In Tuesday’s (1/12) Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Pierre Ruhe reviews the Cobb Symphony Orchestra’s concert Saturday at Murray Arts Center’s black box theater. “For the first time in the CSO’s 51-year history, they commissioned a piece of music—Robert Cronin’s Flute Concerto—and gave its world premiere. The concert also included the premiere of an older work by a CSO trombonist: Jen Mitchell’s ballet suite ‘The Pond.’ The program was constructed around Aaron Copland’s ‘Appalachian Spring.’ … Cronin is an Atlanta Symphony [Orchestra] flutist and a skilled composer. He wrote his new Flute Concerto for the woman who sits next to him in Symphony Hall, his wife, ASO principal flutist Christina Smith. The 25-minute concerto is in two movements, loaded with contrasts and textures and fantastically difficult passages for the solo flute. It revolves around a pair of repeated motifs: a tritone for the clarinet that slithers menacingly and a brassy fanfare punctuated by attention-grabbing percussion. Cronin, in his early 40s, expertly gives each of his 18 orchestral players grateful lines to play. The scoring is surprisingly brawny for a small ensemble.” Music Director Michael Alexander conducted the Cronin and Mitchell works, while Associate Conductor John Young Shik Concklin led Appalachian Spring.
Posted January 12, 2010
