"Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall is by no means a modest-sized concert stage, and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra seemed to take up every square inch of it. The sheer size of the orchestra is initially what struck me, until the opening lines of Rolf Martinsson’s Open Mind, Op. 71. An introductory overture for orchestra, this piece - which enjoyed its US première Friday night - followed a nine-tone scale but was nevertheless melodic, colorful and deeply romantic. Sounding more like a film score, Open Mind was full of grand musical gestures. From the opening, rapid glissando to the tender melody in the woodwinds to the frenetic, repeated theme in the strings, every musician on stage attacked their instrument to create an emphatic sound. It almost didn’t seem possible that the RSPO could create an even bigger crescendo at the end when all of the sounds in the orchestra collided to produce one final, dissonant sound..."