BY ALAN SHERROD Concerts have an intriguing way of taking on a life and meaning of their own. That meaning may be obvious and intentional, or personal and ineffable. That is the joy—and burden—of those that program concerts: the…
Review: KSO Wraps Season With Visceral Stravinsky and Emotional Beethoven
BY ALAN SHERROD Going big in a season finale symphony concert is, most assuredly, a valid approach, one that the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and conductor Aram Demirjian embraced this weekend to finish up the 2022-23 concert season. In this…
Review: Violinist Hristova Commands the Price – KSO Fashions an Heroic ‘Eroica’
BY ALAN SHERROD The lobby of the Tennessee Theatre has probably seen every kind of audience response, but the intermission buzz at this weekend’s Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Masterworks concerts was a little more animated than usual. Even amidst the…
Preview: UT School of Music Presents Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
BEETHOVEN’S NINTH SYMPHONY University of Tennessee Symphony Orchestra University of Tennessee Choral Ensembles Soloists: Sarah-Clementine Mire, soprano; Sarah Beegle, contralto; Miles Jenkins, tenor; Logan Campbell, bass-baritone Conductor: James Fellenbaum Tennessee Theatre, 604 S. Gay Street, Downtown Knoxville 7:30 PM –…
Review in Brief: Cavani String Quartet Wraps Up Its UT School of Music Residency With Beethoven, Shaw, and Mendelssohn
By Alan Sherrod One would be hard-pressed to find a work that is a greater example of the ideals of chamber music than Felix Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-flat, Op. 20. At the age of 16 in 1825, the young…
Review in Brief: KSO’s Concertmaster Series Dives Into Beethoven, Haydn, and Bates
By Alan Sherrod Since its humble beginnings in the backroom of a coffee house, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra’s Concertmaster Series has evolved organically, continuing to dazzle with small ensemble virtuosity, while also exploring the music’s connections to history and…
The Beethoven 250 Celebration Year Begins for KSO and UT School of Music
By Alan Sherrod Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, probably a day or so earlier than his recorded baptismal date of December 17, 1770. The composer’s subsequent life and work of 57 years shaped western music in ways…
Review: Virtuosic Percussion and a Sublime Beethoven Seventh Mark KSO’s “Beethoven and the Art of Rhythm”
By Alan Sherrod While double bass players might argue to the contrary, it is an orchestral fact that percussionists—generally relegated to the back corner of the concert stage and, yet, responsible for a virtually infinite diversity of sounds—receive the…
KSO Masterworks This Week: Beethoven’s Seventh + Dorman’s ‘Spices, Perfumes, Toxins!’ with Nief-Norf
Beethoven and the Art of Rhythm • Beethoven: Overture from The Creatures of Prometheus • Dorman: Spices, Perfumes, Toxins! (with Nief-Norf) • Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Masterworks —Aram Demirjian, conductor Thursday and Friday, November 21 and 22,…
Recital Report: UT’s Hristov and Hu Survey the Beethoven Violin Sonatas
Leading up to the 250th birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven in 2020, musicians and listeners worldwide will be celebrating the creative genius whose music is fully ingrained in our musical consciousness. With festivals and performances going on around the globe,…