By Pierre Ruhe | Mar 9, 2011
Bach’s B-minor Mass, assembled from parts and never performed complete during the composer’s lifetime, has become our standard for what we might call the grandiloquent sublime in music. It has become a central pillar of the canon, and thus can seem impossible to consider apart from its monumentality and our modern ideas of completeness.
Whether right or wrong, the trend in recent interpretation tends to emphasize this unity. Even historically informed groups sometimes adopt smoothness, with a complementary emphasis on beauty of tone, as the unifying factor. It’s as if we view the ...
By Pierre Ruhe | Feb 28, 2011
When the Atlanta Opera first performed Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess," in 2005 at the Civic Center, it was among the first of the revitalized company's artistic triumphs. The chorus was especially wonderful, prepared by Walter Huff to the highest standards most anyone had ever heard. A review of that "Porgy" caught the eye of Paris' Opéra-Comique, and a few years later the choisters were singing the opera in France, Spain and Luxembourg.
Recruiting and coaching a good "Porgy" chorus is difficult -- perhaps the most challenging aspect of staging the opera. As in Musorgsky's "Boris Godunov" or Britten's "Peter Grimes," the ...
By Pierre Ruhe | Feb 26, 2011
The musical cultures of Latin America have enriched the Atlanta Symphony’s programming immeasurably in recent years. Not least, this comes from the orchestra’s close association with Osvaldo Golijov, an Argentine with a complicated multiculturalism -- the sounds of the Latin street and the Jewish shtetl, with a dose of George Crumb’s unbounded creativity -- running through his veins and his brain circuitry.
The first half of this week’s ASO program felt like an event, intertwining the two most compelling Argentine composers of recent decades with a Baroque master. On Friday in Symphony Hall, the orchestra revisited Golijov’s “Last Round,” music with ...
By Pierre Ruhe | Feb 25, 2011
Update, 2/25/2011:
The late Barbara Stewart's will includes $1.5 million for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in unrestricted funds, and an equal amount for the High Museum of Art. This news comes just after the Atlanta Opera announced Stewart's game-changing $9 million gift. Stewart was a member of the High and an ASO subscriber for two decades and gave generously to both institutions over the years.
“Every city should be so fortunate as to have a champion such as Barbara Stewart,” said ASO President Stanley Romanstein. “The legacy she is leaving the Atlanta Opera is remarkable, and to extend her enthusiasm and ...
By Pierre Ruhe | Feb 24, 2011
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s first in-house recording on its new label, ASO Media, is out this week, distributed on CD by Naxos and as a download on amazon.com and other sites. It’s a strong showing of music co-commissioned and premiered by the ASO from two of its regular composers, Jennifer Higdon and Michael Gandolfi. And it is fitting that ASO Media’s debut promotes populist living composers, which has become the orchestra’s specialty.
There are two other ASO Media recordings set for release later this year. Christopher Theofanidis’ “Symphony” -- another ASO commission -- is paired with Peter Lieberson’s “Neruda Songs,” sung ...
By Pierre Ruhe | Feb 22, 2011
Joyce DiDonato had done her homework. On Saturday night at Spivey Hall, just before launching into her second encore, “Over the Rainbow,” she excitedly praised the late Barbara Stewart for her $9 million bequest to the Atlanta Opera, announced last week.
Looking heavenward and giving two thumbs-up, DiDonato spoke of the difference an individual can make to the arts and dedicated her performance of Harold Arlen’s classic to Stewart’s memory. It was a personal touch and a kind gesture -- some of Stewart’s friends were in the audience -- and showed how mezzo-soprano DiDonato has climbed to the top of her profession: ...
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