The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concerts this week are an under-the-radar hit. A quick gander at the program suggested a dinner of nothing but sweet potatoes: one long and over-performed concerto, one long and under-performed symphony, two solid hours of Tchaikovsky.
But conductor Vasily Petrenko, a boyish-faced Russian in his early 30s, is the real thing: a comprehensive interpreter with a stick technique that gets the orchestra to play as a tight, disciplined unit. He brought what's become his calling card: Tchaikovsky's "Manfred" Symphony, for which he won Gramophone magazine's Best Orchestral Recording award with Liverpool's Royal Philharmonic (on the Naxos label). It was his ...
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra offered news of its new president, Stanley E. Romanstein, first to the AJC. You can read it here. The news will go out to the national media tomorrow morning.
Romanstein's appointment was voted on by the ASO board Monday. It comes just a week after the surprise resignation of the orchestra's top fund-raiser, Paul Hogle, who departs Atlanta for the Detroit Symphony. Here's a link to that story on ArtsCriticATL. Romanstein replaces Allison Vulgamore, who left Atlanta in December to take charge of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Read about that move here.
Some points that did not make it into ...
Tonight is the opening public event of Robert Spano's three-year Distinguished Artist in Residence appointment at Emory University, which we wrote about here. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's music director was booked to teach, lecture and perform. (The course, Metaphysics and Music, is described here.) We just learned that Spano will still deliver tonight's 7 p.m. lecture but, as a pianist, will not play Mozart sonatas with ASO violinist Justin Bruns. Emory faculty member Will Ransom will instead be at the keyboard.
Update 9 p.m. In the Schwartz Center, Spano explained that he developed tendonitis in the summer of 2009, conducting Wagner's "Ring" cycle ...
The venue matters more in music than in the other arts. That has posed a dilemma for Sonic Generator, an Atlanta's new-music ensemble exploring the high-tech edge of contemporary classical music. Most of the music they play is multi-media, with video or amplification or electronic sounds piped through loudspeakers, so they have specific technical and acoustical needs. Sponsored by Georgia Tech, the virtuoso group has performed in the ballroom of Tech's Alumni House (too small) and at the Woodruff Arts Center's Rich Auditorium (too sterile).
On Wednesday the group found the best fit yet: the High Museum of Arts' Hill Auditorium. Its asymmetrical ...
Before Sonic Generator fired up the amplifiers and laptops for a show called "The Body Machine," a performance of way-cool classical music in the High Museum's Hill Auditorium -- to be reviewed tomorrow -- another, quieter performer took a stage nearby. Simone Dinnerstein came to national attention a few years ago when music critics noticed an obscure pianist play Bach's "Goldberg" Variations with a rare spark of freshness and life. The critics told their friends, who wrote about Dinnerstein, and told Telarc Records, which produced her first CD. It became a best-seller.
Soon she was an overnight wonder -- a first-rate ...
Paul Hogle, the ASO's chief fund-raiser, a veteran of the business, sent this email earlier today. With remarkably little spin, it tells a story that's making the rounds. It is fair to say that Hogle's departure, with no executive director in place (Allison Vulgamore started with the Philadelphia Orchestra in January), complicates the ASO's leadership future.
Here's Hogle's letter:
"I’m sorry for the impersonal email, but I wanted to share some news with you before it leaked through other means.
Nearly nine years ago, I had an unexpected conversation with then-CEO Allison Vulgamore which eventually led to my joining the Atlanta Symphony staff. As ...
