Month: May 2011

By R.M. Campbell

When Angel Corella made his debut as a soloist at American Ballet Theatre some 16 years ago at the age of 20, his dancing was a sensation. A few months later he was promoted to principal and in the years to follow became a star attraction, an essential part of the company’s extraordinary collection of great male dancers from the Old World and the New.

The Spanish dancer enjoyed an astonishing career at the company as well as with other ballet companies as a guest artist. A decade ago, he began a foundation to promote classical dance in his native country which has long had a problem sustaining a ballet company with international standing. Three years ago, he and his sister Carmen founded Corella Ballet Castilla y Leon. He is the ensemble’s artistic director and she, associate artistic director. More than 20 individuals appear on the company’s roster, including Angel Corella’s colleague at Ballet Theater, another major star, Herman Cornejo. Most have Spanish names but not all.
Continue reading Corella Ballet unveiled in Seattle debut

By Philippa Kiraly

The Tudor Choir has always aimed for the pure tone of an English cathedral choir with its typical sound of boys’ clear treble voices and often male altos. Its latest offering, “All the Queen’s Men,” performed at Blessed Sacrament Church Saturday night, was no exception, and the music, composed during the religious swings of the 1550s to about 1575, ranged from the highly complex works in Latin preferred under Catholic Queen Mary to the simpler plain English preferred under Protestant Elizabeth 1.

Much of it was by two of the era’s great composers, Thomas Tallis and William Byrd, who between them covered a century of church music, tailoring their work to the prevailing religious winds. Others were John Sheppard, whose “Ave maris stella” was a highlight wiith its plainchant interludes, and William Mundy.
Continue reading The Tudor Choir sings Tallis and Byrd

Continue reading A new principal cellist too?

With Scott Goff retiring the SSO needed a new principal flute and late last week Ludovic Morlot found his man: Demarre McGill. From the press release.

Seattle Symphony announces the appointment of Principal Flute Demarre McGill, who will join the Orchestra in September. He comes to Seattle from the San Diego Symphony where he has been Principal Flute since 2004. The Symphony’s current Principal Flute Scott Goff will retire at the end of this season after 42 years in the position.

Seattle Symphony Music Director Designate Ludovic Morlot commented, “The first principal appointment is always important for a new music director, and I am so pleased that Demarre McGill will be joining the Orchestra in the fall as Principal Flute. I admire his incredible talent and energy, as well as the work he has done to introduce new audiences to classical music — something I, too, am passionate about.”

McGill’s brother is none other that Anthony McGill, principal clarinet in the Met Opera Orchestra. Can’t wait to hear McGill in next season’s performance of Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun.

If you made it to the Nordstrom Recital Hall last Friday you were likely part of history. Not history of the epoch altering kind, but of the musical kind. It was the first time many of the people in the audience, most with decades of experience with Seattle’s classical music scene, could recall a live performance of Bela Bartok’s daunting Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion. The piece was part of the Seattle Symphony’s final chamber concert of the season. The program also featured Bartok’s Contrasts, Mendelssohn’s First Piano Trio, and George Enescu’s Impressions d’enfance for violin and piano.

Balance problems, especially coming from the piano plagued most of the performances.  This is a familiar story for the recital hall.  Sometimes this problem is overcome, other times not so much. The only piece where the musicians seemed to conquer the hall’s notably fussy acoustic was the Mendelssohn trio. Kimberly Russ, the Seattle Symphony’s resident pianist, has probably spent more time grappling with Benaroya and Nordstrom’s acoustic than any of the other pianists playing on the program. This came through in a tempered performance at the keyboard which allowed the eloquent playing of cellist Roberta Downey and violinist Jeannie Wells Yablonsky to be heard. Although I would hardly describe the trio’s performance as fiery, it wasn’t merely a competent run through of the piece either. Russ, Downey, and Yablonsky made this work sound philosophical and mature.

Continue reading Bartok’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion closes out SSO chamber series

By Philippa Kiraly

Mina Miller used these words when introducing the latest Music of Remembrance concert Monday night. Miller is artistic director of the concert series which she began thirteen years ago, and every concert has been one which leaves the listener with much to ponder after.

Monday’s performance at Nordstrom Recital Hall was no exception. Part of the concert focused on the boys in the concentration camp Terezin and the poetry they wrote; part was a memory of the ancient settlement of Jews in Thessalonika, of whom there were 54,000 at the beginning of the war, and after the nazis’ systematic massacre, about 1100 at the end, two percent.

As usual, there was music by a composer who died in the camps, in this case the String Quartet No. 2, “From the Monkey Mountains,” by Pavel Haas, and music of today’s composers in memoriam.
Continue reading “A reminder of the blindness of genocidal hatred”

Few ensembles today command the interest of modern music aficionados like the JACK quartet. The members of the quartet — violinists Christopher Otto and Ari Streisfeld, violist John Pickford Richards, and cellist Kevin McFarland — met while studying at the Eastman school of music. They studied with the pioneering Kronos Quartet and Arditti Quartet. Though, JACK’s popularity these days more closely resembles the successful history of the Kronos Quartet, the artistic excellence of the Arditti Quartet came to mind when I heard JACK play this week at Town Hall as part of Joshua Roman’s Town Music series.

There is possibly no more persuasive proponent of Iannis Xenakis’s chamber music than the JACK Quartet. This and Xenakis’ popularity in some music circles has helped propel JACK’s success. The group released a well-received compilation of the composer’s music for string quartet. Tetras, an eighteen minute witty, abrasive romp is one of the first pieces the four musicians learned to play together. It continues to be a favorite of the ensemble.
Continue reading JACK and Xenakis pair perfectly at Town Hall