The Seattle Symphony will perform Olivier Messiaen’s “Oiseaux exotiques” (Exotic Birds) on this coming weekend’s concerts. That brings to mind a pivotal musical event in my life, when I first encountered the great French composer’s music, and the man himself. That encounter restored my faith in the possibilities of contemporary music.
It was early in 1975. I was a student in Boston. Like many an Overly Earnest Undergraduate, I had major philosophical and intellectual battles playing out in my mind. One that preoccupied me was the almost total dominance, in contemporary music, of the twelve-tone system (also called serial music or Serialism), developed by Schoenberg, Berg, Webern and their successors.
Lesley Rausch as Cinderella and principal dancer Jeffrey Stanton as the Prince. Photo Angela Sterling
By R.M. Campbell
The story of Cinderella is one that seems to have universal attraction in opera and particularly ballet. This season, for instance, there are four different productions in the United Kingdom: from Matthew Bourne’s, who set his during World War II, to the classic one of 1948 by Frederick Ashton. Pacific Northwest Ballet has its own version, choreographed by Kent Stowell. It was premiered in 1994, followed by a short tour, then revived and subsequently shelved. With its huge cast of adults and children, the production returned to the stage this weekend at McCaw Hall and will run through Feb. 13. Ticket sales, happily for PNB, are already above projections. Continue reading Kent Stowell’s “Cinderella” returns to PNB
Year after year, program after program, the Seattle Chamber Music Society’s summer and winter festivals tend to stay with listeners long after they have wrapped up. Inevitably some performances are better than others. The good ones are gripping, insightful, or intelligent. Because of this the six-week long summer festival and much shorter weekend long winter festival are so popular they attract subscribers who focus all of their attention at the festivals. This year’s winter festival, marked by a concert that featured all of the piano trios Johannes Brahms penned and a series of recitals where pianist Adam Neiman played all 12 Transcendental Etudes of Franz Liszt, was no different.
But it wasn’t just these two events that made the festival another worthy addition to Seattle’s chamber music scene. Sunday’s final program was a winner with the sold out crowd. The program featured Gabriel Faure’s First Piano Quartet, Dvorak’s Op. 87 Piano Quartet, and in the lead off position on the program, Mendelssohn’s lesser-known First Piano Trio. Continue reading Faure’s First Piano Quartet a winner at SCMS winter festival
Last week, Nordstrom Recital Hall was packed for the performances of Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Winter Festival, but it was not so full for last night’s chamber music concert by Seattle Symphony musicians.
Chamber music lovers missed out, as this concert was right up there in quality with the Winter Festival performances. On the program were Schubert’s Piano Trio No 2, Britten’s “Lachrymae” and Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 3. Continue reading Our own fine chamber musicians
If people were looking for star attractions Thursday night at Benaroya Hall, they found one in violinist Vadim Repin, who was the soloist with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.
His vehicle for virtuosity was Lalo’s “Symphonie espagnole,” a concerto by any other name written by a Frenchman in pursuit of Spanish temperament. Repin, a familiar face in Seattle since his local debut barely into his 20’s, wasn’t looking for much Spanish flavor in the Lalo. He sees the piece as a place to exhibit his astonishing technique, beauty of tone and musical elegance. He established his authority over the material immediately and nothing during the next 20 minutes or so would change that opinion. He has all the proper attributes for the many bravura opportunities Lalo provides. Repin took every one without any heavy breathing. His playing was secure at every level. While there was nothing remotely moving about anything he performed, the sheer sound he projected with such ease and the command he had of his instrument made a powerful impression. Continue reading New music, old music, and Repin at Benaroya Hall
Buoyed by a Groupon and the Northwest premiere of Hans Werner Henze’s Symphony No. 4 the Seattle Philharmonic sold out their concert last Sunday — the first one that I can remember in my seven years in Seattle. Normally, Seattle Philharmonic concerts are sleepy affairs which attract a devoted audience interested in Adam Stern’s eclectic and challenging programs (I hear Stern is aiming to perform Arthur Honneger’s Joan of Arc at the Stake next season). No jostling. No hunting for seats. No crowds.
