ASO: Thomas Søndergård with Daniel Moody, Jessica Rivera, Stephanie Lauricella, Thomas Cooley, & Andrea Mastroni

The last time that I heard Thomas Søndergård conduct the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, I wasn’t terribly pleased with his interpretations of the French Impressionist works on the program but thought that he might actually be pretty good with a program of German works. Well…I’m not quite ready to completely write him off, but between that concert and the one I attended last night, I’m thinking that he may have a pretty narrow range and some pretty bad ideas. The concert wasn’t a disaster by any means, but it also wasn’t very good and it’s largely due to his interpretations of the pieces on the program.
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ASO: Robert Spano with Jessica Rivera and Nmon Ford

Spano, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the ASO chorus, and the soloists, soprano Jessica Rivera and baritone Nmon Ford, were all completely on mark for this evening’s performance. The chorus has been very active this season, but mostly they have been performing works of Christian liturgical music that don’t really have much of a draw for me.
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