Concert Review: Eastern Festival of Music returns with all-American program under Gerard Schwarz

Tue July 7, 2026

By Christopher Hill (EarRelevant)

“Schwarz has no doubt led both many times. His familiarity and interpretive preferences produced in both pieces a balanced tension between things nuanced and inward and things motoric and energetic. Your reviewer heard more New York rivets than Parisian taxis in the Gershwin, and the result sounded exceptionally cogent. The challenge of finding instrumental balances in both the Copland and Gershwin works is considerable because the two are almost totally different. Copland’s instrumentation is sometimes forceful but usually taciturn; Gershwin’s is lush and gabby. Schwarz knew how to handle both manners effectively, meaning that Copland’s sound was attractively saturated and Gershwin’s sound agleam with harmonic highlights, never muddy.”

Read the full review here.