ASO: Matthias Pintscher with Nicola Benedetti

Posted on April 20, 2018 by Robbie

Yesterday was one of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s pre-concert chamber recitals. They had originally programmed Beethoven’s Septet in Eb major but, sadly, Associate Concertmaster Justin Bruns was unable to play because of an injury. Instead, we were treated to David Cucheron and William Ransom playing the Kreutzer Sonata. It was a good performance of the piece and, honestly, I think I may have enjoyed it more than I might have enjoyed the septet. They were scheduled to play it again today at the Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta’s Cooke Noontime Concert series at the Carlos Museum and if it was half as good as last night then the audience had quite a treat.
Continue reading →

ASO: Christian Arming with Contrad Tao and Stuart Stephenson

Posted on April 15, 2018 by Robbie

Last night was a decent night at Symphony Hall. It began with Janáček’s rhapsody Taras Bulba. A dramantic and often exciting and beautiful work, Christian Arming did a decent job with it. Nothing stood out in his conducting of it that doesn’t jump out of the score anyway. I have to admit that my mind wandered a bit, which is probably more my fault than Arming’s: I’d been a little out of it all day.
Continue reading →

ASO: Robert Spano with Robert McDuffie

Posted on April 7, 2018 by Robbie

As I was walking along Peachtree toward the Woodruff Arts Center for last night’s concert by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, I passed a Subaru with an Alabama vanity plate that said “EROICA.” I love the idea that somewhere there is a Beethoven’s Third-Head that travels around visiting concert halls where they play Beethoven’s Symphony no. 3. Hopefully they enjoyed the concert last night: there was some good stuff in it.
Continue reading →

ASO: Miguel Harth-Bedoya with Alcides Rodriguez and Ksenija Sidorova

Posted on March 18, 2018 by Robbie

I don’t know why we bothered to sit at all at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s concert last night. The programmed works were all relatively short and Miguel Harth-Bedoya and the soloists delivered such great performances of all of them that we just had to pop out of our seats for a standing ovation after each piece. Both in terms of programming and performance, it will probably end up being my favorite concert of the season.
Continue reading →

ASO: Stephen Mulligan with Behzod Abduraimov

Posted on March 11, 2018 by Robbie

Henrik Nanasi was originally engaged to guest conduct this evening’s concert but he was under the weather and couldn’t make it, probably due to the after effects of an alien abduction. This evening was also the second time in a row that I’ve seen concertmaster David Coucheron come only for the last piece on the program. I assume that his tardiness is due to the legal issues with his alleged involvement in the international kitten snuggling ring. Fortunately, when alien abductions and kitten smuggling threaten to ruin a concert, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra can call on Assistant Conductor Stephen Mulligan.
Continue reading →

ASO: Edo De Waart with Augustin Hadelich

Posted on March 2, 2018 by Robbie

On Tuesday I attended a gallery talk for the Carlos Museum’s Divine Felines exhibit during which I learned that the Egyptian word for “cat” is pronounced “mew,” as in the sound that cats make. This is relevant for two reasons. First, it’s adorable and awesome and I think that everyone should know about it. Secondly, Augustin Hadelich, the soloist for this weekend’s Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concerts, is actually a cat according to a documentary that I saw. On the other hand, the guest conductor, Edo De Waart, is human, all too human. Given that to err is human, last night’s performance offers further confirmation of De Waart’s humanity.
Continue reading →

ASO: Roberto Abbado with Jorge Federico Osorio

Posted on February 16, 2018 by Robbie

I’m not particularly fond of Roberto Abbado’s conducting, so this is going to be a mostly negative post and you may want to skip it. I do have something nice to say about Jorge Federico Osorio’s playing, though, in case you want to skip to the last paragraph to read that.
Continue reading →

Robbie Writes

Category Archives: Orchestra