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ASO’s Gospel Christmas
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Concert Review
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s Gospel Christmas www.atlantasymphon.org 404-733-5000
$12-$36.
FRI, 12/3/2004 at 8:00 PM
SAT, 12/4/2004 at 2:00 PM
SAT, 12/4/2004 at 8:00 PM
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is overdue in rethinking its holiday programming.
The best part of the ASO's annual Gospel Christmas show — Thursday was the first in a four-concert run — came immediately after intermission.
The 55-voice All-Atlanta Chorus, assembled and led by Sallie B. Parrish, were singing "Go, Tell It on the Mountain." Although about half the strength of recent years, the choir sang heartily, with full emotion. They were backed by a four-piece rhythm section — drums, bass, piano and electric keyboard — and fronted by a tenor named Johnny Brown, who sang with the same sort of raw, muscular, fired-up voice as the legendary James Brown.
Microphone in hand, Johnny Brown worked the front lip of the stage, waving his arms high over his head. With the red-robed chorus stepping to the beat, the music pumping with increasing energy, Brown incited the audience with shouts and cries and pleadings. There was joy in his throat, and also suffering. He wrapped it up by leading the crowd in a five-minute call-and-response on the name “Jesus.”
Parrish gestured to end, the music stopped, and the audience cheered and jumped to its feet. It was a dazzling, in-the-moment performance.
Also on the stage at this time were about 100 empty chairs. The ASO sat out this part of the program. At the beginning and end of the evening, the orchestra and All-Atlanta Chorus performed mostly sappy, Hollywood-style arrangements of old spirituals, led by guest conductor William Henry Curry.
Throughout, the ASO sounded underrehearsed — when you could hear them at all. For most songs, the all-acoustic orchestra was swamped by the steady thumps of Algernon Mitchell's amplified drum kit.
Clearly, the trajectory of the show pointed to an artistic problem. With only 670 people in attendance — Symphony Hall seats 1,750 — it pointed to a public relations problem, too.
What might be called “diversity politics” plays a major role here. It’s the ASO’s mission to engage the broad Atlanta community, and to do so with the highest possible artistic standards. A Gospel Christmas show is one way to welcome new faces, new communities, new genres of music into its home.
And in past years, the gospel show has suceeded, in large part, because the ASO was putting good effort into it, paying attention to the quality of guest artists, and so on. Without that attention on the orchestra’s part, Thursday’s performance was a real drag.
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