May 9 & 11, 2024
Atlanta Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center
Atlanta, Georgia – USA
Robert Spano, conductor; Garrock Ohlsson, piano.
Jennifer HIGDON: blue cathedral
Adam SCHOENBERG: Picture Studies
Sergei RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 3
Mark Gresham | 11 MAY 2024
Thursday night’s concert by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra saw the return of ASO music director laureate Robert Spano, whose birthday was Tuesday, for the first of two concert weeks at Symphony Hall. Thursday’s program also featured pianist Garrick Ohlsson, a long-time audience favorite and friend of the orchestra, as guest soloist.
The program’s first half was signature Spano, with works by two living composers he championed over his 20-year tenure as ASO music director: Jennifer Higdon and Adam Schoenberg—both members of what was at the time called the “Atlanta School of Composers.”
Spano and the ASO opened the evening with Jennifer Higdon’s blue cathedral (all lowercase is correct), which has become the most performed orchestral work by a living composer with over 600 performances worldwide. Spano himself conducted the first and the most recent performances of blue cathedral by the ASO, as well as with other orchestras, including the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, where he is currently music director. Spano and the ASO also recorded the piece for a 2003 album of music by American composers on the Telarc label entitled Rainbow Body [Telarc CD-80596]. You can listen to that recording of blue cathedral here, on YouTube:
The word “blue” in the work’s title has multiple symbolisms. For example, it represents a cathedral of the sky, where blue symbolizes contemplation and spiritual growth. It also references the loss of Higdon’s younger brother, Andrew Blue.
So, it is no wonder the back of the acoustical shell was illuminated with blue uplights. Fair enough. Suitable complementary lighting effect.
But then, another set of blue lights intervened in the middle of the piece: flashing blue strobe lights next to the frontmost audience portals on all of Symphony Hall’s seating levels took up a rhythmic disco pace at a tempo other than that of the music. It took a few long moments for everyone, on stage and in the audience, to realize that this was not part of the show. Nor was it heralding the latest Kmart special. It was the building’s smoke-and-fire alert.
The music abruptly halted, and the orchestra and audience were ushered out of the building. After a few minutes, everyone was let back in, and the concert resumed. Spano turned to the audience and said, “Take two,” eliciting a few chuckles from the hall. The orchestra played blue cathedral again from the top, all the way to the end, without further incident.
Later, credible word came that it was not a false alarm and that the system correctly detected smoke, not from a dangerous fire but a theatrical “smoke effect” device next door at the Alliance Theatre—the two halls’ backstages are adjacent and somewhat umbilically connected. My speculation is a technical rehearsal involving the device, as a new show is scheduled to open at the Alliance on Saturday (the world premiere of The Preacher’s Wife). At least, that is my understanding of the cause as of this writing.
After intermission, you could still smell the slight metallic tinge of the smoke in Symphony Hall. But I get ahead of myself. There was still more music to come in the first half.
Adam Schoenberg’s Picture Studies came about as the result of a 2011 commission from the Kansas City Symphony and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art to compose a 21st-century analogue to Modeste Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.
With that goal as the basis, Schoenberg composed a 10-movement suite based on four paintings, three photographs, and one sculpture, plus an introduction and an interlude that hearkens back to it.
Although not a showstopper, Picture Studies is an attractive collection of post-minimalist excursions, whch for me gave it more of a late 1990s vibe than second decade of the 21st-century, when it was written, but no matter. The most striking was the fifth movement, “Kandinsky,” a short, sonically brutal essay inspired by Wassily Kandinsky’s painting Rose with Gray.
Schoenberg was present in the audience, and Spano brought him up onstage for an ovation.
Pianist Garrick Ohlsson performs Rachmaninoff’s “Piano Concerto No. 3” with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, May 9, 2024. (credit: Rand Lines)
After intermission came the evening’s main attraction, a perfect match or repertoire and solo artist: Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30, with the legendary Garrick Ohlsson as soloist.
Ohlsson recorded it with Spano and the ASO for a 2011 CD released on the post-Telarc-era ASO Media label [ASO Media CD-1003] distributed by Naxos—hence, the British spelling “Rachmaninov” on the album’s cover, although the legal spelling of the composer’s name in the United States is “Rachmaninoff,” per his American citizenship papers, as spelled in this review and (thankfully) in the ASO’s program booklet.
The concerto is iconic enough not to need rehashing a description and history here. Instead, let’s turn to what Ohlsson has to say in sum about “Rach 3” as quoted in the program notes:
And Ohlsson certainly can. He is one of the last exponents of an old-school pianism that you don’t hear amongst young rising stars. His playing is a treasure to experience, and his performance on Thursday in Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto exemplified that. Spano and the ASO were completely symbiotic in their compelling musical partnership with Ohlsson.
After multiple curtain calls, Ohlsson played an encore: Chopin’s famous Nocturne E Flat Major Op. 9, No. 2. Under another pianist’s hands, it might have sounded quaintly sentimental after the Rachmaninoff, but with Olsson, it was the sweet icing on the cake. ■
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- Atlanta Symphony Orchestra: aso.org
- Robert Spano: robertspanomusic.com
- Garrick Ohlsson: garrickohlsson.com
Read more by Mark Gresham.
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