2009-2010 concerts airing 2010-2011

The ASO on GPB: Broadcast Schedule

Thursday 9 p.m. & Sunday 10 p.m. with host Sarah Zaslaw

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concerts from the 2009-2010 season

March 4 & 7, September 2 & 5, 2010

Garrick Ohlsson, piano; Robert Spano, conductor

• Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3
• Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, “Pathetique”

Interviews with Garrick Ohlsson and Robert Spano

March 11 & 14, September 9 & 12, 2010

Dejan Lazic, piano; Robert Spano, conductor

• Mussorgsky/Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition
• Brahms/Lazic: Concerto in D major for Piano (based on Violin Concerto) (world premiere)

Interviews with Dejan Lazic and Robert Spano

March 18 & 21, September 16 & 19, 2010

Yo-Yo Ma, cello; Celena Shafer, nightingale; Jessica Rivera, cook; Thomas Glenn, fisherman; Denis Sedov, chamberlain; Dimitry Ivashchenko, bonze; Kostas Smoriginas, emperor; Irina Tchistyakova, death; stage director James Alexander; ASO Chamber Chorus; Robert Spano, conductor

• Stravinsky: The Nightingale
• Angel Lam: Awakening from a Disappearing Garden

Interview with Robert Spano

March 25 & 28, September 23 & 26, 2010

James Ehnes, violin; Donald Runnicles, conductor

• Weber: Overture to Oberon
• Korngold: Violin Concerto
• Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra

Interview with Donald Runnicles

April 1 & 4, September 30 & October 3, 2010

ASO Chorus; Chen Reiss, soprano; Matthew Worth, baritone; Donald Runnicles, conductor

• Brahms: A German Requiem

Interview with Donald Runnicles

April 8 & 11, October 7 & 10, 2010

Tai Murray, violin; Hannu Lintu, conductor

• Tchaikovsky: Suite from Swan Lake
• Glazunov: Violin Concerto
• Shostakovich: Symphony No. 1

Interviews with Tai Murray and Hannu Lintu

April 15 & 18, October 14 & 17, 2010

Olli Mustonen, piano; Laura Ardan, clarinet; Robert Spano, conductor

• Bernstein: Prelude, Fugue and Riffs
• Gershwin: An American in Paris
• Ravel: Piano Concerto in G

Interview with Robert Spano

April 22 & 25, October 21 & 24, 2010

Robert Levin, piano

Donald Runnicles, conductor

• A.J.Kernis: Musica Celestis
• Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 18
• Beethoven: Symphony No. 8

April 29, May 2, October 28 & 31, 2010

Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano

Robert Spano, conductor

• Sibelius: Finlandia
• Khatchaturian: Piano Concerto
• Sibelius: Symphony No. 1

Interview with Robert Spano

May 6 & 9, November 4 & 7, 2010

Robert Spano, conductor

• Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
• Golijov: Suite from Youth without Youth
• Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

Interview with Osvaldo Golijov

May 13 & 16, November 11 & 14, 2010

ASO Chamber Chorus; Roberto Abbado, conductor

• Mozart: Coronation Mass
• Beethoven: Symphony No. 1

May 20 & 23, November 18 & 21, 2010

Leila Josefowicz, violin; Roberto Abbado, conductor

• Mozart: Overture to La Clemenza di Tito
• Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1
• Schubert: Symphony No. 9

May 27 & 30, November 25 & 28, 2010

Jon Kimura Parker, piano; Mei-Ann Chen, conductor

• Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
• Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphoses
• Dvorak: Symphony No. 8

Interview with Mei-Ann Chen

June 3 & 6, December 2 & 5, 2010

Women of the ASO Chorus; Gwinnett Young Singers; Ruxandra Donose, mezzo-soprano; Robert Spano, conductor

• Mahler: Symphony No. 3

June 10 & 13, December 9 & 12, 2010

Kirill Gerstein, piano; Vasily Sinaisky, conductor

• Beethoven: Leonore Overture No. 3
• Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 2
• Stravinsky: Petrushka

