Festival violinist Erin Keefe joined Stefan Jackiw for a performance of Prokofiev's Sonata for two Violins.
Before last night’s Seattle Chamber Music Society recital and concert got underway the festival’s stage manager gave the audience welcome news – Saint Nicholas Hall was air conditioned. Unlike the concerts from earlier in the month, Wednesday evening was unpleasant weather-wise. Seattle suffered under 100 degree temperatures and it seemed, based on my observation of the lawn and dinner crowd, the heat persuaded many long-time fans of the festival to stay home.
Wednesday’s concert demonstrated once again what the festival does well – marrying expert musicians with diverse repertoire.
It may be a little early to get out the handkerchiefs to say goodbye to Lakeside School, which has been home to the Seattle Chamber Music Festival for nearly 30 years. At the time of its beginnings, this quasi-pastoral setting in north Seattle was as much a novelty in the summer cultural life of Seattle as the festival itself. The setting and concerts established all sorts of local precedents. From that modest two-weeks of concerts, the festival grew to include a winter festival and an Eastside branch at Overlake School in Redmond.
When I started blogging in 2007 I was writing for myself. I joke with friends and colleagues that I am just a guy with a computer who loves music. I suspect most, if not all bloggers start this way. I was writing about the concerts and ensembles I was interested in. I was interviewing musicians who interested me. Two years later, I would like to think I am still writing for myself. And I am still talking to the people, musicians, and conductors I am interested in hearing from. But in the two years since I began this blog a strange thing happened; The Gathering Note, formerly Classical in Seattle, became the center of classical music writing in Seattle and the Puget Sound.
Almost half a millenium ago, at the cathedrals of Seville, or Segovia, or Salamanca in Spain, you could have heard choristers singing music in praise or prayer. Sunday night, you could hear that same music at St. James Cathedral here in Seattle. Now, that’s longevity.
The music of Francisco Guerrero and his younger compatriots Sebastian Vivanco and Tomas Luis de Victoria has never gone out of style. Their music, and that of colleagues from other European countries for the next few centuries comprises the huge flowering of magnificent sacred music in the Renaissance, and at any given time, today, some of it is being sung somewhere.
Elmar Oliveira did it again. On Sunday afternoon (July 26) the virtuoso violinist lifted the spirits of the Chamber Music Northwest audience at Kaul Auditorium with a galvanizing performance of Ernst Bloch’s “Baal Shem,” Three Pictures of Hassidic Life for Violin and Strings. As if he were a rhapsodic cantor, Oliveira weaved a tale of lamentation that plumped the depths of the human spirit before erupting in spasms of joy. His backup band, an ensemble that consisted of violinists Kyu-Young Kim and Min-Young Kim, violist Melissa Reardon, cellist Raman Ramakrishnan, and double bassist Peter Lloyd, contributed superbly to the overall effect, especially when the sound almost throbbed with melancholy. A standing ovation immediately followed this fantastic performance, and Oliveira had a smile on his face that could’ve beamed for miles. Continue reading Chamber Music Northwest closes summer festival with some fireworks and a fond farewell
Tchaikovsky really knew how to create a barn burner when he wrote the String Sextet in D Minor “Souvenir de Florence,” Op. 70, and it really brought down the house at Thursday (July 23) evening’s Chamber Music Northwest concert. Even the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s gem, which started in electrifying fashion, succeeded to build tension, and then concluded with whirling dervish panache, took everyone’s breath away. I could actually hear the audience at Kaul Auditorium, which was filled to the brim, inhale collectively. Continue reading Tchaikovsky sextet brings down the house at Chamber Music Northwest concert
The evening weather was glorious—again—and the lawn and auditorium at Lakeside School were packed—again—as the ninth recital and concert of Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer Festival got under way. It’s getting almost old hat to say that performance and ambiance shone, but they did.
Only one work on Friday’s program was quite familiar and that mostly from recordings: Brahms’ Trio for horn, violin and piano in E-Flat major. The Seattle Symphony’s Jeffrey Fair took the hornist’s part, with Stefan Jackiw playing violin and Jeremy Denk, piano, and it was fascinating to hear the juxtaposition of those very different instrumental timbres. Violin and horn can both create a rich smoothness and depth, but where Fair’s horn is velvet, Jackiw’s violin is silk and he can, and did, achieve an extraordinary range of nuance not as available to the horn.
Elizabeth Harcombe grew up in Roseburg, Oregon where she began playing piano at the age of 5. She was the pianist at the church where her mother served as organist. Harcombe studied music at Biola University and later got a Master of Music Education degree with an emphasis in piano pedagogy from University of Oklahoma. Harcombe has served as the rehearsal pianist at the Oregon Bach Festival for Helmut Rilling and for the Oregon Repertory Singers under Gil Seeley. She currently teaches piano at Lewis and Clark College and is the program and operations director at Chamber Music Northwest. She joined the staff at Chamber Music Northwest in 2006 and has been turning pages for visiting pianists ever since.
Do you like to turn pages?
Harcombe: Yes, I love to turn pages. I began “turning” while in Canada where I was studying piano but not allowed to work. I’m never nervous turning pages. Every musician I talk to is completely freaked out about turning pages, but for me, page turning is a natural thing because I’m a strong sight reader. You do a lot of sight reading as a page turner. I guess I could take the time to study the score, but it’s more fun to see it all go by on the stage. Continue reading Elizabeth Harcombe talks about the art of page turning
The bassoon is often associated with humor and whether that is just or unjust doesn’t matter, because even bassoonists seem to revel in the comical aspects of their chosen instrument. So, several bassoon pieces in the second half of the Chamber Music Northwest concert (July 21) at Catlin Gabel caused lots of chuckles. But the tongue-in-cheek quality of the bassoon music did not obscure the virtuosic performances by the bassoonists involved. Led by globe-trotting bassoon soloist Milan Turkovic, the bassoon numbers in Tuesday evening’s concert had an ample amount of buffoonery and were performed superbly. Continue reading Bassoon buffoonery balances out Haydn and Bach
Last night’s Lakeside concert was preceded by a recital by pianist Jeremy Denk. Denk tossed off three of Gyorgy Ligeti’s Book One etudes — Cordes a vide, Fanfares, and Arc-en-ciel. To help with the etudes, Denk also programmed Debussy and Liszt. Liszt’s “Rhapsodie espagnole” was a raucous affair, but for me, there was plenty of razzle-dazzle in the etudes — especially in Fanfares, the fourth Book One etude. J, my frequent concert companion, preferred Arc-en-ciel for its Debussy-like qualities. The beauty of the Ligeti etudes is how they synthesize Lisztian knuckle-busting difficulty with impressionistic color.
There are a handful of recordings of the Book One and Book Two etudes and at least one complete recording of the complete Book Three etudes. Pierre Laurent-Aimard’s recording on Sony is probably the best. Idil Biret’s Naxos recording is good — technically — but antiseptic. Aimard’s effort is technically very good, but also he seems to understand the composer better. Perhaps that’s why Aimard was Ligeti’s pianist of choice for the Sony recording.
If you didn’t see the recital or hear it on KING-FM I’m sorry.
Ligeti was one of the true masters of the last century and continued to influence composition up until he died in 2006. There aren’t too many pianists carrying Ligeti’s etudes around with them or even willing to tackle them.
If you want a taste of what you missed check out the following video of Aimard performing a selection of Ligeti’s etudes.
Gathering Note 