The following review was written about Sunday's Finger Lakes Chamber Ensemble performance by C. Penbroke Handy and appeared in tinytowntimes.comon Monday, March 26, 2012. The following review was written about Sunday's Finger Lakes Chamber Ensemble performance by C. Penbroke Handy and appeared in tinytowntimes.comon Monday, March 26, 2012.
On Sunday, time stopped. Or was suspended unto infinity when the Finger Lakes Chamber Ensemble brought down Father Time without offending Mother Nature. Stunning. From the light yet sinewy Debussy Trio, with harp, flute and viola; through the Ravel Violin Sonata's technical challenges dispatched with virtuosic fire by violinist Shannon Nance accompanied by Michael Salmirs to the Mercurial Quartet for the End of Time, by Olivier Messiaen. The final piece took the lid off the chapel. If there is a sonority in the chordal repertoire that isn't dabbed and smeared into this stunning, visionary piece by the French composer, I'll give you $5 for what you got. Despite the Catholic titles of the eight sections that comprise the piece, that may have been a Da Vinci code for all we know: The music is beyond intriguing and was performed with a sense of deep investment in the piece by violinist Nick DiEugenio, clarinetist Richard McDowell, cellist Stefan Reuss and Salmirs again at the ivory toothed monster, navigating the group through the entire Revelation of Saint John straight through to infinity, or so we seemed to be headed, and with DiEugenio's superb ending solo alongside, bringing everyone safely back to earth, albeit, time-bound and hungry for dinner.
– C. Penbroke Handy
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20120402152936346