Interview with Kirill Gerstein

June 17 & 20, December 16 & 19, 2010

Simone Dinnerstein, piano; Kristjan Jarvi, conductor

• Bach: Keyboard Concerto in D minor
• Stravinsky: Suite from Pulcinella
• Strainvsky: Suite from The Firebird

Interviews with Simone Dinnerstein and Kristjan Jarvi

June 24 & 27, December 23 & 26, 2010

Barry Douglas, piano

Vasily Petrenko, conductor

• Tchaikovsky: Manfred Symphony
• Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1

July 1 & 4, December 30, 2010; January 2, 2011

Midori, violin; Lothar Zagrosek, conductor

• Schrecker: Overture to Die Gezeichneten
• Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1
• Beethoven: Symphony No. 3, “Eroica”

July 8 & 11, 2010; January 6 & 9, 2011

ASO Chorus; Angela Brown, soprano; Dmitri Pittas, tenor; Robert Spano, conductor

• Verdi: Requiem

July 15 & 18, 2010; January 13 & 16, 2011

Donald Runnicles, conductor

• Bach: Orchestral Suite No. 4
• Bruckner: Symphony No. 7

July 22 & 25, 2010; January 20 & 23, 2011

Stephen Hough, piano; Ludovic Morlot, conductor

• Liadov: The Enchanted Lake; Baba Yaga; Kikimora
• Prokofiev: Suite from Romeo and Juliet

July 29 & August 1, 2010; January 27 & 30, 2011

Brice Andrus and three other ASO horn players; Oliver Knussen, conductor

• Schumann: Konzerstuck for Four Horns
• Knussen: Whitman Settings
• Beethoven: Symphony No. 5

August 5 & 8, 2010; February 3 & 6, 2011

eighth blackbird; Robert Spano, conductor

• J. Higdon: On a Wire, concerto for sextet and orchestra (world premiere)
• M. Gandolfi: QED: Engaging Richard Feynman (world premiere)
• Mozart: Symphony No. 39

Interviews with Michael Gandolfi and Jennifer Higdon courtesy of the ASO

August 12 & 15, 2010; February 10 & 13, 2011

Kelley O’Connor, mezzo-soprano; Robert Spano, conductor

• Mozart: Symphony No. 40, “Great G minor”
• P. Lieberson: Neruda Songs
• Mozart: Symphony No. 41, “Jupiter”

Interview with Robert Spano

August 19 & 22, 2010; February 17 & 20, 2011

Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra; Angelica Hairston, harp; Drew Forde, viola; Xavier Foley, bass; Jere Flint, conductor

• Music by Barber, Ravel, Sibelius, Walton, Bottesini, Bernstein, from the youth symphony’s February and May 2010 concerts

August 26 & 29, 2010; February 24 & 27, 2011

2009-2010 season retrospective, featuring:

• encores in Symphony Hall by pianists Garrick Ohlsson, Stephen Hough and Kirill Gerstein;
• recent commercial recordings from Telarc and Channel Classics featuring the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Chamber Chorus, pianist Dejan Lazic, soprano Christine Brewer and bass Eric Owens in music by Barber, Brahms/Lazic and Strauss;
• conversation with ASO music director Robert Spano plus Ohlsson, Gerstein, Brewer and Owens

A fresh series of broadcasts, presenting concerts from the orchestra's 2010-2011 season, will begin in March 2011.

The ASO on GPB - 2010 Broadcast Season

Georgia Public Broadcasting is once again proud to broadcast Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concerts. Performances from the orchestra's 2009-2010 season air from March to August 2010 on GPB Radio. (The series of 26 broadcasts will rerun starting in September.) Alongside great music recorded live in Atlanta's Symphony Hall, you'll hear host Sarah Zaslaw in conversation about the music with the conductors and soloists. Tune in for The ASO on GPB Thursday evenings at 9:00, repeating Sunday nights at 10:00.

