Bruno Cinquegrani doesn’t consider himself a Donizetti expert, even when posed with a long list of experiences with the composer’s operas that suggest the contrary. “I’m not exactly an expert,” he remarked to me last week when I talked with him at the Seattle Opera’s rehearsal space in the South Lake Union neighborhood.
Continue reading Bruno Cinquegrani: Donizetti expert?
Uncertainty faces at least two of Seattle’s community orchestras this season. The untimely passing of George Shangrow has left Orchestra Seattle hanging on. In spite of the fine music making by the group, Orchestra Seattle was always driven by George’s personality and his own vision for the group. He founded the orchestra. Philharmonia Northwest is another local orchestra which is also experiencing change at the podium.
After years leading the Philharmonia, conductor Roupen Shakarian decided the commute from the islands had become too much. Other projects beckoned. With Orchestra Seattle conductor less, Shakarian has been recruited back to Seattle to fill in at the podium for that orchestra’s partial season. Try as he might, Shakarian can’t seem to get away from having orchestral responsibilities in Seattle.
Continue reading RVW’s Job receives Seattle premiere; two orchestras look for conducting leadership
I’ve started a Tumblr version of The Gathering Note as a forum for readers to add their own content. I will periodically pluck compelling audience reviews, photos, videos, etc for further commentary or for stand alone posts over here. Anonymous posts are okay — provided they aren’t scurrilous. No good commentary will be excluded. If no one contributes, then there will be no posts. I hope that isn’t the case of course. I know this community’s musicians, composers, music lovers, and others have a lot on their mind an plenty of opinions. Please share!
For the PR professionals out there, posting your press releases as a comment will not help your cause. Save your ink (and time) about the Mozart effect and the latest crossover pop artist for someone else OR if you must send a press release, because your clients demand it send them to: press@gatheringnote.org
Here is the entirety of the first Tumblr post.
Alex Ross, the New Yorker’s classical music critic, is out with a new book. It follows on the success of The Rest is Noise, a wide reaching historical survey of classical music in the 20th Century. The new book more or less eschews one narrative that runs from beginning to end in favor of a collection of essays drawn from his time at the New Yorker. Many of the essays have been substantially enhanced, amended, or edited. One essay — Chaconna, Lamento, Walking Blues– is brand new for the book. This essay forms the basis of his talks on the fall book tour, including the one at Town Hall this Tuesday evening.
Ross took time between travels to Long Island and travels to other parts of the country to answer a few questions about the new book. If you are planning on going to Town Hall for the reading, be sure to watch the video posted below. It is a snapshot of the talk Ross will be giving.
Continue reading Listen to This: Alex Ross comes to Town Hall
By Sebastian Mitchell
In a departure from the stalwart items of The Gathering Note, I’d like to present this simple guide to understanding and getting good sound quality for recorded classical music.
Things can get far more sophisticated than what I intend to explain here, as some (or most) super-audiophiles might (more likely will) tell you. If you’re searching for the non-plus-ultra of aural experiences then perhaps this isn’t for you; on the other hand, if you want moderate improvements in sound quality without too much effort then read on!
Now, one thing to recognize is that you have complete control over how you listen to recorded classical music, as opposed to when it is performed live. You can alter every step of the process, from the source to the output. I hope this sends a pulse of megalomania through you! So, to start off on a good footing, I strongly encourage you to seek out the best quality recordings you can. The effect of everything else in your hi fi setup is reliant on the foundation of a high quality source for the music.
A last minute decision at the Seattle Symphony transformed this week’s subscription concert from ordinary to extraordinary. The program, which features competing halves, was initially arranged with the crowd favorites (Copland’s Appalachian Spring and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue) falling first, while the lesser known pieces (Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements and Ravel’s Concerto for Left Hand) coming after intermission.
The Seattle Symphony’s audience has demonstrated a general distrust of music unknown to them. Last week’s concert is an example. As it was reported on this site by Mr. Campbell and by others I have spoken with since the concert, the orchestra level was only 60% – 70% full. Dvorak’s Seventh Symphony anchored a program of Debussy, Bloch, and a new piece by Aaron Jay Kernis. Only Dvorak’s Seventh comes close to being an immediately familiar piece.
