Category: Seattle

Concert pianists often continue performing into old age, so long as their fingers remain supple and their ears sharp, and do so with the increased insight into the music and understanding of the composer’s intent which comes with long familiarity.

It was therefore with regret that I heard Dmitri Alexeev’s performance at Meany Theater Tuesday night.

Now in his early 60s, which should be his musical prime, Alexeev did justice to only one composer, Prokofiev. His performance of the Four Pieces for piano, Op. 32 was quirky and light, sharply delineated, completely assured and totally successful.

Would that he has brought the same perceptiveness to the Schumann and Chopin works which took up the remainder of the program.

In the past he has received enthusiastic plaudits for his lyricism, and the nuances and dynamics of his playing, but these were absent Tuesday.

His Schumann often sounded bewildering. In “Blumenstueck” with which he opened the program, his sense of rubato-the stretching of tempo and pausing after notes which correlates to the ebb and flow of speech-seemed more to halt the flow, rather than further the the phrases. In “Kreisleriana,” soft, slower passages had his old hallmarks, the delicate touch, fine shaping. The fast sections were musically disastrous. They sounded like a technically gifted teen trying to impress with how fast and loud the music could be played with no regards for the music’s mood. Phrasing was non-existent. The dynamics ranged between loud and louder. Alexeev’s left hand rose and crashed down on the piano, the right was steely-fingered, and in dense passages there were too many blurred, missed or wrong notes.

His Chopin was no better.  In the Rondo, Op. 1, parts were light and crisp, but clusters of fast notes sounded a little labored, and messy, while notes in the top register were steely to the point of ugliness, every time.

Four mazurkas had little dance to them, again with inappropriate rubato and hesitations which felt wrong in their locations. Alexeev played the daylights out of the lovely Nocturne in A-flat Major and Polonaise in the same key .

Most mature musicians take cognizance of the composer and his intent. Chopin played in small venues, on a light Pleyel piano. While his technique was amazing, his compositions scintillating, often brilliant, he was a superb, refined musician, not a bombastic performer.

Alexeev’s performance was loud, messy, almost crude at times. Except in the Prokofiev, where was the poetry, where was the music?

What a shame.

Tasmin Little’s two week residency with the Seattle Symphony ended this weekend.  The series of concerts she played marked the violinist’s debut with Seattle’s orchestra.  The concerts also demonstrated Little’s command of unlike repertoire.  During her stay, she played pieces for solo violin, Vivaldi’s excessively famous Four Seasons, and most recently Edward Elgar’s hauntingly romantic violin concerto.  Her performance of Elgar’s concerto was the capstone event for the violinist and the orchestra these last two weeks.

Elgar’s Violin Concerto was composed on the cusp of the 20^th Century.  Mahler’s symphonies, Richard Strauss’s Salome, and Schoenberg’s experimentations with atonality were well underway by the time Edward Elgar had finished his fifty plus minute concerto – the first piece the composer wrote for solo violin.  With musical innovation everywhere, audiences might have expected a piece from Elgar that also pushed music into new sound and structural realms.  Elgar, however, had different ideas.  At its very core, the concerto is an extension of the Romantic sound of the 19^th Century and a continuation of Elgar’s penchant for encoding his music with extra musical, personal meaning like he did with his earlier piece the Enigma Variations.

Like a lot of Romantic music, the concerto is both long-winded and utterly sensual.  One minute the music is frustrating and the next transfixing.  The musical language is easy to listen to, but the meaning hard to divine.

Little and the orchestra made a convincing case for the piece even if Little herself failed to put her own stamp on the music.  Elgar’s orchestral writing is such that it could easily overwhelm the solo violin.  Most of the time, Schwarz kept his orchestra at bay.  Only occasionally did a string swell overpower Little.  Within the orchestra, however, the woodwinds and brass were muzzled to the point of inaudibility during the first movement.  A disappointing oversight.

Nevertheless, the focus for the first half was Little.  Her passage work was smooth, articulation pronounced, and tone warm.  Though her technical abilities were astounding, overall her performance was straightforward and lacking in introspection.  Elgar’s concerto is so large, so obtuse, soloists need to do more than just play the notes on the page, or in Little’s case, the notes in her head.

I hate to say this, but Dvorak’s 6^th symphony, left me flat.  My problems were with the music itself and not the performance.  The 6^th symphony sits between Dvorak’s early, Slavic inspired music and his mature trio of later symphonies 7-9.  The symphony refers to the composer’s earlier Slavonic Dances, and the most effective movement for me, the scherzo, is the most obviously connected to the folk-inspired Dances.  The Seattle Symphony captured the rowdiness of this movement.  Afterward, I wondered if programming the extroverted Slavonic Dances – all or some – for the second half, would have been a better match for Elgar’s moody concerto.

