Stephen Baker, the Buffalo Phil’s Associate ED is headed to Seattle to take on a broad portfolio that includes strategic planning, marketing, public relations and communications.
Baker will be reunited with the BPO’s own JoAnn Falletta when she visits Seattle to guest conduct the SSO in a concert that features Gabriel Faure’s Requiem. Arguably, Falletta is the first femal music director of a major symphony orchestra.
Posted in Seattle, WA | Tagged Buffal Symphony, JoAnn Falletta, Seattle Symphony | No Comments »
Summer is winding down. The days are contracting with the approach of Labor Day and the start of a new school year. In the last few days, the gray sky of fall and winter has nudged out the last bits of blue. With the approach of fall, another season draws near: the 2008-2009 season of the Seattle Symphony.
Posted in Seattle, WA | Tagged Seattle Symphony | No Comments »
The LA Times profiles Nico Muhly, the twenty-something composer who was in Seattle last week at the Triple Door. I have heard a few scattered comments about Muhly’s performance last week - all of them good - but haven’t come across a formal review/story in the Seattle press or online.
Posted in Seattle, WA | Tagged Nico Muhly | No Comments »
If you want to know the honest truth, the only reason why I wanted to write on any blog was to spread the Gospel of Classical Music, to persuade and convert citizens of this planet to the best music around. Recommending new pieces to those of us who are still developing their admiration for this music is one of the best ways of shedding light on the shaded corners of composers we know, and potentially brand new composers. My list, like Fogel’s or Carstensen’s is a personal assessment of music that I listen to that other people might not recognize right away. I’m convinced of their worth, and I hope you will to. Each piece has a link to Archiv Music so you can buy it, if you so choose.
First things first, I think the choral works of even the greatest of composers are usually their least known, so please forgive me if you think there are too many pieces for voices on this list (4). Secondly, it is roughly broken down into choral pieces, symphonies, orchestral works, concerti.
Posted in Chicago, IL | 1 Comment »
Henry Fogel peruses his record library. Courtesy www.henrysrecords.org.
Henry Fogel explores non-standard, symphonic repertoire over on his blog, naming works by Nielsen, Piston and Dvorak as worth a listen. He admits his criteria for the list are arbitrary, and readers should feel free to challenge his assumptions. For instance, all of Shostakovich and Bruckner are considered standard repertoire, but Ralph Vaughan Williams is not. I don’t agree all of Shostakovich’s output is standard, but I also think he is well represented on concert stages.
Fogel’s exercise got me thinking about what pieces I would pick. I exclude concerti, large scale choral works, and anything not explicitly named a “symphony.” Composers weren’t immediately excluded just because they are well represented on the concert stage. I thought of too many pieces glossed over by conductors, orchestras and listeners to make that distinction. So here, in no particular order, are the non-standard, symphonic works I would recommend to someone looking to branch out in their listening.
Posted in Seattle, WA | Tagged Henry Fogel | No Comments »
Portland Opera just announced that Clare Burovac is its director of arts administration. According to the press release, Burovac’s duties include “the oversight of the Portland Opera Studio program, negotiating artists’ contracts, researching and recommending artists, acting as primary liaison between the Company and its chorus and orchestra, negotiating performance rights, among many other activities.”
Burovac has extensive experience in opera management and production, and she has played a big part at Seattle Opera since 1994.
Again from the press release:
“Ms. Burovac, who has 19 years of experience producing and managing opera, received her Bachelor’s degree in violin performance from Bowling Green State University. As a violinist she performed with the Toledo Symphony, Ohio Light Opera Orchestra, and other groups in the Cleveland area, in addition to teaching violin and viola. A recipient of an OPERA America Fellowship in Opera Production in 1993, she has been a guest stage manager for San Francisco Opera, Los Angeles Opera, and Glimmerglass Opera, among many others. She joined Seattle Opera in 1994 as an Assistant Stage Manager, taking on a variety of increasingly demanding positions. Most recently she has been Seattle Opera’s Production Stage Manager and Ring Production Coordinator. She is a member of the American Guild of Musical Artists.”
Here’s a the press release. Click on it to enlarge.
Posted in Portland, OR | No Comments »
Brough posts more thoughts on the subject of historical performance practice and vibrato. As Brough says:
How can we expect modern players to remove vibrato without removing the soul of their performance? I’m not saying we should be adding “Bel Canto” vibrato or rubato into the music of Bach, but we should not be afraid to let the instruments sing.
