Category Archives: Music

Chamber Cartel: George Crumb

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This evening’s concert by Chamber Cartel was at the First Existentialist Congregation of Atlanta next to Candler Park. It is a neat little space that loves to eat sound. Worn pine floors, decorative panels in the ceiling, and beadboard half-walls greedily gobble up any passing tone like a child…um…greedily gobbling…things. That’s not to say that you can’t have a nice, intimate chamber concert there, but it’s best to program with the limitations of the venue in mind. Another problem facing this concert was the unfortunate presence of a child who was not ready to be a good audience member and who tended to be noisiest during the quietest parts of the works. With that said, Chamber Cartel did manage to produce a very engaging, if not quite excellent, concert of works by George Crumb there.
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Chamber Cartel: Prajñā

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I think that this is the first Chamber Cartel concert that I’ve attended in a venue that has climate control. Thinking back, I know that they’ve performed in a few other places, but the only times that I’ve been able to attend their shows have been in the various Goat Farm venues. Fortunately, given the heatwave, the Goat Farm opened up the Warhorse for tonight’s show. It proved to be a pleasantly intimate venue for chamber music, if a bit cramped. I had a comfortable seat but many did not. It wasn’t a particularly long concert, though, and there were no epically long pieces, so I’d probably not have been terribly upset if I’d have had to stand.
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Chamber Cartel: The Stone Tapestry

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When an entire concert consists of one piece that I’ve never heard before, I always feel a little wary attending. Fortunately, Herron has good taste and does a good job of selecting works for Chamber Cartel that are not only interesting and enjoyable but also well suited to the ensemble. Tonight’s production of “The Stone Tapestry” by Jeff Herriott was definitely interesting and enjoyable and Chamber Cartel with the guest musicians of A/B Duo performed it well.
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ASO: Samson et Delila

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So many beautiful voices! So much wow in Samson et Delila! When Blythe unleashed her voice, she owned the room. She really did. And Skelton voiced his part with as much character as excellence. I saw in his bio that Grimsley did Bluebeard’s Castle and I’d really love to hear that after hearing his High Priest. And the chorus! What a great sound they had tonight! Even though they are absent from the 2nd act, this opera really let them shine from the beginning and left me as impressed with them as any of the soloists. Every bit of the performance was well played by the orchestra, too. I would have loved an encore of the ballets, which I find absolutely gorgeous and the playing of which was nothing short of exceptional. Lots of wow.
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ASO: Robert Spano with Yefim Bronfman

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I was disappointed in the first half of tonight’s concert. I have no idea if it was somehow just me, but everything under Spano’s baton seemed sterile. I don’t think that I’ve ever heard Sibelius’ “The Bard” before this evening, so I can’t be sure how it is normally played, but I found myself unable to find any expressiveness in the way that it was performed. I actually bought the ASO’s (somewhat) recent all-Sibelius album and listened to the first half of “Tapiola” on the way home to remind myself that Spano et al can most certainly do more than mere justice to the composer’s music. (This is a great album, by the way, and I’ve been meaning to pick it up for a while. If you haven’t heard it, do try to give it a listen.)
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ASO: John Adams

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Before I talk about tonight’s Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concert, I just want to say that I have had the worst luck in seating this season. Although it hasn’t just been the ASO, the ASO has been the worst. Of the 14 ASO concerts that I’ve attended so far this year, I have had issues with fellow audience members making unreasonable amounts of noise, falling asleep, fidgeting, kicking the seats, or smelling bad at every single one of them. Part of this may be because attendance has been higher, but it has been a problem even at concerts that haven’t been well attended and I’ve been to a number of sold out concerts in the past without having any issues. I think that some of it is that they don’t have Sunday matinées anymore so more people are coming who would otherwise be much more alert and comfortable attending at an earlier time of the day. I know that a lot of the issues that I’ve had with noxious ointments or small children are probably a result of that.
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