ECMSA: Matt Haimovitz and Tim Fain

Posted on October 21, 2016 by Robbie

The Emory Chamber Music Association’s Cooke Noontime Concert Series held at the Carlos Museum is a bit challenging to attend. First of all, it’s at noon on a workday. Secondly, there are two or three buses of residents from retirement homes who get there at around 11:20a and take up more than 75% of the seats and the remaining 25% are generally gone by 11:40a. So you pretty much have to be available for two hours in the middle of a workday, plus you have to pay for parking at a university campus that’s probably nowhere near anywhere you need to be. Then you only get a one hour concert that is often just a collection of single movements extracted from larger works. Generally, it’s not worth it for me to go but, still, if I have the time then I often find myself there wondering how concerned I should be about my addiction to live music. Today, though, was worth it. I had reason to take the day off and got there around 11:15a and, after waiting in the hallway of the third floor of the Museum with the exits all blocked by the crowd until the doors opened at 11:30a, I was able to get a fairly decent seat to hear what turned out to be a pretty amazing concert by cellist Matt Haimovitz and violinist Tim Fain.
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Chamber Cartel: Wonderblock

Posted on June 25, 2016 by Robbie

I will probably never go to the Mammal Gallery again if it has been over 90°F during the day, but I’m glad that I suffered the heat for this evening’s Chamber Cartel concert. Titled “Wonderblock,” the program was fairly eclectic, with works by George Crumb, John Luther Adams, Franco Donatoni, Helmut Lachenmann, and Hans Thomalla. Overall, the performance was enjoyable, though the heat took its toll on my attention span by the end.
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Sonic Generator at MOCA GA

Posted on May 23, 2016 by Robbie

This evening’s Sonic Generator concert at Museum of Contemporary Art GA focused pretty heavily on solo work. Each of the five musicians present performed by themselves — albeit accompanied by recorded soundtracks or, in one case, a computer — and only came together to play as an ensemble in the last piece. Noticeable was the lack of percussion, with Tom Sherwood absent. Even though I have been to contemporary music concerts without it, Sonic Generator and Chamber Cartel have been the two most prolific producers of contemporary and experimental music in town and they have both programmed heavily for percussion, which seems to have caused me to associate the instrument group with the subgenre.
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ACP: Rapido! National Finals

Posted on January 30, 2016 by Robbie

I almost didn’t go to the Rapido! National Finals Concert this afternoon: I woke up with a headache and have spent the day in a most foul, antisocial mood. I’m glad that I got over the headache (and myself) enough to go, though, because there were some good pieces to hear.
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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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ACP: Brahms, Mozart, & Chausson

Posted on September 11, 2015 by Robbie

The Atlanta Chamber Players began their concert at the Cecil B Day Chapel at the Carter Library a little late. Apparently, the featured guest artist, Robert McDuffie, was running late due to traffic. When the concert finally began, McDuffie and Pridgen performed Brahms’ Violin Sonata no. 1 in G major. McDuffie didn’t seem to be playing his best through the first movement, though he seemed to gain more control as the piece progressed. I have to admit to zoning out a little during the second movement — though I blame that on Brahms, whose work has never really captured my esteem, and on my own fatigue from a long, stressful week.
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Chamber Cartel: George Crumb

Posted on September 5, 2015 by Robbie

This evening’s concert by Chamber Cartel was at the First Existentialist Congregation of Atlanta next to Candler Park. It is a neat little space that loves to eat sound. Worn pine floors, decorative panels in the ceiling, and beadboard half-walls greedily gobble up any passing tone like a child…um…greedily gobbling…things. That’s not to say that you can’t have a nice, intimate chamber concert there, but it’s best to program with the limitations of the venue in mind. Another problem facing this concert was the unfortunate presence of a child who was not ready to be a good audience member and who tended to be noisiest during the quietest parts of the works. With that said, Chamber Cartel did manage to produce a very engaging, if not quite excellent, concert of works by George Crumb there.
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Category Archives: Chamber Music