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By R.M. Campbell
A breeze, both warm and cool, arrived Thursday night at Meany Hall and will stay the weekend. Its name is the Richard Alston Dance Company.
The English company, named after its founding choreographer and artistic director, is known for its sunny, ebullience, the kind that is rather out-of-fashion in today’s rough-and-tumble culture. But as the company proved Thursday night, in an all-Alston program, it is about many things. It provides pleasure the way Paul Taylor does, can divide up space in the manner of Merce Cunningham, can sustain intensity of mood like Twyla Tharp and enjoys elegance, in an abstract way, that reminds one of George Balanchine. Still, in the end, Alston is his own man.
Continue reading Richard Alston Dance Company returns to Meany Hall in splendid shape
He played the jazz composer David Sanford’s “7th Avenue Kaddish,” which Haimovitz commissioned after the 9/11 attacks: he described the piece as a hybrid between a sax and a cantor as the buildings collapsed, inspired by Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme.” He played another Canadian composer, Gilles Tremblay, who uses microtonal music (“so if it sounds like I’m playing out of tune—he asks for that”), Eastern-inspired, in his “Threnody for Lebanon.” Steven Stucky’s “Dialoghi,” inspired by Italy, written for one of Haimovitz’s students, wandered through Lutoslawski territory, concluding in a beautiful finale.
The audience applause that burst out when the first encore began just shows the power of the hit tune you’ve been waiting all evening for: the prelude from Bach’s first cello suite, followed by the allemande from Bach’s 6th suite. The need to remember where home is touches even the most adventurous programmer, and even his most enthusiastic fans.
By Gigi Yellen
“Baroque Music for Humans” was the title of the pre-concert conversation between Nicholas McGegan and the critic Bernard Jacobson. What was that supposed to mean? Who cared? Fun was the attitude of the day at this last in a three-concert series at Benaroya Hall with the renowned music director of San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.
By R.M. Campbell
Verdi’s “Il trovatore” has been regarded as a joke, with great tunes; a unsurpassed example of Romantic melodrama; one of the last breaths, in 1855, of an earlier era of Italian opera, a work nearly impossible to stage with any credibility today. Enrico Caruso once quipped that all one required for a good performance were the four greatest singers in the world.
As the second opera in its Verdi cycle this season, Seattle Opera this weekend at McCaw Hall took the leap for its first ‘Trovatore” in 13 years.
Update
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Management issued a statement on the musicians’ unanimous rejection of the latest contract proposal late yesterday. The press release hits the points management has been making in recent days, and specifically, the need for a long-term plan that ensures the financial viability of the orchestra. Management also says they will go back to the bargaining table.
The board and management of Seattle Symphony are very disappointed that the Seattle Symphony and Opera Players’ Organization has rejected the offer that we have given them during our negotiations. Over the past eight months we have been very specific about the financial position that the Symphony is in, and how important the musicians are to us. We have made it very clear that there is a need for a long-term plan and solution to the financial situation we are encountering and we’re reluctantly asking the musicians to make concessions to help us create a stable and solid future for the Symphony. We intend to go back to the bargaining table as quickly as the union will meet with us, and seek to find a speedy resolution to this situation so that we can get back to the business of presenting artistically exciting performances for our community. We anticipate all performances to go forward as planned.
Seattle Symphony musicians unanimously (as in no one voted for it) rejected management’s last, best offer. The players cite four reasons for the rejection — salary concessions ($11 million is too much), length of the contract (5 years is too long), unfilled positions (too many temp players in key spots), and experimental revenue sharing (unproven). The text of the full press release is after the jump.
Continue reading Musicians reject proposal and management responds
The Seattle Symphony and Opera Players’ Association returned Leslie Jackson Chihuly and management’s fire from late last week. Hale’s manifestos read like “The Ninety Five Theses.” They aren’t focused on any one particular issue but are all broad swipes at management, Ralph Craviso, and now Henry Fogel.
A Tale of Two Cities: Does excellence matter? Will the vision return?
By Timothy R. Hale, viola
Chair, Seattle Symphony & Opera Players’ Organization
Are we really living inside a Dickens novel? A Tale of Two Cities declares “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” On the one hand we have just given a week of historic concerts under the storied maestro Kurt Masur: arguably one of the finest sets of concerts ever given by the Seattle Symphony. On the other hand, our days are occupied fending off the tired and discredited schemes of a McKinsey-originated financial model, and responding to the disingenuous monologues of the board’s NYC based consultant, Ralph Craviso (running the SSO in the stead of Thomas Philion, the nominal Executive Director).
By R.M. Campbell
Frederic Chopin was born in Warsaw in 1810 and by the time he was in his early 20s he had settled in Paris for the rest of his short life. Although he had problems attracting the fickle Viennese and political problems in Italy marred his stay there, he was pretty much a huge success most of his life. His biggest issue was tuberculosis which killed him at the age of 39. His music, almost entirely for the piano, was beloved in his day and remains so today, 200 years after his birth.
The composer has long been a national hero in his native Poland. That worship is expressed in many ways, one of which is the Chopin International Piano Competition, one of the world’s most prestigious. Garrick Ohlsson was the first American to win the competition in 1970 which gave him instant fame and a reputation as a Chopin specialist. With his quick-silver mind and broad interests, Ohlsson has explored a good share of the musical world, not to mention others, but Chopin has always been a major factor in his artistic life.
Continue reading Garrick Ohlsson opens a two-part series devoted to Chopin
Leslie Jackson Chihuly’s “State of the Symphony” remarks from yesterday’s SSO presser at the Fairmount.
State of The Symphony
By Leslie Jackson Chihuly, Board Chair
Thank you for taking the time to hear about the current state of the Seattle Symphony. There is much talk about the performing arts in our community these days, focusing on how the current economic stress is affecting organizations that depend on patron support for their livelihood.
We have called this briefing to tell you how excited we are about the future of Seattle Symphony. We are the largest performing arts organization in the Northwest and deliver over 200 performances a year to more than 300,000 patrons. We also are proud to serve over 100,000 people of all ages through our education programs, which reach deep into the community, including serving 190 schools in 24 school districts.
Continue reading Leslie Jackson Chihuly’s “State of the Symphony”
In Verdi’s three most popular operas – La Traviata, Rigoletto, and Il Trovatore – the heroine suffers a tragic fate. In Traviata, Violetta loses love, gets sick, and dies just after one final encounter with her beau. Gilda, the heroine in Rigoletto, decides to sacrifice her own life to spare that of the Duke’s – her father’s tormentor and the man she has fallen in love with. And then there is Leonora, who poisons herself to stay true to her love Manrico. Simply focusing on the tragic end of these three women doesn’t do justice to the depth of Verdi’s characters. They are complex, constantly changing, and determined to leave their own mark on the world.
Continue reading Lisa Daltirus gets to the heart of Verdi’s Leonora
Gathering Note 