Atlanta Symphony delivers inspired performance with Chauhan, Moser

Mark Gresham | 15 MAR 2024

Thursday evening’s concert by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of guest conductor Alpesh Chauhan, proved a most inspired performance.

The program opened with Henri Dutilleux’s Tout un monde lointain…, featuring guest cello soloist Johannes Moser.

Born in 1916, Dutilleux was a leading figure in late 20th-century French classical music. His distinctive, personal style left an indelible mark on the French music world. He passed away in 2013 at the age of 97.

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Dutilleux’s Tout un monde lointain… (“A whole distant world”) is a celebrated concertante piece for cello and orchestra, composed between 1967 and 1970 for Mstislav Rostropovich. Inspired by Charles Baudelaire’s poetry, the composition’s five movements, each drawing from the poet’s verses, intricately weaving a narrative of enigmatic and dreamlike essence that unfolds without interruption. The work premiered in 1970 in a performance by Rostropovich with the Orchestre de Paris, conducted by Serge Baudo.

Dutilleux’s music was exquisite, personal, atmospheric, and mystical. The poetry added immeasurably to setting the tone: ethereal, non-literal, and abstract, embued with a mid-20th-century Frenchness that can be felt more than verbally explained.

Moser was superb; his up-front, extroverted playing style was perfect. His solos were perfectly balanced with the orchestra, which handled its complex part deftly under Chauhan’s baton.

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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky completed his ballet masterpiece, The Sleeping Beauty (Спящая красавица) in 1889. Spanning a prologue and three acts, it is Tchaikovsky’s second ballet and ranks as his second-longest composition at 160 minutes. Based on Ivan Vsevolozhsky’s adaptation of Perrault’s “La belle au bois dormant,” the ballet’s debut with choreography by Marius Petipa took place at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on January 15, 1890. Since then, The Sleeping Beauty has retained its status as one of the most iconic ballets in history.

After intermission, Chauhan led the ASO in just over an hours worth of selections from the ballet, which was thoroughly enjoyable, reminding us of what a great ballet composer Tchaikovsky was—one might dare say even better than he was as a composer of symphonies.

Chauhan knew how to take charge with very explicit direction to orchestral sections, especially the violins. He took them out of automatic pilot and powerfully shaped their playing, intently focusing on dynamics, bringing a new life to a familiar work. Occasionally, Chauhan would leap up to highlight a pivotal moment, encouraging the musicians to play bigger and broader. He showed sophistication with this repertoire.

As was true of last week, the horns section’s intonation was on target in this concert. The violins possessed a remarkable sheen. Switching the usual seating of the violas and cellos brought the viola sound forward, contributing nicely to the successful musical balance.

There were many curtain calls at the end of Tchaikovsky, and Chauhad was particularly good at crediting the individual players and sections of the orchestra.

If any concert so far this season could match or surpass last week’s with Osmo Vänskä at the helm, it was this one. Two winning concerts in a row for the ASO. ■

EXTERNAL LINKS:

• Atlanta Symphony Orchestra: aso.org
• Alpesh Chauhan: alpeshchauhan.com
• Johannes Moser: johannes-moser.com

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