Month: March 2011

Like most cities with an active cultural life, we are spoiled by performances from some of the biggest and best names around.  They come through Benaroya Hall each season, dazzle with their stardom and occasionally their playing.  Because of the enterprising work of Toby Saks and the Seattle Chamber Music Society, we are also privy to emerging talent long before they make it big. So dominant are the Seattle Chamber Music Society’s festivals that it has been said to me that some patrons subscribe only to the summer and winter festival and nothing else. No Seattle Symphony. No opera. No UW World Series. Nothing but chamber music from July to August and a long weekend in January each and every year.  Meanwhile, there are countless organizations, groups, and individual musicians toiling away with exceptional performances that are barely, if at all, noticed by music lovers or the press.

In the past month, three performances, barely covered — if at all by the mainstream media — showcased the depth of the chamber music talent right here in Seattle. Three concerts, and three ensembles that in any other city would have found healthy appreciation.

Continue reading Chamber music concerts make case for local talent

By R.M. Campbell

Musicians from the Curtis Institute returned to the Henry Chapel Wednesday night in the Highlands for its third year. The concerts have become predictable: interesting repertory, exemplary musicianship.

Already known and widely respected in the music world, the Philadelphia conservatory wanted a broader profile. And so, among other activities, it has embarked on a series of tours featuring not only students but now faculty. Seattle is on the tour itinerary with concerts scheduled in the intimate Henry Chapel in the Highlands. This is chamber music at its best — in a warm, appealing space that is not so large. The audiences have been attentive and appreciative.
Continue reading Curtis Institute returns to Seattle

Looking for something to do today? Head up to Greenwood for the annual Bach Cello Suites marathon at Phinney Ridge Lutheran Church. The festival runs from 10 to 2:30 pm (today, March 26th). The festival is free and the audience can come and go as they please. Let Slava get you in the mood.

Handel’s Dixit Dominus is a curious testament to GF Handel’s time in Italy. A setting of Psalm 109, it is on the one hand a deeply spiritual statement. Handel’s contrapuntal inventiveness and his flexible, often soaring writing for chorus and vocal soloists, do more than state Christian beliefs, they embody a deep spirituality. On the other hand, the text — angry, vengeful, furious — seldom matches the spirit of Handel’s music. There is plenty of mention of enemies (“your foes I will put beneath your feet”); power (“rule in the midst of all your foes”); violence (“he shall crush the heads in the land of many”); and of course judgment (“he shall judge among the nations…”) This is the paradox of the Dixit Dominus and it is also exactly why I am moved by the piece every time I hear it.
Continue reading Handel’s Dixit Dominus: a paradox of beauty and fury

By R.M. Campbell

There is very little not to like or admire in Pacific Northwest Ballet’s mixed bill which opened this weekend at McCaw Hall. A good share of it was astonishing.

Two works entered PNB’s repertory and two were revivals. One of the most important aspects of Peter Boal’s regime as artistic director has been his introducing to the company and the region all kinds of new works from leading choreographers of the day. Two were brand-new on this bill: Marco Goecke’s “Place a Chill,” a world premiere, and Alexei Ratmansky’s “Concerto DSCH.” The latter was the more important because the choreographer is so much better-known, and “DSCH” is the first of his works to arrive in Seattle. The Russian choreographer’s “Don Quixote” will have its Seattle premiere next season. Ratmansky originally set his piece on New York City Ballet, where he was poised to become resident choreographer, succeeding Christopher Wheeldon, whose ballets PNB has danced. But Ratmansky decamped abruptly to American Ballet Theatre where he is now artist-in-residence.
Continue reading PNB’s mixed bill opened this weekend

Guest conductor Teodor Currentzis — who boasts he will save classical music in a 2005 Daily Telegraph interview — appears with the SSO this weekend in a mildly interesting program.  The all Russian program which features Aram Khachaturian’s jagged violin concerto and the evergreen Fifth Symphony of Shostakovich should test the conductor’s mettle to make the banal (Khachaturian) and familiar (Shostakovich) interesting.  The American Handel Festival continues performances of the Dixit Dominus, Bach’s St. John Passion, and an organ concert at St. Mark’s Cathedral.  More information on all of these concerts is available at the festival website.  Seattle Pro Musica even has a short video preview of their Dixit Dominus concerts this weekend.

By R. M. Campbell

Thursday’s concert of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra at Benaroya Hall possessed the kind of programming in which a guest conductor can easily make a big impression: Borodin, Khachaturian and Shostakovich. And so Teodor Currentzis, Greek-born, Russian resident, did in some quarters.

“Polovtsian Dances” from Borodin’s opera “Prince Igor” are more standard fare than the opera itself, which is only rarely done despite its wealth of colorful and appealing music. The set of dances, which were excerpted in his concert, set forth the reasons with their immediately tuneful melodies and rich orchestration. Currentzis, however, raced through the suite with no breath taken for anything. One phrase was dumped into another, nothing was shaped, ensemble dicey. I can’t remember a less enjoyable performance of music designed purely for aural pleasure. In the opera, they make for a vivid experience.
Continue reading Currentzis makes debut in all Russian program

By Philippa Kiraly

If you haven’t already planned to go, and particularly if you are a singer, don’t miss Friday night’s final performance of “The Man in the Mirror.” It’s the light relief of the ongoing American Handel Festival, and a tour de force by tenor Ross Hauck.

Thursday afternoon he performed it at the Frye Art Museum, ably abetted by harpsichordist Phebe Craig, cellist David Morris and voices off: Steven Hoffman, Katherine Howell and Kali Wilson.
Continue reading There’s something about spoofs…

By R.M. Campbell

It was with considerable disappointment that one heard the news the Brazilian pianist Nelson Friere had canceled His Seattle engagement Thursday night at Meany Hall. I well remember his striking combination of temperament and technique, but I had not heard him for sometime. Quickly Meany found a replacement — Garrick Ohlsson.

The American pianist seems like an old friend, so often and for so long he has played in Seattle in recital, in chamber music and in concert with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. He has a long list of awards and honors, including First Prize at the 1966 Busoni Competition in Italy and 1968 Montreal Competition. However, his winning the Chopin Competition in Warsaw, in 1970, catapulted him to international fame. Since then he has toured the world many times, exploring not only the vast reaches of the canon but a good share of far-flung nooks and crannies.
Continue reading Garrick Ohlsson brings Chopin and Granados in a return performance at Meany Hall