ASOC in Berlin: Der Tagesspiegel review

Well, Jeff Baxter, choral administrator to the ASOC, beat me to the punch on translating the review from the Tagesspiegel. You can read the original German here, or Jeff's translation below:

Large & Refined
A monumental experience: Donald Runnicles conducts the "German Requiem” in the Philharmonie.

Can that go well? Is it not an eternity ago that 200 singers filed onto the stage for an oratorio? A monumental practice that is long obsolete for Romantic era works, especially for Brahms' "German Requiem" which in reduction and concentration almost resists the overwhelming potential of large form?

One dares question his own ears when, in the Philharmonie, The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus commences: There a word like “selig” is in such a way articulated that there is hardly a noticeable break between the syllables, as if the ensemble had became large with Baroque tonal inflection. There one finds colors of piano which are actually physically impossible with such large forces, for instance the infinitely tender interjection "Ich will euch trösten,” which allowed the soprano Helena Juntunen to sing more intimately still. This choir, prepared by Norman Mackenzie, also displays a stylistic sensitivity which in angular compressions can foreshadow Mahler's Eighth and later in gentle confidence sound like a piece by Mendelssohn.

The Berlin Philharmonic deals appreciably with this intelligent, extremely text-oriented attitude that also describes bass-baritone Gerald Finley: never roaring, unrestrained in the tenor range, but pleading. Conductor Donald Runnicles satisfies there the role of a reliable guide. The gestural vocabulary of the Deutsche Oper Music Director is quite small, securing a dignified recognition but also the novelty of the evening. Sebastian Currier’s Harp Concerto (with the Philharmonic’s Marie-Pierre Langlamet as soloist) is a suite of well constructed tableaux which fit into each vacation home: noncommittal arts and crafts with tonal centers through which a harp glissando gladly flows into a triangle ping.

After this Philharmonic-commissioned premiere work by the 50 year old American, Johannes Brahms is only to be discovered anew as quite progressive. By the last words of the choir, one sees a universe as much unredeemed as free. Shouts of praise for the exceptional singers from Atlanta.

(Translation, J.W. Baxter)

ASOC in Berlin 2009: Berliner Morgenpost

This short review was a little bit easier for me :) For the original German, click here. For my English translation, read on!

200 singers ennoble the "Deutsche Requiem"

The greatest surprise of the evening with the Philharmoniker under Donald Runnicles, the henceforth music director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, was the guest appearance of the almost 200-head chorus that is otherwise a part of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

The choir revealed itself in Brahms’ “Deutsches Requiem” as an authoritative, intensity-creating massive instrument that rose completely to the powerful rendition that Runnicles consistently demanded of it.

More still: the choir articulated the German text with extraordinary care and empathy. The excellent Berliner Rundfunkchor could definitely learn from their American colleagues in this respect. Johannes Brahms’ “Deutsches Requiem” is no musical stick-in-the-mud. It clearly sings forth the call for good deeds where faith is concerned without centering on liturgical directives. It is a work of freedom of faith, based on the great apparatus which the Liedertafel (part-song singing groups) all over 19th-century Germany had prepared. That cemented the success of the work until the present day.

ASOC in Berlin 2009: Berliner Zeitung review

I spent the last nine days with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus in Berlin, where we performed Brahms' "Ein Deutsches Requiem" with the Berliner Philharmoniker. Our Sunday performance was broadcast live online via the Philharmonic's digital concert hall, where it lives on in the archive as well, so I plan to check that out myself soon -- people I know who watched gave the experience and the concert good reviews.

In the meantime, I thought I would exercise my usually dormant German skills, which were awakened over the past week, and have a go at translating some of the reviews (with the help of LEO, of course). There were a few thorny parts, but I gave it my best shot. Here's the most recent one, from Tuesday's Berliner Zeitung:

Brahms "Deutsches Requiem" at the Philharmonic
Martin Wilkening

At the Philharmonic, Donald Runnicles is the man for musical mass-spectacle. After Britten’s “War Requiem” and the Grand Death-Mass from Berlioz followed Brahms' "Deutsches Requiem" this weekend. And as with the previous musical requiems, the chorus of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra was again guest performer, with nearly 200 members a mammoth organism of nevertheless astonishing flexibility.

