ASO and ASOC at Carnegie Hall October 27, 7:30 PM

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus will travel to New York City for a Saturday night concert at Carnegie Hall repeating the Copland/Bernstein/Walton program performed in Atlanta last week. In the American musical world, there is no more prestigious invitation for a symphony orchestra (and their chorus) than a date at Carnegie. While Carnegie’s calendar is crowded with matinee concerts and evening programs in the adjoining recital halls that organizations book through concert promoters (i.e. groups that pay to play), the ASO and ASOC have been invited for many years to grace Carnegie’s main stage. It is a privilege, an honor, and one of the great performing experiences for a musician.

Since opening in 1891, the storied hall at 57^th Street and 7^th Avenue has been the site of some of the greatest events in U.S., as well as international, musical history: the first performance of Dvořák’s New World Symphony (1893); the American debut of Jascha Heifetz (1917); and Maria Callas’ farewell performance (1974). Legendary musicians of all genres – from Gustav Mahler (conducting his own Symphony No. 2), Sergei Rachmaninov (playing his own 2^nd Piano Concerto), and George Gershwin (premiering his own concerto) to Benny Goodman, the Beatles, Judy Garland, and Elton John – have performed on Carnegie’s stage. Carnegie Hall has also hosted more than a few major political, literary, and other non-musical guests, including Teddy Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. Autographed photos and memorabilia crowd the walls of the foyers on each level – the floorboards may have been replaced but the sense of history is still palpable.

From the beginning, Carnegie Hall was renowned as an acoustically perfect space for musical performance – truly a miracle considering the architect had never previously designed a concert hall. The sound, whether from a solo pianist or a full orchestra, blooms forth with startling clarity but just enough roundness to avoid brittleness. Every nuance can be projected from the performer’s space to the listener’s. You can hear everything – whether participating on-stage (where ensembles become tighter and cleaner than in a less-favorable acoustic) or actively listening in the house. While Carnegie is a large hall (2,800 seats), the horseshoe design with its vertiginous balconies creates an intimate atmosphere where it really is possible to play or sing to the person in the back row of the top balcony. 

Harper’s Magazine Rendering of the Opening Night Audience, May 1891
(from www.carnegiehall.org)

Most people are familiar with the turbulent history of the Hall during the late 1950’s, when operating costs, a changing cultural landscape and competing musical venues in NYC resulted in a scheduled demolition date that was narrowly averted by the activist heroics of Isaac Stern and other concerned New Yorkers. The Hall is now the property of New York City, operated as a not-for-profit corporation with some public funding, but also sustained through substantial private support. The hall was renovated structurally and the interior spaces completely restored in 1986, with subsequent additional modifications to the surrounding buildings and facilities.

Carnegie Hall Today – Isaac Stern Auditorium/Ronald O. Perelman Stage
(from www.carnegiehall.org)

Our ASO/ASOC concert is part of Carnegie Hall’s Choral Classics series, which also includes Gustavo Dudamel leading the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela and Joe Miller’s Westminster Symphonic Choir in a December program of 20th- and 21st-century works by Latin American composers, and a “Creative Learning Project” (workshop) performance of Osvaldo Golijov’s La Pasión según San Marcos featuring Schola Cantorum de Venezuela, New York City high school choristers and the “Orquesta La Pasión” conducted by Robert Spano in March 2013.

The Choral Classics series is partially financed by an endowment fund for choral music established by S. Donald Sussman in memory of Judith Arron (past Carnegie CEO) and Robert Shaw.

Tickets are $15.50-$90 and are available at www.carnegiehall.org. As of Wednesday morning, there is still good availability in the Parquet section, more limited seating in the balconies. Rush tickets ($10) for students will be available.

This concert is also marketed as a “My Time, My Music” event, a hook evidently intended to appeal to younger concert-goers: “This is your music. It challenges you to think about your world in a new way…And now is your time. Here at Carnegie Hall, discover composers of today who open themselves to all sorts of things…and a new breed of performers who are making this new music their own.”

That’s us, we’re the new breed. The orchestra and chorus that won’t surrender the musical standards, work ethic, and artistic vision that gets performers to Carnegie Hall in the first place, just because a flock of bean counters can’t figure out how to use a can opener. We’re the organization – the team – that will stare down the demolition squad, renovate the structure, and start securing the future (BTW, anyone want to look up Reynold Levy while we’re in his neighborhood?).

They (New York and Atlanta) ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Laurie Cronin

ASOC Alto I  #363