It’s that time of year again. Orchestras, professional and volunteer, are wrapping up their seasons. Two of Seattle’s many community orchestras finished their seasons this weekend. The Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra – University of Washington conducting student Geoffrey Larson’s creation – closed their inaugural season with a concert titled “Just Dance.” The next day, George Shangrow, Orchestra Seattle, and the Seattle Chamber Singers ended their 2009/2010 series of concerts with a jazz (and Bernstein) inspired program that featured two works by Washington composers and choruses from Leonard Bernstein’s incidental music to the Lark.
Continue reading The 2009/2010 season comes to an end for OSSCS and SMCO
PNB introduces its Coppelia this weekend at McCaw Hall
By R.M. Campbell
Before both “Swan Lakes,” “Romeo and Juliets” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “The Nutcracker,” in Kent Stowell/Maurice Sendak’s production,” “Sleeping Beauty,” Merry Widow” or “Cinderella,” there was the sturdy “Coppelia,” bringing sunlight to everyone in its presence despite its unremarkable qualities. It entered the repertory in 1978 but has been in retirement for a while, waiting for a successor. Now it has one — splendid, engaging, charming and full of all sorts of dancing. Its premiere was this weekend at McCaw Hall.
The work is a masterpiece, even if it doesn’t seem so, and it possesses one of the most amiable scores, by Leo Delibes, in ballet history. Its tunes may not possess the emotional resonance and power of Tchaikovsky, but they are felicitous, melodious and warm.
Continue reading PNB introduces its Coppelia this weekend at McCaw Hall
Road report: Siegfried; LA Ring
By Jonathan Caves
Siegfried is a problem child: the character can be one of the most annoying characters in all of opera and all too often this opera is the weak link in a Ring Cycle. This was definitely the case last night at The Chandler Pavilion. After the excellent production of Die Walküre (the more I reflect on this production the more I like it) I was ready for an equally impressive production of Siegfried. Unfortunately I didn’t get what I was expecting and I am still trying to work out exactly why.
Continue reading Road report: Siegfried; LA Ring
Quarter notes: mission vs. vision
Two interesting articles courtesy of Arts Journal.
Robert Spano (who was here in April) . The four composers Spano has championed – Jennifer Higdon, Osvaldo Golijov, Michael Gandolfi, and Christopher Theofanidis — have been dubbed the “Atlanta School,” and all have seen their profiles rise as a result of Spano’s efforts. The most encouraging aspect of Spano’s work is what it has done for audience development and ticket sales. I’ve excerpted the most interesting section of article, one that should be read by every arts administrator struggling to augment audiences.
“The most significant aspect of the Atlanta School project may be the trust it is building for new music in general. A semi-staged version of the opera “Dr. Atomic” by American composer John Adams sold at 88% of paid capacity during the depths of the economic recession. In a reversal of usual box-office patterns, concerts with music by Atlanta School composers typically sell at about 84% of capacity, says marketing vice president Charles Wade, versus an average of 78% for other classical events.”
Road report: LA Ring, Die Walkure
By Jonathan Caves
Last night’s production of Die Walküre as part of the LA Opera Ring Cycle vividly brought home to me a couple of unique aspects of this production.
Road report: LA Ring, Das Rheingold
By Jonathan Caves
Overall I really enjoyed the production and I am glad to say that the masks did not, at least to my ear, interfere with the singing. I also must state up front that this is indeed a very literal production – I did not see anything that wasn’t in the libretto – Wotan didn’t kill Loge, no one sat at a bar drinking martinis – it was werktreue all be it in a very fantastical form.
I won’t describe too much of what I saw (I know some people reading this are attending later performances) but more my impressions.
The stage really is very heavily raked – but it did not seem to impact the singers too much – though, especially in the case of the Gods, they did spend a lot of time standing, or sitting, on small unraked platforms on either side of the central rotating circle. I only noticed one fall and that was by Loge and he quickly recovered – in fact it was so well done I almost thought it might be on purpose.
Quarter notes: Decoration Day edition
Stephen Rogers Radcliffe is adding the Thalia Symphony to his orchestra responsibilities. Radcliffe is currently music director for the Seattle Youth Symphony. Perhaps you remember his fine Mahler 2 from last weekend? Radcliffe takes over for Eric Hanson who will conduct a final concert with the Thalia June 3, 2010 at the First Free Methodist Church.
Out in New York City, Gyorgy Ligeti’s opera about the end of the world (sort of) . Alan Gilbert and the NY Phil seem headed in the right direction.
The LA Ring — a production plagued with controversies — finally . I consider myself a Wagnerite (of the non-obsessive sort) and LA’s Ring looks baffling to me. On the other hand, the looks promising — traditional, modern, with a bunch of Met flash. Love it.
