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Month: April 2009
“Confessions”
The Seattle Opera is doing it again; appealing to a younger demographic with a creative way to frame opera in a way that is understandable to most twenty and thirty-somethings. In conjunction with this summer’s production of “the Ring,” the Seattle Opera is launching a contest for one lucky winner to be part of a ten minute documentary – “Confessions” – tracking the latest production of “the Ring.”
Bach Cantata Choir ends season on triumphant note
Mendelssohn and Bach go together extremely well, and that shouldn’t be a surprise since Mendelssohn was the primary person who led the rediscovery of Bach’s music. Yet I haven’t attended many concerts in which their music was performed together until I heard the Bach Cantata Choir in its season finale on Sunday afternoon (April 26), which also featured the music of the early American composer William Billings. The choir, under the direction of Ralph Nelson, sang with excellent diction and blend in its performance before a large and appreciative audience at Rose City Park Presbyterian Church.
Continue reading Bach Cantata Choir ends season on triumphant note
With strings detached
Hello from South Bend Indiana! I’m here as part of the Spectrum Dance Company’s four-city national tour. Rajan Krishnaswami (cello), Judith Cohen (piano) and myself (violin) are presenting the work of Irwin Schulhoff at Notre Dame’s magnificent DeBartello Performing Arts Center. The director of Spectrum, Donald Byrd, has brilliantly choreographed a deeply moving work titled The Theater of Needless Talents. It is based on the horrors of the Holocaust. Schulhoff himself perished in a concentration camp, and his work would have likely gained a much wider audience had it not been his untimely death. It’s very difficult to perform a work of such tragedy night after night, and I find myself emotionally drained after each performance.
After much anticipation, Judith, Rajan, his cello (it gets it’s own seat on the plane) and I arrived in South Bend on Tuesday night. We were nervous for our first rehearsal with the dancers and Donald, but it went well. Donald worked with Rajan and I on the pacing in Schulhoff’s Duo for Violin and Cello so that we could create a better sense of direction and forward motion for the dancers. Though beautiful, the hall’s acoustic is quite dry as is was designed for theater and dance, not chamber music. We have had to compensate by bringing up some of our dynamics and playing without our mutes in the slow movement.
Our first performance went very well, except for one major caveat: In the last movement of the Duo, with one page to go, my string went POP and I had no E-string! What do I do? Do I stop the show and the dancers, or do I continue on without my string? I the heat of the moment, I decided to continue on without it and replace the missing high notes with extra energy. It worked, and I think many audience members didn’t even notice!
We have two performances to go at Notre Dame. The Company will present another show in Richmond, VA while I make a personal stop in New York City for a few days. Then it’s off to Ogden, Utah. I’ll keep you posted soon with more photographs updates from the trip.
J. S. Bach Lived at the Bach Week Festival
Sunday, April 26th, at Evanston’s Music Institute of Chicago, was the concluding day for this year’s Bach Week Festival, although really a weekend. The first concert was held on Friday and was a harpsichord affair. The concert on Sunday seemed to have representative works from the rest of Bach’s oeuvre, featuring a cantata, a motet, two concerti and a suite for solo cello. Excellent performances abounded, but the MVP awards went to David Schrader on harpsichord and Katinka Kleijn, cello. Their contributions, together with the passion and commitment of everyone involved, made this concert a true highlight of the music season.
Compete in the twitter #operaplot contest!
Opera fans now have the chance to apply their twitter skills to their opera knowledge, because Marcia Adair, a freelance classical music journalist from Canada aka Miss Mussel, has organized this twittery competition, which sounds like a lot of fun. Here is the lowdown from her e-mail today:
Starting tomorrow morning (April 27) at 9am, the Twitter #operaplot contest will be reprising its role as the most fun opera nerds can have in 140 characters or less.
Bach Week Festival Kicks Off Strong
For the past 36 years, there has been a heralding of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach in the Chicagoland area. Spanning a full week and comprising as many as four programs, the Bach Week provides Bach fans with the opportunity to hear wonderful renditions of his best music in intimate and immediate settings. This year’s Bach Week Festival, reduced to two concerts this weekend because of the precarious economy, continues that strong legacy of fine music making. The opening concert featured works for harpsichord, chosen carefully and smartly programmed by the featured soloist, David Schrader.
The Seattle Symphony’s successful pairing: Schubert and Liszt
I had never before heard three of the offerings on the Seattle Symphony program this week, yet the composers are household words among classical musicians: Schubert and Liszt. Perhaps it’s weaseling to say I didn’t know Schubert’s “Wanderer Fantasy.” I do, but not in this transcription by Liszt where he has added an orchestral component to a solo piano work
The first measures are disconcerting. The orchestra takes the initial piano measures and feels heavy in comparison. However, in general Liszt has kept the orchestra in a relatively supportive role and left the piano part alone. At a couple of points his intervention enhances the original: an exquisite duet between solo cello and piano and an equally lovely one for piano with bassoon. Liszt’s is a romantic interpretation of Schubert, but it worked with the sensitive playing of pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin, who never lost sight of Schubert, but played as though he was Liszt.
Continue reading The Seattle Symphony’s successful pairing: Schubert and Liszt
Upcoming
The Esoterics close out their season this Saturday and Sunday with “Memoriam.” The program features contemporary, choral music that honors people who have risked their lives and died. One of the pieces on the program, “Meanwhile,” is an Esoterics commission remembering the ten year anniversary of the Columbine shooting. Also on the program are pieces by Dominick Argento, John Muehleisen, and Eric Banks, the founder of the Esoterics. You can listen to a podcast about the concert here(April 25 and 26).
Tomorrow, the Serious Quartet continues the Seattle Symphony’s musician driven chamber series. The recital happens in the Nordstrom Recital Hall. (April 24).
Dennis Russell Davies continues his residency with the Seattle Symphony this weekend and is joined by pianist Marc Andre Hamelin for a concert of Schubert and Liszt. Liszt’s play on the Dies Ire theme “Totentanz” and Liszt’s setting of the “Wanderer Fantasy” will give Hamelin plenty of opportunity for keyboard fireworks(April 23-26).
The Early Music Guild presents Ensemble Caprice (April 25).
Zimerman brings Bacewicz and Szymanowski to Meany Hall
The last time Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman was in Seattle, he played for an encore the last movement of the Sonata No.2 by his compatriot Grazyna Bacewicz. The performance was memorable, so much so that at Meany Theater last night, he changed the program by request of those who heard him before, to include the whole sonata.
It was the highlight of the evening, the last concert of the year on the UW President’s Piano Series. Bacewicz would have been 100 this year and wrote under the constraints of communism, but like Shostakovich, she wrote on many levels and in her music one can hear many of the same themes of war, anxiety, anger, sorrow and caution, but also peace.
Continue reading Zimerman brings Bacewicz and Szymanowski to Meany Hall
Gathering Note 