Author: Zach Carstensen

R.M. Campbell

Goodbye, as they say, is sweet sorrow, particularly in the hands of Pacific Northwest Ballet.

In recent years, the company in June does what it calls a “Season Encore,” which means a single performance dedicated to departing dancers. This season the class was especially large, with eight, possibly a record, including four principals: Ariana Lallone, Olivier Wevers, Jeffrey Stanton and Stanko Milov. The others were Stacy Lowenberg, Chalnessa Eames, Josh Spell and Barry Kerollis. On Sunday the performance at McCaw Hall went on for three hours. The air in the full house was exuberant and grateful for what these dancers had contributed to the company. Everyone was in top form, which made the farewells even more bittersweet. It was a swell evening of dance handsomely mounted. There were all sorts of flowers and kisses and hugs.

Peter Boal, artistic director for the past six years, made introductory remarks on stage in which each dancer was given his, or her, moment in the sun. Kent Stowell and Francia Russell, his predecessors at the company, wrote warmly and well in the lavishly illustrated and handsomely produced program. Stowell and Russell appeared on stage, as well as Patricia Barker, PNB’s prima ballerina until her retirement and now interim artistic director of Grand Rapids Ballet, as part of the flower brigade. Val Caniparoli, who choreographed “Lambarena” talked about Lallone, and a lovingly-made film about her was shown.
Continue reading PNB says goodbye to eight dancers

By Peter A. Klein

On Friday, June 3, the Seattle Symphony presented a “Samuel Jones Celebration” at Benaroya Recital Hall. Jones, who turned 76 last week, is about to end his 14-year tenure as the Symphony’s Composer in Residence.

Jones’ music is part of the American tonalist tradition that outgoing Music Director Gerard Schwarz has championed in performances and recordings. He freely uses modern compositional techniques, but his music is usually rooted in key centers—sometimes more than one simultaneously. Musical architecture and expression walk hand in hand. Seattle audiences have enthusiastically received Jones’ works, including concertos for horn, tuba, trombone and cello.
Continue reading Composer in residence Samuel Jones ends tenure with the Seattle Symphony

By R.M. Campbell

Pacific Northwest Ballet has taken three decades to come to glories of “Giselle,” which it did this weekend at McCaw Hall. Nothing much compares with this ballet, which has iconic status in the canon. It must succeed not through fortissimo gestures but pianissimo ones, those that hold us through subtlety and sheer beauty. Nearly all the great ballerinas of the past 150 years have taken on the title role — the list is astonishing. It represents “a superb chance to captivate, to dazzle, and to touch the heart,” to borrow a description from eminent dance critic Edwin Denby.

While the production — that is, sets and costumes, designed by Peter Farmer, for Houston Ballet — is well-worn, the concept is unique — a variant of the traditional one by virtue of newly employed historical sources. While differences in text and choreography are minimal — they will seem of little consequence to most ballet patrons — the professional dance world is fascinated, enough that the Dance Critics Association is holding its annual meeting in Seattle this week in order to see for themselves. It is this “new” version that makes PNB’s production novel.
Continue reading PNB gives “Giselle” its local premiere this weekend

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