Guest conductor Teodor Currentzis — who boasts he will save classical music in a 2005 Daily Telegraph interview — appears with the SSO this weekend in a mildly interesting program.  The all Russian program which features Aram Khachaturian’s jagged violin concerto and the evergreen Fifth Symphony of Shostakovich should test the conductor’s mettle to make…

By R. M. Campbell Thursday’s concert of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra at Benaroya Hall possessed the kind of programming in which a guest conductor can easily make a big impression: Borodin, Khachaturian and Shostakovich. And so Teodor Currentzis, Greek-born, Russian resident, did in some quarters. “Polovtsian Dances” from Borodin’s opera “Prince Igor” are more standard…

By Philippa Kiraly If you haven’t already planned to go, and particularly if you are a singer, don’t miss Friday night’s final performance of “The Man in the Mirror.” It’s the light relief of the ongoing American Handel Festival, and a tour de force by tenor Ross Hauck. Thursday afternoon he performed it at the…

By R.M. Campbell It was with considerable disappointment that one heard the news the Brazilian pianist Nelson Friere had canceled His Seattle engagement Thursday night at Meany Hall. I well remember his striking combination of temperament and technique, but I had not heard him for sometime. Quickly Meany found a replacement — Garrick Ohlsson. The…

By Philippa Kiraly I first heard soprano Julianne Baird singing Baroque arias around a quarter century ago. I thought her voice was perfect then, but now, maturity has added more depth to a rich purity of sound making hearing her an experience not readily forgotten. Baird was performing with Gallery Concerts at Queen Anne Christian…

By Gigi Yellen A piano trio plays an all-Beethoven concert. So? So pianist David White’s sparkling standup delivery of script-free program notes, his hammy interpretations at the keyboard, and his jazz-combo-like connections with cellist Meg Brennand and violinist James Garlick combine to make an Onyx concert memorable. The program was smartly constructed, opening with Beethoven’s…

By R.M Campbell Arguably the most ambitious exploration of Handel ever held in Seattle — the American Handel Festival — opened Friday night with soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian singing music written for the famed Egyptian queen Cleopatra. Along with J.S. Bach, Handel is one of the twin towers of Baroque music. It is a mountain top,…

Andriessen isn’t as well known as his American minimalist counterparts. John Adams is close to a household name even if he doesn’t fit squarely in the minimalist frame anymore. Steve Reich and Terry Rile, not as well known, are endlessly inventive. Philip Glass is the purest exponent of the style. To compare Andriessen to these…

By Philippa Kiraly It’s always a red-letter week when Marvin Hamlisch comes to town, and even more so this time since he brought an entire program of Cole Porter’s music with him. I caught the last of four performances with the Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall Sunday afternoon and Hamlisch, who has been doing this…