The singers are non-professional, which brought this performance its own direct and somewhat uneven tone-color from the outset – just as the sheer number of participants did. The declamation of the text was not only perfectly understandable and as good as accent-free, but furthermore possessed a moving simplicity and naturalness, without overly sharp consonants and without exaggerated accented individual words – in and of itself a clear two-dimensionality, as fits the expression of such a large mass of voices. This concept found its strongest moments in the quiet singing, whereas the choir’s sound sometimes lost its compactness when it got good and loud.

Runnicles moved the massive sound-apparatus with unagitated aplomb. His direction, as economical as it was insistent, consistently held the singers and instrumentalists effortlessly back in an inwardly animated piano. Both soloists sang hauntingly: effortless and flexible, Gerald Finley sang nobly, the soprano Helena Juntunen with a somewhat stereotypical tremolo. The connection between Brahms’ Requiem and the first half of the concert remained incomprehensible. “Traces,” from New York composer Sebastian Currier, here receiving its world premiere, came into being as a co-commission of the Philharmonic foundation and the Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming, of which Runnicles is the music director. One doesn’t have to use Brahms as a standard for all things musical – but a somewhat more substantial piece would have been more appropriate than Currier’s mellifluous five-movement concerto for harps and a rather small orchestra, which on the one hand indulged in sketchy, fragmented tune-painting, on the other articulated his thoughts with penetrating diffuseness that so predictably followed one after the other: the triad to the microtonal chord and vice versa, the appealingly mysterious expanse of tones to the contemplative melody, and the other way around. That Marie-Pierre Langlamet, the orchestra’s solo harpist, is an exceptionally gifted musician was only superficially apparent.

Chatham County Line at Eddie's Attic, 10/2

Hello, whoever is out there! Sorry for the prolonged hiatus over the summer and into the fall. I had a pretty significant family emergency to deal with, and I also didn't go to a whole lot of concerts. I did see Eddie Vedder at the Cobb Energy Centre and Sir Paul McCartney in Piedmont Park, but those were both pretty much too awesome for words.

This past Friday night I went to Eddie's Attic to see Chatham County Line, a bluegrass quartet out of Raleigh, N.C. They'll be knocking around the South for the next couple months, so if they're passing through your town you should definitely get out to see them.

All four of the guys are strong musicians, and they sing around one mic in tight, clean harmonies. The picture above is blurry because they almost never stopped moving -- it was a really high energy show, even during the ballads. I'd heard one or two cuts off of CCL albums before I saw the show, and although those sounded great, nothing compares to seeing these guys live. Put them on your shortlist!

Mahler's Symphony no. 6 in A minor at the ASO, 4/23

I just returned home from a mind-boggling Atlanta Symphony Orchestra performance of Mahler's sixth symphony, conducted by Donald Runnicles. Mahler is a specialty of Runnicles' -- in fact, he wrote his university thesis on the sixth symphony way back in the day. Tonight's performance was nuanced, energetic, and imbued with the conductor's deep knowledge of the work.

When Runnicles took the stage, he turned to the audience instead of the orchestra. Holding a microphone at his chest, the maestro gave a brief background on the piece and proceeded to sketch out for the audience a road map of what was to come. He spoke about structure, singled out important motives, which the orchestra demonstrated, and summarized the feel of each movement. Mahler believed that a symphony should be like the world, Runnicles told the crowd: it must encompass everything.

As soon as Runnicles turned back to the orchestra, he immediately launched into the first of four movements. The piece is unrelenting, in the best way possible, and lasts more than 80 minutes. Dynamics ebb and flow, tonalities shift, but the energy level tonight never wavered. It would be hard to describe it any better than Mahler himself did: this symphony has everything.

