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NBAF Review: ASO Electrifies at Ebenezer
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For the past eight years, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has ventured from its Symphony Hall home to perform a free show in Ebenezer Baptist Church as part of the National Black Arts Festival.
The distance between Midtown and downtown’s Sweet Auburn district is just a few miles, but in mood and expectation — and, strikingly, engagement with the audience — these concerts often seem like a world away.
Sunday evening, in the church’s Horizon Sanctuary, the ASO and conductor Robert Spano played to a full house and revisited its Ebenezer formula: young minority musicians take the solo spot in a short work or a movement from a concerto, followed by a complete reading of a popular, barnstorming symphony.
If this sounds like a strategy to conserve musicians’ energy and minimize rehearsal time — after all, the ASO played “La Bohème” the night before at Encore Park — the results came off just the opposite.
Context matters. As an Ebenezer pastor made clear in remarks before the music started, Martin Luther King Jr.’s church is “a spiritual and political institution.” When the ASO plays standard repertoire in Symphony Hall all the political struggles feel settled; its audience reacts to virtuosity and beauty and other pleasures of art for art’s sake.
At Ebenezer, many in the audience had likely never heard the city’s major concert orchestra. Here the musicians had to make a new case for the old classics and for themselves, moment by moment. You got the sense the musicians had to earn the attention of the listeners; the challenge pushed them not to technical perfection but to emotional involvement.
First up was cellist Khari Joyner, an incoming senior at Lakeside High School, playing the opening movement of Haydn’s C Major Cello Concerto, premiered in the 1760s. Joyner already boasts an impressive local resume, as a student in the ASO’s minority-center Talent Development Program and as principal cellist in the disciplined Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra.
He’s a charismatic soloist, too, finding the essence of the concerto’s elegant passions — rewarded with a grateful standing ovation.
Violinist Danielle Belen Nesmith is a graduate of the University of Southern California and winner of the 2008 Sphinx Competition, a Detroit program that fosters the talents of budding Hispanic and black classical musicians. With a lush, honeyed tone, she offered two gems, William Grant Still’s “Mother and Child,” a lovely little song for violin and orchestra from 1943, and Wieniawski’s 1853 daredevil “Polonaise Brillante,” exactingly played.
Without a break, the ASO leapt into Tchaikovsky’s majestic, sentimental and fierce Fifth Symphony. The playing wasn’t perfect but was never bland.
There were many highlights. Here one that will stick with me longest: As the finale rolls unstoppably toward its fate, the composer sets up a giant B major chord as a sort of triumphant arch. In the pause that follows, a few in the audience started to applaud — only to have Spano and orchestra restart the music with an electrified jolt, like a orator who insists on delivering a bold political message, and will rise, thrillingly, above the din of the enthused masses. This winds up the crowd even more. It was a palpable shock of intensity, the sort of moment that made it one of the ASO’s best of the year.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment | Categories: Classical Music
Comments
By William J. Zick
July 28, 2008 8:34 PM | Link to this
What a great story about the annual performance of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra at Ebenezer Baptist Church, with minority soloists. I was particularly pleased to learn that a Sphinx Competition winner, violinist Danielle Belen Nesmith, performed a beautiful rendition of “Mother and Child” by William Grant Still. Still is profiled at my website, http://www.AfriClassical.com, as is Aaron Dworkin, Founder/President of the Sphinx Organization.
By Eleanor C. Robinson
July 31, 2008 9:35 AM | Link to this
Thanks ASO for a thrilling program at Ebenezer Baptist Churchon Sunday, July 27th. The gifted soloist are destined for a bright future, especially Khari Joyner.
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