Gathering Note

The Medieval Women’s Choir presents songs of praise and peace from medieval Italy.  Director Margriet Tindemans   talks about the music:

Continue reading Preview: Medieval Women’s Choir Transports You to 14th Century Italy

The Cascade Symphony is one of Edmonds’s best kept secrets.  For almost 50 years – 47 to be exact – this north Puget Sound orchestra has presented orchestral concerts to the Edmonds, Shoreline, and Lynwood communities.  The orchestra is led by Seattle Symphony veteran Michael Miropolsky.  Since starting this blog a number of years ago, I have heard a number of community orchestras.  Most of them playing perfectly acceptable concerts even if they are a little rough around the edges.  What sets community orchestras apart are intangible factors that aren’t always readily visible.

During my first Cascade Symphony concert I could sense how special the orchestra is to musicians and to the north Puget Sound crowd.  There were two notable events.  First, the Cascade Symphony’s last concert of the year was ambushed by steady rain.  The rain didn’t dissuade the crowd and a steady stream of people made their way into the Edmonds Performing Arts Center.  By the time I had arrived, a full thirty minutes before the concert started, most of the floor seating was filled and the only reasonably good seats left were in the balcony.  Even the balcony was filling up.

Continue reading Cascade Symphony: an Edmonds secret

The Wall Street Journal reports Classical Archives, a site devoted exclusively to selling classical music downloads, is launching with a new look and better functionality. As a fan of classical downloads, I am always put off by the cumbersome search mechanisms iTunes and others use.

I am not sure Classical Archive’s has done any better.  I am a label snob, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to search for composers and works on a particular label.  The menu system is a little antiquated feeling and the “advanced search” isn’t all that advanced with the limited number of fields it makes available.

In the side bar of the article, there is a quote from an Arkiv Music representative which made me perk up.  Before Arkiv lauched a download service they believed that classical music fans would never download music.  Turns out, they will!.

Until recently the company hadn’t sold downloads, believing classical fans would stay loyal to CDs. However, when ArkivMusic recently began a trial offer of some releases in digital form, downloads accounted for about 20% of sales. “I was surprised by that number, surprised enough to put more effort into it,” says ArkivMusic president Eric Feidner.

We don’t hear Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” that often, more’s the pity, but listening to Seattle Pro Musica’s performance of it at St. James Friday night, the reason is clear. It’s a great work, but it’s an expansive work which takes a first class choir and two and a half hours. It’s too long for a regular symphony performance, and needs a big chorus, at least a full chamber orchestra, four soloists and several first rate solo choir members. It also needs a dynamic conductor to make the most of Mendelssohn’s dramatic score.

Luckily for us, Seattle Pro Musica fills the bill. Conductor Karen P. Thomas has the kind of sweeping vision to see the work as a whole and that it is, as the Handel oratorios are, an unstaged opera.

Continue reading Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” is high drama

I understand why someone might be afraid to take a chance on the current run of Seattle Symphony concerts. The program is eclectic and unfamiliar. Even if people are put off by the unfamiliar pieces on the program, they certainly would embrace the performances — especially the solo performances in the first half — which on Thursday night can only be described as amatzigane.

Continue reading AmaTzigane!