Lexington Symphony: East-West Fusion & Stravinsky’s Petrushka

Lexington Symphony’s “Celebrating Coexistence” Concert Bridges Cultures

Lexington, MA – Saturday, February 16, 2026, the Lexington Symphony presented an ambitious and thoughtfully curated concert, “Celebrating Coexistence,” in recognition of the Chinese American Association of Lexington. The performance, held at Carey Hall, showcased a diverse program featuring composers from China, Mongolia, America, and Russia, demonstrating a commitment to cultural exchange through music.

The concert opened with China Dreams: II. Fanfare, by Bright Sheng, a work described by conductor Jonathan McPhee as a collision of Chinese sound with the energy of New York City. Sheng, a composer who fled Shanghai during the Cultural Revolution, drew upon his experiences to create a piece characterized by bright orchestral colors, trombone glissandi, and a dynamic interplay between percussion and string harmonics. The movement, part of a larger suite commissioned by Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony, featured a melody in parallel fourths, a common trope in Chinese-American film scores.

Colin McPhee’s Tabuh-tabuhan, a Toccata for orchestra and two pianos, received its first live performance for this reviewer. McPhee, an early American ethnomusicologist, was deeply influenced by Balinese gamelan music. The work utilizes mechanically-organized layers of repeated patterns, incorporating tuned percussion like xylophones and temple blocks alongside the pianos. The second movement, Nocturne, featured a haunting solo flute. The harmonic ambience throughout the piece was described as polytonal, with rich sonorities and a striking dominant seventh chord with the seventh in the bass, leaving a sense of suspension.

A highlight of the evening was the performance of Anger Erdentsogt’s Concerto No. 2 for Morin-Khuur, the national instrument of Mongolia. Erdenbuhe, a master of the instrument, captivated the audience with his skill, appearing in traditional attire. The concerto, while rooted in minor-mode pentatonic scales, proved tonally successful, particularly in its expressive second movement, which included a trio featuring cello, and flute. A cadenza showcased the instrument’s range, amplified for clarity, and a traditional Mongolian “Song of Ten Thousand Horses” served as an encore, with Erdenbuhe joined by his wife on a second Morin-Khuur.

The concert concluded with Igor Stravinsky’s Petrushka, in the composer’s 1947 revised orchestration. The performance highlighted the influence of Stravinsky’s innovative orchestration on subsequent composers, including those featured earlier in the program. The reviewer noted that Petrushka, more than The Rite of Spring, represents Stravinsky’s most daring leap into the musical unknown, comparable to Beethoven’s Eroica in its audacity.

Despite some challenges inherent in the demanding horn parts, the Lexington Symphony, a fully paid ensemble of professional and semi-professional musicians, delivered a performance full of enthusiasm and comprehension under the direction of Jonathan McPhee. The reviewer praised the orchestra’s ability to handle the complexities of Petrushka, a work notoriously difficult to organize and execute, and described the concert as a “reassurance and a real pleasure.”