There were so many people trying to get tickets, trying to find seats, that the start of the concert was delayed nearly thirty minutes. The Philharmonic’s ticket crew was overwhelmed. No matter, the Philharmonic achieved what every classical music organization — professional, amateur, community — butts in seats. Take note Seattle classical music organizations: Groupons sell tickets.
The Groupon deal — $9 for any concert — was good enough to pack Meany Hall with plenty of new concertgoers. According to the expired Groupon page 990 tickets/vouchers were sold. Wow. I am willing to bet at least some of them were unfamiliar with the Seattle Philharmonic and Adam Stern. I am also willing to bet that the Phil might actually have set an attendance record for a community orchestra in Seattle.
In the end it hardly matters because the Seattle Philharmonic capitalized on technology to fill the hall. Hopefully the Groupon audience doesn’t stop going to concerts by the Seattle Philharmonic.
The winter season of the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, which celebrates its 30th season this summer, was always a splendid idea. It was the first venture outside the confines of Lakeside School. This wise expansion was followed by the addition of a summer Eastside venue at the Overlake School. Both have proven to be splendid additions to the core festival for artistic and financial reasons. Among its other attributes, the winter festival opened the doors of Nordstrom Recital Hall which became the summer home of the Seattle festival last year. The festival had the advantage of knowing exactly where it was going when it left the wretched acoustics of St. Nicholas Hall at Lakeside for Nordstrom, a vastly superior space in spite of its quirkiness.
There were four concerts over the weekend, beginning on Thursday evening and ending Sunday afternoon, all sold-out or nearly so. Repertory rarely went beyond the canon, but there were points of interest. The concert Saturday night was devoted to the piano trios of Johannes Brahms — talk about intellectual comfort on a winter’s day — and pianist Adam Neiman played all of the “Transcedental Etudes” of Franz Lizst over three days. Continue reading Neiman tackles Transcedental Etudes as part of SCMS festival
Last year at Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Winter Festival, one of the concerts was devoted to Schumann’s Piano Trios. It was such an enlightening and successful performance that artistic director Toby Saks asked the same three players to do a similar concert at this year’s festival with Brahms’ Piano Trios. The result was Friday night’s concert at Nordstrom Recital Hall.
In the pre-concert recital, pianist Alon Goldstein linked the two concerts with comments on the connections between the Schumanns and Brahms and the Schumanns’ reaction, as they wrote it themselves, when the young Brahms first came to their house to play for them. Then Goldstein played one of the pieces Brahms had performed on that occasion: the Scherzo in E-Flat Minor, Op. 4. Continue reading Brahms, Brahms and more Brahms
Bright Sheng, a name familiar to SSO audiences, sat down with the Gathering Note earlier this month. The composer was in town to hear the orchestra perform two of his short pieces. One of them, Prelude to Black Swan, a world premiere. The other, Shanghai Overture, a Seattle premiere.
Sheng came onto the classical music scene in the 1980’s when he and a number of other Chinese composers settled in New York to continue their studies and also begin careers. A young Gerard Schwarz noticed the composer, commissioned a piece for his chamber orchestra, and helped launch Sheng’s career.
Schwarz and Sheng’s creative partnership has resulted in countless commissions and premieres, and two stints for the composer as Seattle’s composer in residence.
By this stage in the winter, many people are starved for more chamber music than they can get from the excellent but not so frequent performances on the UW Chamber Music Series. When Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Winter Festival arrives at Nordstrom Recital Hall, with four recitals and four concerts in four days by superb musicians in a small hall, where every move, every sound, every nuance from every player can be seen and heard close up, it’s like having a long-awaited feast.
Gathering Note 