The Bellevue Philharmonic brings Kevin Kenner to the Puget Sound as part of the Steinway Series.  Philharmonia Northwest plays a concert next weekend featuring Berlioz’s Beatrice and Benedict Overture, Mendelssohn’s 1^st Piano Concerto, and Schubert’s 3^rd Symphony.  The Ebene Quartet is in town this week too as part of the Seattle Symphony’s on-going cycle of Beethoven’s string quartets.

Camerata Northwest, a Portland based chamber music organization is coming through town this weekend and is playing at the Good Shepherd Center in Wallingford (one of my favorite music venues).  Oregon Symphony member and fellow blogger, Charles Noble, will be in town with the group.  On the program is an assortment of French chamber music.  Seattle audiences haven’t always embraced French chamber music.  This writer, however, is looking forward to the concert.

At the end of the week, Leonard Slatkin makes debuts with the Seattle Symphony.  The newly minted music director of the Detroit Symphony is bringing Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, a piece the Seattle Youth Symphony tackled with aplomb, Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, and Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto.

Storm from Benjamin Britten’s Four Sea Interludes ; Columbia University Symphony

There is so much to see and hear in William Kentridge’s conception of Monteverdi’s “Ulysses” that it’s hard to take it all in.

There is always plenty for the senses in opera, but along with the usual singing, acting, sets, costumes and supertitles, add to “Ulysses” puppets and continually changing black and white visuals which range from drawings of olive groves to close-ups of a surgery in progress to cityscapes, x-rays, and buildings falling down to flowers growing at fast forward.

Like the Monteverdi “Orfeo” of a month ago conceived by Italy’s La Venexiana, this has the musicians and performers together on the Moore Theatre’s small stage without a lot of action, but what a difference! Where “Orfeo” seemed disjointed and static, Kentridge’s ideas becomes a fascinating, absorbing production.

“Ulysses” has been cut to 90 minutes, the length of time the puppeteers can hold up the lifesize puppets. One could spend the entire opera just watching them. Picture each puppet with two humans, one to hold and manipulate the puppet, and the singer, who takes charge of a puppet arm.

Handspring Puppet Company of South Africa, which created these puppets and has traveled the world with this production (plus others conceived by Kentridge), brings them amazingly to life with close attention to tiny details of human movement. While the mouths don’t move, the hands, heads and body stances are remarkable lifelike.

At one point Ulysses and the ancient shepherd who recognizes him are walking through a landscape on the tier at the back of the stage, and it seems as though we are really watching it, as in a movie. The puppets (we only see their upper halves) “walk” through the scenery. And yet, as we draw back into reality, there are the puppet movers walking in place, moving their puppets as they move, and it’s the scenery on screen which moves past them. It’s extraordinarily realistic.

Kentridge, the puppets and stage director Luc de Wit traveled from South Africa for this revival, but the musicians and singers mostly come from the Seattle area, and were rehearsed by musical director Stephen Stubbs.

This is the opening production of Pacific Operaworks, a tiny presenting company established here and headed by Stubbs which aims to bring stellar productions to Seattle, like this one, of the kinds of opera and unusual concepts or performance practices which aren’t done by Seattle Opera. Stubbs intends to draw on the rich musical and theatrical resources of the Seattle area to complement what he brings in from elsewhere in the world. While Stubbs has been known for his work in the early music field, Pacific Operaworks does not intend to confine itself to that era.

Musically, this “Ulysses” is a joy.

Seven musicians led by Stubbs sit unobtrusively in a semicircular middle tier on stage, while the opera itself takes place on the tier behind them and the stage in front. Most are musicians well known to Seattle: Stubbs himself and Elizabeth Brown on chitarrone and archlute, harpist Maxine Eilander, violinists Tekla Cunningham and Ingrid Matthews, viola da gamba player Margriet Tindemans and cellist and lirone player David Morris.

The singing was superb almost across the board, with Ross Hauck a stand-out as Human Frailty in the prologue and Ulysses himself. Here is a singer who has not just a fine tenor voice and an operatic presence, but incorporates the florid 17^th century ornamentation with understanding ease as part of the expressive portrayal of his character. I was gripped by his Ulysses; and that it was a puppet with a singer standing beside him became moot. Mezzo-soprano Laura Pudwell as Penelope has the same characteristics as a singer. She created with her voice the embodiment of strength and patience, yet also portrayed a spitfire and doubter.  The strong cast included Jason McStoots as the old shepherd Eumaeus and Zeus: Douglas Williams, James Brown and Zachary Wilder as the three importunate suitors (each with other roles as well), Cyndia Sieden as Love and Athena, and Sarah Mattox as Fate and Penelope’s maid Melanto. Each deserves mention.

