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Beethoven, the ASO and Drought at Encore Park
CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Saturday at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park. www.atlantasymphony.org
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The water drought, terrible for Georgia, might be a business asset for Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park, the new summertime home of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, facing its own sort of classical-music drought in recent years.
The ASO built and operates the venue and played Encore Park’s over-the-top inaugural gala (marching bands, fireworks) in May.
Since then, the 12,000-seat Alpharetta pavilion has hosted mega-rock shows and received heaps of audience praise (a nice vibe; convenient for folks in the northern suburbs) and scorn (frequent ticket snafus; no public transportation; distant parking lots for sold-out events and long waits for the shuttle buses; mixed quality of food and beverage services).
Saturday, for the ASO’s first “normal” show — a stock program of muscular Beethoven — I had bought the cheapest ticket off the ASO’s Web site, $30.50, and found a nice spot on the general admission lawn.
It’s my new seat of preference. Hot, rainless summers, with a light breeze, will play nicely out here.
Though the boomy amplification is designed more for the black-and-whiteness of the rock ’n’ roll sound than for classical’s sonic palette of color, at least you can hear equally well everywhere. Paradoxically, the musicians always appear distant, even from near the stage.
Jumbo video screens telescope that gap. The ASO has taken lessons from the Metropolitan Opera’s hugely popular movie theater broadcasts. Here the pre-show and intermission diversions include backstage interviews and audience-participation activities, like texting questions for conductor Robert Spano to answer.
And Encore Park might come to the rescue for the ASO’s attendance drought for ticket sales in Midtown’s Symphony Hall.
It used to be tough to lure 1,000 folks to Symphony Hall summer classics, according to ASO marketing chief Charlie Wade. Saturday’s Encore Park concert, without much effort, drew 3,100.
And the ASO is attracting new fans at its new space. The proof? After each movement of Beethoven’s “Emperor” Piano Concerto (with pianist Dejan Lazic) and Fifth Symphony, the audience applauded with vigor — a sincere appreciation for the focused and virtuosic performance, and an unmistakable indicator of newness to etiquette-choked classical culture. You could almost smell the rain a-comin’. Will it be enough to end the drought?
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