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
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.
The winter season of the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, which celebrates its 30th season this summer, was always a splendid idea. It was the first venture outside the confines of Lakeside School. This wise expansion was followed by the addition of a summer Eastside venue at the Overlake School. Both have proven to be splendid additions to the core festival for artistic and financial reasons. Among its other attributes, the winter festival opened the doors of Nordstrom Recital Hall which became the summer home of the Seattle festival last year. The festival had the advantage of knowing exactly where it was going when it left the wretched acoustics of St. Nicholas Hall at Lakeside for Nordstrom, a vastly superior space in spite of its quirkiness.
There were four concerts over the weekend, beginning on Thursday evening and ending Sunday afternoon, all sold-out or nearly so. Repertory rarely went beyond the canon, but there were points of interest. The concert Saturday night was devoted to the piano trios of Johannes Brahms — talk about intellectual comfort on a winter’s day — and pianist Adam Neiman played all of the “Transcedental Etudes” of Franz Lizst over three days. Continue reading Neiman tackles Transcedental Etudes as part of SCMS festival
Last year at Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Winter Festival, one of the concerts was devoted to Schumann’s Piano Trios. It was such an enlightening and successful performance that artistic director Toby Saks asked the same three players to do a similar concert at this year’s festival with Brahms’ Piano Trios. The result was Friday night’s concert at Nordstrom Recital Hall.
In the pre-concert recital, pianist Alon Goldstein linked the two concerts with comments on the connections between the Schumanns and Brahms and the Schumanns’ reaction, as they wrote it themselves, when the young Brahms first came to their house to play for them. Then Goldstein played one of the pieces Brahms had performed on that occasion: the Scherzo in E-Flat Minor, Op. 4. Continue reading Brahms, Brahms and more Brahms
Bright Sheng, a name familiar to SSO audiences, sat down with the Gathering Note earlier this month. The composer was in town to hear the orchestra perform two of his short pieces. One of them, Prelude to Black Swan, a world premiere. The other, Shanghai Overture, a Seattle premiere.
Sheng came onto the classical music scene in the 1980’s when he and a number of other Chinese composers settled in New York to continue their studies and also begin careers. A young Gerard Schwarz noticed the composer, commissioned a piece for his chamber orchestra, and helped launch Sheng’s career.
Schwarz and Sheng’s creative partnership has resulted in countless commissions and premieres, and two stints for the composer as Seattle’s composer in residence.
By this stage in the winter, many people are starved for more chamber music than they can get from the excellent but not so frequent performances on the UW Chamber Music Series. When Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Winter Festival arrives at Nordstrom Recital Hall, with four recitals and four concerts in four days by superb musicians in a small hall, where every move, every sound, every nuance from every player can be seen and heard close up, it’s like having a long-awaited feast.
Thursday’s Seattle Symphony concert at Benaroya Hall was beautifully designed. First, a world premiere based on Mozart themes, followed by one of the symphonies and one of the horn concertos, and after intermission, the composer’s last work, his Requiem (which was completed after his death and from his notes by Franz Suessmayr). In execution, the program’s first half was satisfying, the second half less so.
Daniel Brewbaker is one of the composers who received a Gund/Simonyi Farewell (to artistic director Gerard Schwarz) Commission, the balance of works being performed at concerts throughout this final season for the conductor. Brewbaker dedicated his “Be Thou the Voice” for soprano and orchestra to Schwarz. Continue reading A Requiem or a celebration?
The Phiharmonia Quartett Berlin needs no introduction to devotees of chamber music, with more than a quarter century of performances behind it and a reputation as one of the best.
Playing at Meany Theater last night on the UW International Chamber Music Series, it gave performances of Shostakovich, Beethoven and Debussy that were arresting, thought provoking and illuminating.
Why? In Steven Lowe’s admirable program notes, he describes the first two works with words of force in several places, such as, “slashing, commanding chords” (Beethoven), “nightmarish, scratchy” (Shostakovich), and his notes seemed perfectly in tune with what we often expect from both these composers. Continue reading A different concept
This has to be one of Concert Spirituel’s more intriguing titles for a concert. Jeffrey Cohan, the moving spirit behind Concert Spirituel, found an early edition in the National Library of “Trios pour coucher du Roi,” and other contemporary works of similar type, and put together a charming program from them. Louis XIV lived from 1638-1715, at the same time as France nurtured a group of fine composers, of whom Jean-Baptiste Lully, Andre Danican Philidor l‘Aisne, Marin Marais, Michel Richard de la Lande, Pierre Gaultier de Marseille, Robert de Visee, Andre Cheron and Jacques Hotteterre were featured in this program. Continue reading Putting Louis XIV to bed
Gathering Note 