Barber’s songs take center stage at the Good Shepherd Center

In this, the Barber anniversary year, mezzo-soprano Janna Wachter paid homage to the creative partnership of Samuel Barber and his long time partner Gian Carlo Menotti with a recital of songs, piano works, and chamber operas by the two composers. Wachter’s Saturday evening tribute concert on June 19th was a first for the season. With the exception of The Esoterics, no other local ensemble has delved into Barber’s music for voice or vocal ensembles. And, to my knowledge no one has explored Barber’s formidable songs until this Wachter’s recital this past Saturday.

For her recital, Wachter enlisted the help of a number of local musicians. Roger Nelson provided confident accompaniment throughout the night. While the voices changed, Nelson’s contributions were consistently reliable. Nelson even took the spotlight himself on a couple of occasions playing Barber’s character shifting Nocturne and Menotti’s own Nocturne with searching aplomb.

The best and worst of the night were reserved for A Hand of Bridge and Knoxville Summer 1915. To close the evening, Wachter showed Unabridged, Curtis Taylor’s movie reproduction of A Hand of Bridge. Eric Banks and Glen Guhr sang roles in the chamber opera along with Wachter and Avinger. These four card players represent the composer’s inner circle. Each singer takes turns exploring the personal world of the card player they depict. Thoughts range from the vacuous to the perverse. Taylor’s visuals were a witty compliment to the four singers and the libretto. Taylor’s movie was the night’s high point. By contrast, Anneliese von Goerken’s rendition of Knoxville Summer 1915 was the night’s low-point. You would expect, in a small space like the Chapel at the Good Shepherd Center, clarity wouldn’t have been issue. For this performance it was. The lines of James Agee’s poem blurred. Goerken chose mawkish grandeur that might have worked on a concert stage, with a full orchestra, and an audience that gives the sung text at best casual attention. Scott Garlund arranged each piece’s instrumental music for saxophone ensemble. The arrangement was seductive in its simplicity but I still prefer Barber’s instrumentation better.

Wagner and Mendelssohn paired on symphony program

By R.M. Campbell

Nearing the end of its current season, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra is pairing the famous with the obscure for three concerts at Benaroya Hall starting Thursday night.

Both composers are in the pantheon of Western icons — Richard Wagner and Felix Mendelssohn — but the works offered are less obvious. Wagner’s “Parsifal” rings through Western civilization. For some it carries too much weight, but, in fact, it is a profound piece of art. The opera opened McCaw Hall, in 2003, a new production by Seattle Opera, which completed the company’s survey the composer’s canon of 10 operas. Thursday night was not the same as viewing, and hearing the entire opera, but the performance had the merit of simply being with this music another time. Gerard Schwarz, SSO music director, chose three excerpts: the preludes to Act I and III and the “Good Friday Spell.” To the good particularly were the warm string sound and long, seamless phrases. On the not-so-good side were inexact attacks and sloppy phrases. Not enough rehearsal perhaps?

Mendelssohn’s “Lobgesang” is on the other side of the aisle of popularity. Performances are rare: most people probably have never heard it. There are reasons for that. It is a remarkably uninteresting piece of music in spite of expansive choral writing and effective vocal writing for the three soloists, all of whom were excellent at Benaroya: sopranos Christine Goerke and Holli Harrison and tenor Vinson Cole. The Seattle Symphony Chorale was in generally good shape, sound well-assembled, balance keen. The orchestra played well. The only difficulty was the piece itself. For a man of such felicity, “Lobesang” (“Hymn of Praise”) caught Mendelssohn on his day off. It is always good to hear music that is not performed with any regularity, but the reasons for that are often because it is simply not very good. Such is this piece.

Quarter notes: YNS edition

YNS

By now most people have heard the Philadelphia Orchestra has found a new music director. – YNS for short. He is a predictable choice given the youth movement afoot these days. Chicago bucked the trend by appointing Ricardo Muti. They are the only orchestra which ignored the orchestra group think these days (does that make the Muti choice revolutionary?) Maybe, before Dudamel, before Gilbert, and before the small army of sub-forty year olds took over a number orchestras in the UK the choice would have shocked or inspired. At best, Philadelphia has recruited the next big thing. At worst, the orchestra has found a music director for the next seven years.

(Sorry, but the section on James Garlick has been redacted.)

More contributor news. Did you read Michael Upchurch’s Seattle Times piece on the Toy Box Trio? No? Then ! Keep it up Dana and Harlan.

Did anyone notice Terry Teachout’s piece in the this past weekend? He wonders whether we even need regional orchestras in the digital age. With definitive recordings of just about every piece of standard repertory just a click away, why would anyone go hear a middle of the road performance of the same repertory with a local orchestra? It is an interesting thought experiment. I get hung up on what defines a regional orchestra. The Seattle Symphony is certainly a regional orchestra. So is the Oregon Symphony. Neither have the stature of America’s Big Five, or Big Seven if you include LA and San Francisco and both cater to audiences which stretch beyond the urban centers of Seattle and Portland. Maybe the answer isn’t to allow orchestras to die, or to load a season with pops concerts, but to reexamine the role and mission of the orchestra in the community?  Playing the same old music doesn’t seem to be cutting it anymore.

