<body><div>CONCERT REVIEW:Mark Gresham | 27 OCT 2024The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra welcomed the return of Macon, Georgia-born conductor Roderick Cox to its podium for this past week’s pair of classical subscription concerts at Symphony Hall. The program featured works by Samuel Barber, John Coolidge Adams, and Sergei Rachmaninoff, and on Thursday night the ASO offered up a compelling performance of this well-chosen repertoire.Cox had previously guest conducted the ASO in February 2023, to favorable review, when he replaced Ryan Bancroft, who had to withdraw due to illness.The program began with Barber’s well-loved Adagio for Strings, a somber, contemplative work noted for for its gradual buildup of emotional tension and release. Cox drew out the piece’s sorrowful beauty, letting the strings gradually unfold the work’s phrases, opening like a rose. Although the performance could have benefitted from reaching for an even higher emotional peak at its climax, the orchestra’s dynamic control crafted a hauntingly beautiful, heartfelt elegy, resonating with quiet intensity.Following Barber, the orchestra shifted gears to a more dramatic tone with Adams’ Doctor Atomic Symphony (2007), adapted from the composer’s 2005 opera, Doctor Atomic, about J. Robert Oppenheimer and the development of the atomic bomb. In November 2008, Robert Spano led the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and an all-star cast in a concert-staged production of the entire opera.The Doctor Atomic Symphony is a distillation of the opera’s music into a vivid, sometimes unsettling piece marked by sharp brass accents, explosive percussion, and intricate rhythmic patterns. Cox guided the orchestra with energy and precision through its complex textures and bursts of intensity, capturing the sense of urgency and anxiety at the heart of Adams’ score.Music was taken from the overture, various interludes, and orchestral settings of arias. Most significant of the latter was the transcription of Oppenheimer’s signature aria, “Batter My Heart,” a setting of the poignant John Donne poem, rendered as an extended trumpet solo played brilliantly by ASO acting principal trumpet Michael Tiscione. Other featured brass solos were performed by acting principal trombone Nathan Zgonc, associate principal horn Andrew Burhans, and tuba “fellow” Joshua Williams who is in the second year of his two-year fellowship with the ASO.Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, which closed the program, is an ASO staple they could almost play in their sleep. But they definitely did not, instead giving the composer’s late-career masterpiece a fabulously engaged and energized performance under Cox’s baton, offering moments of both fiery energy and lyrical nostalgia. Particularly in the second movement, the orchestra brought out the elegance of the waltz-like passages, while the finale built to a thrilling, triumphant conclusion.Cox, an emerging conductor noted for his interpretations of both classical and contemporary works, showed his versatility, clear sense of structure, and emotional connection to the music throughout, and the orchestra responded with a top-grade performance that well-represented their Grammy-winning musical legacy. I found it the most cohesive and well-conducted ASO concert so far this season. ■<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2zpFoD_0wOctxfb00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2zpFoD_0wOctxfb00" width="800" height="450" ><figcaption>Guest conductor Roderick Cox leads the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in a concert of music by Barber, Adams, and Rachmaninoff. (credit: Rand Lines)</figcaption></figure></div></body>

Mountain View, CA

NewsBreak

Roderick Cox leads the Atlanta Symphony in a riveting return to the podium with Barber, Adams, and Rachmaninoff

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra welcomed the return of Macon, Georgia-born conductor Roderick Cox to its podium for this past week’s pair of classical subscription concerts at Symphony Hall. The program featured works by Samuel Barber, John Coolidge Adams, and Sergei Rachmaninoff, and on Thursday night the ASO offered up a compelling performance of this well-chosen repertoire.