Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony’s survey of William Schuman’s complete published symphonies has been packaged and is in stores now in a convenient boxed set. This is a set that is years in the making. I picked up the first few disks for pennies when the Queen Anne Tower Records was clearing out its stock at least three years ago.
The Third Symphony is especially good. Recorded in 2005, it benefits from improved sound over Leonard Bernstein’s version with the New York Philharmonic. I gave both recordings a listen in advance of this year’s season ending performance of the piece this year. Schwarz’s recording of the piece gets a thumbs up from me. It is a more focused performance than Bernstein’s. This helps listeners swim rather than slog through Schuman’s complicated textures.
The other symphonies come off just as well. For me the shorter orchestral works are the real discoveries, causing me to wonder why these works aren’t performed more often. Orchestra Song (which I am listening to right now) is a charming three minute work featuring every section of the orchestra including a wonderful trumpet solo by (I am assuming) David Gordon. A new recording of the Violin Concerto would have been a nice addition too.
The set is nicely packaged and nicely priced, though the documentation is limited to the notes that came with the original CD’s. Would it have been too much to ask of Naxos to include an essay or statement from Schwarz on why Schuman’s music means so much to him?
There has been so much to admire in the concerts that I’ve attended at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival this season at Nordstrom Recital Hall, it seems redundant to say so yet again. But it is the truth.
As always there are musicians making their festival debut. A more significant new element is the hall, a vast improvement on the dreary acoustics of St. Nicholas Hall at Lakeside School where the festival most of past few decades. This is the festival’s first season at Nordstrom. The more one hears at Nordstrom — the clarity and vibrancy of sound — the more one appreciates the virtues of the new venue. When the festival leaves Seattle next week for Overlake School in Redmond, there will be no lapse in acoustical values. The hall is excellent. [click to continue…]
The Seattle Chamber Music Festival used to be criticized by some for its lack of adventure in programming contemporary music. The 20th-century was well enough represented but limited mostly to well-known composer who worked early in the century. This was not necessarily a reflection of artistic director Toby Saks’ taste but a reflection of her audience, which in nearly 30 years never developed a taste for novelties of the modern era. Her partial solution was a clever one: create a small group of patrons willing to contribute money in order to commission new work. [click to continue…]
By the third week of the Chamber Music Society’s festival the excitement of opening week is gone. We’ve heard enough expertly crafted chamber music to carry us through to the fall. A number of musicians have come and gone by the third week. The third week is also when repertory experiments takes place. The chamber pieces which use wind, brass, and double bass tend to show up around this time. New commissions also show up from time to time here too, away from the intensity of opening week.
The third week is especially problematic for writers. Our adjectives are exhausted and an endless supply of Romantic melodies and classical formalities are dancing through the parts of our brain we use to listen to music. We’ve heard a lot of music with even more to come.
This year the third week of the festival ended with back to back evening concerts. Friday’s concert embodied some of the best and the worst of the festival so far. Franz Berwald’s Septet glowered for 20 minutes to start Friday’s concert. It’s a piece without much of a point even when it is played well as it was on Friday night. I would have preferred to hear Jeff Fair (horn); Sean Osborne (clarinet); Seth Krimsky (bassoon); Jordan Anderson (bass); Ida Levin (violin); Che-Yen Chen (viola); and Jeremy Turner’s (cello) use their considerable talents in different repertory. [click to continue…]
We all know about Gerard Schwarz, conductor. Lately, we’ve been hearing more and more about Gerard Schwarz, composer.
Schwarz’ latest work, a “Trio for Violin, Horn, and Piano” (Horn Trio for short), will receive its world premiere at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival on Monday, July 26 at 8:00 PM in Benaroya Hall. Schwarz and the three performers will give an introduction to the work in a free recital at 7:00 PM.
The Seattle Symphony’s Music Director is by no means new to composition. As a teenager, he studied with the noted American composer Paul Creston. Later teachers included Roger Sessions, Jacob Druckman, Milton Babbitt, Vincent Persichetti and Pierre Boulez. But as the trumpet and then the baton became the focus of Schwarz’ career, his composing took a three-decade hiatus. Until recently.
“All of a sudden, I’m into it again. And it’s getting to be exciting,” said Schwarz, speaking by telephone from the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, NC, where he is Music Director. [click to continue…]
Summer is finally in full swing. Seattle is warming up. We are in the thick of the summer chamber festival. And, the new symphony seasons are still a few months away. Even though the number of classical performances have thinned out, it doesn’t mean there aren’t events worth mentioning or worth seeking out.
The biggest event after the chamber festival is Seattle Opera’s new production of Tristan und Isolde. Seattle’s a Wagner town and Speight Jenkins and company are back this summer with Wagner’s epic love story. Seattle Opers offers Tristan veterans and newcomers alike plenty of insightful information about the opera on the Seattle Opera website and You Tube. For instance, check out this video of Asher Fisch the conductor for the new production.