PNB says multiple goodbyes Sunday

By R.M. Campbell

For some June represents weddings while others it is graduations. At Pacific Northwest Ballet, the month signifies a time to bid farewell to not only dancers but artistic directors and conductors as well. No other arts organization says goodbye quite so well. They are grand affairs with plenty of tears and flowers for everyone. The first in recent history was dedicated to Kent Stowell and Francia Russell, co-artistic directors of the company for more than 25 years. Then came Patricia Barker, one of the greatest talents PNB ever fostered, followed by the beloved Louise Nadeau a couple years later, among others. On Sunday at McCaw Hall, the company bid adieu to Stewart Kershaw, who created the PNB Orchestra 20 years ago, as well as dancers Mara Vinson and Jordan Pacitti.

Continue reading PNB says multiple goodbyes Sunday

Joshua Roman returns to Seattle for world premiere of Dan Visconti’s Americana

Back in the day, when Joshua Roman was the hot-shot, super-talented, ever-modest, principal cellist of the Seattle Symphony the press and younger concertgoers — many who had never set foot in a recital hall before Roman came along — fawned over him. Roman was the closest thing Seattle had to a classical music rebel – the Cameron Carpenter or Nigel Kennedy of the cello. His programs showed musical interests stretching beyond the standard repertory. Steve Reich’s Clapping Music showed up on one recital program as did Roman’s own arrangement of a handful of pop songs. You could count on him to dress down (jeans, casual t-shirt) from to time. We loved it. He loved. And Seattle’s classical music world happily rode the waves Roman created.

I can report (with some personal sadness) that Seattle’s classical music world has returned to the placidity of the pre-Roman days.
Continue reading Joshua Roman returns to Seattle for world premiere of Dan Visconti’s Americana

Meet the musicians: Simon Trpceski

Simon Trpceski. Courtesy BSO Musicians

Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski has got to be one of the busiest musicians I have had the pleasure of talking with. He is in Seattle performing a total of five concerts with the SSO.  Earlier in the week he joined musicians from the SSO in a chamber music concert honoring the 200th birthday of Robert Schumann.  Last night, he started a four concert series (one of the concerts will be played in Olympia tonight) with the orchestra where he plays Saint Saens’ Second Piano Concerto.

People who have followed Trpceski’s career since he made his North American debut in Seattle told me there was plenty to enjoy in his rendition of Schumann’s epic Piano Quintet. Even those people who are cool to Trpceski’s distinctive style told me the Piano Quintet crackled with unexpected velocity, poetry, and interpretive depth.

I ended my chat with a simple question: what piece of music would you like to play that you haven’t? Trpceski launched into a long list of concerti — Chopin, Brahms, Liszt, Stravinsky. With each new concerto, he pointed out concerts where he would have his chance at the piece. Trpceski is also spending time later this year playing chamber music in Chicago with friends. There is also his Carnegie Hall debut. Busy doesn’t begin to describe this pianist’s schedule.

from on .

Trpceski and an all French program take the stage at the SSO this weekend


By R.M. Campbell

Gerard Schwarz has long had an affinity for French music, thus a program like the one that opened Thursday night and continues through Sunday afternoon at Benaroya Hall.

There were many pleasures along the way. Principal among them was the reading of Saint-Saens’ Second Piano Concerto by Simon Trpceski. Now, in full possession of an international career, the Macedonian musician is not a stranger to Seattle. He was introduced to the city via the Seattle Symphony Orchestra when he was still in his 20s (turning 30 last year) and has returned both as a soloist with the orchestra and as a recitalist at Meany Hall. His concerts are typically well-received.
Continue reading Trpceski and an all French program take the stage at the SSO this weekend

Schumann birthday celebration with Simon Trpceski

By Philippa Kiraly

Robert Schumann was born 200 years ago Tuesday, and that night, in this year of 2010, there was a chamber music concert in his honor at Nordstrom Recital Hall with members of the Seattle Symphony and pianist Simon Trpceski (who plays a Saint-Saens concerto at the regular symphony concerts this Thursday, Saturday and Sunday).

It began with several Schumann works we don’t hear so often and ended with the great Piano Quintet in E Flat major. It’s rare to hear public recitals of duets by professional musicians except for those playing piano, violin or cello, not that musicians wouldn’t want to, but because they can’t command a big enough audience to make it financially worth while for the presenters. May the Symphony promote more of these.
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Road report: Twilight of the Gods, LA Ring

Hagen and Alberich. Photo courtesy LA Opera

By Jonathan Caves

On the last night of the first complete Ring Cycle at Los Angeles Opera Symbolism took the lead: from the moment the curtain dissolved and the stage lights came up we were presented with an array of symbols from across the whole cycle. Loge: hanging over the stage foreshadowing the inferno to come. The Tarnhelm: reminding us that no one is exactly as they seem. Nothung: a symbol of power that is ultimately impotent. These symbols remained in place all night as a constant reminder of the grand themes of the Cycle. There was a rising tension and a sense of inevitability about this production of Götterdämmerung – it was thrilling to watch. When Act I of Götterdämmerung flies by you know you are in for a great night at the theatre.

The Norns told their tales with minimal fuss and some great singing – my only issue was the rather strange costumes – if one of them fell they wouldn’t have stopped until they took out the cello section in the pit.
Continue reading Road report: Twilight of the Gods, LA Ring