United States Various, ‘Four Seasons: A Journey of 1725-2025’: Ruda Lee (violin), AMINA Ensemble / Vivian Ip (conductor). Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York, 22.11.2025. (DS)
Brandon DiNatale – ‘Fool’s Spring’
Vivaldi – Four Seasons
Astor Piazzolla – Four Seasons de Buenos Aires
Scott Ordway – Memory of Snow
Following their residency at Rutgers University in New Jersey, the ANIMA Ensemble, based in Hong Kong, performed at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall with enlivened abandon.
Scott Ordway composed the world premiere piece of the evening, Memory of Snow, a commission for solo violinist Ruda Lee, whose approach to playing hinged on delight (she was often carried away both emotionally and virtuosically). Ordway, the head of composition at Rutgers, held nothing back musically for a cause close to his heart: the disheartening, gradual disappearance of cold, snowy winters in Northern California. He communicated a yearning for the bountiful yet changing landscape with an exhilarating musical palette that melded harmony and dissonance. Flurries of textural transformations progressed through dramatic dynamic shifts and drew from an array of curt, jarring material set against sections of drawn-out planar sounds ranging from lament to the celebratory.
Memory of Snow did not wisp away: it ended with an ascending line that released in a whiplash gesture, further emphasized by Lee’s fearless bowing. A powerful player who imbued all her interpretations with joy, this work paired well with Lee’s stylistic approach. As the musical momentum grew in both the Ordway and the Piazzolla, she reached a delirium of playing, sometimes briefly losing the center of her intonation. Pleasantly, these flawed moments passed without a scintilla of detriment to the experience. I felt the imperfections added a heartfelt immediacy to the performance, harking back to a time where expression ruled over perfection (for the better).
The concert’s theme focused on the seasons across several centuries with the inevitable inclusion of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Upon sliding into my seat, I discovered that Ruda Lee x ANIMA Ensemble (as they called themselves for the evening) would perform excerpted Vivaldi movements interspersed throughout Piazzolla’s Four Seasons de Buenos Aires. This was a marvelous move that helped an old standard take on new trappings – jazzy and even a bit ironic. It was hard not to smile when the players slid a passage of Piazzolla directly into a movement of Vivaldi.
Conductor Vivian Ip was as dynamic as the players. She took the reins of ANIMA’S gritty style and inched their tone towards the edges of a nearly rocker aesthetic.
Also on the program was a premier work from the ANIMA Ensemble’s string quartet competition held at Rutgers. Brandon DiNatale’s ‘Fool’s Spring’ was the winner, and it proved to be an eclectic, likable response to Vivaldi’s ‘Spring’.
Daniele Sahr
Featured Image: Vivian Ip conducting Ruda Lee (violin) and the ANIMA ensemble © Chris Lee