Author Archives: Robbie

Georgian Chamber Players: Piano Eight Hands & String Octet

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The Georgian Chamber Players had some fun with the program for yesterday’s concert by playing with the number eight. Three pieces were for piano eight-hands and the final piece was for a string octet. There was one odd work out that was for piano six-hands, but the smiles on the musicians faces while they played this particularly novel piece excuses breaking the quantitative theme. Besides, taken all together, there were 46 hands needed for all of the works and that is the birth year of Plutarch and also the channel number for the local CBS affiliate which, of course, totally means something.
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ASO: Donald Runnicles with Russell Thomas and Kelly O’Connor

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There were two novel things about tonight’s concert by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. The first was that they finally asked people to silence their cell-phones before the concert. They used a modestly witty video featuring some of the musicians to do so. I think that the video will get old after a while and they may want to rethink the tone of it as it sounds somewhat judgmental, but it was still nice that they’re finally showing some awareness that this aspect of audience experience is important enough to comment upon. The other novelty was an introduction by principal guest conductor Donald Runnicles to the two pieces on the program, including a small video explaining some of the Japanese instruments whose sounds are reflected in the first piece.
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ASO: Pre-Concert Chamber Music

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I had this plan, see: I was teaching a class at a professional conference in Buckhead and I’d been told that I’d probably get out early so I’d finally have the time to make it to one of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s pre-concert chamber music performances. It’s hard for me to make it to them these days because my commute is so awful on Thursdays, so I was excited to take advantage of this opportunity. Doubly so because there was a piece on the program that I really liked and wanted to hear live. I figured that I could grab an early supper nearby and pop in to hear the show.
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ASO: Robert Spano with Elizabeth Pridgen and David Coucheron

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What an excellent evening of music from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra! Conducted by Robert Spano, the program was mostly Russian (with a Russian-inspired piece by an Englishman), 100% composed in the 20th century, and made use of two soloists, both of whom were local: Elizabeth Pridgen, best known as the artistic director of the Atlanta Chamber Players, and David Coucheron, best known as the concertmaster of the ASO. This may be the first concert of the main season where every performance and piece on the program appealed to me.
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Ofir Nahari: No(se)onenowhere

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I love traditional clowning. I’ve mentioned in the past how much I lament that American culture has offhandedly rejected the art-form, with people who have never seen a real pantomime comedy performance declaring their disdain for it. Given that Atlanta happens to be in the United States, we don’t get terribly much clowning outside of circuses passing through, so I get pretty excited when I have the chance to see a clown in the classical tradition of clowning and pantomime perform. I regretted not being able to see Ofir Nahari’s No(se)onenowhere when it last ran at 7 Stages and, so, when I found out that they’d be bringing it back as part of the Exposed Festival, I took some time off to make sure that I’d be able to make it. Like many of you, I was feeling awful for most of the day and, I must say, going to this was the best medicine I could possibly have taken.
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Atlanta Opera: Silent Night

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I was excited when I found out that Atlanta Opera had programmed “Silent Night” by composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell: I like what I’ve heard of Puts music and the subject is one that I’ve always found interesting. It’s about the WWI Christmas Truce of 1914, a rather remarkable pause in hostilities in what would become one of the most horrifying wars in history. Along some parts of the front during the truce, soldiers of all sides and nationalities left the trenches and fraternized in the middle of the conflict zone. In one area, a soccer match actually broke out and the brass had a hard time restarting hostilities once it was over.
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A Halachic Analysis of Having Performers Already On Stage In a Dance Concert

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Hillel tells us that, when presenting a dance performance, the dancers should already be on stage when the audience arrives. He explains that only Hashem can interpret the world because only Hashem can see the entirety of the world to give it context and meaning. In a similar fashion, only the audience can interpret a work and give it meaning because only they have the outside perspective to do so. Since nobody in the world can hide from Hashem, neither should the dancer hide from the audience.
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