For opening night of this week’s concert, Taper Auditorium was full. I wondered out loud to a few people before the concert if Gershwin and Copland would be enough to dispel any misgivings for Stravinsky and Ravel. “Never underestimate the pull of Rhapsody in Blue,” a long-time observer of the symphony wisely advised. Even if Gershwin could generate a robust audience, there was a risk that after the audience heard Rhapsody and Appalachian Spring there would be an exodus at intermission. This was a genuine risk. It happened last spring for Adams’ Harmonielehre.
Continue reading Spano and Hamelin charge through Gershwin and Ravel Thursday night
By R.M. Campbell
Robert Spano is a familiar figure in Seattle, not only at Seattle Opera, where he conducted the 2009 “Ring,” but also the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, which he conducted Thursday night at Benaroya Hall.
Music director of the Atlanta Symphony, Spano is a highly regarded conductor particularly known for his advocacy of contemporary music. His program at Benaroya was hardly brand-new but all four works were born in the 20th century and became some of the most famous and celebrated music of the era. The original order was Copland’s suite from “Appalachian Spring,” followed by Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” Ravel’s Piano Concerto in D and Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements. By opening night that had changed, with Stravinsky opening the program, the Gershwin ending it, and the Ravel and Copland in the middle. Certainly the motivation was to ensure that people would stay through the second half — Stravinsky is still a bogey-man for some — but the result was felicitous.
Continue reading Robert Spano returns to Benaroya Hall
John Cage’s music is a source of great frustration for me. It Is paradoxically rigid and fluid. Unpredictability reigns with decisions left to chance and the whims of musicians. Cage’s instruments are familiar — often used in unfamiliar ways. Just as often, Cage doesn’t use instruments at all but relies on ordinary objects to create the sounds that populate a work. Nevertheless, Cage’s music is capable of conjuring a powerful, elemental reaction. Every Cage piece I’ve heard generates extreme feelings of awe and deep spiritual awareness.
This was the case recently with the Seattle Percussion Collective. The ensemble presented a series of late Cage pieces last Friday at Gallery 1412 at the Capitol Hill and Central District collision. The Collective is not quite two years old. Since setting out in 2009 the group has garnered critical praise and accumulated a loyal following. Percussion music, like Gamelan music, tends to cater to a niche audience. But the Collective seems to reach beyond their niche audience.
Continue reading John Cage and the Seattle Percussion Collective at Gallery 1412
Seattle Percussion Collective Plays John Cage from gatheringnote on Vimeo.
Last night the Seattle Percussion Collective played a show of late John Cage percussion works at Gallery 1412 at the collision of Capitol Hill and the Central District. I’ll be writing a longer post about the experience later today. In the meantime I urge you watch the video above — a performance of two composed improvisations played simultaneously. If you have even a passing interest in percussion music the Collective is playing another show tonight at the Good Shepherd Center’s Chapel Performance Space. The music won’t be Cage, but there will be a number of premieres for percussion and other instruments, including Greg Sinibaldi’s Quintet for Percussion and Piano. Since they formed in 2009, the Seattle Percussion Collective has generated a loyal following. Gallery 1412 was almost completely full. Dale Speicher told me last night that their Chapel performances have always generated big crowds. If you go to their Chapel performance, it would be wise to get their early.
The show starts at 8 PM. The Chapel Performance Space is located in the Wallingford Neighborhood at 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N, 4th Floor, Seattle, WA.
By R.M. Campbell
The Seattle Symphony premiered another work, this time by Aaron Jay Kernis, in the Gund/Simonyi set of commissioned works to celebrate the final year of Gerard Schwarz’s directorship of the orchestra, Thursday night at Benaroya Hall.
Unlike some of its predecessors in the series, Kernis’ “On Wings of Light” is bombastic, urgent, bright. It is over seemingly moments after it starts. If ever a piece was a curtaion-raiser, this is one. Kernis writes in the program that the piece was inspired by words of the 18th-century philospher and scientist Johann Heinrich Lambert: “I take on wings of light and soar through all spaces of the heavens. I never come far enough and the desire always grows in me to go farther.” Perhaps, but I got little sense of wings of light and soaring through the heavens. Rather the work is more like blasting your way to any destination. There may be little poetry or subtlety, but it was fun to be along for the ride.
Continue reading World premiere plus Dvorak’s 7th from SSO
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