American Symphony’s mixed season finale proves less than the sum
of its parts  May 31, 2014 at 2:07 pm Leon Botstein led the
American Symphony Orchestra season finale Friday night at
Carnegie Hall.   Repeated exposure to Leon Botstein’s
programming as conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra
drives home that even musicians who mount intellectually
adventurous orchestral programs can yield results as predictable
as the typical overture/concerto/symphony subscription concert.
Botstein likes to make arguments, to squeeze the fascinating
sprawl of his thinking into the tight frame of a concert. He
programs around concepts then makes unusual choices with which
to prove his point. Sometimes this works; other times one has
the feeling of hearing the second day of a two-day series.  That
was one of the problems with the ASO’s final concert of the
season Friday evening at Carnegie Hall. Titled “Forged from
Fire,” the music was meant as a demonstration of the rise of
national styles in the aftermath of World War I