ASO: Robert Spano with Some Soloists Whom I Didn’t Hear

Posted on June 3, 2017 by Robbie

I originally wasn’t going to attend the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s season finale because there was only a little over 20 minutes of music on the program that I wanted to hear. It took me roughly that long just to drive to Symphony Hall with all of the extra traffic in my neighborhood due to VaHi’s Summerfest. I ended up with an extra ticket to exchange, though, so I decided to come to this for three reasons. First, there was a world premier and, sadly, world premiers are often also the world finales of many wonderful works of music. Secondly, I really love the sea interludes from Britten’s “Peter Grimes” and suspected that Spano was likely to do a really good job with them. And, finally, my ticket for this evening also granted entry to the chamber concert this past Thursday.
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ASO: Donald Runnicles with Christina Smith

Posted on May 27, 2017 by Robbie

There were two concerts for which I originally had tickets but did not attend; one of them was canceled due to weather and the other I decided to skip: they had the poor taste to tack some obnoxious gimmicks onto the performance that were created by two artists who clearly would have nothing of interest to say about the music. That would have detracted too much from the music for me to be able to enjoy myself so I figured that I’d exchange the ticket for one of the concerts that I’d originally not planned to attend. As such, even though I wasn’t excited about the program, I found myself at this evening’s Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concert featuring all French composers under the baton of Donald Runnicles. Of the three pieces on the program, I really only wanted to hear one of them, but that one really made it worth it for me to bother with the trip to Symphony Hall.
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ASO: Vasily Petrenko with Stewart Goodyear

Posted on April 29, 2017 by Robbie

Although I did not think that it was particularly great overall, there was a lot to like about this evening’s concert by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vasily Petrenko. It began with a good-enough performance of Richard Strauss’ symphonic poem, “Don Juan.” There’s something about Strauss’ tone poems that makes my mind wander. It’s nothing bad – I’m not bored by them – it’s just good music for fantasizing and day dreaming. That is to say, I paid enough attention to know that it was an ok performance but not enough to say how it could have been better.
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ASO: Robert Spano with Stephen Hough

Posted on April 7, 2017 by Robbie

Today was pretty bad. Today I also learned about the death last evening of an old friend of mine from college. My bursitis has returned with a vengeance this week and has been waking me up at night and I was really aching today. I have been terribly concerned about world events and domestic politics. I’ve been dealing with a horrendous commute thanks to the I-85 bridge collapse. And I could go on and on about work. Thankfully, Maestro Spano and the musicians of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra were there for me this evening.
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ASO: Michael Stern with Marc-André Hamelin

Posted on March 9, 2017 by Robbie

Michael Stern looked kind of off this evening. The opening of his waistcoat started below his waist, his tails were either in need of a professional pressing or were poorly mended, his French cuffs were slightly crushed, and his thick hair was only almost well groomed. While conducting, he seemed to cue a lot more with his baton in his right hand than with his left — indeed, there were times where he seemed to forget that he had a left hand. And, while his cues were generally good, I’m glad that I don’t have to try to keep count by watching him since he often seemed to forget that he was supposed to be beating the rhythm as well as giving cues. He also had to take a breather after the first movement of the symphony on the program, which seemed a bit odd for someone who does this for a living and wasn’t showing any signs of illness.
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ASO: Robert Spano with Benjamin Beilman

Posted on March 4, 2017 by Robbie

The orchestra wasn’t in its best form this evening. There was a lot of muddiness all around, but particularly from the brass and the 2nd violins. That said, the music itself did make it through the mud well enough for me to appreciate the scores that they were playing.
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ASO: Michael Francis with Benjamin Grosvenor

Posted on February 25, 2017 by Robbie

I’m not sure that I agree with the programming for this evening’s Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concert. There were three pieces on the program: Copland’s “Appalachian Spring,” Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto no. 2, and Vaughan Williams Symphony no. 5. I feel like either the Copland or the Saint-Saëns could work well enough with the Vaughan Williams, but the three together just seemed off. Even though I love the piece, I wish that they had picked something besides the Copland to start the concert.
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