While so much is going on plus the need to keep an eye on supertitles far overhead, the production could be overwhelming, but it isn’t. It does leave one, however, with a strong wish to see it again to catch some of the myriad details missed the first time around.

Remaining performances at the Moore are March 13, 14, 20 and 21 at 7.30 p.m.,. Tickets are $40-85 at 206-292-ARTS or www.ticketmaster.com

As the economy continues to struggle, the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs released a report stating what should be obvious – corporate gifts to arts organizations are down.  The same report also offers suggestions for making beneficiary organizations more efficient and advice to donors on how to leverage their contributions more effectively.

What strikes me most about our local arts community is how conservative organizations are when the very essence of art is the creative process.  Established organizational paradigms that are at the very least outdated persist.  And donors continue to demand the same product, presented the same way for their money.  Regardless of whether others want the same thing.  It’s a curious arrangement, one resembling the American auto industry more than that of a community where ideas, creative freedom, and experimentation are the principles binding organizations to art.

The last leg of the Spectrum Dance Theater’s four-state US tour took us to Ogden, Utah. Located about 45 minutes north of Salt Lake City and surrounded by mountains, Ogden is only 25 minutes away from a ski resort. I was wishing that I had the time and gear to hit the slopes.

We performed for a full house at Weber State University. This was an excellent way to conclude the tour and the audience was enthusiastic, especially during the question/answer forum afterward. Some audience members were interested in the performance’s interpretation of Irwin Schulhoff’s music with regard to the Holocaust, since the pieces we performed were mainly written in the 1920s. Others struggled with how to walk away from the performance with hope in light of such dark subject matter.  One woman remarked that she “felt like a ragdoll” afterward. Audience members often ask Donald Byrd, the artistic director and choreographer of Spectrum, what a particular element of the piece means or symbolizes. He never answers, but instead responds, “What do you think it means?”

I performed during the first half of the show and had the opportunity to watch the second half from the back of the hall. Once again, I was struck by Donald Byrd’s expressive choreography and the dancers’ athleticism. Judith Cohen (piano) played throughout this difficult program with stamina and virtuosity. Rajan Krishnaswami (cello) was a fantastic collaborator in Schulhoff’s Duo and played a haunting rendition of the slow movement of Schulhoff’s Cello Sonata to end the program.

Both the musicians and dancers seemed pleased with their final performance. Although Ogden was a beautiful town, we were all relieved to return to Seattle and find snow on the ground. It was a pleasure to be a part of this important work, and to bring the music of Schulhoff to a wider audience.

Chalk it up to today’s youth being avid readers of the fantasy/reality mix: Harry Potter, the Twilight series, Artemis Fowl. (A generation ago the rage was Judy Blume, at least for the girls, and the trials of being a teen in today’s world.)

So the way-out phantasmagorical work that is Berlioz’ “Symphonie Fantastique” is music today’s kids have no trouble getting inside. Whether it was their understanding, the skill of the orchestra’s music director Stephen Rogers Radcliffe, or their astonishing technical ability, the SeattleYouth Symphony musicians gave a performance at Benaroya Hall Sunday which sent chills and thrills down the backs of at least one listener.

This is not easy music to play. From the long lines of the beginning theme, which sang light and beautiful with pauses which felt like breath and helped shape it, to the skittering sound of the witches in the last movement combined with the exuberant headlong rush of their dance, the performance absorbed the hearer. Clear, well phrased solos particularly from clarinet and english horn, excellent synchronization-it’s always a treat to hear an entire section playing as one instrument-and the sheer aliveness of their playing made this performance a memorable treat.

Difficult as is the Berlioz, what had come before was equally so. Radcliffe has the confidence to stretch his young musicians with works any orchestra would find a challenge and expect them to come up with the goods, which they did. Gershwin’s “Cuban Overture” swung with foot-tapping forward motion, and no player seemed fazed by the intricate cross rhythms which abound. I checked in frequently to hear the claves (wooden sticks) or wood box player, who had to be counting with fierce concentration the off-rhythms he was playing spot on, but kudos must go as well to the entire percussion section. At the end, there was a long pause of total silence in the audience, which included many young children.

In between the Gershwin and Berlioz came Britten’s “Sinfonia da Requiem,” which began with a startling bash on the bass drum. As befits a requiem the emotions were quite different, but the high quality remained, again with the percussion section doing excellent work. That’s not to short change the rest of the 122 players for whom there was barely room on stage, and it was notable that there were some very young musicians in responsible positions. String tone shone, energy and a fine sense of togetherness marked the playing. I’ve never heard theYouth Symphony sound better, and I look forward to their next concert.

“Pierced to the Heart” was the title of Choral Arts’ concert Friday night. It was described as celebrating the relationships of parents to their children, but it was hardly a happy reflection.

