By R.M. Campbell
Michael Feinstein’s compact disc “The Sinatra Project” has around a few years and won plenty of fans, now including Seattle where Feinstein appeared Monday night at Benaroya Hall, courtesy of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. Not many would take on Frank Sinatra: He is too famous, his musicality and timbre too individual and, need one say it again, too iconic.
Continue reading Michael Feinstein celebrates Valentine’s Day at Benaroya Hall
By R.M. Campbell
With no show to fill up the vast stage of the 5th Avenue Theatre — “Next to Normal” opens Feb. 22 — the company decided to slip in a sweet tribute to Valentine’s Day over the weekend.
Card shops go crazy on Valentine’s Day, flower emporiums do record business and restaurants are packed. Even libraries occasionally get into the act: Special Collections at the Suzallo Library on the University of Washington campus has a small, charming exhibition of vintage Valentine’s cards. Charming? Sweet? Novel? That and more.
Symphonies sometimes do something, although I am not sure Michael Feinstein’s “Sinatra Project” Monday night at Benaroya Hall qualifies. The 5th Avenue Theatre’s musical review, “My Funny Valentine,” does. This is an excursion into the American Songbook about love in its many facets, mostly ballads but not all. Most of the cast of nine singers and orchestra did familiar tunes, and I doubt that many in the audience objected. I didn’t.
Continue reading Fifth Avenue Theatre celebrates Valentine’s Day with song
By Peter A. Klein
The Northwest Sinfonietta’s February program “Mozartiana” featured a world premiere—the Clarinet Concerto “Freedom,” by Alissa Firsova, written for Seattle Symphony clarinetist Laura DeLuca. The concert was heard Friday night, February 11 at Benaroya Recital Hall, with performances on Saturday and Sunday at Tacoma’s Rialto Theater and in Puyallup.
Firsova was born in Moscow in 1986. Her parents are the noted Russian composers Elena Firsova and Dmitri Smirnov. The family emigrated to England in 1991, where Alissa completed her musical education. She is both a composer and an accomplished pianist. A sampling of her music can be found on YouTube.
Continue reading Alissa Firsova Clarinet Concerto, “Freedom”
By R.M. Campbell
The Seattle Symphony program had plenty of merit — Ravel, Messiaen, Mozart and Brahms — and so did the playing and conducting Thursday night at Benaroya Hall. Douglas Boyd was the conductor and pianist Peter Serkin the soloist. The Scottish conductor is new to Seattle, Serkin is not.
The young conductor has a career that is ever widening, beginning in United Kingdom and expanding to the continent and North America. He is music director of the Manchester Camerata, principal conductor of the Musikkollegium Winterthur and principal guest conductor of the Colorado Symphony and City of London Sinfonia. Little wonder. He demonstrated Thursday in Ravel’s “Le Tombeau de Couperin” how he can create vibrant textures, clarity and balance and readily evoke the 18th century along with the 20th. The Ravel had remarkable restraint and balance in which everything had its place. The reading sustained admirable evenness. Ben Hausmann’s oboe solo was notable.
Continue reading Peter Serkin returns to Seattle for Messiaen and Mozart
By Peter A. Klein
The Seattle Symphony will perform Olivier Messiaen’s “Oiseaux exotiques” (Exotic Birds) on this coming weekend’s concerts. That brings to mind a pivotal musical event in my life, when I first encountered the great French composer’s music, and the man himself. That encounter restored my faith in the possibilities of contemporary music.
It was early in 1975. I was a student in Boston. Like many an Overly Earnest Undergraduate, I had major philosophical and intellectual battles playing out in my mind. One that preoccupied me was the almost total dominance, in contemporary music, of the twelve-tone system (also called serial music or Serialism), developed by Schoenberg, Berg, Webern and their successors.
By R.M. Campbell
The story of Cinderella is one that seems to have universal attraction in opera and particularly ballet. This season, for instance, there are four different productions in the United Kingdom: from Matthew Bourne’s, who set his during World War II, to the classic one of 1948 by Frederick Ashton. Pacific Northwest Ballet has its own version, choreographed by Kent Stowell. It was premiered in 1994, followed by a short tour, then revived and subsequently shelved. With its huge cast of adults and children, the production returned to the stage this weekend at McCaw Hall and will run through Feb. 13. Ticket sales, happily for PNB, are already above projections.
