Bang on a Can All-Stars: Field Recordings

Upon parking on Georgia Tech’s campus, I was greeted with the sound of dance music being blasted from a nearby quad so loudly that the sound was distorted until I was nearly in front of the Ferst Center. When I finally took my seat, I could hear the bass from it very clearly inside the auditorium. It was so loud that I actually went back outside and asked the person in charge of whatever the event was if they could turn it down. He merely said that he had police permission and I could file a complaint if I want. I spoke with someone in admin at the Ferst Center and she said that they’d already tried but that the police wouldn’t do anything and that there really wasn’t anyone else whom she could contact. The whole this is absurd because, as I said, the music was too loud for the event itself and it would not have harmed a thing to turn it down enough that it wouldn’t have penetrated the Ferst Center’s auditorium. Since he told me to file a complaint, though, I probably will and I recommend anyone else who was there to do the same. It’s not the Ferst’s fault, so I’d reach out to the university’s division of administration and finance.
Continue reading

ASO: Michael Stern with Marc-André Hamelin

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.
Continue reading

ASO: Robert Spano with Benjamin Beilman

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.
Continue reading

ASO: Michael Francis with Benjamin Grosvenor

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.
Continue reading

ASO: Robert Spano with Juho Pohjonen

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.
Continue reading

Bach Bowl 2017

I love the Bach Bowl. Timothy Albrecht will always have a place in my heart for creating something for me to look forward to every year on Superb Owl Sunday since I’m a fan of neither football nor hot-wings. He always puts together a pretty good program of Bach’s work and, thanks to Bach being such a prolific composer, each year’s program always has its own character. I thought that this year’s program was particularly good.
Continue reading

ASO: Jun Märkl with Johannes Moser

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.
Continue reading