“Go way back, back to Bach’s era, when music students were typically taught an instrument and to write music…. Just 27, pianist-composer Conrad Tao is among the brightest lights in the old tradition,” writes Pierre Ruhe in Wednesday’s (9/15) ArtsATL (Atlanta). “The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra will give the world premiere of his Violin Concerto in concerts Friday and Saturday, with the composer’s frequent collaborator, … violinist Stefan Jackiw, as soloist. The conductor, Robert Spano, now carries the title of ASO ‘co-artistic advisor.’ … As performers, the collaboration started several years ago when Jackiw … and cellist Jay Campbell were discreetly fishing around for a pianist to form a trio…. The Junction Trio, a riff off their initials, JCT, was soon performing widely…. That Tao would write a concerto for Jackiw seemed inevitable…. Tao’s new violin concerto is outwardly traditional, in three movements, with the soloist at times soaring above or embedded within the orchestral textures…. ‘There’s a lot of humor, in the outer movements, and Conrad describes parts of it as the violin surfing through the orchestra,’ Jackiw said.” Also on the program are Alvin Singleton’s 2012 work Different River and Richard Strauss’s Don Juan and Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks.
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