ASO: Edo De Waart with Augustin Hadelich

On Tuesday I attended a gallery talk for the Carlos Museum’s Divine Felines exhibit during which I learned that the Egyptian word for “cat” is pronounced “mew,” as in the sound that cats make. This is relevant for two reasons. First, it’s adorable and awesome and I think that everyone should know about it. Secondly, Augustin Hadelich, the soloist for this weekend’s Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concerts, is actually a cat according to a documentary that I saw. On the other hand, the guest conductor, Edo De Waart, is human, all too human. Given that to err is human, last night’s performance offers further confirmation of De Waart’s humanity.
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ASO: Marc Piollet with Augustin Hadelich

Tonight’s ASO concert opened with Blacher’s Variations on a Theme by Niccolo Paganini. I believe that this was the first time that I’d heard the piece. The theme comes from Paganini’s Caprice no. 24 and is presented at first by the concertmaster, is then picked up by the rest of the orchestra, and then the variations begin. The variations were mostly pretty fun, a number of them having a strong jazz influence and sounding very Gershwiny. The musicians played it well under Marc Piollet’s baton and I thought that it served as a good concert opener.
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