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Akron Symphony concludes season at a high point with Mozart, Boulanger & Ravel (May 11)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Unfinished works seem to be held in higher esteem for their being incomplete — the remaining music feeling more precious, conscious as we are of what else might have been lost. How to explain then, the impact of Mozart’s Mass in c, K. 427, lacking an Agnus Dei and missing half of its Credo, and yet seeming gloriously whole in its current state?

On Saturday, May 11 at EJ Thomas Hall, the Akron Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Christopher Wilkins ended its 2023-24 season at an apex with Mozart’s “Great” Mass and works by French composers Lili Boulanger and Maurice Ravel.

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Akron Symphony: adaptable, exceptional (Jan. 13)

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by Peter Feher

The Akron Symphony pulled off an exceptional concert at E.J. Thomas Hall on January 13 that would have stretched any other ensemble to its limit.

Between the different instrumental configurations and the sheer variety of musical styles, there were what sounded like four distinct orchestras onstage Saturday night.

But the Akron Symphony came up with a pragmatic solution that made the performance possible. Music director Christopher Wilkins kept the ensemble small — scarcely more than 30 musicians for the biggest work of the evening. If the orchestra wasn’t exactly out in full force here, this tight-knit group of players nonetheless had all the power and finesse of a seasoned symphonic unit.

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Akron Symphony celebrates the organ with Robert Mollard (Oct. 21)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

The sound of an organ in orchestral settings is always an aural thrill. A cornucopia of colors and sonorities on its own, the organ, when mixed with strings, winds, brass, and percussion, more than doubles the pleasure and the fun.

In his welcoming remarks, music director Christopher Wilkins drew attention to the evening’s sonic star and focus — a digital impersonator of sounds, painstakingly prepared by Robert Mollard to sound just like a pipe organ. Putting out fullness and variety, if not always the seismic events associated with cathedral organs, Mollard nevertheless created excitement and beauty in his appearance with the Akron Symphony at E.J. Thomas Hall on Saturday, October 21.

Since the first official work on the program, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s Worship: A Concert Overture, takes as its basis the hymn tune Old 100th (“Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow”), two bonuses were in store to orient us. Principal flute Barbara O’Brien played the unadorned tune in gorgeous, silvery tones, and Mollard let loose with Robert Hebble’s Toccata on Old Hundredth, a festival of organ prowess.

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Akron Symphony:
“Serenade for Strings”
(Jan. 14) 

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by Kevin McLaughlin

The Akron Symphony Orchestra was particularly well represented by its string section on Saturday, January 14, as it continued to put on display both the strength of its players and its capacity for varied and engaging programming. 

The concert, titled “Serenade for Strings,” featured six chamber works, all performed on the ASO’s home stage at E.J. Thomas Hall. The players were seated in front of a scrim to enhance projection and simulate a chamber setting. The program included J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, Julia Perry’s introspective Pastoral, and Xavier Foley’s Double Concerto “For Justice and Peace,” written in 2019. Also a double bassist, Foley was featured twice as soloist — first, alongside violinist Eunice Kim in the Double Concerto and following intermission, in Bottesini’s Double Bass Concerto No. 2. The evening concluded with a deft performance of Tchaikovsky’s intimate Serenade for Strings.

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Akron Symphony delivers memorable season opener (September 21)

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by Mike Telin 

When inclement weather forced the cancellation of the Akron Symphony’s January 2019 concert, the solution was simple: reschedule the all-Russian program as the opening concert for the following season. On Saturday, September 21 in E.J. Thomas Hall, guest conductor Benjamin Zander and the ASO presented that program, and the results were worth waiting for. Throughout the evening the strings were supple and full-bodied. The winds sparkled. The brass were majestic.

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Akron Symphony: “Verdi & Valkyries” (Nov. 16)

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by Nicholas Stevens

E.J. Thomas Hall looms and soars, cradling audiences in a colossal yet cozy acoustic shell. The mechanism that allows for adjustments in the ceiling height — a system of suspended counterweights — dominates one lobby like a giant’s carillon. The hall hosts performances of all sizes, but truly comes alive when a given theatrical or musical production offers art of comparable scale, scope, and solidity, spanning the spectrum from soft speech to symphonic swells. The Akron Symphony offered just such a program earlier this month. [Read more…]

Olivier Brault and the Akron Symphony: a dialogue of traditions (January 16)

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by Christine Jay

BRAULT-OlivierThankfully not all old traditions die hard. On January 16 in the University of Akron’s E. J. Thomas Hall, music director Christopher Wilkins, baroque violinist Olivier Brault, and the Akron Symphony presented a concert entitled “Vivaldi and Bach — The Great Inspiration.” An intermingling of historical and modern performance traditions ensued, with inspiring results. [Read more…]

Akron Symphony with JoAnn Falletta and clarinetist Todd Levy (November 14)

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by Daniel Hathaway

FallettaIt was a fine evening for wind players at the Akron Symphony concert on Saturday, November 14 at E.J. Thomas Hall. Their distinguished playing lent many-hued colors to Johannes Brahms’s Symphony No. 2 in D, as well as to the second suite from Albert Roussel’s ballet Bacchus and Ariadne. And the program, under the direction of guest conductor JoAnn Falletta, featured the artistry of guest soloist Todd Levy in Aaron Copland’s Clarinet Concerto. [Read more…]

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