I generally enjoyed all five of the pieces that were finalists in this year’s Rapido! Competition produced by the Atlanta Chamber Players. The theme this year was dance and the instrumentation was flute, clarinet, and cello. Once again, my favorite wasn’t the one that the judges picked but their choice was one of the three of the five that I would like to hear expanded upon.
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Thursday’s Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concert was proceeded by a chamber recital featuring three pieces. First was Shostakovich’s Five Pieces for Two Violins and Piano. It’s a good set of pieces and it was played well enough, though I found nothing exciting or exceptional about either the works nor the performance. The next piece featured the first three movements from Smetana’s String Quartet no. 1 with the order of the second and third transposed. This was performed by the Peachtree String Quartet. It’s a good piece but I found the performance a little weak around the parts that required slow and quiet playing. In particular, I felt that the second violin failed to maintain a good sound with his bow wandering up and down the strings. In terms of musicianship, I felt that the final piece was the best played and I ended up enjoying it the most of the three. Arthur Berg’s Woodwind Quartet in C Major came across as particularly upbeat following the Smetana; even the adante middle movement was kind of uplifting. I found myself feeling like it was a delightful shelf upon which to rest my mind while waiting for the orchestra to begin playing the main program for the evening.
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Maestro Edward Gardner gave a brief introduction to the pieces on the program before he began conducting the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in last night’s all Rachmaninov program. I always appreciate it when conductors or soloists give a bit of an intro like that: even if everything they say is in the program notes, the way that they say it gives a clue as to how they see the work. He did a decent job as a conductor, too. He took Isle of the Dead dramatically but not without sensitivity to begin the concert. There was nothing exceptional or exciting in his interpretation, but it was good. Similarly, Symphonic Dances at the end of the program got a solid treatment but without anything notable standing out about Gardner’s approach. I don’t think that I had known until I read the program notes before the concert that Rachmaninov had originally started work on the piece as a ballet to be choreographed by Fokine. It’s a shame that the choreographer died before its completion because I think that the music suits his choreographic style immensely well.
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While Robert Spano was conducting the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in Christopher Theofanidis’ Symphony no. 1, I found myself thinking about something one of my college philosophy professors said about Immanuel Kant. She said something along the lines that he would put thoughts and ideas in a box until it was filled and then write a book out of what was in it. I have no idea as to the veracity of this story, but I kind of got the feeling that this was how Theofanidis composed his symphony because it seemed like a bunch of unconnected aesthetic ideas mashed together into an oddly and impressively coherent whole.
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Well, that was embarrassing. I found myself moved after Donald Runnicles and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra finished Mahler’s Symphony no. 10 (Cooke III version) so, naturally, I stood during the ovation. And nobody else did. And for some reason nothing was moving on the stage. And I sat down again, not entire sure that it was over, even though they’d come to the last pages of the score and I was certain that all of the movements had been played. And then some other people started standing and finally I got over myself and stood again only to feel a jolt shooting down my sciatic nerve. And then my knee started to get really sore. And I started worrying that I wouldn’t be able to walk to my car to go home. Thankfully, I stretch some and was able to walk out of there with everyone else. For some odd reason, my big toe on that side still hurts, but I’ve done some stretches at home now and everything seems fine. Fortunately, I have a chiropractic appointment for Monday. Yeesh! Anyway, clearly the lesson here is to have the courage of one’s convictions and not to back down so easily in the face of uncertainty.
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As I was walking to my car from Memorial Hall last night, I overheard a couple of people talking about the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s concert. One said that she couldn’t remember his name, but that the conductor was English and she liked him.
Me: He’s Scottish and his name is Donald Runnicles.
Woman: He’s Scottish? Not English?
Me: Yep.
Woman: I like him even better!
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Saturday’s Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with guest conductor Jun Märkl seemed to get off to a rocky start. The first piece on the program was Berlioz’ Benvenuto Cellini Overture, which is a charming and colorful piece with which to start an evening of music. Unfortunately, the orchestra was a bit muddy, particularly at the beginning. I suspect that things might have come out better if Märkl had waited a few seconds to get everyone’s attention before cuing the performance’s start: he leapt upon the podium and began the piece nearly immediately, significantly faster than I’ve seen from any other conductor. It wasn’t terrible but it also wasn’t the best way to start the evening.
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