The piece seemed to bring out the best in the musicians as well, all 106 of them. Generally, a piece calling for eight french horns would have me worried, but tonight principal horn Brice Andrus assuaged my horn fears by playing with more lyricism than I have ever heard from him. Oboe wunderkind Liz Koch also gave a commendable performance. I should say that for most everyone on stage this evening -- I'm not sure I've heard them play this well in a while. Of course, it helps when they're performing a piece as masterful and awesome as this one.

Unfortunately for people who already have plans tomorrow night, this is a short run of two performances only. It's always a privilege to see Runnicles conduct when he is in town, and this concert is especially not to be missed. The ASO will reprise the concert tomorrow night at 8 p.m. in Symphony Hall.

Neko Case at Variety Playhouse, 4/2

Neko Case is apparently a hot ticket among scalpers these days. After I put up a craigslist ad in search of a pair of tickets to the show at Variety Playhouse, some friendly ticket brokers emailed (under the guise of normal people) to direct me to eBay, where tickets could be had starting at prices three times the face value. Eventually, I finagled my way into some seats, bought direct from the Variety box office. This is a good thing, because if I'd payed $95 to see this show, I probably would have been pissed.

As it happened, $25 was a pretty fair ticket price. I had seen Neko twice before, but always in the context of The New Pornographers. Her last solo release before this newest one, "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood," has been on steady rotation in my stereo and on my iPod (great party background music, great roadtrip singalong, etc.) for the past two years, and so far I've really enjoyed the bulk of "Middle Cyclone," so I expected good things. Good I got, just not anything great, or even particularly memorable.

On the one hand, it was nice to be at a show that was so lo-fi and laid-back. We stood on the floor in front of the stage and it felt quite intimate, as if we were at a '90s coffeehouse open mic gig, even though the venue holds a couple thousand people. On the other hand, this was only the second show out of the gate for Neko and her band, so they were definitely still working out some kinks.

The songs came off pretty much as they do on the recording. The only bonuses of the live-and-in-person version were some stage patter between songs (unfortunately dominated by Neko's talkative backup singer, who apparently had some ATL ties), some cool videos projected on the scrim, and getting to see Neko strum a guitar with the volume turned all the way down. Neko's foghorn of a voice was in excellent form, though -- the most exciting point of the concert came during "This tornado loves you," when she howled, "what will make you believe me?"

The next day, I put on "Middle Cyclone" in my car and enjoyed it just about as much as I had the live version the night before. It was a good show, but it wasn't great -- and it definitely wasn't a must-see. I love me some Neko Case, but if I'm gonna see her live in the future, she had better have the rest of the New Pornographers gang in tow.

Josh Ritter at Center Stage, 3/24

Last Tuesday Josh Ritter and his band shared the bill with British rockers Gomez at Center Stage in Atlanta's CW Midtown Music Complex. Sort of an odd pairing, to my mind, but they had a few dates together on the road so there must be some crossover between the two fan bases/musics.

Josh and his four bandmates bounded onstage shortly after 8 p.m., all kitted out in suits and ties. Literally, I don't think I've ever seen anyone so excited to just be onstage playing music. Maybe Colin Meloy. At any rate, Josh charmed from the start with his big, sincere smile and Garth Algar-esque exclamations of "Thank you!" at the end of every song. The band kicked off with tunes from the most recent record, 2007's "The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter," and the set ran the gamut from debut-album tracks to brand-new songs. About halfway through, Josh launched into his biggest hit, a little ditty called "Kathleen" -- and that's about when I lost my grip on the evening, because my boyfriend had been hiding an engagement ring in his pocket all evening and chose this opportune moment to bring it out. You'll forgive me if I missed some of the details...

The set wrapped up after about an hour and 15 minutes. Josh and the band left the stage but came back for a couple-song encore, ending with my other favorite tune, "Snow is gone." There was no way it could possibly have gotten better after that, so we bailed before Gomez took the stage. I'm already looking forward to the next time Josh & co. are in town, which the Josh Ritter street team/web site guy assured me wouldn't be too far in the future... here's hoping it's a headlining gig!