ASO: Robert Spano with Stephen Hough

Posted on April 7, 2017 by Robbie

Today was pretty bad. Today I also learned about the death last evening of an old friend of mine from college. My bursitis has returned with a vengeance this week and has been waking me up at night and I was really aching today. I have been terribly concerned about world events and domestic politics. I’ve been dealing with a horrendous commute thanks to the I-85 bridge collapse. And I could go on and on about work. Thankfully, Maestro Spano and the musicians of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra were there for me this evening.
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ASO: Michael Stern with Marc-André Hamelin

Posted on March 9, 2017 by Robbie

Michael Stern looked kind of off this evening. The opening of his waistcoat started below his waist, his tails were either in need of a professional pressing or were poorly mended, his French cuffs were slightly crushed, and his thick hair was only almost well groomed. While conducting, he seemed to cue a lot more with his baton in his right hand than with his left — indeed, there were times where he seemed to forget that he had a left hand. And, while his cues were generally good, I’m glad that I don’t have to try to keep count by watching him since he often seemed to forget that he was supposed to be beating the rhythm as well as giving cues. He also had to take a breather after the first movement of the symphony on the program, which seemed a bit odd for someone who does this for a living and wasn’t showing any signs of illness.
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ASO: Robert Spano with Benjamin Beilman

Posted on March 4, 2017 by Robbie

The orchestra wasn’t in its best form this evening. There was a lot of muddiness all around, but particularly from the brass and the 2nd violins. That said, the music itself did make it through the mud well enough for me to appreciate the scores that they were playing.
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ASO: Michael Francis with Benjamin Grosvenor

Posted on February 25, 2017 by Robbie

I’m not sure that I agree with the programming for this evening’s Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concert. There were three pieces on the program: Copland’s “Appalachian Spring,” Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto no. 2, and Vaughan Williams Symphony no. 5. I feel like either the Copland or the Saint-Saëns could work well enough with the Vaughan Williams, but the three together just seemed off. Even though I love the piece, I wish that they had picked something besides the Copland to start the concert.
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ASO: Robert Spano with Juho Pohjonen

Posted on February 9, 2017 by Robbie

It seemed that Maestro Spano was so excited about Mahler’s Symphony no. 1 in the second half of the program at this evening’s performance of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra that he forgot that the piano concerto in G major played in the first half was actually written by Beethoven and not Mahler. He conducted it as though it were from the late Romantic period, which sounded horribly off with the smaller orchestra and the whole thing came across as though it were being interpreted by a brooding, teenage goth. Beethoven’s piano concerto no. 4 is one that rarely fails to delight me, but I found this slow, over-dramatic performance to be a total bore. I can’t even comment on Pohjonen’s playing in it because my mind was wandering so much from the tedium of the performance that I barely noticed him. He did, however, impress me with his playing of Grieg’s “Butterfly” during his encore.
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ASO: Jun Märkl with Johannes Moser

Posted on February 4, 2017 by Robbie

There was a lot to like about this evening’s Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concert conducted by Jun Märkl. The program was fairly light-hearted, with two neo-classical works with a smaller orchestra in the first half and Schumann’s “Spring Symphony” to conclude the show. Under Märkl’s baton, the music was a warm delight on a cold winter’s evening.
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ASO: Donald Runnicles with Russell Thomas and Kelly O’Connor

Posted on November 19, 2016 by Robbie

There were two novel things about tonight’s concert by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. The first was that they finally asked people to silence their cell-phones before the concert. They used a modestly witty video featuring some of the musicians to do so. I think that the video will get old after a while and they may want to rethink the tone of it as it sounds somewhat judgmental, but it was still nice that they’re finally showing some awareness that this aspect of audience experience is important enough to comment upon. The other novelty was an introduction by principal guest conductor Donald Runnicles to the two pieces on the program, including a small video explaining some of the Japanese instruments whose sounds are reflected in the first piece.
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