latter-day style in which fractured rhythms and thematic units exist within a potent stream of pulsation, the Saxophone Concerto also draws upon jazz influences, its soloist tumbling this way and that in pseudo-improvisatory vein…McAllister, a phenomenal technician, played it all smoothly, with classical restraint…Robertson and the St. Louis Symphony excelled in the mysteriously dappled, feinting and jabbing accompaniment.”
“‘America’s Requiem: A Knee on the Neck’ composed in memory of George Floyd and other victims of police brutality…a bracing, captivating and essential new work”
