Tag Archives: Robert Spano

ASO: Robert Spano with Pedja Muzijevic

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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.
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ASO: Robert Spano with Garrick Ohlsson

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I guess that because the season premier concert was a one-off performed on a Thursday, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra could get away with calling last night’s performance their opening weekend concert. As per tradition, Spano led the orchestra in the Star Spangled Banner with much of the audience singing along.
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ASO: Robert Spano with Joshua Bell

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Despite being down a principal 2nd violinist, a principal percussionist, and a principal trombonist, the ASO began its season with an incredibly well performed concert of Tchaikovsky’s music last night. The evening began with Suite no. 1 from the Nutcracker. This was the first time that I can recall hearing any of the music from the ballet live. It was refreshing not to hear it tied to anything Christmassy and I found that it was enjoyable and had some pretty interesting things in it that I’ve never really noticed before on the radio. There was nothing really exciting about the performance, though Christina Smith’s gorgeous and masterful flute playing really stood out for me in the Dance of the Reed Flutes.
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ASO: Robert Spano with Jessica Rivera and Nmon Ford

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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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ASO: Robert Spano with Jorge Federico Osorio

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Spano and the musicians did very well this evening. None of the complaints that I had regarding the ASO’s last three concerts applied to this concert. Rex was back in the first chair of the cello section, which was good to see. (There was actually a little applause when he came on before the show, though I’m not sure that he could hear it.) The program, however, left me wishing that I’d found something else to do with my evening.
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ASO: Robert Spano with David Coucheron

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The ASO violins left me wondering if they had to use a large number of subs or if they had even rehearsed this concert en ensemble. They were really off this evening and you could even see bows moving out of sync and in opposite directions of the rest of the section on numerous occasions, especially during Strauss’ Till Eulenspiegel, which certainly didn’t help me appreciate a piece that has never really caught my ear. I’m also not a huge fan of Brahms’ violin concerto, for that matter. Top that off with me, due to an unfortunate series of phone conversations that I had to have today, being in a mood that seeing Lauri Stallings — a choreographer who has been called out by the NY Times for blatantly ripping off other artists and, in her supreme ignorance of her art form, has likely caused physical harm to her students in the past or, at the very least, taught them absolute worst practices in regards to basic dancer safety — really got under my skin. Despite all of that, I can, in all honesty (and with a little help of some wine during intermission), say that I enjoyed the evening’s concert.
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