“Ming-Hsiu Yen’s Breaking Through...stays true to its title with a clear dramaturgical structure.”
"East meets West: The National Symphony Orchestra at the Philharmonie"
by Musical America (Rebecca Schmid)
...Ming-Hsiu Yen’s Breaking Through, which opened the program, stays true to its title with a clear dramaturgical structure. In the first section of the approximately 14-minute piece, after an exciting drum fanfare, various sections of the orchestra—high strings against brass, low strings against winds—are set into friction with each other, creating an immediate sense that something has to give. The second section builds out of an insistent, mourning motive in the low strings until only glassy textures and xylophone are left, only to rise again into a heroic close....