This week’s Atlanta Symphony Orchestra program concert was designed to show how a pair of its most talented musicians has the “right stuff” to fill the stage with grand performances and memorable music. Concertmaster, David Coucheron, soloist in the Brahms Violin Concerto, was appointed in the 2010-11 season and has improved the playing and sound of the ASO strings. As a result, his performance of the Brahms was highly anticipated.
Under music director Robert Spano the introduction to the first movement was appropriately rich and dark, with especially fine playing in the horns and strings. Because of their precision and silky tone, it was the best the first violins have sounded in recent memory. Coucheron’s first-movement entrance was strong, and throughout his performance he demonstrated ample technical skill, save for a few harsh bowings in some of the many double-stops. In the first-movement cadenza, his performance lacked subtlety and a certain musicality. Sometimes technical brilliance substituted for warmth and inflection; it was as if Coucheron was so focused on playing the notes accurately, he strayed away from playing them musically.
In contrast, his performance in the second movement Adagio was warm and beautiful. He played lyrically, with wonderful vibrato and a beautiful timbre; his playing never lapsed into harshness. In the Allegro third movement, he seemed more comfortable with the music’s technical and musical demands and, as a result, he turned in a solid performance.
Throughout, Maestro Spano provided sympathetic orchestral support, with only an occasional lack of balance, for example, when the woodwinds overshadowed the solo violin. Overall this was a technically proficient performance that just fell a bit short of grand music making. Coucheron played an encore of Bach’s Chaconne from the Second Partitia, dedicated to the memory of Carl David Hall, the ASO’s late principal piccolo and flute. It was simultaneously somber and grand.
The program next featured favorite son Michael Kurth, an ASO bassist and composer. His A Thousand Words was commissioned by the ASO and it was receiving its world première. Prior to the performance, a brief video interview between Maestro Spano and Kurth effectively demonstrated the composer’s wry sense of humor and his mindfulness of the power of words, both of which influence the themes and compositional style of his works. The first movement, which the composer says represents a sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean, is titled “Above: Radiance”. The spectacle of a sunrise has been depicted musically many times before ( e.g., Grofé’s Grand Canyon Suite, Grieg’s Peer Gynt, and Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra), but never with quite the awesome majesty summoned by Kurth in this grand crescendo. It began slowly and softly with the violins, followed by gradual addition of various instruments, stretching the work’s dynamic range and color. The inclusion of harp, celesta and gong lend sparkle and drama to early morning.