".... since Timothy Muffitt took the helm as Music Director, the orchestra has been on an exciting path upwards. The orchestra plays better, programming has improved, audiences are larger and the finances are finally in order."
LANSING STATE JOURNALnc
It was a lot to take in, (Shattered Night, by Jared Miller) but Muffitt provided a touchstone in the tumult. In the final minutes, his shoulders shook as he deadlifted yearning string melodies out of the viscous murk, his arms bent, his usually ramrod-straight trunk bending to the storm and conjuring it at the same time. Far from trotting a victory lap, Muffitt is burning through his 20th and final year as Lansing Symphony maestro with a white-hot surge of passion and professionalism.
He exhibited three of his finest qualities Friday night. The first is a fierce and convincing commitment to new music, not just to “stretch” the audience, polish the orchestra’s bona fides or check a box only a few people will appreciate. He is clearly out to touch people with sounds, emotions and sensations they haven’t yet heard, to send them important signals from fellow human beings who happen to be alive.
The biggest work on Friday’s program, Brahms’ First Symphony, showcased Muffitt’s second big strength.
Not only does he devote the same energy, sweat and blood to new music as he does to the most hallowed classics, but he flips the equation and treats the classics as if they were written yesterday.
Muffitt loves nothing better than to launch into an expansive ocean of sound and escort you through its varied moods, taking the time to soak it all in but keeping the cords taut. If Brahms’ First were a novel, some folks would call it a “doorstop,” but in view of the rain of random input that bombards us all the time, the total immersion in something big and beautiful was a precious gift.
LANSING CITY PULSE