Tag Archives: Mozart

ASO: Robert Spano with Elizabeth Koch Tiscione, Laura Ardan, Andrew Brady, Brice Andrus, & Jeremy Denk

Posted on by
Reply

This weekend’s concert by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra featured good performances of works that aren’t necessarily my favorite. It opened with Gandolfi’s Imaginary Numbers. When I first heard it in 2015, I thought that it had some interesting ideas but that a concerto for oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn wasn’t entirely the best thing ever. I felt more or less the same way this time: I did enjoy it and appreciate the performances by ASO principals Elizabeth Koch Tiscione, Laura Ardan, Andrew Brady, and Brice Andrus; but I frequently just felt that the music wasn’t quite taking me anywhere.
Continue reading →

Georgian Chamber Players: Piano Eight Hands & String Octet

Posted on by
Reply

The Georgian Chamber Players had some fun with the program for yesterday’s concert by playing with the number eight. Three pieces were for piano eight-hands and the final piece was for a string octet. There was one odd work out that was for piano six-hands, but the smiles on the musicians faces while they played this particularly novel piece excuses breaking the quantitative theme. Besides, taken all together, there were 46 hands needed for all of the works and that is the birth year of Plutarch and also the channel number for the local CBS affiliate which, of course, totally means something.
Continue reading →

ASO: Robert Spano with Pedja Muzijevic

Posted on by
3

This was one of those bad-audience nights. The person sitting behind me had a deep, sickly, bronchial cough and, on the occasions that she tried to suppress it, made even more noise for longer periods of time getting cough drops from her bag. There were a couple of (probably) middle-schoolers next to me who were were whispering during the performances even more than the two adults sitting in front of me. There was, what sounded like, a hearing aid somewhere to the left of me that was squealing from feedback. And, although I hate to admit that seeing her still gets under my skin, the phony of phonies was there: Lauri Stallings, with whom Robert Spano regularly debases himself by working with her company, glo. Despite all of this, I wasn’t really bothered for the first half of the concert because what was on stage wasn’t really worth hearing or thinking about. Fortunately, things turned around dramatically after the intermission.
Continue reading →

ASO: Joseph Young with Christina and Michelle Naughton

Posted on by
Reply

I was pleased to hear Joseph Young — the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s assistant conductor and the director of the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra — conduct an excellent program of music this evening with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. I think that this may have been the first time that I have had the chance to see him live to really hear what he can do and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Continue reading →

ACP: Brahms, Mozart, & Chausson

Posted on by
Reply

The Atlanta Chamber Players began their concert at the Cecil B Day Chapel at the Carter Library a little late. Apparently, the featured guest artist, Robert McDuffie, was running late due to traffic. When the concert finally began, McDuffie and Pridgen performed Brahms’ Violin Sonata no. 1 in G major. McDuffie didn’t seem to be playing his best through the first movement, though he seemed to gain more control as the piece progressed. I have to admit to zoning out a little during the second movement — though I blame that on Brahms, whose work has never really captured my esteem, and on my own fatigue from a long, stressful week.
Continue reading →