December 4 & 6, 2025
Atlanta Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center
Atlanta, Georgia – USA
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; Pietari Inkinen, conductor; Sergey Khachatryan, violin.
Jean SIBELIUS: Finlandia
Aram KHACHATURIAN: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
Jean SIBELIUS: Finlandia
Mark Gresham | 6 DEC 2025
On Thursday’s cold, drizzly evening, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra delivered a striking, celebratory performance at Symphony Hall under Finnish guest conductor Pietari Inkinen, making his Atlanta debut, and Armenian violinist Sergey Khachatryan, also appearing with the ASO for the first time.
Finnish conductor Pietari Inkinen. (credit: Kaupo Kikkas)
The program’s ambitious pairing of Finlandia and Symphony No. 2 by Jean Sibelius with the fiery Violin Concerto by Aram Khachaturian delivered a night of potent contrast—precisely the kind of musical dialogue Inkinen hoped to create, as he said in a recent interview with EarRelevant.
From the opening measures of Finlandia, the ASO responded to Inkinen’s characteristic emphasis on clarity and transparency, producing a performance that was both clean and passionate. Brass chorales rose with patriotic grandeur—wonderfully balanced and secure—while woodwinds and strings provided an ethereal underpinning that kept the texture luminous. The music’s emblematic struggle for national identity felt freshly urgent. Under Inkinen’s direction, the work’s customary grandeur was tempered with nuance, allowing inner voices to surface even in the boldest climaxes. It was the kind of performance that, one might imagine, could make a Finn stand at attention with national pride.
Transitioning into Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto, guest soloist Khachatryan stepped into the spotlight with formidable command of the score’s technical demands. Aside from a brief moment in the opening measures, he quickly settled into a focused, agile performance, negotiating rapid-fire passages, lyrical flights, and double-stopped chords with clarity and assurance. His virtuosity became increasingly evident as the concerto progressed, particularly in the whirlwind finale, where his articulation and stamina proved exceptional. Inkinen kept the orchestra alert and responsive throughout: in the quieter sections, strings and winds provided a soft, unobtrusive cushion, while in the more assertive passages the ensemble delivered crisp percussion and brass accents with notable precision.
The long, wandering second movement—more atmospheric than structurally taut—was shaped with steady direction by both conductor and soloist, helped by exceptionally cohesive playing from the horn section, which stood out in its blend and control. The concerto’s blend of brooding lyricism and bold Armenian energy emerged as a coherent dramatic arc rather than a mere display vehicle, and Khachatryan and Inkinen appeared fully aligned in their interpretation.
Khachatryan then returned to the stage to play a 10th-century Armenian tune as an encore.
After the intermission, he took a seat in the audience to hear the remainder of the concert.
Closing the evening was Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2, a work of sweeping lyricism, brooding intensity, and ascending hope, delivered here with tight discipline and a clear structural arc. Inkinen’s deep familiarity with the composer—he has recorded all of Sibelius’ symphonies—showed in the way he shaped long phrasing and dynamic contour, drawing singing lines from the strings, wistful color from the woodwinds, and brass statements that punctuated key moments with restraint and grandeur.
Sibelius’ writing can be episodic, built in blocks of orchestral color rather than traditional thematic development. It takes skill to weave those units into an organic whole, and Inkinen achieved that cohesion, guiding the second movement’s brooding darkness into a third movement marked by melancholy warmth before building the finale to a radiant, carefully paced culmination. With the right conductor, the ASO sounds virtuosic and among the best—but it does take the right conductor. This performance made that case convincingly.
Khachatryan’s debut as soloist and Inkinen’s as guest conductor delivered more than just technical accomplishment—together, they gave the ASO a performance of dramatic shape and emotional honesty.
Earlier in the evening, the ASO offered a free 6:45 p.m. chamber program on the Symphony Hall stage, performed for an on-stage audience seated close to the musicians. The recital opened with Jolivet’s Pastorales de Noël, featuring principal flutist Christina Smith, associate principal bassoonist Anthony Georgeson, and principal harpist Elisabeth Remy Johnson in a gently colored, atmospheric reading that highlighted the work’s sparse textures and folk-tinged lyricism.
The program continued with Kodály’s Intermezzo for string trio, performed by violinists Robert Anemone and Paolo Dara with cellist Nathan Mo. Its warm central melody and rhythmic play gave the trio a chance to explore both intimacy and buoyancy. The brief set concluded with Ravel’s Sonatine en Trio, with Smith, Remy Johnson, and cellist Thomas Carpenter offering a refined, elegantly balanced performance that emphasized the piece’s transparency and pastel harmonies. ■
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- Atlanta Symphony Orchestra: aso.org
- Pietari Inkinen: pietariinkinen.com
- Sergey Khachatryan: sergeykhachatryan.com
Read more by Mark Gresham.
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