Local composer and Esoterics music director Eric Banks is on the rise nationally. The Esoterics have been invited to perform at 2011 ACDA conference in Chicago and Banks is in the thick of writing new commissions for performances at Alice Tully Hall and the Kennedy Center.
In other choral news, Robert Bode and Choral Arts have won the prestigious American Prize in choral performance. Pro Musica, another local favorite, snagged second place.
City Journal is out with a piece making a case for now being the golden age of classical music. There might be more music being made, of higher quality than ever before, but I am not sure if matters when our culture doesn’t seem as supportive of serious music as it used to be. More music doesn’t mean anything if people aren’t listening.
By Philippa Kiraly Each year for the past decade or more, I have been saying that Seattle Chamber Music Society surpasses itself with a season which is even better played with even more superb (and young) performers than the year before, and with programming which is far more interesting than it used to be. This [...]
By Philippa Kiraly Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer Festival is a joy in the midst of July’s usual musical dearth. Concerts come up three times a week, each with stellar performances and programs which are never boring. Even very familiar pieces receive illuminating performances which bring out facets not perceived before. Friday’s performance at Nordstrom [...]
Without a doubt, hearing new musicians perform is the best part of the Seattle Chamber Music Society festival. We might be hearing them for the first time, but others, especially the musicians in the festival and Toby Saks are already familiar with their talents. Over the years, Saks has plucked players out of the musical [...]
In an alternate (maybe even perfect) universe unfamiliar composers and works would be cat nip for curious ears looking to expand their musical horizons. Dissonances would pleasantly shake listeners. We’d tap our toes to awkward rhythms and take pleasure in sorting out difficult melodies. Seats would be filled. People would be turned away at the [...]
The second week of the Seattle Chamber Music Society’s summer festival began with Andrew Armstrong’s return to the piano. An infection caused by a bug bite or some other intruder sidelined the pianist, putting him in the hospital even. Although Armstrong was missed by the loyal festival attendees, other pianists, including the incomparable Craig Sheppard, [...]
By Philippa Kiraly I’ve seen Gilbert & Sullivan’s “H. M. S. Pinafore” a dozen or more times, and each time I find myself enjoying it as much as ever, finding heretofore unnoticed sentiments as pertinent today as 132 years ago, and seeing different performers discovering new angles to their roles and bringing them to prominence. [...]
I’m a few days late (Mahler was born on July 7th), but 2010 is the 150th birthday for Gustav Mahler. Complete Mahler cycles have been popping up in abundance over the last few months. Both Universal Classics and EMI have released “complete” box sets. But, from Universal Classics, comes one of the most creative ways [...]
By Philippa Kiraly It seemed odd to go to Benaroya Hall, specifically the smaller Nordstrom Recital Hall, for a Seattle Chamber Music Society Summer Festival concert but, well, we will get used to it. The Society was no longer allowed to use the Lakeside campus with its lovely grounds and peaceful ambience, but it also [...]
Our conductor interviews end with the person chosen to lead the SSO to new artistic heights and performance excellend — Ludovic Morlot. Morlot was one of the few conductors I didn’t meet. I was in New York when he was here last fall and when he returned in the spring, an exploding volcano in Iceland [...]
By R.M. Campbell The inaugural season of the Seattle Chamber Music Festival in its new home — Nordstrom Recital Hall — has gotten off to a splendid beginning. The first concert Monday night was a major success, even with the absence of pianist Andrew Armstrong because of an infection in his leg. The second concert, [...]
By R.M. Campbell The Seattle Chamber Music Festival, which opened its 29th season Monday night, has a long, distinguished history. For nearly all of its 28 years, it has been located at the Lakeside School. The New England-style prep school informed the festival a few years ago that it was claiming summer usage of its [...]
Update: SCMS is putting a limited number of rush tickets on sale for $25 30 minutes before tonight’s performance. On the program is Debussy’s Piano Trio, Barber’s String Quartet (with its famous adagio), and Brahms’ Op. 8 Piano Trio. With the sun lost behind the clouds this summer, let chamber music brighten your day. Although [...]
By Philippa Kiraly For all of us Gilbert & Sullivan fans, it’s time to get ready to enjoy the annual offering of comic opera by Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society. Like the happy arrival of June strawberries each year, this regular dose of absurd plots, witty words, and irresistible music is worth celebrating. This year, [...]
Greg Bartholomew
James Bash
Dave Beck
Heather Bentley
RM Campbell
Colton Michael Carothers
Jonathan Caves
Matt Fisher
James Garlick
Harlan Glotzer
Peter Klein
Philippa Kiraly
Marty Ronish
Ozni Torres
Dana Wen
Lorin Wilkerson
Gigi Yellen
