I guess that because the season premier concert was a one-off performed on a Thursday, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra could get away with calling last night’s performance their opening weekend concert. As per tradition, Spano led the orchestra in the Star Spangled Banner with much of the audience singing along.
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Despite being down a principal 2nd violinist, a principal percussionist, and a principal trombonist, the ASO began its season with an incredibly well performed concert of Tchaikovsky’s music last night. The evening began with Suite no. 1 from the Nutcracker. This was the first time that I can recall hearing any of the music from the ballet live. It was refreshing not to hear it tied to anything Christmassy and I found that it was enjoyable and had some pretty interesting things in it that I’ve never really noticed before on the radio. There was nothing really exciting about the performance, though Christina Smith’s gorgeous and masterful flute playing really stood out for me in the Dance of the Reed Flutes.
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One of the sad truths that I have had to face in life is that if any organization were to market directly to my tastes then they’d go under very quickly. With this in mind, it’s not surprising that I’d eventually find myself in the audience for a Chamber Cartel concert that didn’t really suit me. I am not of the opinion that “Living in Light” was poorly programmed — I think that a lot of people would really like it — but it just wasn’t for me.
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I will probably never go to the Mammal Gallery again if it has been over 90°F during the day, but I’m glad that I suffered the heat for this evening’s Chamber Cartel concert. Titled “Wonderblock,” the program was fairly eclectic, with works by George Crumb, John Luther Adams, Franco Donatoni, Helmut Lachenmann, and Hans Thomalla. Overall, the performance was enjoyable, though the heat took its toll on my attention span by the end.
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My rough week was smoothed out quite a bit this evening by Capitol City Opera Company‘s “Summer of Song.” This was a concert of art song performed by soprano Rachel Eve Holmes accompanied by music director Catherine Giel on piano. The program featured works by Giuseppe Verdi, Gabriel Faure, Amy Beach, and Richard Strauss, all of which were performed capably and were a joy to hear.
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The ASO, conducted by Peter Oundjian, didn’t dilly dally this evening and got straight to the concerto: Philip Glass’ Violin Concerto No. 2, “The American Four Seasons.” Notable about this performance is that Oundjian and the soloist, Robert McDuffie, premiered the piece in late 2009 with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, which had co-commissioned it. The only commercial recording of which I’m aware, with McDuffie soloing with the London Philharmonic under Marin Alsop, makes its way regularly into my CD rotation. Needless to say, I was pretty excited when I found out that it was not only programmed for this season, but that it would be Oundjian conducting it with McDuffie soloing.
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This evening’s Sonic Generator concert at Museum of Contemporary Art GA focused pretty heavily on solo work. Each of the five musicians present performed by themselves — albeit accompanied by recorded soundtracks or, in one case, a computer — and only came together to play as an ensemble in the last piece. Noticeable was the lack of percussion, with Tom Sherwood absent. Even though I have been to contemporary music concerts without it, Sonic Generator and Chamber Cartel have been the two most prolific producers of contemporary and experimental music in town and they have both programmed heavily for percussion, which seems to have caused me to associate the instrument group with the subgenre.
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