Tag Archives: Camille Saint-Saens

ASO: Emmanuel Villaume with Andrew von Oeyen

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Emmanuel Villaume’s conducting style as he lead the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra last night seemed to be heavily influenced by Tai Chi and he complemented his hand signals with very loud breath cues. I thought it was really annoying and found him more distracting than any coughing or whispering or seat kicking that I heard the entire evening. It was enough that I’m not likely to give him another shot if he’s programmed again in the future.
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ASO: Robert Spano with Yo-Yo Ma

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This evening’s special concert of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with cellist Yo-Yo Ma was very good. It could have been great, though. I sometimes suspect that the ASO doesn’t really take anything seriously that was composed from the Classical Period to WWII if it didn’t come from somewhere between the German states and the Russian Empire. It’s almost like they want to say that all serious music of that period was confined to some pale of settlement that stretched between the Rhine and Volga rivers. This concert reinforced that suspicion.
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ASO: Peter Oundjian with David Coucheron

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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: Michael Francis with Benjamin Grosvenor

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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: Samson et Delila

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So many beautiful voices! So much wow in Samson et Delila! When Blythe unleashed her voice, she owned the room. She really did. And Skelton voiced his part with as much character as excellence. I saw in his bio that Grimsley did Bluebeard’s Castle and I’d really love to hear that after hearing his High Priest. And the chorus! What a great sound they had tonight! Even though they are absent from the 2nd act, this opera really let them shine from the beginning and left me as impressed with them as any of the soloists. Every bit of the performance was well played by the orchestra, too. I would have loved an encore of the ballets, which I find absolutely gorgeous and the playing of which was nothing short of exceptional. Lots of wow.
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