Bent Frequency: Lines, Broken

Posted on February 25, 2018 by Robbie

Last night’s Bent Frequency concert, “Lines, Broken,” was among the best that I’ve had the pleasure of attending. Originally scheduled to be held at Eyedrum’s downtown space, because of the fire it was held at the First Existentialist Congregation of Atlanta in Candler Park. I recall how the space seemed to mute the sound somewhat at a Chamber Cartel performance that I attended there back in 2015 but, for some reason, the sounds of last night’s performance resonated throughout the intimate venue quite well.
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ASO: Roberto Abbado with Jorge Federico Osorio

Posted on February 16, 2018 by Robbie

I’m not particularly fond of Roberto Abbado’s conducting, so this is going to be a mostly negative post and you may want to skip it. I do have something nice to say about Jorge Federico Osorio’s playing, though, in case you want to skip to the last paragraph to read that.
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ASO: Robert Spano and Stephen Mulligan with Jennifer Johnson Cano and Jorge Federico Osorio

Posted on January 28, 2018 by Robbie

Although I attended the Saturday concert, I went to the chamber music performance that preceded the Thursday concert. I had to make a huge effort to leave work on time and then, to avoid feeling rushed, I stopped at a Moe’s near the Woodruff Arts Center to have an early and decidedly unsatisfying supper. If I’m completely honest, I’m not sure that it was worth the trouble. Each of the three pieces had at least one performer without whom the works would have sounded a lot better and I wasn’t that fond of the first two pieces on the program.
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Stephen Tharp

Posted on January 27, 2018 by Robbie

I’ve never really been a fan of the organ. There was even a time when I actually disliked it. I’ve been making an effort, though, and over the years I’ve come to appreciate it more and more, finding that I particularly like the more contemporary works composed for the instrument. Even now, however, I still generally only go to organ concerts when I have nothing else to do and really want to get out of the house. I’m glad that I made it to Stephen Tharp’s recital at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Redeemer last night because his both playing and his programming were both excellent.
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ASO: Peter Oundjian with David Coucheron

Posted on January 14, 2018 by Robbie

I really enjoyed last night’s concert of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. It began with some dancey fun in the form of three dance variations from Bernstein’s ballet “Fancy Free.” It was a vivacious start to the evening and the musicians sounded great under the capable baton of Peter Oundjian.
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ASO: Spano with Steven Isserlis

Posted on November 10, 2017 by Robbie

I mentioned last week how I was a bit put off by the fact that they only had the English translations of the movements in Falla’s ‘El Amore Brujo.’ I would have probably had stronger words then if I’d flipped a few pages through this month’s program and seen that the Schumann and Mahler on this week’s program had movements with descriptive names in German that weren’t translated at all. I think that more people in the Atlanta metro will know that “Introducción y escena” means “Introduction and scene” than will know that “Nicht zu schnell” means “Allegro non troppo”…I mean, “Not too fast.” The movements of Verdi’s Requiem next week are in the untranslated Latin of the Catholic Requiem Mass, but for some reason every-day Spanish has to be translated. What schmucks (pendejos)!
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ASO: Jun Märkl with Catalina Cuervo and Bertrand Chamayou

Posted on November 5, 2017 by Robbie

I ended up going home at the intermission of Saturday’s Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concert. I’m actually pretty sure that the final piece on the program, Beethoven’s symphony no. 4, would have been handled well by conductor Jun Märkl and played well by the orchestra, but I decided that I didn’t want to sit through it. I can take or leave the work itself and my hip was bothering me. Plus, the main work that I was excited to hear was played poorly and there was an excellent encore after the concerto that I preferred to have in my head over the Beethoven.
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