I was pleased to hear Joseph Young — the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s assistant conductor and the director of the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra — conduct an excellent program of music this evening with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. I think that this may have been the first time that I have had the chance to see him live to really hear what he can do and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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This week hasn’t been for me. I mentioned to my hair stylist this morning as I was getting a haircut that if this evening’s concert by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra wasn’t very good then I’d be fine with it because so little else this week has been. Expectations are certainly not everything, but they do have quite an impact. As Lothar Zagrosek began conducting Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage Overture, I found my negative attitude quickly shifting. The piece begins soft and sweet with a wonderfully rich undertone. Take a medjool date, slice it lengthwise to remove the seed and then spread a very thin layer of a decent peanut butter across the inside and the taste will have all of the color and body of the beginning of this piece when it is done well. Zagrosek, who was conducting without a score, brought out every subtle thing that I could want out of the piece.
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I’m not feeling that great, so I’m not going to go into detail about this evening’s excellent performance of Mahler’s Symphony no 9 by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Donald Runnicles, except to say that I’m really glad that I got to hear it and that I’m really sorry if I passed my cold on to anyone else. I do want to note that I saw a car with a California plate that said “Gustave M” as I was walking away from the concert along P-Tree, which gave me a nice spurt of joy.
Spano, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the ASO chorus, and the soloists, soprano Jessica Rivera and baritone Nmon Ford, were all completely on mark for this evening’s performance. The chorus has been very active this season, but mostly they have been performing works of Christian liturgical music that don’t really have much of a draw for me.
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I can’t be entirely sure the wine that I had during intermission didn’t help me enjoy the second half of this evening’s ASO concert so much more than than the first half, but it did help convince me to stay after such a weak beginning.
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Have you ever wondered what the works of the French Impressionist composers would sound like if conducted in a Wagnerian style? I sure haven’t but, thanks to Thomas Søndergård, I now know that it would sound pretty lame. Or was it just me? When an entire concert is this far off mark then I find myself doubting my own ears, so I guess that maybe there is a chance that this evening’s ASO performance wasn’t played like it was a program of late German romanticism and I’m just crazy. Take that as you will.
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