Two of the regular musicians in the festival, pianist Anton Nel and cellist Bion Tsang are set to release an album this summer just in time for the festival. Included on the album are four of Brahms’s Hungarian Dances transcribed for by Tsang for the cello.
Here is a short clip of Tsang’s version of Hungarian Dance Nr. 5:
“Confessions” voting has begun. “Confessions” is the contest launched by Seattle Opera to find a reality host for this summer’s production of the Ring. “Confessions” will be the culmination of the first phase of the Wallace Grant the Seattle Opera received last December.
Who will win? Each of the finalists brings their own zeal to the subject and their own creativity. Amy Tower is quirky, Jeff Powell is relaxed, Colton Carothers is energetic, Howard Wu seems like a real person, and Cassidy Brettler has an impressive resume. At least one contestant has mounted a campaign to win enough votes to be the “Confessions” host. Even though the idea is to find a host with little to know experience with opera, I do hope whomever wins spends an afternoon with Shaw’s “The Perfect Wagnerite.”
For Seattle Opera’s summer production of the Ring.
Any of us who hike know where Icicle Creek is. So do musical devotees who make the trek over the mountains to the Icicle Creek Music Center for concerts or a festival near Leavenworth. But we haven’t had its resident chamber ensemble, The Icicle Creek Piano Trio, come the other way to perform here in Seattle until Saturday night when it gave a concert of music by Turina, Clara Schumann and Shostakovich Downstairs at Town Hall.
The group’s quality has been heralded by the recent release of its CD of Ravel and Schubert, which has received rave reviews from Gramophone, Strad and Fanfare magazines and the American Record Guide, rare for a debut recording. More about this down the page.
Continue reading Shining Seattle debut of The Icicle Creek Piano Trio
Pacific Northwest Ballet offered all sorts of pleasures this past season, but none more than its last mixed bill which opened Thursday night at McCaw Hall.
The program, which runs through June 7, is a deft coupling of works new to PNB’s repertory and a standard bearer of its reputation. Jerome Robbins’ “Dances at a Gathering” opened the evening in a sublime fashion, followed by Christopher Wheeldon’s “After the Rain Pas De Deux,” first seen in Seattle this fall at the company’s annual gala. The summation of the night was Balanchine’s “Symphony in C,” which has been a part of PNB’s artistic profile for 22 years.
Continue reading PNB Closes Its Subscription Season With Robbins, Balanchine, and Wheeldon
The blurbs about this concert all blazed “Rachmaninov!” and of course anything by him is a draw, but the major interest of the Seattle Symphony concert Thursday night at Benaroya Hall was the premiere of David Stock’s Cello Concerto with Joshua Roman as soloist.
Both have connections to the orchestra and Seattle. Stock was the SSO’s composer-in-residence in the late 1990s, and Roman, like a meteor starting its run, was for a brief time principal cellist for the SSO. He left last summer to begin a solo career.
The Seattle Symphony’s New Chamber Series was created with one goal in mind: spotlight the talents and interests of musicians in the orchestra. Large, enthusiastic audiences turned out for a trombone recital, a performance by the Serious Quartet, and a varied recital this past Sunday featuring string players Elisa Barston (violin), Mara Gearman (viola), and Joseph Kaufman (bass). Ben Hausmann, the Seattle Symphony’s principal oboe accompanied Barston and Gearman on piano. This recital was the first time I can recall Hausmann playing piano in public. Jerrod Wendland accompanied Kaufman at the piano.
Continue reading New Chamber Series: recital focuses on Seattle Symphony musicians
Simple Measures founder Rajan Krishnaswami and Mark Salman are holding a recital at Town Hall to benefit Simple Measures. The cello and piano duo will be playing music by Shostakovich, Debussy, Chopin, and others. The two talked about the music briefly in a video (May 29, 2009).
Another cellist will grace Seattle this weekend as well. Joshua Roman left the Seattle Symphony a year ago, but kept close ties to the area. He is returning to play the premiere of David Stock’s Cello Concerto. Curiously, the concerto was written in 2001 and hasn’t been performed until now. James DePriest is guest conducting and he will also lead the orchestra in Smetana’s Overture to the “Bartered Bride” and Rachmaninov’s final composition, the Symphonic Dances.
Orchestra Seattle ends their 2008/2009 season next Sunday with “Slavic Melodies” a concert with Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto Nr. 2 and Antonin Dvorak’s Czech Suite. Mark Salman takes the bench again, this time for Rachmaninov’s daunting piano concerto (June 7, 2009).
For those of a certain age, Herb Gardner’s comedy, “A Thousand Clowns,” which just opened at the Intiman Theatre, will seem like a period piece, an exotic view into the early 1960’s before they became the 1960s as they are usually regarded. For others, much older, the play will bring back memories of an era well-remembered when life seemed safer, quieter, for some anyway, predictable and conventional.
That is the apple cart the leading character Murray Burns, a burned-out gag writer for a television children’s show, wants to overturn. After a lot of ranting and raving — the entire length of the play — he returns to the show and resumes a middle-class existence. Gardner doesn’t view Burns’ capitulation to the ordinary as a defeat but as a return to a human being who cares about the people around him instead of being a narcissist.
Continue reading Herb Gardner’s Comedy, “A Thousand Clowns”, is revived at Intiman Theatre
Tuesday marked the end of a two week residency for the Marian Anderson String Quartet. The residency began in October, with the ensemble mentoring string students in Seattle schools. In the final week, the group continued to work with students, but also closed out the residency with a performance at the University of Washington’s Meany Hall.
The Marian Anderson Quartet has been a favorite with Seattle audiences for years now. It’s easy to see why. Their easy demeanor and willingness to talk, banter, and rib the audience is disarming. This attitude carries over to their playing which is versatile, effortless, and full bodied. It has to be. The group tackles unfamiliar music as willingly as they delve into standard repertoire.
Continue reading Marian Anderson Quartet: Seattle favorite plays Piazzolla, Still, and Mendelssohn
Gathering Note 