Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
with Garrick Ohlsson, piano

The first of the Classical Subscription Concerts took place this week at Symphony Hall under the baton of Robert Spano.

The program opened, as usual, with a fairly short opus. This one was very short little piece by John Adams featuring several duets of various instruments. It is not a particularly memorable work; but was well received.
The first set then moved on to Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No.5

After intermission the full house audience was treated to a wonderfully energetic performance of Rachmaninov’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, No. 3 in D minor. This is a 45 minute piece in three movements, and widely hailed as a magnificent work.

Garrick Ohlsson is an incredible performer. It I said that he has total recall of the scores of more than 80 concertos. Hard to imagine recalling every single note of a 45 minute work, and never missing a key. While he is best known for his love of the works of Chopin, he doesn’t hesitate to pound out more vibrant works such as Rachmaninov’s.

The audience went wild, and he then offered up an encore of a Minute Waltz to please them even more.

Next week the Delta Pops! will present the ASO doing U.K. Rocks. Michael Krajewski will conduct more than a dozen favorites with Shem von Shroeck and Storm Large as vocalists. These concerts will be at Symphony Hall on Friday and Saturday evenings. You can always get more info at ASO.org