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REVIEW: ASO and Music that Glitters
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
CONCERT REVIEW Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Thursday in Symphony Hall. Program repeats Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. 404-733-5000, www.atlantasymphony.org
The program was tightly constructed around a mood — music that pulsates with life, music that dances and glitters — and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra was in fine form.
But Thursday in Symphony Hall, guest conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya, a Peruvian who’s in charge of the Ft. Worth Symphony and here making his ASO debut, sterilized the evening’s four exuberant showpieces, draining each score of what makes it special.
We heap praise on a maestro who’s an alchemist, who by force of personality and musicianship elevates a mediocre work to the level of a masterpiece — at least while the music’s playing. Although his baton technique is clear and his personality seemed affable, Harth-Bedoya managed the opposite trick: he made the frenzied climax of Silvestre Revueltas’ “The Night of the Mayas” sound dull and lifeless.
The show started with Kevin Puts’ “River Rush,” commissioned for the St. Louis Symphony’s 150th anniversary in 2004. The mighty Mississippi was the inspiration, and built into the music is a sense of forward propulsion, a bit of playfulness and an unquenchable spirit of optimism. It’s an effective orchestral showpiece, not too deep but loaded with interesting things.
A brilliant orchestrator, Puts is becoming one of America’s leading under-40 composers. In some ways he’s a match with Jennifer Higdon, an ASO favorite. Both composers use traditional tonal harmonies in unexpected, colorful ways. Both let the percussion section have a party, which makes many of their pieces extremely fun to hear. Both admire Copland and Barber and the American symphonists that held prominance in the 1930s and 40s.
And thus neither composer touches the abstractions, experimentations or dissonances of modernism. If he was politician, you’d say Puts (like Higdon) fits in with Red State culture — plain-spoken, on the conservative side, eager to leave a mark within established expectations.
But given the strength of interpretation for the other, familiar works on the program, one has to wonder if Puts’ “River Rush” was given its due.
In Harth-Bedoya’s frosty reading, Copland’s “El Salón México,” a depiction of a south of the border dance hall from 1936, held little charm.
Ditto for Silvestre Revueltas’ “Night of the Mayas,” originally a film score, later turned into a 30-minute, four-movement symphony of slightly surrealist pre-Colombian imagery and primal savagery. The vibe might be likened to the murals of Diego Rivera, the composer’s close contemporary.
Only pianist Stephen Hough, dressed in black with festive, glittery turquoise shoes, delivered vital musicmaking as soloist in Saint-Saens Piano Concerto No 2, a triumph of finesse and beautifully jackhammered power chords, the only properly brilliant showing of the night.
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By Peter Stelling
December 1, 2006 2:08 PM | Link to this
If anyone else who reads this was present last night, would you please comment on this review? The only place where I am in agreement is in regard to the pianist’s absolute mastery of the Saint-Saens concerto…his commanding performance was absolutely dazzling. No one who reads this should decide not to go…it was a thoroughly enjoyable concert from start to finish. The Revueltas was thrilling in its colorful and spine-chilling evocation of Mayan rituals…perhaps one “human sacrifice” is not enough but twelve are required to satisfy the jaundiced ear of a seasoned music critic? Who knows? Reading these reviews becomes a real exercise in frustration.