Category: Seattle

When I started blogging in 2007 I was writing for myself. I joke with friends and colleagues that I am just a guy with a computer who loves music. I suspect most, if not all bloggers start this way. I was writing about the concerts and ensembles I was interested in. I was interviewing musicians who interested me. Two years later, I would like to think I am still writing for myself. And I am still talking to the people, musicians, and conductors I am interested in hearing from. But in the two years since I began this blog a strange thing happened; The Gathering Note, formerly Classical in Seattle, became the center of classical music writing in Seattle and the Puget Sound.

Continue reading Two years ago

Almost half a millenium ago, at the cathedrals of Seville, or Segovia, or Salamanca in Spain, you could have heard choristers singing music in praise or prayer. Sunday night, you could hear that same music at St. James Cathedral here in Seattle. Now, that’s longevity.

The music of Francisco Guerrero and his younger compatriots Sebastian Vivanco and Tomas Luis de Victoria has never gone out of style. Their music, and that of colleagues from other European countries for the next few centuries comprises the huge flowering of magnificent sacred music in the Renaissance, and at any given time, today, some of it is being sung somewhere.

Continue reading The Tallis Scholars and The Tudor Choir sing ageless music

Last week, Seattle Opera announced that the company’s 2008/09 Artists of the Year awards went to mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe for performing the role of Amneris in Verdi’s “Aida” in August 2008, and to François Racine for his stage direction of Seattle Opera’s double bill of Bartók’s “Bluebeard’s Castle” with Schoenberg’s “Erwartung” in February and March, 2009. Seattle Opera has selected an artist of the year since 1991, and in 2004 it decided to give the award to two types of artists: the singer and the other a conductor, director, or designer.

For an interesting interview with Stephanie Blythe, click here.

Robber barons, financial greed, venality, hanky-panky or downright dishonesty in high places. Sound familiar? All was endemic in England and in the U.S at the end of the 19th century. In the U.S. the situation blew up with the stock market crash in 1929, despite the efforts of Theodore Roosevelt to rein in the worst of the excesses. In England, W.S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan shone a spotlight on them in their second to last comedic collaboration, “Utopia, Limited.” (“Ltd.” is the word after an English corporate name which corresponds to the U.S. “Inc.”)

Always timely, Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society presents “Utopia, Limited” as its annual production this month, and it opened at the Bagley Wright Theatre Friday night.

The plot is as silly as always.

Continue reading Tous ca change…the prescience of Gilbert and Sullivan

When Intiman Theatre added Shakespeare’s great drama “Othello” a year ago to its 2009 season, Bartlett Sher, the company’s artistic director was scheduled to direct it. Then, his new life in New York began to take precedence and another production was announced in its place. First produced in New York in February by the Theatre for a New Audience, the “new” Othello made its Seattle debut this week.

This is a stripped-down version of the Renaissance play, with barely a set and few props. Costumes, carefully considered and designed, could be anywhere at anytime, almost. At that, the visual aspects are remarkably handsome. There are several levels but most of the action takes place on the main floor which has as its centerpiece a mottled appearance that is striking by itself. As time and circumstances dictate, furniture — a table, chairs, lamps and inevitably a bed for the last scene — are brought in to do duty For all of its austerity and avoidance of period luxury, the production is stylish.

Continue reading A Riveting production of “Othello” Opens at Intiman

A couple of weeks ago, the Seattle Opera announced that it will a $500,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to help underwrite costs involved in producing “Amelia,” a new opera with music by American composer Daron Aric Hagen with a libretto by American poet and writer Gardner McFall, and a story by Stephen Wadsworth. In addition, The Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences has given Seattle Opera $300,000 and will be the production sponsor for “Amelia.” “Amelia” is the first opera to have been commissioned by Seattle Opera during the tenure of its general director Speight Jenkins. Continue reading Seattle Opera receives $500k for new opera

Tomorrow night the Seattle Chamber Music Society’s summer festival begins at the Lakeside School.  The Gathering Note will be there, covering each concert, tweeting (sign up to receive twitter updates if you haven’t already), and providing other content through the duration of the festival.  Tickets are still available and can be purchased by clicking the ad in the side bar.

The line up of pieces and musicians is always impressive, but some of my favorites this year include:

• Ernest Bloch’s Piano Quintet Nr. 1 (July 10, 2009)
• The world premiere of Christopher Theofanidis’s Duo for Violin and Cello played by James Ehnes and the Detroit Symphony’s Robert deMaine (July 13, 2009)
• Paul Schoenfield’s Cafe Music (July 17, 2009)
• Richard Strauss’s early Quartet for Piano and Strings (July 20, 2009)
• Jeremy Denk playing Ligeti and Liszt in a FREE recital (July 22, 2009)
• Shostakovich’s Piano Trio Nr. 2 Op. 67 (July 22, 2009)
• Darius Milhaud’s Suite for Violin, Clarinet and Piano from “Le voyaguers sans bagages” (July 24, 2009)
• Jeremy Denk and Soovin Kim playing Charles Ives’s Sonata Nr. 3 for Violin and Piano in a FREE recital (July 29, 2009)
• Mendelssohn’s Octet (August 5, 2009)
• Dvorak’s Sextet for Strings Op. 48 and Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet (August 10, 2009)

The Seattle Symphony subscription season ended Thursday and Friday night much as it began, with a large-scale choral symphony. In September, the piece Schwarz and the orchestra put on display for Seattle was Mahler’s 8th Symphony. Thursday and Friday, the SSO took on a brand new piece by the American composer Aaron Jay Kernis.

A few years ago the Seattle Symphony and Lara and Jeff Sanderson commissioned Kernis to compose a compact, new piece of music for chorus and orchestra. Originally the work was scheduled for the 2007/2008 season. However, as Kernis was writing the piece, the size and scope of the piece grew and the premiere was delayed so Kernis could put the finish touches on what would become his 3rd Symphony — “Symphony of Meditations.” Like the 8th Symphony, vocal music is at the core of Kernis’s new piece. “Symphony of Meditations” debuted Thursday night alongside Gustav Holst’s popular orchestral suite “the Planets.”

Continue reading “Symphony of Meditations” premiered in SSO season finale

Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony premiere Aaron Jay Kernis’s 3rd Symphony this week.  The composer shares his thoughts about the piece and his relationship with Seattle and the Seattle Symphony.

Zach Carstensen: Your Symphony Nr.3, “Symphony of Meditations”, is a number of years in the making.  I may be wrong about this, but initially, the piece was not intended to be a symphony.  When you first put pen to paper, what were you thinking this commission would be?

Aaron Jay Kernis: Initially I was asked by Seattle Symphony to write a large piece for orchestra of about 25-30 minutes. As my ideas for the work took shape, I could tell I wanted most to write a piece that voices as well. During the year that it was originally to be premiered, the SSO chorus was not available, I asked to work with a group of 12 solo singers, but once I began setting the text it was clear that I really needed a large choir and 2 solo singers, so the premiere was moved to this season, when the choir was available.The piece is about an hour long, so it grew quite a bit in size and scope.

Continue reading TGN’s Zach Carstensen talks with Aaron Jay Kernis