Tag: Chamber Music

Schwarz’s Trio for Violin, Horn, and Piano to be premiered next week

Gerard Schwarz

By Peter Klein

We all know about Gerard Schwarz, conductor. Lately, we’ve been hearing more and more about Gerard Schwarz, composer.

Schwarz’ latest work, a “Trio for Violin, Horn, and Piano” (Horn Trio for short), will receive its world premiere at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival on Monday, July 26 at 8:00 PM in Benaroya Hall. Schwarz and the three performers will give an introduction to the work in a free recital at 7:00 PM.

The Seattle Symphony’s Music Director is by no means new to composition. As a teenager, he studied with the noted American composer Paul Creston. Later teachers included Roger Sessions, Jacob Druckman, Milton Babbitt, Vincent Persichetti and Pierre Boulez. But as the trumpet and then the baton became the focus of Schwarz’ career, his composing took a three-decade hiatus. Until recently.

“All of a sudden, I’m into it again. And it’s getting to be exciting,” said Schwarz, speaking by telephone from the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, NC, where he is Music Director.
Continue reading Schwarz’s Trio for Violin, Horn, and Piano to be premiered next week

More superb chamber music: Bridge, Stravinsky, and Schubert

Ran Dank

By Philippa Kiraly

Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer Festival is a joy in the midst of July’s usual musical dearth. Concerts come up three times a week, each with stellar performances and programs which are never boring. Even very familiar pieces receive illuminating performances which bring out facets not perceived before.

Friday’s performance at Nordstrom Recital Hall was a case in point. Frank Bridge is a composer we don’t often hear. He worked at the beginning of the 20th century in England, at a time when the only towering figure in English music was Edward Elgar. Bridge’s chamber music is well worth a hearing.
Continue reading More superb chamber music: Bridge, Stravinsky, and Schubert

Must hear Martin, Kodaly and Dvorak at Wednesday’s SCMS concert

Edward Arron

In an alternate (maybe even perfect) universe unfamiliar composers and works would be cat nip for curious ears looking to expand their musical horizons. Dissonances would pleasantly shake listeners. We’d tap our toes to awkward rhythms and take pleasure in sorting out difficult melodies. Seats would be filled. People would be turned away at the door only to hear an enlivened retelling of the experience from their friends luck enough to get inside the concert hall. An excited audience reaction would launch outlying repertory into the mainstream.

Judging by Wednesday’s Seattle Chamber Music Society concert – which featured Zoltan Kodaly’s Op. 7 Duo for Violin and Cello and Frank Martin’s Piano Quintet – the alternate universe I proposed is still a long way off. Too many seats sat empty and the audience’s response, while effusive (a standing ovation after every piece) seemed obligatory – polite.
Continue reading Must hear Martin, Kodaly and Dvorak at Wednesday’s SCMS concert

Borodin and Ravel start week two of the SCMS summer festival; Armstrong returns to the piano

Andrew Armstrong

The second week of the Seattle Chamber Music Society’s summer festival began with Andrew Armstrong’s return to the piano. An infection caused by a bug bite or some other intruder sidelined the pianist, putting him in the hospital even. Although Armstrong was missed by the loyal festival attendees, other pianists, including the incomparable Craig Sheppard, filled in for their ailing colleague.

Armstrong made his return playing the piano at the pre-concert recital tackling Bela Bartok’s demanding Second Sonata for Violin and Piano with James Ehnes.  Armstrong followed this performance by playing the piano part for another violin sonata — Beethoven’s Violin Sonata Op. 30, No. 1. Violinist Andrew Wan, a festival newcomer, joined him in the performance.
Continue reading Borodin and Ravel start week two of the SCMS summer festival; Armstrong returns to the piano

SCMS Summer Festival at Benaroya: Mendelssohn’s Octet and Grieg’s Cello Sonata

Adam Neiman

By Philippa Kiraly

It seemed odd to go to Benaroya Hall, specifically the smaller Nordstrom Recital Hall, for a Seattle Chamber Music Society Summer Festival concert but, well, we will get used to it. The Society was no longer allowed to use the Lakeside campus with its lovely grounds and peaceful ambience, but it also needed a larger auditorium to accommodate the increasing numbers of people who have flocked to the festival each year.

Judging by Friday’s packed audience at Nordstrom—the first festival performance I’ve attended this summer—the change is working. There were new faces among the many regulars, and executive director Connie Cooper said that some were tourists coming in off the streets after seeing notices of performances. (The outdoor ambience continues at The Overlake School in Redmond in August.)
Continue reading SCMS Summer Festival at Benaroya: Mendelssohn’s Octet and Grieg’s Cello Sonata

Music of Romantic era dominates festival on second night

Bion Tsang

By R.M. Campbell

The inaugural season of the Seattle Chamber Music Festival in its new home — Nordstrom Recital Hall — has gotten off to a splendid beginning. The first concert Monday night was a major success, even with the absence of pianist Andrew Armstrong because of an infection in his leg. The second concert, on Wednesday, with Armstrong still out and in the hospital, was also a concert with considerable merit.

Arnold Schoenberg’s “Verklarte Nacht” (“Transfigured Night”) was the major piece on the program, and it was played as such by violinists James Ehnes and Augustin Hadelich; violists Cynthia Phelps and Richard O’Neill, and cellists Bion Tsang and Robert deMaine. The work, originally written for string sextet in 1899 and recast by the composer 18 years later for string orchestra is among the most admired pieces Schoenberg ever wrote. It is a coupling of late romanticism and early modernism. Schoenberg wrote some of the most challenging music of the 20th century: it is also some of the most despised. There is nothing to despise — or fear, to use Steven Lowe’s term in his excellent program notes — in “Verklarte Nacht.” This is real 19th-century program music, with a distinct narrative.
Continue reading Music of Romantic era dominates festival on second night

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

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

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