Brahms concerto gets deep, rich rendering

CONCERT REVIEW

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

8 tonight. Symphony Hall, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E., 404-733-5000, www.atlantasymphony.org

Good news from the Atlanta Symphony, relatively speaking: In this miserable economic climate, the orchestra hasn’t suffered as much as other local arts groups.

Encouragingly, ASO marketing director Charlie Wade puts the current box office slump at about 3 percent. That’s not awful compared to, say, the Atlanta Opera’s fall season —- when ticket sales were off by 14 percent —- or to Broadway’s reported drop of about 16 percent.

And the ASO’s go-steady optimism came across on stage Thursday in Symphony Hall.

American-Israeli violinist Gil Shaham offered a richly traditional reading of the Brahms. His playing derives from the same cultural spring as that of his popular older colleagues Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman.

Yet Shaham’s voice is his own. His tone is a touch lighter and creamier than Perlman’s thick, buttery sound, and Shaham has matured into a deeper interpreter than Zukerman ever was.

In the concerto’s opening movement, for example, Shaham played the sublime second theme ardently yet almost pastorally, without a hint of indulgence, revealing a timeless simplicity to the music.

The whole thing was deeply considered and gorgeously realized.

That said, there was also a hint of routine in his playing. Shaham, who doesn’t explore much contemporary music, has a fairly limited repertoire. Given his talent and intellect, making yet another Brahms concerto sound fresh —- hello Cleveland! Er, Atlanta! —- might be the hardest element of a performance.

Under conductor Roberto Abbado, an annual ASO guest, the orchestra didn’t quite crackle.

And it was a mystery why Abbado put the orchestra’s superstar principal oboist, Elizabeth Koch, on ice for the Brahms. (She sat with the audience to listen.)

In her place, associate principal Yvonne Powers Peterson got the second movement’s long, tender oboe solo that’s perhaps the most moving and eloquent melody Brahms ever wrote. Peterson played it with warmth and elegance —- we’ve got a strong oboe section, that’s for certain.

Presumably, Abbado wanted his A-team fresh for Prokofiev’s noisy, combative, dainty and whimsical Fifth Symphony.

Although Abbado comes to Atlanta every year, he remains an enigma as an artist.

You’d not call his interpretations generic or superficial, yet there’s a jet-set sleekness and efficiency —- maybe an ironic detachment —- to everything he conducts. Rarely, if ever, have I heard him mark a piece of music with an indelible personal stamp.

Yet he gets the ASO playing at or near its best —- technically disciplined, musically alert, lyrical and fully engaged.

The man never gives a poor concert, even if the specifics of the evening don’t linger in a listener’s memory.