Seattle has struggled to create an identity as a major, American city for as long as I have lived here. Each time, it seemed poised to break out, the provincial mindset, which has long dominated the city’s culture, reasserted itself. For 72 hours last weekend, Seattle’s music and performance finally broke loose, bringning us Heiner Goebbels’ “Songs of Wars I’ve Seen,” a music and theater piece based on Getrude Stein’s writings.
By R.M. Campbell
Baroque Northwest is one of those small ensembles in Seattle that lives a little below the public radar but sustains itself with evocative programs, good music-making and a faithful audience.
By Gigi Yellen
“Baroque Music for Humans” was the title of the pre-concert conversation between Nicholas McGegan and the critic Bernard Jacobson. What was that supposed to mean? Who cared? Fun was the attitude of the day at this last in a three-concert series at Benaroya Hall with the renowned music director of San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.
By R.M. Campbell
The performance of the “Messiah” during the Christmas season is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, traditions of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. There is nothing unusual in this commitment to Handel’s oratorio. It is a work of pure, seemingly inexhaustible, genius. Although the work was intended as a vehicle to celebrate Easter, it works very well during the holiday season. Moreover, it sells tickets. This weekend the symphony presented five performances at Benaroya Hall. The symphony’s attachment to the “Messiah” is not singular. All sorts of ensembles, if they can muster a small orchestra and chorus and a quartet of vocal soloists, present the piece in some form or another.
By: Dana Wen
Seattle’s Messiah purists got their annual fix this past Sunday during Orchestra Seattle & