Gathering Note

Notes from the concert hall

Tag: Concerto

  • SSO “Viola Spectacular” opened Thursday at Benaroya

    By R.M. Campbell One often does not know how a particular symphony program comes into being. Take what the Seattle Symphony Orchestra is calling “Viola Spectacular with Pinchas Zukerman.” The first of three concerts was Thursday at Benaroya Hall. Does the idea belong to SSO music director Gerard Schwarz, the soloist or was it a…

  • Alissa Firsova Clarinet Concerto, “Freedom”

    By Peter A. Klein The Northwest Sinfonietta’s February program “Mozartiana” featured a world premiere—the Clarinet Concerto “Freedom,” by Alissa Firsova, written for Seattle Symphony clarinetist Laura DeLuca. The concert was heard Friday night, February 11 at Benaroya Recital Hall, with performances on Saturday and Sunday at Tacoma’s Rialto Theater and in Puyallup. Firsova was born…

  • Classical music lives on in the youngest generation

    By Philippa Kiraly It restores faith in the future of classical music to go to hear the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra. There are many kids listening attentively in the audience to the mass of kids playing on stage. The big orchestra is professional in demeanor, and the performance is high class playing. While much of…

  • Beethoven and Wine festival concludes with the Eighth Symphony and Third Piano Concerto

    Beethoven and wine; wine and Beethoven, the Seattle Symphony kicked off the 2010/2011 season with three shorter all-Beethoven concerts preceded by an hour of wine tasting. The Beethoven and Wine festival isn’t new. Last season was its inagueral season. It’s a disappointing world we live in. These days it takes putting “wine” in the title…

  • A remarkable debut with SSO for violinist Augustin Hadelich

    By Philippa Kiraly The Seattle Symphony began its Beethoven and Wine series and its annual season at Benaroya Hall on a high note, with the Seattle Symphony debut of violinist Augustin Hadelich playing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, and the world premiere of a fine little work by Augusta Read Thomas. Her composition was the first to…

  • 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…

  • Gilbert Varga takes the podium in a commanding performance with the SSO

    By Philippa Kiraly With flair, Swiss conductor Gilbert Varga made his debut on Seattle Symphony’s podium Thursday night for remarkable performances of Enescu’s “Romanian Rhapsody No. 1, Stravinsky’s “Petrouchka” and, with Horacio Gutierrez, Beethoven’s P iano Concerto No. 4. It was hard to take your eyes off h im. Varga almost danced the music, gracefully…

  • Bach to the future

    Bach, of course, anchored the program, with his Suite No. 2 in B Minor, BWV 1067, and his Brandenburg Concerto No. 5. For the second half, music director Christophe Chagnard chose one of Heitor Villa-Lobos’ tributes to the composer, the “Bachianas Brasileiras No 5” in an arrangement for string orchestra by J. Krance; and lastly,…

  • Poland, Russia and Finland covered in SSO program

    By R.M. Campbell

  • Exciting Ravel, robust Brahms at the SSO

    By Philippa Kiraly Russian conductor Vassily Sinaisky takes the podium this week for four concerts with the Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall, the first of which was Thursday night. The well-designed program, not blockbusters but two big works by Brahms and Ravel, created a study in contrasts between the two. Written a short generation apart,…