ASO: Stephen Mulligan with Nikolai Lungansky

Posted on February 16, 2019 by Robbie

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s concert for the evening was conducted by Assistant Conductor Stephen Mulligan. The program opened with Sibelius’ Symphony no. 1. According to the notes, Mulligan traveled to Finland to study Sibelius’ music and I think it showed in his conducting: he clearly understood the piece and it came across as robust and fully realized under his baton. I do wish that I’d been able to hear his expertise expressed on a different of Sibelius’ pieces, though. Sibelius’ work always makes me think that there’s a certain intentionality to his composition; that every note is carefully considered and every chord formed with a purpose in mind. Often this is what I like most about his works: a sensation that every minor thing in a piece that touches me was an intentional act by the composer to reach me. The first symphony, though, seems a bit over-thought to me. I always feel like there should be more to it for all of the thought that the composer put into it. That’s not to say it’s bad so much as it always leaves me wanting to listen to something else of his instead.
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ASO: Edward Gardner with Simon Trpčeski

Posted on December 2, 2018 by Robbie

Maestro Edward Gardner gave a brief introduction to the pieces on the program before he began conducting the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in last night’s all Rachmaninov program. I always appreciate it when conductors or soloists give a bit of an intro like that: even if everything they say is in the program notes, the way that they say it gives a clue as to how they see the work. He did a decent job as a conductor, too. He took Isle of the Dead dramatically but not without sensitivity to begin the concert. There was nothing exceptional or exciting in his interpretation, but it was good. Similarly, Symphonic Dances at the end of the program got a solid treatment but without anything notable standing out about Gardner’s approach. I don’t think that I had known until I read the program notes before the concert that Rachmaninov had originally started work on the piece as a ballet to be choreographed by Fokine. It’s a shame that the choreographer died before its completion because I think that the music suits his choreographic style immensely well.
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ASO: Robert Spano with Kirill Gerstein

Posted on September 23, 2018 by Robbie

I have the softest little black bag that the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra gave to me as a subscriber at the concert last night with a little Post-It calendar in it and I feel like it should be useful but I haven’t figured out what to do with it yet. It goes with the new color of the walls in the hallways of Symphony Hall, which were painted black. There are new portraits of the musicians, too, which are in vibrant color and in which everyone is dressed smart casual instead of how they dress on stage. I’m honestly not happy about the dark wall – it now feels even more cramped when the auditorium is emptying out. And the pictures seem kind of disingenuous if they’re going to keep the men of the orchestra performing in tails. It’s not really that bad, though: just not what I’d do. I was pretty happy at first to see that they got rid of the two projection screens hanging off of the proscenium on either side of the stage in favor of one large one suspended from between some of the acoustic shell’s drop panels – sitting in row C made the old ones a bit uncomfortable to watch – but then I noticed that they kept the projector in one of the little compartments in the mezzanine so now we have three lines through anything they put up there from the shadows cast by the hanging microphones over the stage. They do get credit for trying, though, and I think they finally fixed the torn cloth cover over one of the built-in speakers, which is unquestionably a positive. Maybe if I ever become a multi-decamillionaire then I’ll grant them the money for a real renovation.
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ASO: Edo De Waart with Augustin Hadelich

Posted on March 2, 2018 by Robbie

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: Robert Spano with Dejan Lazić

Posted on October 15, 2017 by Robbie

Saturday’s performance of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra was a good one. It began with the world premier of two new movements of Michael Gandolfi’s “The Garden of Cosmic Speculation” that, together, were titled “A Garden Feeds Also the Soul.” The first of these two movements was titled “The Bone Garden.” It came across as a sort of stately pseudo-march from dark to light, where it lingered somewhere pretty, with a lighter motif supported by the rhythms that brought the music there. Then it turned back towards a last memento mori with an overlay of mystery rather than dread underlying the beginning of the work. It was a beautiful journey guided by some pretty cool music.
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ASO: Robert Spano with Stephen Hough

Posted on April 7, 2017 by Robbie

Today was pretty bad. Today I also learned about the death last evening of an old friend of mine from college. My bursitis has returned with a vengeance this week and has been waking me up at night and I was really aching today. I have been terribly concerned about world events and domestic politics. I’ve been dealing with a horrendous commute thanks to the I-85 bridge collapse. And I could go on and on about work. Thankfully, Maestro Spano and the musicians of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra were there for me this evening.
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ASO: Donald Runnicles with Kirill Gerstein

Posted on January 12, 2017 by Robbie

Donald Runnicles opened this evening’s Atlanta Symphony Orchestra program with the world premiere of a new piece by Marc Neikrug, “The Unicorn of Atlas Peak.” It is, apparently, named for a mutual acquaintance of Runnicles and Neikrug’s who, it seems, lives on Atlas Peak and may actually be a unicorn…or a guru…or just some dude whom they’ve both made up to hide the real way that they met, which probably involved some kind of scandalous intrigue or another. It began softly, with a kind of forced sense of mystery, and built up to something best described as meh. By the end it was completely uninteresting. It just never seemed to go anywhere nor to express anything meaningful. The parts that I found the most interesting seemed more like sketches of something that needs to be developed at a later time. It was not a strong start to the concert.
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