ASO: Donald Runnicles

Posted on April 23, 2016 by Robbie

I’m not feeling that great, so I’m not going to go into detail about this evening’s excellent performance of Mahler’s Symphony no 9 by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Donald Runnicles, except to say that I’m really glad that I got to hear it and that I’m really sorry if I passed my cold on to anyone else. I do want to note that I saw a car with a California plate that said “Gustave M” as I was walking away from the concert along P-Tree, which gave me a nice spurt of joy.

ASO: Robert Spano with Jessica Rivera and Nmon Ford

Posted on April 16, 2016 by Robbie

Spano, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the ASO chorus, and the soloists, soprano Jessica Rivera and baritone Nmon Ford, were all completely on mark for this evening’s performance. The chorus has been very active this season, but mostly they have been performing works of Christian liturgical music that don’t really have much of a draw for me.
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ASO: Robert Spano with Louis Lortie

Posted on April 8, 2016 by Robbie

I can’t be entirely sure the wine that I had during intermission didn’t help me enjoy the second half of this evening’s ASO concert so much more than than the first half, but it did help convince me to stay after such a weak beginning.
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ASO: Thomas Søndergård with Alexandre Tharaud

Posted on April 2, 2016 by Robbie

Have you ever wondered what the works of the French Impressionist composers would sound like if conducted in a Wagnerian style? I sure haven’t but, thanks to Thomas Søndergård, I now know that it would sound pretty lame. Or was it just me? When an entire concert is this far off mark then I find myself doubting my own ears, so I guess that maybe there is a chance that this evening’s ASO performance wasn’t played like it was a program of late German romanticism and I’m just crazy. Take that as you will.
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ASO: Marc Piollet with Augustin Hadelich

Posted on March 5, 2016 by Robbie

Tonight’s ASO concert opened with Blacher’s Variations on a Theme by Niccolo Paganini. I believe that this was the first time that I’d heard the piece. The theme comes from Paganini’s Caprice no. 24 and is presented at first by the concertmaster, is then picked up by the rest of the orchestra, and then the variations begin. The variations were mostly pretty fun, a number of them having a strong jazz influence and sounding very Gershwiny. The musicians played it well under Marc Piollet’s baton and I thought that it served as a good concert opener.
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ASO: Robert Spano with Jorge Federico Osorio

Posted on February 27, 2016 by Robbie

Spano and the musicians did very well this evening. None of the complaints that I had regarding the ASO’s last three concerts applied to this concert. Rex was back in the first chair of the cello section, which was good to see. (There was actually a little applause when he came on before the show, though I’m not sure that he could hear it.) The program, however, left me wishing that I’d found something else to do with my evening.
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ASO: Cristian Macelaru with Karen Gomyo

Posted on February 20, 2016 by Robbie

Tonight’s ASO performance was another backwards program, with the concerto after intermission followed by a short piece at the end. It was played, once again, with the musicians seated in the unmodified American layout, with the cellos downstage-right of the violas. And, under the baton of Cristian Macelaru, they played this backwards program well.
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