ASO: Carlos Kalmar with Yevgeny Sudbin

Posted on November 21, 2015 by Robbie

Oddly enough, I have no idea why I had a ticket to the ASO tonight. It wasn’t a bad program but it was also not one that normally would attract me: I prefer my Beethoven from later in his career and I’m just not big on Brahms. When I checked the program sometime last week to see what I was doing this weekend I found myself wondering why I hadn’t exchanged this ticket for something else. Maybe it was because I’ve never heard Schoenberg’s orchestration of the Brahms Piano Quartet in G Minor and was curious. Who knows but, that said, I enjoyed it and am glad that I went.
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ASO: Robert Spano

Posted on November 7, 2015 by Robbie

The ASO had a little pre-concert reception with complimentary wine and cheese for subscribers, so I went to this evening’s concert a little early and enjoyed a glass of wine and a chat. It seems that management is so convinced that nobody likes classical music that they decided to play cool jazz in the background to get us ready for the show. You’d think, given that the ASO has produced many Grammy winning albums and even have their own record label, that they might play something that would actually promote the ASO but, well, at least they didn’t explicitly insult us the way that Doug Hertz kept doing during the lockout. Anyway, thanks for the wine.
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ASO: Olli Mustonen

Posted on October 24, 2015 by Robbie

Mustonen managed to interest me with his The Old Church at Petajavesi, though I’m not sure that I really like the piece. I did enjoy it, but it felt a little weak in the orchestration at times, maybe a little too simple, like he was more intent on expressing the piece’s program than creating an orchestral work. Although I don’t think that I’ve heard anything else of his, I wouldn’t write him off just based on this. There was quite a lot in the piece that might not have fit so well together but he found a way to bring a certain coherence to it that really worked. I’d be interested in hearing a more abstract piece by him. I don’t know if either of his symphonies have been recorded, but maybe I’ll try to check them out if I can. For some reason, I left the piece thinking that he might create something interesting were he to compose a horn concerto.
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Mark Morris Dance Group & Music Ensemble

Posted on October 17, 2015 by Robbie

Concert dance choreographed purely as an expression of music can range from being something for the eyes to set upon while music is playing — e.g. the kind of light ballet that one often finds with opera or the BBC Proms, where the movement is more of a loose accompaniment to the music rather than the other way around — to being a strong, expressive work that brings new things out of the music and stands firmly in its own, well established character. Mark Morris’ work this evening leaned more toward the former: it contained a lot of clever and fun work that rose well above vapidity, though it never quite managed to find character for itself beyond the music. If it had been set to recorded music, honestly, I’d have thought it a little cheesy but, fortunately, there was a pretty decent piano trio accompanying the first and third pieces, so the choreography didn’t really have to stand above the music for it to be a good show.
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ASO: Robert Spano with Jonathan Biss

Posted on October 3, 2015 by Robbie

I had high hopes for tonight’s ASO concert but, sadly, I was let down. I really like Higdon’s Concerto for Orchestra. It has some good power and lots of exciting bits but doesn’t neglect pure beauty. It’s a great piece to show off the sections of the orchestra as well as the principals. There are a lot of really good musicians in the ASO and they have done a really great recording of it but, sadly, I don’t think that, taken as a whole, they met the challenges of the piece this evening. The principals were mostly great, though I think that I’ve found that I don’t like the sound of the new principal double bassist’s instrument. I think that the sound that I didn’t like last weekend was coming from it, though it wasn’t as bad tonight. During his solos, it had a bright and disorganized sound to it and I found that I could pick his sound out when he was playing in ensemble both during the Higdon and the Beethoven, which I couldn’t do with any of the other bassists. It was one of two things that I had a hard time believing that I was hearing this evening and it made me feel a little like I might be crazy or something and I’m wondering if I would be able to hear the detail that bugs me if I were sitting further away. Also, one of the percussionists didn’t quite match the quality of the others tonight, which really threw huge sections of the piece for me.
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HUANG YI & KUKA

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Robbie

When one thinks of watching a show with a big, laser-wielding robot, one likely thinks of some kind of science fiction thriller movie. KUKA, the eponymous robotic star of HUANG YI & KUKA, is probably more of a threat to your job than to your body, though, as it is an incredibly fast and dexterous industrial robot mounted on a static platform with six joints and the ability to be retooled in about five minutes (which was demonstrated twice on stage). And under the direction of Huang Yi, you’re more likely to feel inspired than threatened.
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ECMSA: Beethoven’s Fifth

Posted on September 26, 2015 by Robbie

The Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta opened the Emerson Series with a concert of all Beethoven music cleverly titled “Beethoven’s Fifth.” It featured two of his early works, the violin sonata no. 5 (the Spring Sonata) and string quartet no. 5, as well as an orchestration of Beethoven’s symphony no. 5 for piano with four hands.
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