Continue reading Kent Stowell’s “Cinderella” returns to PNB
Year after year, program after program, the Seattle Chamber Music Society’s summer and winter festivals tend to stay with listeners long after they have wrapped up. Inevitably some performances are better than others. The good ones are gripping, insightful, or intelligent. Because of this the six-week long summer festival and much shorter weekend long winter festival are so popular they attract subscribers who focus all of their attention at the festivals. This year’s winter festival, marked by a concert that featured all of the piano trios Johannes Brahms penned and a series of recitals where pianist Adam Neiman played all 12 Transcendental Etudes of Franz Liszt, was no different.
But it wasn’t just these two events that made the festival another worthy addition to Seattle’s chamber music scene. Sunday’s final program was a winner with the sold out crowd. The program featured Gabriel Faure’s First Piano Quartet, Dvorak’s Op. 87 Piano Quartet, and in the lead off position on the program, Mendelssohn’s lesser-known First Piano Trio.
Continue reading Faure’s First Piano Quartet a winner at SCMS winter festival
By Philippa Kiraly
Last week, Nordstrom Recital Hall was packed for the performances of Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Winter Festival, but it was not so full for last night’s chamber music concert by Seattle Symphony musicians.
Chamber music lovers missed out, as this concert was right up there in quality with the Winter Festival performances. On the program were Schubert’s Piano Trio No 2, Britten’s “Lachrymae” and Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 3.
Continue reading Our own fine chamber musicians
By R.M. Campbell
If people were looking for star attractions Thursday night at Benaroya Hall, they found one in violinist Vadim Repin, who was the soloist with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.
His vehicle for virtuosity was Lalo’s “Symphonie espagnole,” a concerto by any other name written by a Frenchman in pursuit of Spanish temperament. Repin, a familiar face in Seattle since his local debut barely into his 20’s, wasn’t looking for much Spanish flavor in the Lalo. He sees the piece as a place to exhibit his astonishing technique, beauty of tone and musical elegance. He established his authority over the material immediately and nothing during the next 20 minutes or so would change that opinion. He has all the proper attributes for the many bravura opportunities Lalo provides. Repin took every one without any heavy breathing. His playing was secure at every level. While there was nothing remotely moving about anything he performed, the sheer sound he projected with such ease and the command he had of his instrument made a powerful impression.
Continue reading New music, old music, and Repin at Benaroya Hall
Buoyed by a Groupon and the Northwest premiere of Hans Werner Henze’s Symphony No. 4 the Seattle Philharmonic sold out their concert last Sunday — the first one that I can remember in my seven years in Seattle. Normally, Seattle Philharmonic concerts are sleepy affairs which attract a devoted audience interested in Adam Stern’s eclectic and challenging programs (I hear Stern is aiming to perform Arthur Honneger’s Joan of Arc at the Stake next season). No jostling. No hunting for seats. No crowds.
There were so many people trying to get tickets, trying to find seats, that the start of the concert was delayed nearly thirty minutes. The Philharmonic’s ticket crew was overwhelmed. No matter, the Philharmonic achieved what every classical music organization — professional, amateur, community — butts in seats. Take note Seattle classical music organizations: Groupons sell tickets.
The Groupon deal — $9 for any concert — was good enough to pack Meany Hall with plenty of new concertgoers. According to the expired Groupon page 990 tickets/vouchers were sold. Wow. I am willing to bet at least some of them were unfamiliar with the Seattle Philharmonic and Adam Stern. I am also willing to bet that the Phil might actually have set an attendance record for a community orchestra in Seattle.
In the end it hardly matters because the Seattle Philharmonic capitalized on technology to fill the hall. Hopefully the Groupon audience doesn’t stop going to concerts by the Seattle Philharmonic.
Continue reading Philharmonic sells out with help of Henze (and a Groupon)
Gathering Note 