Blogcritics: Karen LeFrak – Composer Spotlight at National Sawdust (Review)

Jon Sobel (Blogcritics)

Brooklyn’s National Sawdust presented a veritable festival of compositions by Karen LeFrak on Wednesday night. Eminent guitarist Sharon Isbin performed, as did cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, pianist Forrest Eimold, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and others. The concert featured by far the largest ensemble I’ve ever seen at this unique, forward-looking venue.

Presumably to accommodate a larger crowd, row seating replaced the venue’s usual café-style arrangement. But the room still had its communal feeling, with front-row patrons just a knee-jerk away from the performers. After an introduction by composer and venue co-founder Paola Prestini, Eimold took a seat at the Bösendorfer piano to play a set of LeFrak’s piano miniatures.

The Essential Karen LeFrak

These effective and affecting pieces display LeFrak’s method in its most essential form. She combines vernacular rhythms, harmonic borrowings from jazz and other genres, and her gift for melody to create soundscapes that at their best coalesce into deep meditations on music’s emotional power. One miniature carried an air of mystery and uncertainty with an air of romance; another suggested an old pop song with a hint of jazz harmonies; still another veered into storminess, driven by an active bass line, and so on. Eimold displayed a warm, sensitive touch with a good balance of firmness and emotionality.

Click here to read the full review on Blogcritics.