Of the works performed at St. Stephen’s Church in Laurelhurst, from the 15^th century to today, three dealt with a parent devastated by the death or impending death of a child, one with the death of a parent, one with a child’s feeling of abandonment, and one with a living relationship between parent and child which, from the music, I felt could be construed as a happy game, but the notes consider could be viewed as abusive.

Robert Bode, the group‘s artistic director says in the notes that it’s dire relationships which have produced compelling music, and perhaps that’s true. Just as stories in the press always lean to the worst, happy familial relationships just aren’t news- or music-worthy.

It would have been a pleasant antidote, though, to have in this program something like Brahms’ Lullaby.

Bode certainly chose some great music. There was a wonderful arrangement of the spiritual “Motherless Child” by Craig Hella Johnson, with a well-sung solo by Emily Herivel.

Dozens of composers have set the 13th century words of the “Stabat mater dolorosa,” with Josquin des Prez’s version picked for this program. It’s music which Choral Arts sings superbly well. The group’s pitch sense is masterly, making for true harmonies into which the listener can sink with pleasure, diction was clear and words heard easily. Although the words are anguished, they are those of a spectator, and the tone of the music is one of serene mourning which the choir captured.

If I had lost a child, I don’t think I would have found Eric Whitacre’s “When David Heard” (an outpouring of grief for the death of his son Absalom) any comfort, though the composer says it was intended for a bereaved father, a friend of his, hoping to give him a measure of peace and meaning.

The music was often crashingly dissonant, the sense discordant, the feeling uneasy. Anguish was here, but no resolution, despite some soft unison repetitions of the words ‘my son.” Musically it went on too long becoming increasingly rambling and disjointed. Yes, a bereaved person may feel just like this portrayal, and grief like this can feel as though it will never go away, but it doesn’t make for a continually interesting piece of music. The work could have done with some strong editing, as there is much good material in it.

The third work dealing with death of a child also had its problems, not in the music but in its execution. Carissimi’s “Jepthe” is an oratorio. When it was written in 17^th century Italy, opera was new, and while much loved already for its tale telling and theatrical staging, the Church wasn’t about to have it performed during Lent. Enter the oratorio, which, essentially is opera without the staging. All the drama and emotion must come through the voices or the instruments (for this, Choral Arts used harpsichod, organ and cello).

“Jepthe,” the Biblical story of the victorious general who has promised to sacrifice to God the first living thing greeting him on his return home, only to be met by his only daughter, is a moral tale of obedience, his to God, hers to him, but it has plenty of drama in his horror, her distress.

It’s all there in the music, but Choral Arts did not do it justice. Only the Jepthe, tenor Stephen Rumph, had the requisite dramatic ability and nuance in his voice. The daughter, soprano Sarah Markovits, had the very high notes but inadequate drama, and nor did the chorus provide much. The whole was thus uneven without enough forward motion.

Two works very different form each other, Vaughan Williams’ setting of “Full Fathom Five” from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” and John David Earnest’s setting of Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz,” completed the program and both were sung superbly well, with the sense of underwater undulations of current in the first, and the portrayals of rollicking fun combined with dizzy swoops in the other. Earnest was present for this work the choir commissoned from him (with Whitmas College), and appeared well pleased with the performance.

Choral Arts is always worth hearing. The Seattle area has a few choirs as good as any in the country, and Choral Arts is one of them.

This weekend is full of concerts.  Tomorrow, Seattle Pro Musica sings a concert at St. James Cathedral featuring pieces for double choir.  Herbert Howell’s Requiem,  Holst’s Ave Maria, and Stanford’s Magnificat are all on the program.  Throw in an excellent venue in St. James, and this is a must hear concert. 

Tasmin Little plays a solo recital based on her recording and online project – The Naked Violin – on Sunday.  While Tasmin Little is upstairs in the Nordstrom Recital Hall, downstairs, the Seattle Youth Symphony will be playing Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique and Benjamin Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem.  An impressive program for the teenage musicians.  The Seattle Philharmonic also play on Sunday.  Music from Peaslee, Levant, and Copland’s Billy the Kid are on the program.  Dusting off forgotten pieces of music is one of Adam Stern’s calling cards.  This concert is proof of that.

Next Friday, Joshua Roman comes back to town for what I think is the Seattle premiere of John Tavener’s Protecting Veil.  Tavener’s piece is paired with Shostakovich’s Op,110 String Symphony.  The concert is the next installment in the Northwest Sinfonietta’s survey of the 20th Century.  Orchestra Seattle is also back at it next Sunday with Beethoven’s 6th Symphony and Vaughn Williams’s Serenade.  Down south, in Portland, folks writing about classical music didn’t care for Carlos Kalmar’s decision to program the Serenade with Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.  Different city.  Different Beethoven symphony.  Same outrage?  Not from me.  I rather like the Serenade and actually think it pairs better with the 6th Symphony.