Prague Philharmonia at Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center
The Prague Philharmonia is in the midst of its current U.S. tour, which will culminate at Carnegie Hall. Last evening, the orchestra and its conductor, Emmanuel Villaume, appeared at the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center. Opened in 2018, the Center is a modern complex anchored by the 1,070-seat Byers Theatre, offering excellent sightlines, generous public spaces, and an auditorium designed for audience comfort and ease of access.
To frame this review, the hall’s acoustics are worth noting. They are reverberant without smearing detail, making it easy to localize instruments across the soundstage. The acoustic favors clarity and upper frequencies over bass weight: brass sound vividly brassy, violins unmistakably violin-like, and the overall impression is clean, accurate, and transparent.
The Prague Philharmonia is slightly larger than a traditional chamber orchestra but roughly two-thirds the size of a full symphony orchestra. Its playing is exceptionally precise, with clean entrances and immaculately unified strings—qualities that register especially well in the SSPAC’s bright, resonant acoustic. That clarity is central to the orchestra’s identity and appeal, particularly in Prague’s orchestra-rich environment, where at least six major symphonic ensembles compete for audiences.
Villaume, who also serves as music director of The Dallas Opera, has led several U.S. tours with the Prague Philharmonia. The program he brought to Sandy Springs cohered around clarity, proportion, and elegance rather than spectacle. It was designed to showcase a European chamber-orchestra aesthetic grounded in transparency, balance, and stylistic discipline. The emphasis was on musical intelligence and refinement, not orchestral weight. Though the repertoire spanned styles and periods, the unifying idea was classical values interpreted with modern precision—music that rewards attentive listening rather than sheer sonic impact.
The program opened with Coriolan Overture, one of Beethoven’s most concentrated examples of dramatic orchestral storytelling. Written for a tragedy centered on inner conflict, the work pits defiance against tenderness through stark contrasts and relentless momentum. Villaume’s spare conducting style—he conducts without a baton—elicited an unusually clean, transparent sound, making Beethoven’s thematic development especially clear and the psychological drama in the music vividly apparent. Despite the orchestra’s reduced size, this familiar overture emerged with fresh power and impact.
Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor followed, with guest soloist Andrew von Oeyen, who frequently appears on tour with the orchestra. Both von Oeyen and Villaume also appeared with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 2020.
The concerto is driven by urgency, brilliance, and seamless momentum. The opening commands attention without preamble, the piano surging forward with restless energy and sharply defined lyric ideas. A tender, songful middle movement flows directly into a fiery finale, where lightness, sparkle, and Romantic intensity combine in a tightly unified arc.
This was an especially intriguing performance. Von Oeyen (see my interview with him here: https://youtu.be/dvjOzsVU_KU?si=0ToWcH_H5Xfw2SAm), Villaume, and the orchestra were clearly of one mind, presenting the concerto with exceptional clarity and cohesion. That transparency made it easy to hear Mendelssohn’s position between eras: Romantic feeling expressed within Classical form. Mozart’s influence was evident in the concerto’s balance and poise, while the longer, more expansive phrases pointed toward the Romantic composers who followed. It was unfortunate that the performance received a rather tepid response from the audience.
Violin Concerto No. 3, with soloist Blake Pouliot, was a revelation. The opening Allegro unfolded with grace and conversational ease, the violin weaving elegant lines into a light, transparent orchestral texture. The serene Adagio achieved near perfection through sustained lyricism and expressive purity, while the closing Rondeau danced with charm, wit, and buoyant rhythmic sparkle.
Pouliot is a wizard both musically and technically. He produces a big, rich sound, and his cadenzas were stunning—precise, focused, and immaculately shaped. Yet the most striking aspect of the performance was that it did not feel like Villaume’s Mozart, but Mozart’s Mozart. The interpretation was so clean and transparent that it felt like hearing the music with fresh ears. There was an understated elegance to the playing—pure Mozart, unclouded by excess ornamentation or stylistic affectation. I cannot recall hearing Mozart’s genius revealed with such clarity in recent years.
The final work was Symphony No. 8 in G major, a piece that is sunny and rich in melodic invention—immediately appealing, even if it occasionally rambles and lacks tight focus. Rather than heroic struggle, the symphony projects a sense of natural ease. Themes bloom generously, often resembling folk song, while evocations of nature—birdsong chief among them—are woven throughout. Bright wind writing and warm string textures create a distinctly pastoral atmosphere. Across all four movements, rhythmic vitality, orchestral color, and lyric abundance combine to convey optimism, openness, and human warmth.
The Prague Philharmonia’s brass section was razor sharp—prominent without ever overwhelming the texture. This was a brass lover’s performance to savor, incandescent in its precision and control. The violins, meanwhile, sang with such warmth and intensity that one might imagine they were channeling the spirit of their fellow countryman. Like the earlier works on the program, this frequently performed symphony felt newly reborn through clarity, balance, and transparency.
The concert served as a reminder that even the most familiar repertoire can feel fresh when animated by outstanding playing and finely judged leadership. Villaume’s influence was perfectly calibrated—neither excessive nor restrained—and, combined with exceptional soloists, resulted in a performance to remember.
It was unfortunate that the hall was only half full and that audience noise intruded at times: dropped programs, audible hallway conversation, and persistent coughing. Still, these were minor distractions in an otherwise superb evening of sophisticated music-making.
Highlights from the Concert
An acoustically revealing hall that rewarded precision and transparency
Beethoven’s Coriolan distilled to pure psychological drama
Mendelssohn’s First Piano Concerto illuminated as Classical form infused with Romantic urgency
A revelatory Mozart Violin Concerto, played with understatement and rare clarity
Dvořák’s Eighth reborn through incandescent brass and singing strings
Emmanuel Villaume’s leadership: perfectly judged, never over-shaped
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