Category: Seattle

Mickelthwate succeeds as last minute replacement for Maestro Wigglesworth

Alexander Mickelthwate

By R.M. Campbell

 

With a German guest conductor and the superb violinist Leila Josefowicz as the soloist, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra was in fine fettle Thursday night at Benaroya Hall.

Alexander Mickelthwate exuded youth and energy on the podium. But he was more than that. He had insight, depth and stylistic range. Josefowicz is known in Seattle not only for her virtuosity but her musical aplomb, seamless phrases and soaring sound.

Ravel’s “Mother Goose” Suite opened the evening. This is a charming bit of music, sometimes quirky, sometimes witty, sometimes touching. Mickelthwate captured all those qualities. He revealed his sensitivity to Ravel’s intentions and musical ambitions with a reading that oozed style and goodwill. With its five tales, the suite possesses immense imagination and individuality. Mickelthwate managed to establish the character of each section with accuracy and quickness and subtlety. The orchestra responded in kind.
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Quarter notes: Organ Symphony at Benaroya Hall

It’s doubtful Saint-Saens will ever be looked on favorably by snooty music historians. Early in his career he embraced Wagner and Liszt, championed the symphonic poem even, but later, he fiercely resisted the influence of France’s growing impressionistic crowd. Unabashed melody abounds in his music and It is fair to say the finale to his Organ Symphony is one of the most uplifting conclusions in all of classical music. This week’s SSO concerts feature Saint Saens’ towering cathedral of sound along with Strauss’ own towering Also Sprach Zarathustra. Melinda Bargreen at the Times seemed to like the concert Thursday which included yet another Gund/Simonyi commission.

The G/S commissions aren’t wearing well on me. Last week’s False Alarming by George Tsontakis was another cacophonous contribution. The piece, slipped between Hovhaness’ Mt. Ararat and Mt. Saint Helens, was barely noticed by the befuddled people around me who, because of an error in the program, were expecting the orchestra to play False Alarming first. A short announcement from the stage might have created at least a little excitement for the work. I haven’t heard all of the commissions this season, but to me they seem too short to matter. Maybe I am hearing the wrong ones.

Trisha Brown Company returns to the NW

Choreographer Trisha Brown.

By R.M. Campbell

It now has become a commonplace to note that the Northwest has been particularly fertile ground for choreographers. Robert Joffrey, Merce Cunningham and Mark Morris have powerful Seattle roots. The city would like to claim the fourth, Trisha Brown, but somehow she managed to skip Seattle on her way from her hometown of Aberdeen (like the painter Robert Motherwell), stopping in the Bay Area for Mills College and a couple of years in Reed College in Portland before arriving in New York where she has lived most of her life.

But she remembers the Northwest and feels a sense of kinship when she is in Seattle. It is a connection she never left.
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Don Juan—er, Don Giovanni—is alive and well in the 21st century

By Philippa Kiraly

Mozart knew what he was about when he chose the Don Juan story for his opera “Don Giovanni.” The character lives, today as much as he has through the ages, the seductive rake without conscience or regard for the consequences of his actions.

The opera is invariably popular. The current production, mounted by Seattle Opera’s Young Artists Program and performed at the Theatre at Meydenbauer Center, is set today, in a seedy little cafe somewhere in Southern Europe, where the entertainment is old, very old, movies from the silent era which play much of the time on the back screen.
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Chamber music concerts make case for local talent

Morton Feldman and John Cage.

Like most cities with an active cultural life, we are spoiled by performances from some of the biggest and best names around.  They come through Benaroya Hall each season, dazzle with their stardom and occasionally their playing.  Because of the enterprising work of Toby Saks and the Seattle Chamber Music Society, we are also privy to emerging talent long before they make it big. So dominant are the Seattle Chamber Music Society’s festivals that it has been said to me that some patrons subscribe only to the summer and winter festival and nothing else. No Seattle Symphony. No opera. No UW World Series. Nothing but chamber music from July to August and a long weekend in January each and every year.  Meanwhile, there are countless organizations, groups, and individual musicians toiling away with exceptional performances that are barely, if at all, noticed by music lovers or the press.

In the past month, three performances, barely covered — if at all by the mainstream media — showcased the depth of the chamber music talent right here in Seattle. Three concerts, and three ensembles that in any other city would have found healthy appreciation.

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Curtis Institute returns to Seattle

By R.M. Campbell

Musicians from the Curtis Institute returned to the Henry Chapel Wednesday night in the Highlands for its third year. The concerts have become predictable: interesting repertory, exemplary musicianship.

Already known and widely respected in the music world, the Philadelphia conservatory wanted a broader profile. And so, among other activities, it has embarked on a series of tours featuring not only students but now faculty. Seattle is on the tour itinerary with concerts scheduled in the intimate Henry Chapel in the Highlands. This is chamber music at its best — in a warm, appealing space that is not so large. The audiences have been attentive and appreciative.
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Handel’s Dixit Dominus: a paradox of beauty and fury

GF Handel.

Handel’s Dixit Dominus is a curious testament to GF Handel’s time in Italy. A setting of Psalm 109, it is on the one hand a deeply spiritual statement. Handel’s contrapuntal inventiveness and his flexible, often soaring writing for chorus and vocal soloists, do more than state Christian beliefs, they embody a deep spirituality. On the other hand, the text — angry, vengeful, furious — seldom matches the spirit of Handel’s music. There is plenty of mention of enemies (“your foes I will put beneath your feet”); power (“rule in the midst of all your foes”); violence (“he shall crush the heads in the land of many”); and of course judgment (“he shall judge among the nations…”) This is the paradox of the Dixit Dominus and it is also exactly why I am moved by the piece every time I hear it.
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Portland Baroque presents Bach’s St John Passion as part of Handel Festival

Monica Huggett. Photo Portland Monthly.

By Philippa Kiraly

We don’t often have the opportunity to hear either of the great Bach Passions, so we owe a big vote of thanks to the Early Music Guild for bringing us a stellar performance of the St. John Passion by Portland Baroque Orchestra, Les Voix Baroques, and Cappella Romana, Sunday afternoon at Town Hall.

Monica Huggett, violinist and artistic director of Portland Baroque, chose to perform it with a small orchestra of fourteen and small chorus of twelve.which included the soloists. While this Passion is shorter than the St. Matthew, two and a quarter hours including an intermission, this puts quite a burden on the singers who stood throughout, particularly tenor Charles Daniels, who sang all the chorales and choruses as well as the demanding role of the Evangelist.
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PNB’s mixed bill opened this weekend

By R.M. Campbell

There is very little not to like or admire in Pacific Northwest Ballet’s mixed bill which opened this weekend at McCaw Hall. A good share of it was astonishing.

Two works entered PNB’s repertory and two were revivals. One of the most important aspects of Peter Boal’s regime as artistic director has been his introducing to the company and the region all kinds of new works from leading choreographers of the day. Two were brand-new on this bill: Marco Goecke’s “Place a Chill,” a world premiere, and Alexei Ratmansky’s “Concerto DSCH.” The latter was the more important because the choreographer is so much better-known, and “DSCH” is the first of his works to arrive in Seattle. The Russian choreographer’s “Don Quixote” will have its Seattle premiere next season. Ratmansky originally set his piece on New York City Ballet, where he was poised to become resident choreographer, succeeding Christopher Wheeldon, whose ballets PNB has danced. But Ratmansky decamped abruptly to American Ballet Theatre where he is now artist-in-residence.
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