Month: November 2009

Between two full -length ballets — “Romeo et Juliette” and “The Nutcracker” — Pacific Northwest Ballet is offering a a set of 20h-century works, two dating from the latter half of the 20th century and another two from the past couple of years.

The company has committed itself to new works, adding one piece after another in rapid succession. All the works on this mixed bill, which opened Thursday night at McCaw Hall, were introduced to PNB in the past four years. Jiri Kylian’s “Petite Mort” and  Val Caniparoli”s “The Seasons” were making their bows on Thursday.

Continue reading PNB Opens Mixed Bill Thursday Night at McCaw

When Shostakovich wrote his final symphony, the Fifteenth in 1971, arguably the composer didn’t have much new to say with the form. Closer to the end of his life, Shostakovich would write masterpieces like the Viola Sonata and Fifteenth String Quartet; pieces unique for their economy and breadth of expression. Still, in his final symphony, the composer finds a way to sum up his creative life in ways that parallel other great symphonists. Like Mahler, Beethoven, Bruckner; Shostakovich takes his own ideas, many of them put down paper in earlier symphonies, and combines them in a unique, final statement on the symphonic form. Schwarz chose the Fifteenth, along with Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and Alexander Borodin’s incomplete Third Symphony, for the Seattle Symphony program that began on Thursday evening.

Continue reading Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto blazes while Shostakovich’s Fifteenth concludes

All Souls Day is an ancient feast day in the Roman Catholic Church in which those on earth pray for the faithful suffering in Purgatory. The Mass for the Dead has been part of All Souls Day since the 14th century. The texts were written to offer "expressions of consolation" for the present and hope for the future. St. James Cathedral, a church which couples spirituality with the power of music in remarkable ways, observes the day by incorporating one of the great and sublime requiems of the past 250 years into actual liturgy of the Mass of All Souls.

Mozart’s much celebrated "Requiem" is often heard in this context, So too the requiems of French composers like Faure and Durufle. These works, in general, were intended for the concert stage, but they achieve an  additional kind of resonance when they are set in the manner of St. James.   

Continue reading All Souls Day Celebrated at St. James Cathedral

Earlier this week, I got the chance to sit down with John Hollenbeck.  Hollenbeck and his group, the Claudia Quintet came to town to perform in the Ear Shot Jazz Festival.  Even though he was playing as part of a jazz festival, Hollenbeck’s music can’t be easily described as jazz nor can it be categorized as classical music.  The Ear Shot performance was the culminating concert of a West Coast Tour.

In addition to his work with the Claudia Quintet, Hollenbeck was also one of the performers who premiered Meredith Monk’s “Songs of Ascension” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music late last month.  Hollenbeck celebrates the release of his new CD later in the month with a performance and release party at New York’s Le Poisson Rouge.  

I talked with Hollenbeck for over forty minutes – longer than either of expected – I have divided the interview into a couple of parts. I hope you enjoy.

If you live in Bellingham be sure to head over to the Mount Baker Theater to hear the Whatcom Symphony and guest violinist Sarah Chang play Brahms’s Violin Concerto.  Chang’s performance in Washington follows her recent CD release of the same concerto on the EMI label.  The Brahms is reason enough to go, but the orchestra is also playing Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. Each of the Seventh’s movements shake and groove, warranting the symphony’s label as the apotheosis of dance.

A critical brouhaha is developing over Sumi Hahn’s review of Lang Lang and the Seattle Symphony.  In the classical music world that means five comments or so.  Sumi and I have different opinions of the concert; she didn’t like Lang Lang’s performance, while I did.  Nevertheless, what seems to be bothering folks the most is her style and the way she describes music and the performances she heard.  I actually like Sumi’s style quite a bit.  Sometimes it is a little over the top.  Maybe she is too descriptive too often.  But, I can tell you from my own experience that writing about music is one of the hardest things anyone can do.  I blankly stared at my computer monitor on more than one occasion trying to find the right words to describe a piece of music or a performance. I wish I could write with as much color as Sumi does.  Give Sumi a break.  Disagree with her opinion of the performance, but don’t fault her style.  That goes for what is published on TGN as well.  Comments are always welcome, especially if you are challenging our authority as classical music opinion shapers.   

Just a quick reminder, Chamber vs. Chamber happens tomorrow.  Come if you can, it should be great – great performances and great conversation.  Information and links below from the original post earlier this week.

Continue reading Reminder: Chamber vs. Chamber tomorrow

I have been on an American maestro kick the last few weeks.  You Tube is a great resource for obsessions like this.  Here is one of my favorite finds, Leopold Stokowski conducting Debussy’s L’après-midi d’un faune with the London Symphony.  When you get past Leopold Stokowski’s eccentricities he was a conductor who revolutionized classical music through his fierce advocacy of new music – he premiered numerous Shostakovich symphonies, Schoenberg’s Gurre Lieder, Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand – and by shaping the sound of the Philadelphia Orchestra.  They don’t make ‘em like Leopold anymore.  Enjoy!