The Yakima Symphony Orchestra commemorates 50 years in music with MENDELSSOHN 2 & MENDELSSOHN 2.1, a new recording of Mendelssohn’s monumental choral Symphony No. 2.
It’s a challenge to capture this particular symphony’s dual nature — half transcendent exploration of faith, half a testament to the Romantic spirit. Accomplished conductor Lawrence Golan is more than up to the task, and so is his YSO: grandeur billows, tenderness whispers, and tonal richness reigns supreme. A newly commissioned take on Mendelssohn by Kenji Bunch, The Night is Departing, rounds off the program. Celebrations, it seems, are in order.