ASO: Robert Spano with Juho Pohjonen

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Robbie

It seemed that Maestro Spano was so excited about Mahler’s Symphony no. 1 in the second half of the program at this evening’s performance of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra that he forgot that the piano concerto in G major played in the first half was actually written by Beethoven and not Mahler. He conducted it as though it were from the late Romantic period, which sounded horribly off with the smaller orchestra and the whole thing came across as though it were being interpreted by a brooding, teenage goth. Beethoven’s piano concerto no. 4 is one that rarely fails to delight me, but I found this slow, over-dramatic performance to be a total bore. I can’t even comment on Pohjonen’s playing in it because my mind was wandering so much from the tedium of the performance that I barely noticed him. He did, however, impress me with his playing of Grieg’s “Butterfly” during his encore.
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ASO: Jun Märkl with Johannes Moser

Posted on February 4, 2017 by Robbie

There was a lot to like about this evening’s Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concert conducted by Jun Märkl. The program was fairly light-hearted, with two neo-classical works with a smaller orchestra in the first half and Schumann’s “Spring Symphony” to conclude the show. Under Märkl’s baton, the music was a warm delight on a cold winter’s evening.
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ASO: Donald Runnicles with Kirill Gerstein

Posted on January 12, 2017 by Robbie

Donald Runnicles opened this evening’s Atlanta Symphony Orchestra program with the world premiere of a new piece by Marc Neikrug, “The Unicorn of Atlas Peak.” It is, apparently, named for a mutual acquaintance of Runnicles and Neikrug’s who, it seems, lives on Atlas Peak and may actually be a unicorn…or a guru…or just some dude whom they’ve both made up to hide the real way that they met, which probably involved some kind of scandalous intrigue or another. It began softly, with a kind of forced sense of mystery, and built up to something best described as meh. By the end it was completely uninteresting. It just never seemed to go anywhere nor to express anything meaningful. The parts that I found the most interesting seemed more like sketches of something that needs to be developed at a later time. It was not a strong start to the concert.
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ASO: Laura Jackson with Avi Avital

Posted on December 3, 2016 by Robbie

This evening’s Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concert under the baton of Laura Jackson was novel for a few reasons. First, it featured a mandolinist as the soloist. It’s a fairly quiet instrument to put on the stage of Symphony hall and I’m not aware of a mandolin concerto being programmed since I’ve been attending ASO concerts. Secondly, it featured two concerti instead of the usual one, both featuring mandolinist Avi Avital. Finally, the first three of four pieces on the program featured a slimmed down orchestra. There was one Baroque era piece and one Romantic era piece that adapted Baroque era pieces, both of which included a harpsichord in the orchestration. The third piece for small orchestra was from the 21st century but featured the mandolin, which would be overpowered by a full orchestra.
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ASO: Donald Runnicles with Russell Thomas and Kelly O’Connor

Posted on November 19, 2016 by Robbie

There were two novel things about tonight’s concert by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. The first was that they finally asked people to silence their cell-phones before the concert. They used a modestly witty video featuring some of the musicians to do so. I think that the video will get old after a while and they may want to rethink the tone of it as it sounds somewhat judgmental, but it was still nice that they’re finally showing some awareness that this aspect of audience experience is important enough to comment upon. The other novelty was an introduction by principal guest conductor Donald Runnicles to the two pieces on the program, including a small video explaining some of the Japanese instruments whose sounds are reflected in the first piece.
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ASO: Robert Spano with Elizabeth Pridgen and David Coucheron

Posted on November 10, 2016 by Robbie

What an excellent evening of music from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra! Conducted by Robert Spano, the program was mostly Russian (with a Russian-inspired piece by an Englishman), 100% composed in the 20th century, and made use of two soloists, both of whom were local: Elizabeth Pridgen, best known as the artistic director of the Atlanta Chamber Players, and David Coucheron, best known as the concertmaster of the ASO. This may be the first concert of the main season where every performance and piece on the program appealed to me.
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ASO: Joseph Young with Joseph Swensen

Posted on October 20, 2016 by Robbie

Last season, Joseph Young blew me away with a program that included Hayden, Mozart, and Prokofiev so I was very excited to have the opportunity to hear him again this season. In particular, I thought that he’d kill Dvorák’s Symphony no. 9. Unfortunately, although this was an enjoyable concert, I can’t say that I was particularly impressed with Young’s conducting this time around.
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