Way back in 1818, Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society — devoted to music of the old masters — gave the U.S. premiere of Handel’s Messiah. Although the three-hour oratorio was meant for the Easter season when it premiered in 1842 and remained a fixture of Britain’s Holy Week throughout the 18th century and beyond, Boston…
Last night the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra opened the first of a three-night engagement of their season finale: a complete and uninterrupted performance of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 in D Minor. The epic concert served as a thrilling close to a season of upheavals and new arrivals within the ASO’s long standing internal structure. It…
THEATER It’s a Coachella of comedy: Friday, for one night only, Atlanta’s favorite improv groups will unite for an unprecedented Festivus of humor that’s being billed as Monsters of Prov. Organized and hosted by Dad’s Garage, this event will bring together the Blacktop Circus, Whole World Theatre and Dad’s for an 8 p.m. show and…
We’re desperate to return to normal, to attend our favorite shows, despite the endless plague of deadly new Covid variants. Whistling past the graveyard, so to speak, we attend holiday concerts like the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s annual excerpt from Handel’s Messiah. This year they paired it with Bach’s cantata Jauchzet, frohlocket (“Celebrate, Rejoice”), part of…
Donald Runnicles set the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra on fire this past weekend. First, he conducted music of late-Romantic masters (Thursday and Saturday). Then, on Sunday afternoon in Symphony Hall, he led a deluxe concert performance of Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, which repeats Wednesday evening. Taken as a pair, these weekend concerts — especially Thursday’s…
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra will present an abbreviated fall season featuring seven concerts from Symphony Hall without live audiences. The performances will be broadcast virtually to subscribers instead. The concerts will feature smaller orchestral ensembles, music director Robert Spano and principal guest conductor Donald Runnicles, along with guest conductors and artists. The symphony will not…
Saturday night’s Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concert demonstrated Richard Wagner’s outsized musical and cultural influence. His contrapuntal, lush, chromatic harmonic style was found in each work on the program: orchestral excerpts from his last opera, Parsifal (1882); Erich Korngold’s haunting Lieder des Abschieds (1920); and to a lesser extent, Anton Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony (1880 version), whose…
On Thursday evening at Symphony Hall, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus performed a concert of music by Anton Bruckner, led by ASO principal guest conductor Donald Runnicles, with soprano Melody Moore, mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor, tenor Nicky Spence and bass Raymond Aceto as vocal soloists. The concert will be repeated Saturday evening at Symphony Hall….
On Thursday evening the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and ASO Chamber Chorus, led by director of choruses Norman Mackenzie, performed Vivaldi’s Gloria in D major and part one of Handel’s Messiah to sold-out house, with soprano Jessica Rivera, mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor, tenor Cullen Gandy and baritone Gerard Sundberg as guest soloists.
On Thursday evening at Symphony Hall, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, led by ASO principal guest conductor Donald Runnicles, performed a concert of music by Takemitsu and Mahler, with mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor and tenor Russell Thomas as guest soloists.
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