Night After Night rave review for Sarah Rothenberg’s “In Darkness and Light”

Veteran arts and music journalist Steve Smith raves about pianist Sarah Rothenberg’s recital In Darkness and Light, available now as a free on-demand stream, selecting it a Video of the Week. Smith, the Culture & Arts Editor, WNYC and a former senior editor on the arts and culture desk at NPR, writes: “In advance of pianist Sarah Rothenberg participating in the New York premiere of Monochromatic Light (Afterlife) by Tyshawn Sorey at the Park Avenue Armory on Sept. 27, Houston music presenter Da Camera – which presented the work’s world premiere at the Rothko Chapel in February – is sharing a live recording of a recital Rothenberg presented at the Menil Collection in May. In addition to Palais de Mari by Morton Feldman – whose influence consciously permeates Sorey’s piece – the recital includes a formidable account of Beethoven’s final piano sonata, No. 32 in C minor, and the world premiere of For My Father, a sublime solo composition by Vijay Iyer. That Iyer is a close associate of Sorey’s, and that Beethoven was the overt inspiration for at least one Iyer composition (Bridgetower Fantasy), is indicative of the kind of long-view cross-pollination Da Camera has long pursued. Rothenberg’s video is available on demand through Sept. 29. For more on the Monochromatic Light (Afterlife), which will take on new dimensions in its New York iteration, listen to an NPR feature by Anastasia Tsioulcas, and read accounts from Alex Ross in The New Yorker and Zachary Woolfe in The New York Times.”