The You Tube version of the trailer is now disabled. I imagine because the Met folks thought it makes more sense to drive people to the website. This is too bad because a video can’t go viral if it can’t be embedded, shared, liked, and all of the other ways media is promoted these days.
Road report: Moscow Conservatory
Our performance Friday night at the Moscow Conservatory was truly a wonderful experience. It was an honor to play at such a venerable institution. Founded in the 1860’s, it has been the training ground for countless great Russian musicians. Tchaikovsky, who presided over the Conservatory for a time, is represented by a gorgeous statue in front of the main entrance to the big hall. We performed in the smaller hall, which seats about 400. This beautiful venue was filled to capacity with musicians and friends of the performers and composers as well as the general public and students. The acoustic is incomparable and it was a joy to make music in a space that just keeps giving back.
This was a two part program, featuring the music of our friend Pavel Karmanov and a man named Sergei Zagney. Zagney’s music is absolutely in the style of the baroque and he had a wonderful ensemble of period instrument specialists, including a small complement of singers along with the strings, sackbuts and organ.
After Pasha Karmanov heard us play our Philip Glass quartet at Dom, he agreed that it really should be performed in the bigger venue, so he substituted the Glass for his own string quartet (a piece we love, by the way, and will be playing in Seattle in October) that we were to have performed at the Conservatory, thereby giving the Glass the real public premiere it deserves. What a mensch. The second part of the program therefore consisted of Karmanov’s “Cambridge Music” for piano quartet and “Innerlichkeit” for two pianos, bass, string quartet and flute, both of which were performed by wonderful Moscow-based musicians, and ODEONQUARTET playing the Glass and the aforementioned “Forellenquintet” albeit without the frying fish. I never did get the story straight as to the fish’s absence.
After the performance I met a composer named Baganov who had evidently played at the Good Shepherd Center last fall. He loved the concert and the Glass and is also a minimalist composer looking to move to the US. He is deciding between New York and Seattle. Let’s hope he chooses our fair city. The world is indeed small.
I am so grateful to everyone who made this trip happen: Pasha, Artur and Gennady, and all the people who run these great performance venues. Thanks, also, to Zach, for inviting me to post to the blog. It has been really fun!
Here is a link to a video of our Dom performance of the second part of Golijov’s “Tenebrae”:
Road report: playing at Dom
Last night we played at a small venue called “Dom” (means “house”). This is apparently the only place in Moscow where contemporary, avant-garde, or unusual music is performed. Folkloric acts come through and we heard that our friend Carla Kihlstedt, the violinist who improvised with ODEON at Benaroya Hall in November on Wayne Horvitz’ “These Hills of Glory” had also played there. It’s about the size of the Good Shepherd Center Chapel, the big difference being the bar at the back (guarded by a papier mache troll who would have felt quite at home in Fremont). The owner is adamant that it is not a club, but rather a cultural center. We had about 30 or so mainly youngish people show up, which was a nice feel for the size of the space…folks availed themselves of the bar throughout the show, but mostly while the music wasn’t going on. There was definitely the vibe of a concert space, but people were clearly out on the town having a good time with friends. Definitely a concert venue to keep in mind as classical musicians reimagine performance spaces for the 21st century.
Pasha Karmanov announced the program from the stage, translating when necessary our comments about the pieces. Though only one of our works (Philip Glass’ Quartet No. 5) was an official Russian premiere, it was evident that no one had heard any of these pieces before. I think the Golijov “Tenebrae” was especially effective and moving, and the Glass is a real winner. At the end of our program the audience brought us out several times with unison clapping. I’ve never experienced that in the States. It was so sweet.
We also played all three of Karmanov’s pieces, including the two piano quintets (with the spectacular Peter Aidu at the keyboard): Michael Music and Forellenquintet, which are accompanied by film. Forellenquintet is, in fact, a fish story – set in a fish factory, it follows the life and times of a trout whose fate is sealed from the beginning. When we perform it this evening at the Moscow Conservatory, there will be an actual trout being fried on stage as we play. Or maybe in the lobby beforehand. I’m not sure which, but Moscow Conservatory evidently is more lax about such things than Benaroya Hall.
Can youth orchestras save classical music?
Under the steady baton of Stephen Rogers Radcliffe, the energized playing of the Seattle Youth Symphony, and a heavenly contribution from the Seattle Choral Company (Fred Coleman, the Seattle Choral Company’s music director is a SYSO alum), Mahler’s Second Symphony (Resurrection Symphony) thundered across the heavens this past Sunday. Those of us who made it to Benaroya Hall for the concert knew we were in for a sonic treat when a small statured first violinist took a microphone and described Mahler’s last movement as “cool.”
Seattle is lucky to have a youth orchestra program as large, talented as the Seattle Youth Symphony. With public schools squeezing arts education and interest waning in classical music generally, youth orchestras like the SYSO could be essential to ensuring classical music doesn’t wither away like many people predict will happen.
Gathering Note 