March 4 and 7

• Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 with Garrick Ohlsson
• Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6, "Pathetique"
• Robert Spano conducts

March 11 and 14

• Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (in Ravel's orchestration)
• World premiere of Dejan Lazic's arrangement of the Brahms Violin Concerto for piano and orchestra, with Dejan Lazic as soloist
• Robert Spano conducts

March 18 and 21

• Yo-Yo Ma soloes in Angel Lam's narrated cello concerto Awakening from a Disappearing Garden
• Stravinsky's Nightingale
• Robert Spano conducts

March 25 and 28

• James Ehnes is soloist in Korngold's Violin Concerto
• Weber's Overture to Oberon
• Strauss's Thus Spake Zarathustra
• Donald Runnicles conducts

The ASO on GPB, August 14 & 17 - Season Finale

Eastern European roots nourish the final concert of the Atlanta Symphony's 2007-2008 season, recorded in June. Music director Robert Spano conducts.

Clarinetist Todd Palmer plays five different-sized instruments as soloist in The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind. Argentinian-born composer and ASO favorite Osvaldo Golijov draws on Jewish High Holiday liturgy as well as the dancing and keening sides of East European klezmer music in this soulful showcase for clarinet. "Isaac the Blind" is another name for kabbalist rabbi Isaac Luria (1534-1572).

And the season concludes with a thrilling performance of Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird, based on Russian folklore about a magical, flame-colored bird. This is the piece that catapulted young Stravinsky to fame: his first collaboration with ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev, it paved the way for Petrushka and The Rite of Spring. The ASO plays the entire ballet in its full original orchestration - three harps, the works!

Please join host Sarah Zaslaw for the last of this season's 24 episodes of The ASO on GPB, Thursday, August 14 at 8 p.m. and Sunday the 17th at 10 p.m. on GPB radio stations and gpb.org. Please send any comments or questions to ask@gpb.org. Thanks for listening!

The ASO on GPB, August 7 & 10

A Persian-accented world premiere. In June, pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra gave the first performances of the Piano Concerto by Behzad Ranjbaran. In this sweeping, grand new work, Ranjbaran was inspired partly by the ancient springtime festivities of Persepolis and the sound of massed Persian alpine horns.

Ranjbaran was born in Iran in 1955, entered the Tehran Conservatory at age 9, and came to the States to study at Indiana University and the Juilliard School of Music. He now is on the faculty at Juilliard. He has written music for violinist Joshua Bell and soprano Renee Fleming to perform, and now for Jean-Yves Thibaudet as well. This piece was commissioned by the ASO, at Thibaudet's request.

The concert opens with Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 - with ASO principal players Cecylia Arzewski, Christina Smith, Elizabeth Koch and Tom Hooten as soloists on the violin, flute, oboe and trumpet - and ends with Rachmaninoff's Third Symphony, making three for three Rachmaninoff symphonies this season.

Host Sarah Zaslaw speaks with music director Robert Spano about updating orchestral dress codes and the accuracy of his entry in Wikipedia (and about music too). Spano himself interviews composer Behzad Ranjbaran and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet about the Piano Concerto they've collectively just brought into the world - like a new baby.

Tune in Thursday, August 7 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, August 10 at 10 p.m. over most of these GPB stations and gpb.org.

(Next week: The season finale! Todd Palmer plays five clarinets, albeit not at once, as soloist in the soulful, klezmer-inflected Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind by Osvaldo Golijov, and Roberto Spano and the ASO close out the season with the complete Firebird ballet music by Igor Stravinsky.)

The ASO on GPB, July 31 & August 2

Brush up your Shakespeare on GPB! This week's light-hearted program mixes and matches scenes from Shakespeare's plays with orchestral music and songs inspired by the Bard.

