Category: Seattle

Midori, the Japanese violinist who goes by only her first name, comes to Seattle on a fairly regular basis, sometime in recital and sometimes with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. She played the first of four concerts Thursday night at Benaroya Hall.

The program was a curious one in that the violinist played three works with a much reduced orchestra in the first half, then abandoned the stage in order for the orchestra and its music director Gerard Schwarz to tackle the formidable Fifth Symphony of Prokofiev in the second half. I doubt if many would complain. There was Bach to begin — his Second Violin Concerto — and Schubert’s charming and fluent Rondo in A to conclude. In the middle was Schnittke’s First Violin Sonata arranged for violin and chamber orchestra.

Continue reading Midori Returns to Seattle and the Seattle Symphony this week at Benaroya Hall

For 28 years, Pacific Northwest Ballet has presented its school at the end of the season, from the very youngest to the professional division, at its performance home, first the Opera House and now McCaw Hall. This year was not any different, with performances Saturday afternoon and evening. The format changes somewhat from year to year to offer variety and a chance for the hundreds of students in the Seattle Center and Bellevue facilities to be on stage. Always the program begins with the youngest and continues chronologically.

Continue reading Pacific Northwest Ballet closed its season Saturday with day and night performances by its school

MOR has chronicled their first decade in a brand new documentary that will be premiered June 14, 2009 at 6:00 pm at MOHAI.

The Seattle Symphony Orchestra season keeps going deeper and deeper into summer. While one might think it would dumb down its programs, because of the longer, sunnier days, it is doing almost the opposite with well-considered, well-crafted collections of music. But it is not only the music that is often so striking but also the music-making.

Thursday night at Benaroya Hall is a case in point. There were the popular works as well as the local premiere of Thomas Ades’ Violin Concerto tucked in between. What made the evening particularly splendid was the high level of the playing, and conducting by David Robertson.

Continue reading Ades’s Violin Concerto is given its premiere Thursday night at Benaroya Hall

Orchestral musicians often chafe under the bit in orchestra performances where they don’t get to choose the music or the interpretation but must bow to another’s dictum. So many, if not most, play chamber music for pleasure, where they can follow their own inclination as to type of music, colleagues to play with, and just have fun or play for an audience if they want. (A note of experience here: my husband played viola in the Cleveland Orchestra for 40 years, and when not doing so he played Renaissance or Baroque music on period instruments.)

It’s also fun and enlightening for an audience to see orchestra musicians in another light. The New Chamber Series at Nordstrom Recital Hall is a wonderful showcase for this, and an outlet for the Symphony musicians for whom it is presented.

Continue reading Seattle Symphony musicians do their own thing in the New Chamber Series

Pacific Northwest Ballet says goodbye very well. At these special occasions — for example, Kent Stowell and Francia Russell as well as Patricia Barker — there is pomp and circumstance, sentiment, speeches, but not too many and not too long, and, of course, dancing. Barker and Nadeau said their farewells at their prime, even though they are both in their mid-40s. They made it easy to appreciate their numerous virtues.

Continue reading Louise Nadeau, a splendid dancer of nearly two decades with Pacific Northwest Ballet, shines with her company in a performance dedicated to her Sunday night at McCaw Hall