If you went to the Seattle Philharmonic concert this past weekend you learned two lessons. First, parents should keep their young children at home. Second, among community orchestras, the Seattle Phil is the best I have heard so far this year. They are a group of musicians capable of unexpected, even stunning results.
The Everett Symphony canceled the remainder of its season for budget reasons. This is bad for a number of reasons, but I am especially disappointed that we won’t be able to hear Mara Gearman play the Walton Viola Concerto now.
And, it now appears, a federal mediator is helping SSO management and musicians hammer out a new contract. Can they reach a deal before next season is unveiled early next month?
You could say the violin is the foundation of classical music. There are more violins in the modern symphony orchestra than any other instrument. String quartets use two of them. Piano trios depend on the instrument’s singing qualities to balance out the piano. Concerti for the instrument are some of the most famous pieces in the entire classical cannon. Soloists – from Isaac Stern to Paganini – have used the instrument to dazzle crowds and gather fame. While much of the chatter among classical music fans has focused on the Seattle Symphony this month, two concerts – both giving prominence to the violin – deserved more attention than they received.
Continue reading Violin is featured in Bellevue Phil and Seattle Baroque concerts
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By R.M. Campbell
A breeze, both warm and cool, arrived Thursday night at Meany Hall and will stay the weekend. Its name is the Richard Alston Dance Company.
The English company, named after its founding choreographer and artistic director, is known for its sunny, ebullience, the kind that is rather out-of-fashion in today’s rough-and-tumble culture. But as the company proved Thursday night, in an all-Alston program, it is about many things. It provides pleasure the way Paul Taylor does, can divide up space in the manner of Merce Cunningham, can sustain intensity of mood like Twyla Tharp and enjoys elegance, in an abstract way, that reminds one of George Balanchine. Still, in the end, Alston is his own man.
Continue reading Richard Alston Dance Company returns to Meany Hall in splendid shape
He played the jazz composer David Sanford’s “7th Avenue Kaddish,” which Haimovitz commissioned after the 9/11 attacks: he described the piece as a hybrid between a sax and a cantor as the buildings collapsed, inspired by Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme.” He played another Canadian composer, Gilles Tremblay, who uses microtonal music (“so if it sounds like I’m playing out of tune—he asks for that”), Eastern-inspired, in his “Threnody for Lebanon.” Steven Stucky’s “Dialoghi,” inspired by Italy, written for one of Haimovitz’s students, wandered through Lutoslawski territory, concluding in a beautiful finale.
The audience applause that burst out when the first encore began just shows the power of the hit tune you’ve been waiting all evening for: the prelude from Bach’s first cello suite, followed by the allemande from Bach’s 6th suite. The need to remember where home is touches even the most adventurous programmer, and even his most enthusiastic fans.
By Gigi Yellen
“Baroque Music for Humans” was the title of the pre-concert conversation between Nicholas McGegan and the critic Bernard Jacobson. What was that supposed to mean? Who cared? Fun was the attitude of the day at this last in a three-concert series at Benaroya Hall with the renowned music director of San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.
By R.M. Campbell
Verdi’s “Il trovatore” has been regarded as a joke, with great tunes; a unsurpassed example of Romantic melodrama; one of the last breaths, in 1855, of an earlier era of Italian opera, a work nearly impossible to stage with any credibility today. Enrico Caruso once quipped that all one required for a good performance were the four greatest singers in the world.
As the second opera in its Verdi cycle this season, Seattle Opera this weekend at McCaw Hall took the leap for its first ‘Trovatore” in 13 years.
Update
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Management issued a statement on the musicians’ unanimous rejection of the latest contract proposal late yesterday. The press release hits the points management has been making in recent days, and specifically, the need for a long-term plan that ensures the financial viability of the orchestra. Management also says they will go back to the bargaining table.
The board and management of Seattle Symphony are very disappointed that the Seattle Symphony and Opera Players’ Organization has rejected the offer that we have given them during our negotiations. Over the past eight months we have been very specific about the financial position that the Symphony is in, and how important the musicians are to us. We have made it very clear that there is a need for a long-term plan and solution to the financial situation we are encountering and we’re reluctantly asking the musicians to make concessions to help us create a stable and solid future for the Symphony. We intend to go back to the bargaining table as quickly as the union will meet with us, and seek to find a speedy resolution to this situation so that we can get back to the business of presenting artistically exciting performances for our community. We anticipate all performances to go forward as planned.
Seattle Symphony musicians unanimously (as in no one voted for it) rejected management’s last, best offer. The players cite four reasons for the rejection — salary concessions ($11 million is too much), length of the contract (5 years is too long), unfilled positions (too many temp players in key spots), and experimental revenue sharing (unproven). The text of the full press release is after the jump.
Continue reading Musicians reject proposal and management responds
The Seattle Symphony and Opera Players’ Association returned Leslie Jackson Chihuly and management’s fire from late last week. Hale’s manifestos read like “The Ninety Five Theses.” They aren’t focused on any one particular issue but are all broad swipes at management, Ralph Craviso, and now Henry Fogel.
A Tale of Two Cities: Does excellence matter? Will the vision return?
By Timothy R. Hale, viola
Chair, Seattle Symphony & Opera Players’ Organization
Are we really living inside a Dickens novel? A Tale of Two Cities declares “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” On the one hand we have just given a week of historic concerts under the storied maestro Kurt Masur: arguably one of the finest sets of concerts ever given by the Seattle Symphony. On the other hand, our days are occupied fending off the tired and discredited schemes of a McKinsey-originated financial model, and responding to the disingenuous monologues of the board’s NYC based consultant, Ralph Craviso (running the SSO in the stead of Thomas Philion, the nominal Executive Director).
Gathering Note 