THE NEW YORK TIMES - Hues of Debussy in a Program Without Him

At home in Los Angeles the pianist Gloria Cheng is a celebrity: an invaluable new-music advocate and a preferred collaborator of composers like Pierre Boulez and Esa-Pekka Salonen. A review of a recital Ms. Cheng presented at the Colburn School of Performing Arts in September breathlessly conjured a heady, star-studded scene. But Ms. Cheng’s copious gifts are scarcely a mystery here, a point proved by the sizable, luminary-filled throng that assembled for one of her too infrequent New York appearances, at Le Poisson Rouge on Wednesday night.Ms. Cheng’s program, characteristically adventurous and filled with meaningful interrelations, largely duplicated that of her September event. But here she was joined by the Calder Quartet, an outstanding California ensemble that New Yorkers got to know during its graduate residency at the Juilliard School from 2005 to 2007.Download PDF | Full Article