Posted in Seattle, WA | Tagged Battle Over Vibrato | 2 Comments »
For those of you who don’t regularly prowl the “comments,” here are David Hurwitz’s thoughts on the use of vibrato.
I just wanted to say “thank you” for mentioning my two articles on vibrato. I agree that some of the conclusions are subjective–they must be when the truth is that no one knows the specifics of what went on all over Europe in the days before recordings (and film), but it seems to me that there are still some pretty incontrovertible facts for which there is as close to hard evidence as makes no difference:
1. Vibrato was definitely used much as it is now in orchestral string sections probably by the mid to late 19th century.
2. Orchestral string vibrato cannot be heard as such (as a distinct variance in pitch), which means that anyone who claims otherwise is hallucinating.
3. This means that historical recordings are pretty much useless as sources of evidence, except perhaps in very unusual circumstances, and in those cases they tend to support the above claims.
I don’t think that these points are refutable. But in any case, my purpose was not so much to be “right” in an absolute sense (I admit up from the levels of vibrato undoubtedly fluctuated at different times; indeed, they still do), but rather to see what evidence is out there and to let people have access to it and draw their own conclusions.
Dave Hurwitz
Classicstoday.com
David, thank you!
Posted in Video | Tagged Battle Over Vibrato | No Comments »
Gustavo Dudamel
At least that’s what I think. I tell folks all the time going to hear your symphony play should be like going to the movies. Or, like a multitude of other entertainment options at our disposal.
Charlottee Higgins dissects for the reader, Dudamel’s lessons for the UK classical music scene. After reading the entire piece, Higgins’s suggestions are as true for American orchestras as they are for the British. My favorite is:
Remember: it’s supposed to be fun.
Dudamel’s introduction to music was via his trombonist father’s salsa band as much as through his orchestral playing. The unabashed, party-time pleasure Venezuelans take in salsa leaks into their attitude to classical music. Experiencing music should be about having a brilliant time - even though a journey with the masterpieces of classical music may take you to the darker places of the soul.
As I get older, I am repelled by the formality of the live concert experience. The younger me liked the rules. Now, I just want to go and listen to music. Conventions for clapping, silence and dress straitjacket the audience’s enjoyment of the music being played. I’ve seen people so concerned about when they are “supposed” to clap that they miss the music right in front of them.
I haven’t always had this opinion.
Previously, stray sounds and clapping were enough of a bother that I would give a menaced glare to the offender - I was one of those people. With time, I realized my offense distracted my own listening.
Posted in Seattle, WA | Tagged Gustavo Dudamel | No Comments »
I previously mentioned Nico Muhly’s concert tomorrow at the Triple Door. Muhly fuses a multiplicity of styles that is genre-less. Not classical. Not pop. But interesting and addictive. New music people should definitely check-out this moderately priced event. I won’t be able to go, but if you go and are comfortable reporting in on the concert, leave a comment or send an e-mail.
Also, on August 17, 2008, Judith Cohen starts the 2008-2009 season of the Governor’s Chamber Series. The season is split between three venues. Two concerts happen at private residences in and around Seattle. Musicians play a third concert at the Executive Mansion in Olympia, WA. Cohen wil be joined by violinist James Garlick, cellist Mara Finkelstein, pianist Dean Williamson and Mezzo Sarah Mattox.
I heard last year’s Executive Mansion concert and was surprised at the intimacy of the performance space. The Executive Mansion parlor begs to have music played in it. I was also surprised by each musician’s splendid playing. This weekend’s concert will likely be more of the same. Cohen and Williamson will delve into the subtleties of Ravel’s two piano Mother Goose Suite. By contrast, Garlick and Finkelstein will tackle Schulhoff’s sometime frenetic Duo for Violin and Cello. Garlick and Finkelstein played sections of the Duo as part of Donald Byrd’s Theater of Needless Talents.
I lamented - in my too long piece from earlier this summer - that Mikhail Schmidt and Joshua Roman didn’t play the entire duo at Roman’s final Town Music concert. In any event, people interested in Schulhoff can hear the piece played in its entireity this weekend.
Posted in Seattle, WA | Tagged Schulhoff, Nico Muhly, Governor's Chamber Series, Ravel | No Comments »
