For its 80th season, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and music director Nathalie Stuzmann have programmed a range of orchestral standbys, highlighted by eight Beethoven symphonies, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor featuring the ASO Chorus and Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4.
Among the guest soloists are internationally known superstars including Yo-Yo Ma and the pianists Marc-Andre Hamelin, Inon Barnatan and Kirill Gerstein.
Stutzmann opens her third season as music director on Sept. 9 and 11 with Mahler’s first symphony, conducting 10 additional concert series throughout the season. Former music director Robert Spano will return for two weeks of concerts, and concertmaster David Coucheron will lead a concert built around Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons,” which he did to great success earlier this season. Twelve guest conductors will lead the orchestra, with conductor Peter Oundjian closing the season June 5 and 7, 2025, with Mahler’s Symphony No. 7.
By design, the 26-concert season includes a wealth of familiar names in the classical canon. Only four pieces the orchestra is slated to perform this coming season were written by living composers; championing living composers was a hallmark of Spano’s Atlanta Symphony tenure. During Stutzmann’s first season, the orchestra presented more than 10 ASO and U.S. debuts, along with one world premiere. For the current season, the ASO scheduled commissions by Joel Thompson, Adam Schoenberg and Jonathan Leshnoff. There is no brand-new music in the 80th anniversary season, which could be chalked up, at least in part, to post-COVID scheduling. That doesn’t mean the music isn’t fresh to the orchestra.
“There’s a lot of repertory that we just haven’t touched on in quite a while,” said ASO Executive Director Jennifer Barlament. “I think the big thing for us is starting to see Nathalie’s relationship with the orchestra and chorus start to jell and solidify.”
The new season, she added, is really about “focusing on the building blocks of what makes an orchestra great and [Nathalie] wanting to continue to make her imprint on the orchestra.”
Many of the guest conductors are new to the orchestra. During her second season, Stutzmann welcomed the ASO debuts of six conductors; of the guest conductors this coming season, five will be conducting at Symphony Hall for the first time.
It’s no coincidence that many of them are in the early stages of their careers, Barlament said. “In the world today, you really have to be looking five or 10 years down the road and starting to cultivate relationships with extremely talented people fairly early in their careers,” she said.
When putting together the season, Stutzmann has a focused approach with specific ideas about both the repertoire and the guest artists and conductors slated to perform. This all played into her ideas about the orchestra’s sound and her desire to ground the orchestra’s playing in more foundational works. After all, Stutzmann and the orchestra are still relatively new collaborators.
“It takes a while for a conductor and the orchestra to bond. The vocal background Nathalie brings to the table with the ASO Chorus made that happen super fast,” Barlament said.
The 80th season is another progression toward what Barlament calls the “new Atlanta sound” under Stutzmann.
“Nathalie’s going for a much more expressive and dramatic, almost emotional way of playing,” she said. “Her mission for this orchestra is to become the most expressive orchestra in the United States.”
Credit: Jeff Rofffman
Credit: Jeff Rofffman
CAN’T-MISS PERFORMANCES
Doctor Atomic Symphony, Oct. 24 and 26: Roderick Cox takes the podium for “Doctor Atomic Symphony” by John Adams. He’s paired the work, based on Adams’ opera, with Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” and “Symphonic Dances” by Rachmaninoff.
Yo-Yo Ma, Dec. 5: Conductor Eric Jacobsen and cellist Yo-Yo Ma present Haydn’s first cello concerto alongside Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8 and “Slavonic Dances.”
All About the Beethoven, January, February, March and April, 2025: Stutzmann and the ASO bring the Beethoven Project to Symphony Hall, performing eight symphonies and the Triple Concerto before uniting with the ASO Chorus for “Missa Solemnis.” The symphony cycle concludes with Symphony No. 9 the following season.
Spano returns, March 20 and 22 and March 27 and 29, 2025: Atlanta Symphony Music Director Emeritus Spano will lead the ASO’s Elisabeth Remy Johnson in Jennifer Higdon’s Harp Concerto alongside Copland’s “Appalachian Spring Suite” and the Vaughan Williams fifth symphony. The next week, he welcomes pianist Jae Hong Park for the Scriabin piano concerto.
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