The UGA Performing Arts Center will present the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Nov. 8 at 3 p.m. in Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall. Music director Robert Spano will conduct the program, which will feature Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony and Avner Dorman’s concerto for orchestra and percussion, Spices, Perfumes and Toxins!
Tickets for the Atlanta Symphony concert are $25-$65 and are discounted for UGA students. Tickets can be purchased at the Performing Arts Center box office, online at pac.uga.edu or by calling 706-542-4400.
Dorman’s concerto premiered at the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv in 2006.
“The title ‘Spices, Perfumes and Toxins!’ refers to three substances that are extremely appealing, yet filled with danger,” Dorman said. “Spices delight the palate, but can cause illness; perfumes seduce, but can also betray; toxins bring ecstasy, but are deadly. The concerto combines Middle-Eastern drums, orchestral percussion, and rock drums with orchestral forces-a unique sound both enticing and dangerous.”
“Spices, Perfumes and Toxins!” will feature Atlanta Symphony Orchestra percussionists Thomas Sherwood and Charles Settle.
Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony premiered in St. Petersburg in 1888 with the composer conducting.
“In many ways, it was a grand triumph for the composer,” said Ken Meltzer of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. “At the concert, the orchestra saluted Tchaikovsky with a triple fanfare. He also received an honorary membership in the St. Petersburg Society. The audience greeted the new work with a rousing ovation.”
A preconcert lecture will be given by Meltzer, author of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s program notes and host of the weekly radio show Meet the Classics on Atlanta’s AM-1690. The lecture, which is open free to the public, will begin at 2:15 p.m. and takes place in Ramsey Concert Hall in the Performing Arts Center.
