“4 out of 5 stars–the saxophone concerto is playfully smoochy…Adams demonstrates how well he understands the instrument, and McAllister how well he can play it…”
“an absolute master of the saxophone, and a composer’s dream musician!”
“Hailstork’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Strings is a potent distillation of American music, with elements of high church, jazz, and African-American spirituals…the pairing of saxophone and strings created a powerful, minimalist effect; a canvas upon which McAllister painted Hailstork’s complex melodies that commanded every note in his instrument’s range. An electrifying and auspicious premiere.”
“REVIEW: Gorgeous Tyshawn Sorey and Thomas Adès concerto double-bill at Lucerne Festival”
“…Sorey’s writing for the solo sax establishes whole another brand of virtuosity, one wrought of long lines, where each note is given its singular identity; a procedure akin to the playing of the concerto’s dedicatee as well as the tintinnabulations of...
“Soloist Timothy McAllister proved brilliantly up to the enormous demands — vast spreads of pitches, disjunct lines that wanted to be as lyrical as possible and some dazzling scurries.”
[Review: “John Adams Saxophone Concerto is a Hit”]
“Adams’s new Saxophone Concerto, with its dedicatee Timothy McAllister as the soloist, was fascinating. Adams grew up listening to bebop, and that idiom shone exhilaratingly through, but there were also echoes of Stravinsky and Bernstein. The intricate inventiveness of the solo line was subtly shadowed by bassoon, flute, and the saxophone’s clarinet cousin: Marin Alsop and the BBC Symphony Orchestra did it proud.”
[REVIEW: John Adams leads Cleveland Orchestra in riveting program] “The three-movement quasi-concerto featuring saxophone soloist Timothy McAllister conjures the dark and mysterious Los Angeles of the 1940s and 50s…McAllister soared beautifully against strings, vibraphone, and solo horn.”
