SCMS Summer Festival opens new season in new hall

James Ehnes

By R.M. Campbell

The Seattle Chamber Music Festival, which opened its 29th season Monday night, has a long, distinguished history. For nearly all of its 28 years, it has been located at the Lakeside School. The New England-style prep school informed the festival a few years ago that it was claiming summer usage of its concert hall, throwing the administration into a search for an alternative. Nordstrom Recital Hall was always a good possibility, in terms of size and acoustical properties. The drawback was its urban setting in contrast to the pastoral idyll of the Lakeside campus.

The opening concert in the new venue proved what a good choice the festival made. The house was nearly full, with 100 more seats than at Lakeside. Even the pre-concert recital was packed. The festival has grown considerably from a handful of weeks to a month of concerts, with an extension at Overlake School on the Eastside and Winter Festival in January, also at Nordstrom. There is still pre-concert dining and free broadcasts outside the hall on the Benaroya property. Most important the acoustics are so much better — greater clarity and richness — than St. Nicholas which are marginal at best.
Continue reading SCMS Summer Festival opens new season in new hall

Quarter notes: SCMS edition

Update: SCMS is putting a limited number of rush tickets on sale for $25 30 minutes before tonight’s performance.  On the program is Debussy’s Piano Trio, Barber’s String Quartet (with its famous adagio), and Brahms’ Op. 8 Piano Trio.  With the sun lost behind the clouds this summer, let chamber music brighten your day.

Although I am still buzzing from the Ludovic Morlot announcement last week, it is time to focus on something different. The Seattle Chamber Music Society’s summer festival starts today. Once again the SCMS is bringing together a fine line-up of musicians at different stages of their career. Some are festival reliables (like Adam Neiman, Richard O’Neill, Anton Nel etc.) others are newer (Erin Keefe, Austin Hadelich etc.) and as always there are a few musicians who are brand new to the festival (Jeremy Turner, Andrew Wan, etc.). This year, the festival takes up residency in Benaroya’s Nordstrom Recital Hall. Nordstrom may not have comforting green lawns, full shade trees, and the suitable ambiance for drinking wine, but it does boast superior acoustics. Seems like a fair trade off to me. Besides, listeners who need a break from the urban hurly-burly can find relief in the Garden of Remembrance.

We’ll be covering the festival from start to finish, reviewing every (or pretty close to every) concert and talking with a handful of musicians about pieces of music that have impacted them as artists.  Check back regularly for updates, enjoy the chamber music festival, and if you can’t get concert tickets, remember there are always free recitals an hour before each concert.  Tonight’s recital is Bartok’s Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano played by James Ehnes and Andrew Armstrong.

For a refresher on the great chamber music the festival presents each year, here are a few short videos of festival musicians playing chamber music. More videos after the jump.

Augustin Hadelich playing Ysaye
Continue reading Quarter notes: SCMS edition

“H. M. S. Pinafore:” Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society’s July offering

William Darkow stars as the Right Good Captain of the Pinafore. Photo, Pat Andre

By Philippa Kiraly

For all of us Gilbert & Sullivan fans, it’s time to get ready to enjoy the annual offering of comic opera by Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society. Like the happy arrival of June strawberries each year, this regular dose of absurd plots, witty words, and irresistible music is worth celebrating.

This year, it’s one of the prime favorites, “H. M. S. Pinafore.” While I would dearly love to see more of the less well known ones, this particular gem helps to fill the coffers, and it is being paired with a rare performance of the curtain-raiser, “Cox and Box,” where an enterprising landlord rents a room twice over to two men who work opposite shifts, and thus never meet, until…

Continue reading “H. M. S. Pinafore:” Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society’s July offering

Measuring Morlot

Ludovic Morlot at work

The Seattle Symphony has a new music director and his name is Ludovic Morlot. The announcement came over my iPhone in an email during a meeting late this afternoon.  I scrolled and skimmed my way through its contents and began to count the hours until I could sit in front of a computer to write.  My editor at City Arts asked me in his own email “what do you think?” I punched out a vague answer while driving (don’t text and drive!) to which he responded “you are an enigma.” The truth is I have been processing the choice for a few hours now. My opinions about Morlot are as enigmatic as the man who becomes music director designate next year. The choice of Morlot is as tantalizing as it is ordinary. There is tangible promise in the choice but also uncertainty. But, when all is said and done, the choice is wise for what the orchestra wants to become.

Continue reading Measuring Morlot

The last word on Leonard Bernstein this season…

A young Lenny.

“I have rarely met a composer who is so faithfully mirrored in his music; the man is the music. We are all familiar with the attributes generally ascribed to his compositions: vitality, optimism, enthusiasm, long lyrical line, rhythmic impetuosity, bristling counterpoint, brilliant textures, dynamic tension. But what is not so often remarked is what I treasure most: the human qualities that flow directly from the man into the works – compassion, fidelity, insight, and total honesty.”

Glitter and be gay

By Philippa Kiraly

Seattle Men’s Chorus celebrated the end of its 30th anniversary year with a gala concert this past weekend at McCaw Hall. Together with its seven-year-old sister group, Seattle Women’s Chorus, it used the opportunity to enhance the occasion with a grand finale to the city’s three-month long tribute to Leonard Bernstein, joining him with colleague composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim.

Both Friday’s and Saturday’s concerts were virtually sold out, the audiences in a mood to party and, as always, the Choruses delivered in spades.

What struck the mind first was the extraordinary discipline of the singers.
Continue reading Glitter and be gay

Bernstein and Schuman close out SSO season, Bernstein festival, highlighting Schwarz’s legacy

William Schuman

To close the Seattle Symphony’s current season, Schwarz assembled a program of Leonard Bernstein and William Schuman works. This season finale also closes out the Seattle Celebrates Bernstein festival — a city wide effort to honor the 20th anniversary of Bernstein’s death. Personal struggle has been a theme in season finales over the last few seasons. With the help of Schwarz and the SSO, audiences have probed Mahler’s despairing Sixth Symphony and last year Aaron Jay Kernis’ pleading Third Symphony, a world premiere. Leonard Bernstein’s personal torment, doubt, and faith, embodied by his Second Symphony, were the fundamental qualities of Friday’s struggle.

Continue reading Bernstein and Schuman close out SSO season, Bernstein festival, highlighting Schwarz’s legacy

Off the shelf

Maya Beiser

Two innovative new releases highlight the course of classical music in the 21st Century: Cortical Songs (Nonclassical) by the duo John Matthias and Nick Ryan and Provenance (Innova) cellist, Maya Beiser’s new album. Both albums underscore a growing desire by musicians and composers to avoid confining forms, formats, and labels. Both releases come right up to the classical music line; neither crosses it.
Continue reading Off the shelf

The Onyx Chamber Players end their season with Haydn and Mendelssohn at Town Hall

By Dana Wen

One of the great joys of chamber music is the conversation that unfolds between the musicians on stage. Each performer is given a chance to contribute to the musical dialogue in a very prominent way. In such an intimate environment, the personality of each musician inevitably emerges. Sometimes the going gets rough, and personalities will clash. But other times, especially with a group of musicians who have been playing together for a while, watching a performance can feel like sitting in on a lively conversation between old friends. When this happens, it’s a treat for the performers and the audience alike.
Continue reading The Onyx Chamber Players end their season with Haydn and Mendelssohn at Town Hall