Author: Zach Carstensen

Andriessen isn’t as well known as his American minimalist counterparts. John Adams is close to a household name even if he doesn’t fit squarely in the minimalist frame anymore. Steve Reich and Terry Rile, not as well known, are endlessly inventive. Philip Glass is the purest exponent of the style. To compare Andriessen to these three American minimalists, Andriessen seems closest to Steve Reich. Like Reich, Andriessen creates a new experience with each piece.  Andriessen isn’t content to let his music stand still, or ruminate over a musical idea or note just for the sake of it.  Yes he repeats ideas, but coupled with this repetition is a linear purpose that firmly establishes a beginning, middle, and end.

The six pieces performed Wednesday night spanned decades and differed in style, instrumentation, and emphasis. Each work cast Andriessen in a different light. Cragginess was balanced with sweetness. Elegance co-mingled with urban flair. The recital culminated a nearly week long residency for the composer at the Cornish College of Arts.

Continue reading Review: M is for Man, Music, Mozart

By Philippa Kiraly

It’s always a red-letter week when Marvin Hamlisch comes to town, and even more so this time since he brought an entire program of Cole Porter’s music with him. I caught the last of four performances with the Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall Sunday afternoon and Hamlisch, who has been doing this for 40 years or so, sounded as fresh and as inimitably witty as ever.

His trademark style always includes some conversation with the youngest concertgoers in seats near the front, and thrown-off remarks about the weather, the city, or whatever, while at the same time he is making kind and appreciative comments about the orchestra, the audience, and the soloists. It’s all very relaxed and the performance goes along smoothly appearing to be quite casual, though you know it is the end result of years of well-designed practice.
Continue reading A tribute to Cole Porter

By Philippa Kiraly

Concertgoers to the performance at Benaroya Hall Saturday night by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra had to pass a small group of pickets who presumably were Palestine sympathizers. Surprisingly there was also a noticeable police presence even after the picketers had gone, during intermission, and after the concert was over. All was peaceful, however, and nothing detracted from an excellent performance.

Tumultuous applause greeted conductor Zubin Mehta as he walked out on stage. The orchestra and Mehta are both rising 75 years old. Mehta first conducted it at age 25, and became its permanent conductor in his early thirties. It was clear throughout the evening that he knew the orchestra very well and that they knew him. His conducting was relaxed, even when he was eliciting intensity from the players. Their playing never felt forced, either.
Continue reading Israel Philharmonic celebrates 75 years with a stop in Seattle

However, the aversion to change has become so institutionalized, the concert hall of today might be one of the few places where something 100 years old is still called ‘modern’, where, if somehow miraculously reincarnated, a dazed Schubert could probably wander the halls for a week in his tailcoat and spectacles without drawing any attention (who was that little German-speaking fellow, the new violist? Shrug). The past, obsessively glorified, with its stranglehold on the present, is in no serious danger of being forgotten any time soon. For the sake of the future, the bonds might need to be loosened a bit.

From Michael Hovnanian’s Bass Blog. The entire post, titled A Country for Old Men, is a fascinating and thought provoking read on age and the modern orchestra. I found it especially fascinating because last night I read Alex Ross’s latest New Yorker column: Schubert on the Beach. Ross writes about the New World Symphony’s new hall in Miami, but he also says about Michael Tilson Thomas — the New World Symphony’s founding music director — “no other conductor today seems so alert to the entire cultural landscape around him.”

Age is at play in both pieces.  In Florida, young musicians led by their young at heart music director are trying everything in their power to enliven the concert experience.  They aren’t pandering to the audience with tricks, gimmicks, or other diversions.  Their experiments are an essential part of the concert experience.  Yet, in far too many concert halls, Hovnanian’s observations are the norm and Schubert can roam free.

Like Henry Purcell? Then there is no reason you shouldn’t see the final performance of the Indian Queen tonight at the Good Shepherd Center in Wallingford. This weekend is the first time this opera will be performed in Washington State. If you can’t to the Indian Queen, the Israel Philharmonic is in town as part of an eight city United States tour. Webern and Mahler highlight Zubin Mehta’s program. Also tonight the Medieval Women’s Choir will fill St. James Cathedral with deeply spiritual sounding music written by women composers or inspired by female poets.  For choral music lovers who don’t like medieval music, Opus 7 hosts their All Northwest concert. Tomorrow, Alastair Willis returns to conduct Orchestra Seattle in a two concerto program. The most interesting piece on the program isn’t a concerto however, it is Ralph Vaughn Williams Toward the Unknown Region. Philharmonia Northwest brings Daron Hagen’s Heliotrope to the stage; also tomorrow. And on Monday, the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra’s barn-storming musicians invade Meany Hall with Baroque music — Music for the Royal Fireworks, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 and two concertos. Nicola Reilly and Tyler Reilly will play Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins, and Katherine Isbill and Meese Agrawal Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Flutes.

Of course, this weekend is also the start of Seattle Opera’s run of Jules Massenet’s Don Quixote.

Brooklyn born, Northwest trained conductor Jonathan Pasternack is out with a new CD on the NAXOS label. His recording of Brahms’ First Symphony and Bela Bartok’s Miraculous Mandarian Suite with the London Symphony hit shelves last month. the recording stands apart from others because of Pasternack’s sharp, rhythmic focus. There is no dawdling. The music breathes, pants, and grabs listeners. Part of this effect comes from the ordering of the pieces on the CD. Bartok’s suite opens the disk in violently and this piece leads right into the pulsing fury of the the first movement in Brahms’ symphony.  Of course, the playing the LSO is superb.

In addition to a new recording, Pasternack took the job of steering the UW symphony and its other orchestras this year. the conductor isn’t using the University of Washington’s changing music department as an excuse to program standard repertory for the season’s symphony’s concerts. His line-up includes Stravinsky, Nielsen, Ives, Penderecki, and on Thursday Pasternack and the orchestra tackle Dimitri Shostakovich’s Eleventh Symphony.

After Pasternack and I learned we were neighbors in the same Seattle non-neighborhood we knew we had to get together to talk about music, his new recording and the UW Symphony.
Continue reading Jonathan Pasternack: out with a new CD and leading the UW orchestra