Month: May 2011

By R.M. Campbell

The 2010-11 Seattle Symphony Orchestra season has been one of conducting debuts — both American and European. Most of the men have been interesting and well-prepared, all of which is a reminder of the talent that lies just beyond our shores.

One of the best of the lot is Jakub Hrusa, a Czech conductor who made his debut Thursday night at Benaroya Hall, with the program of Martinu, Shostakovich, Honegger and Haydn, to be repeated Friday afternoon, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. He is worth more than one hearing. He is young, only 30, yet conducts with maturity and musical insight. Already a fully developed artist, he seems equally at home in Haydn and Shostakovich. He has a keen ear for drama and is just as capable of producing well-balanced pianissimos as he is fortissimos. That is not a talent many conductors possess.
Continue reading Jakub Hrusa makes his debut with the SSO

What if Seattle’s music director picks up an east coast orchestra in addition to his soon to be west coast duties? He wouldn’t be the first music director to take on multiple orchestras. With James Levine stepping down from his duties with the Boston Symphony, Morlot’s ties to the orchestra, and his two week residency with the band next November it may not be that far fetched. As was the case in Seattle the last few years, every guest conductor who passes through Boston over the next few years is going to be given serious consideration for the director position.  That would include Morlot too.

From the BSO 2011-2012 season press release:

LUDOVIC MORLOT RETURNS TO BSO TO CONDUCT BERLIOZ, MOZART, CARTER, AND BARTÓK, NOV. 17-22
In a diverse program November 17-22, the BSO welcomes back to Symphony Hall rising French conductor Ludovic Morlot as well as distinguished American pianist Richard Goode, who performs Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25 in C, K.503. Also featured on the program is the BSO’s own principal flutist Elizabeth Rowe, who steps in front of the orchestra as soloist in Elliott Carter’s Flute Concerto, a work that received its U.S. premiere with Ms. Rowe and the orchestra in February 2010. The program opens with Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture and concludes with Bartók’s Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin, which contains about two-thirds of the music from the composer’s original scandal-inducing ballet about three cash-strapped men who attempt to use the provocative dancing of their female companion to attract and steal money from passers-by.

MORLOT TO LEAD MUSIC FROM RAVEL’S DAPHNIS AND CHLOÉ AND MAHLER 1, NOV. 26-29
In his second straight week on the podium, Ludovic Morlot continues to demonstrate his versatility. To open the program, Mr. Morlot leads the orchestra in the Symphony No. 4 of John Harbison, a work from 2003 by a composer whose music has been featured prominently by the BSO is recent seasons. The concert ends with Mahler’s at times brooding, at times vigorously energetic First Symphony. In between the two symphonies is Ravel’s Suite No. 2 from his masterful ballet Daphnis et Chloé, beginning with a scintillating depiction of the sunrise and gradually gaining momentum until finally expending its energy at the end of a frantic orgiastic dance.

By R. M. Campbell

Les Violons du Roy, the Canadian chamber orchestra, along with English tenor Ian Bostridge gave an astonishing, often revealing concert Wednesday night at Benaroya Hall, under the auspices of the Seattle Symphony Visiting Orchestra Series. While the concert represented a double local debut for orchestra and soloist, Bostridge has appeared twice in Vancouver, presented by the Vancouver Recital Society, founded by the ambitious and fearless Leila Getz.

I was at Bostridge’s Northwest debut recital in Vancouver, and even though 15 years have elapsed, I have not forgotten his high intelligence, his unique musical profile and ability to draw drama from whatever is at hand. Nothing has changed in the intervening years, except his repertory has widen and deepened. Now, he does not only music of the Baroque era but also Schubert and Schumann and Stravinsky, Mozart, Britten and Janacek, plus an impressive range of more contemporary music.
Continue reading Double debut at Benaroya

By Philippa Kiraly

In the 15 seasons since its inception, the Auburn Symphony Orchestra has been steadily nurtured and an audience built by conductor Stewart Kershaw, general manager Lee Valenta, a devoted board and a supportive city, and one might consider last weekend’s final performances of this season as a watershed.

For the first time, the orchestra performed Mahler, in fact an entire Mahler program, with
the rarely-played extra movement, “Blumine,” of the Symphony No. 1, the “Songs of a Wayfarer,” and finally, the First Symphony itself, the “Titan.”

It is indeed a titan, for both orchestra and listeners, coming in at 55 minutes and jammed full of musical ideas, musical pictures and descriptions, and a chance for just about eveyone in the orchestra to shine. It’s also unlike any symphony that came before, and the original Budapest audience in 1889 was quite unprepared for this and reacted to it with considerable dislike.
Continue reading ASO tackles “Mahler’s Titan”