You'll hear not only Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with guest conductor Nicholas McGegan, but also four actors from Georgia Shakespeare (Chris Kayser, Megan McFarland, Chris Ensweiler and Melinda Helfrich) and three singers (Ann-Carolyn Bird, Stacey Rishoi and Andrew Garland) in this multi-arts event recorded Memorial Day weekend in Atlanta.

The scenes come from Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The music is by Berlioz, Gounod, Prokofiev, Sibelius, Mendelssohn (including the famous Wedding March) and Cole Porter (songs from Kiss Me Kate, a musical about a troupe performing The Taming of the Shrew).

Host Sarah Zaslaw speaks with high-spirited, well-educated, English-born-and-bred, San Francisco-based conductor Nicholas McGegan about Shakespeare, music and more.

Tune in Thursday, July 31 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, August 2 at 10 p.m. for The ASO on GPB over most GPB radio stations and gpb.org.

The ASO on GPB, July 24 & 27

For three years as a "conducting fellow" with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Laura Jackson pored over music, peppered senior conductors with questions, led educational concerts, and attended every subscription concert dressed in concert black, in case she should need to step in for the scheduled conductor. In 2007 she struck out to conduct around the country and seek an orchestra of her own.

On The ASO on GPB, Laura Jackson comes back to her friends in the Atlanta Symphony for a concert recorded in May. She talks about the music and her career, and she conducts attractive symphonies by Prokofiev (No. 1) and Dvorak (No. 6).

And host Sarah Zaslaw chats with associate concertmaster William Pu. He grew up in China during the Cultural Revolution. When the Shanghai Conservatory reopened after years of forced closure, some 10,000 aspiring musicians auditioned. William Pu, a preteen who had only been playing a few years, was one of the eight violinists selected that year. William talks with us about his background, his violin, the earthquake, and Buddhism.

We'll conclude with the ASO's new CD of La Bohème, recorded in concert last September with Robert Spano conducting an energetic young cast and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. (The same lineup repeats Puccini's beloved opera this Saturday at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Alpharetta.)

The ASO on GPB airs Thursday, July 24 at 8 p.m., repeating Sunday, July 27 at 10 p.m. over GPB radio stations and gpb.org.

Note: Owing to technical difficulties beyond our control, Thursday's broadcast of The ASO on GPB has been preempted. Please listen Sunday night instead.  Thanks, and apologies for the last-minute change.

The ASO on GPB, July 10 & 13

Dozens of extra brass players join the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus for this sonically spectacular concert. ASO principal guest conductor Donald Runnicles leads the massed musicians in a program pairing the Sinfonietta by Janacek - a celebration of life - with Berlioz's Requiem, which sets to music the Catholic mass for the dead.

Bookending Leos Janacek's Sinfonietta is a patriotic fanfare he wrote for an athletic event, a Czech gymnastics festival, in 1926. The piece calls for 14 trumpets, for starters. In Atlanta's Symphony Hall, the brass stood on the choral risers, highly visible and highly audible. (At right: ASO principal trumpet Tom Hooten.)

This concert was recorded in early May. For the second half, the venerable ASO Chorus takes to the risers for the Requiem by Hector Berlioz. This Atlanta performance served as a warm-up for a transatlantic trip two weeks later, in which the ASO Chorus and Donald Runnicles repeated the piece in Berlin, with the storied Berlin Philharmonic. The tenor soloist in the celestial "Sanctus" section, in Atlanta and Berlin, was Joseph Kaiser (right). And let's credit the director of the ASO Chorus too, though he wasn't on stage: Norman Mackenzie.

Also on this broadcast, Donald Runnicles chats about tonight's music and about his two new posts in Europe as of 2009, as conductor of both the BBC Scottish Symphony and the German Opera Berlin.

Join host Sarah Zaslaw for The ASO on GPB, Thursday, July 10 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, July 13 at 10 p.m. on most GPB radio stations and gpb.org.

(Next week: Donald Runnicles again leads the Atlanta Symphony in a pair of third symphonies: Henryk Gorecki's "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs" and Brahms' Symphony No. 3.)