Author: Zach Carstensen

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

By Philippa Kiraly

I first heard soprano Julianne Baird singing Baroque arias around a quarter century ago. I thought her voice was perfect then, but now, maturity has added more depth to a rich purity of sound making hearing her an experience not readily forgotten.

Baird was performing with Gallery Concerts at Queen Anne Christian Church Saturday and Sunday in the opening weekend of this month’s Handel Festival. Together with harpsichordist Jillon Stoppels Dupree, violinist Tekla Cunningham and gamba player Margriet Tindemans, and a delightful lecture prior to the concert by George Bozarth, the concert gave a fine sampling of Handel’s oratorical and operatic activities punctuated by instrumental works.
Continue reading Julianne Baird entrances Gallery concertgoers

By Gigi Yellen

A piano trio plays an all-Beethoven concert. So? So pianist David White’s sparkling standup delivery of script-free program notes, his hammy interpretations at the keyboard, and his jazz-combo-like connections with cellist Meg Brennand and violinist James Garlick combine to make an Onyx concert memorable. The program was smartly constructed, opening with Beethoven’s first published work—his first piano trio—and concluding with his majestic “Archduke.” In between, and especially well served by White’s intro, Beethoven’s much revised and strangely dramatic elaboration on a lightweight theme, the “Kakadu” variations.

Onyx has found its just-right performance venue in the intimacy of Town Hall Seattle’s downstairs space. White’s expressive gestures, his seasoned wit and enthusiastic keyboard approach, combine with Brennan’s openhearted precision to support young Garlick’s developing technique and increasingly lyrical lines. The three took great care with Beethoven’s signature dynamic shifts and tricky rhythms. You might have called this concert “Fun with Beethoven,” except that the serious stuff received its due, too.
Continue reading All Beethoven from the Onyx Chamber Players

By R.M Campbell

Arguably the most ambitious exploration of Handel ever held in Seattle — the American Handel Festival — opened Friday night with soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian singing music written for the famed Egyptian queen Cleopatra.

Along with J.S. Bach, Handel is one of the twin towers of Baroque music. It is a mountain top, rather mountain range, well worth time spent in it and gazing upon it. That is exactly what this festival aims to do via 30 performances of music by the master and his contemporaries with more than 25 organizations, such as the Seattle Symphony Orchestra Friday night, in attendance. In addition to orchestral music there will performances of his chamber opera “Acis and Galatea” and the oratorio “Esther,” as well as Bach’s “St. John’s Passion” and all manner of novelties that should attract a wide range of listeners. The American Handel Society, founded in 1981, held the the festival in its early days on the campus of the University of Maryland. Subsequently, it has gone on tour, this year to Seattle, organized by the energetic and informed Marty Ronish, who lives in Edmonds, but enjoys a national presence.
Continue reading American Handel Festival launched Friday night at Benaroya