Tag Archives: Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

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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ASO: Robert Spano with Jean-Yves Thibaudet

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There’s a concert that I want to attend on Saturday, so I exchanged my normal season ticket for the ASO for the concert tonight. Overall, it was very well programmed and was an excellent performance. They opened with a world premier by Gandolfi, which was followed by the Suite from The Firebird by Stravinsky. After the intermission, the soloist, Thibaudet, played Ravel’s Piano Concerto and the show concluded with Gershwin’s An American in Paris.
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ASO: “Creation/Creator”

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As I was reading the program notes for the ASO’s performance of Theofanidis’ new oratorio “Creation/Creator,” I was amazed by the variety of themes and perspectives that he was exploring with the piece. I couldn’t imagine how someone could manage to bring such disparate parts together into a coherent whole and was somewhat excited to see how he pulled it off. You can imagine my disappointment to find that his imagination did not rise above my own in this regard as he completely failed to produce a piece with any meaningful sense of flow.
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ASO: Tito Muñoz with David Coucheron

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I have no idea if it was just me, but Muñoz seemed to be conducting the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra to play everything slowly and deliberately, as though it was more important that the audience hear each and every note than actually connect with the pieces on an emotional level. I found my mind wandering during Bruch’s Violin Concerto no 1 and I was seriously thinking that I’d rather just go home by the second movement of Dvorak’s 8th symphony despite the fact that those are both wonderful, engaging pieces of music.