Anne Midgette has it all figured out. Take a gander at how this esteemed member of the classical chattering class perceives the role of the critic.
Norwegian conductor returns to SSO podium this week
By: R.M. Campbell
Hearing a new conductor at the Seattle Symphony Orchestra used to be a simple pleasure. Now it has the hint of destiny since everyone may be a candidate to succeed Gerard Schwarz as music director in 2011. The motto at the symphony is that everyone is a candidate, no one is a candidate, which means no one can be ruled out. The symphony is filling every available guest conducting opening with one possibility or another.
Of course, the big opportunities are on the Masterpiece Series, the 22 most prestigious programs of the season. For four concerts starting Thursday at Benaroya Hall, Norwegian conductor Arild Remmereit made his local debut. He has conducted about eight American orchestras, including Atlanta and Baltimore, second tier orchestras in Germany and Austria and most of the major ensembles in Scandinavia. Remmereit studied in Olso, Stockholm and Vienna, where he now lives. He is in his early 40s.
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Quarter notes: upcoming
The Seattle Symphony is performing Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony this weekend with guest conductor Arild Remmereit. Remmereit and I had a good conversation about Tchaikovsky and Mozart a week ago Friday. The musicians I spoke with are excited to work with him again, remembering his successful concert with the orchestra three years ago. Be sure to watch the video I made with Remmereit to get the true measure of this conductor’s ideas on Mozart and Tchaikovsky. On Saturday, Avant Garde composer John Luther Adams will be at the Chapel performance space in Wallingford. Pianist Christina Valdes and percusionist Steve Schick will be playing a selection of pieces for piano and percussion. Adams’s music is a cross between the meditative sounds of Morton Feldman and the crashing, upheavals often found in Iannis Xenakis’s works. If new music isn’t to your liking, the Early Music Guild presents Musica ad Rhenum with Baroque flutist Jed Wentz on Saturday. Also on Saturday, the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra presents its very first complete program which showcases Andrew Sumitani playing Bruch’s First Violin Concerto, Haydn’s Symphony No. 104 (London), and Mozart’s Symphony No. 38 (Prague). Finally, on Tuesday Lise de la Salle returns to Meany Hall for a program of Beethoven and Prokofiev.
Ghosts, Gargoyles, and an Emperor
Two concerts this past weekend exemplified Seattle’s diverse classical music scene. Saturday night, acclaimed, local flutist Paul Taub celebrated thirty years in Seattle with an anniversary concert at the Cornish College of the Arts. The next day, the musicians of Philharmonia Northwest, one of the regions many talented community and semi-professional orchestras, tuned their instruments and played their second concert of the 2009/2010 season. The concert featured Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony and Beethoven’s daunting Emperor Concerto for piano with Robert Silverman at the keyboard.
Only a few years ago, a weekend including these two concerts and performances by the Seattle Symphony playing downtown would have been considered busy. Today, a Paul Taub recital and a Philharmonia Northwest concert compete with numerous other classical music organizations. On this particular weekend, my interests were divided among at least six different performances. Since I only have one set of ears, I had to choose.
Review: Music Northwest, masterpieces from Eastern Europe
By: Gigi Yellen
Performing as the ensemble Europa, the trio of pianist Jane Harty, violinist Leonid Keylin and cellist Mara Finkelstein today played the most traditional of this season’s Music Northwest programs (www.musicnorthwest.org).. This makes the second time this week I’ve seen these string players in concert with a series artistic director, a visionary woman, at the keyboard. Jane Harty directs Music Northwest; Keylin and Finkelstein performed earlier in the week with pianist Mina Miller, artistic director of Music of Remembrance.
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Seattle Philharmonic – November 15, 2009: Ravel & Debussy
The Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra opened its 2009/2010 season Sunday with music by Ravel and Debussy in a delightful concert that was the perfect refuge on a dark rainy afternoon. Conductor Adam Stern assembled a program of mostly little-known works culminating in the ever crowd-pleasing Boléro .
The selections allowed each section of the orchestra to shine. The brass opened both halves of the concert with short fanfares: on the first half the fanfare from Ravel’s L’Evantail de Jeanne , and on the second two fanfares from Debussy’s The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian. The low brass’ opening of the Debussy was particularly striking. The principal woodwind players (flute Sharon Snel, oboe Donna Onat, clarinet Marianne Lacaille, and bassoon Jacob Kauffman) each shone in Debussy’s Petit Suite, as they did again in the Boléro, and in numerous solo moments in between. Soft horn chorale passages in Debussy’s King Lear were particularly lovely. Continue reading Seattle Philharmonic – November 15, 2009: Ravel & Debussy
Questioning the conductors: Arild Remmereit
Another rising young performer
By: Philippa Kiraly
It’s always awe-inspiring to hear the Seattle Youth Symphony. To see 125 children, yes, kids, on stage performing difficult orchestral works with all the professionalism and technique of musicians years their senior in age and experience is exciting and hopeful. Not every teen or preteen is glued to a computer screen or a cell phone. To get where these kids have requires years of diligent practice and stick-to-it-iveness.
Sunday saw the first concert of the orchestra’s season under its music director Stephen Rogers Radcliffe. Beginning his fourth season with the orchestra, it’s clear that Radcliffe combines fine skills as an educator as well as excellent leadership on the podium. The program notes, written by orchestra members, are models of clear understanding and information.
Review: Paul Taub Celebrates 30 Years of Music-Making in Seattle
By: R. M. Campbell
The flute is not a traditional major solo instrument but Taub, by virtue of hard work, a lot of talent and a nose for provocative new work, has nearly made it one. He is often in concert in Seattle, either by himself or with others, as well as traveling in the United States and Europe to give concerts. He came to Seattle and Cornish in 1979, after studies at Rutgers University and the California Institute of the Arts with such noted musicians as Michel Debost, Samuel Baron, Marcel Moyse and Rpbert Aitken. Early on he demonstrated an avid interest in contemporary music, a path he has pursued with vigor and intelligence.
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Review: Simple Measures “Earth”
By: Gigi Yellen
Two longhaired four-year-old girls danced during intermission, mimicking the Seattle Dance Project performers’ spins and holds. Whether from the front row, where these two little friends sat, or from a back corner just six rows behind them, where I and a dozen others stood, audience members got what they came for: close-up experience with dance and music, including enough deep rhythm to take some home. This was the second performance of this program in this all-purpose community room with folding chairs (with one more performance to go there, Sunday night November 15).
Gathering Note 