By Pierre Ruhe | Oct 18, 2010
And the winner is …
Year two of the Atlanta Chamber Players’ “Rapido! A 14-day Composition Contest” delivered as hoped. Hatched by arts philanthropist Ron Antinori and ACP pianist Paula Peace, “Rapido!” is modeled after 48-hour filmmaking contests. In the spring, composers signed up for the competition. On the appointed day, they received the musical parameters: a set of miniatures, four to six minutes in total, scored for a quartet of flute (with piccolo and alto flute optional), clarinet (with bass clarinet optional), cello and piano. Then the composers had two weeks to write their music.
For the inaugural “Rapido!,” the competition ...
By Pierre Ruhe | Oct 17, 2010
Increasingly, concerts by Atlanta Symphony Orchestra principal guest conductor Donald Runnicles have become the big events on the calendar. The Scottish-born conductor, who makes his Atlanta season debut this weekend, is a maestro in the old sense. In the past few years, better than most on the ASO podium, he has consistently played to his strengths -- in the repertoire he chooses, in his choice of soloists as collaborators, in giving the audience a sense of both occasion and of vivid, three-dimensional music making, always deeply felt and always trying to go deeper still.
Death and the gloomy despair of humanity ...
By Pierre Ruhe | Oct 14, 2010
UPDATE October 16: Here's the review of the ASO's all-Viennese concert, which is previewed below.
The scheduling goblins are messing with Atlanta’s classical calendar again: many of the region’s most rewarding ensembles and venues are presenting concerts almost simultaneously. In a moment, we’ll get to tonight’s big show at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Donald Runnicles conducting his first Symphony Hall appearance this season. First, a few upcoming highlights:
* At Spivey Hall, at 3 p.m. Sunday, enriching Canadian pianist Louis Lortie will play nothing but Chopin, coupling nocturnes and scherzos (with a barcarolle in the mix). People who find all-Chopin recitals to be unmissable ...
By Pierre Ruhe | Oct 10, 2010
Music by New York composer Nathan Davis was the centerpiece of Atlanta’s contemporary scene over the weekend -- as a headliner at Sonic Generator’s season-opening concert Friday on the Georgia Tech campus, and in a (semi-) solo show Saturday at Eyedrum.
Davis was educated at Rice and Yale universities but raised in Alabama -- his father taught architecture at Auburn University -- and for his Eyedrum show, at least four family members were in the audience. (Davis shared the bill with Atlanta percussionist Klimchak, whose set I had to miss.)
“A concert of percussion and other small objects,” Davis called it. In the ...
By Pierre Ruhe | Oct 5, 2010
The Metropolitan Opera’s Saturday afternoon broadcasts, in high-definition movie theaters, open their fifth season this weekend with a new production of Wagner’s “Das Rheingold.”
"The Met: Live in HD" series is taking off, with more productions each season (12 this year), more screens (13 in metro Atlanta; see list below), a more international audience (1,500 screens in 46 countries) and a broader repertoire new and old, including John Adams' “Nixon in China” and Gluck’s “Iphigénie en Tauride.” Many of the productions are brand new and feature star singers, adding buzz even for well-traveled opera mavens.
Meanwhile, the Atlanta Opera continues its run ...
By Pierre Ruhe | Oct 3, 2010
How long does it take Mimì the seamstress and Rodolfo the poet to fall in love?
By the clock, it might be just a couple of minutes, five at most, between first encounter and soaring love song. That presents a dramatic pickle solved masterfully in David Gately's production of Atlanta Opera's "La Bohème," which opened Saturday at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre and runs three more performances through October 10. Although it's not among the 31-year-old opera company's most balanced productions -- Gregory Vajda's conducting was weak on opening night, with rippling consequences -- the show ...
Subscribe to RSS Feed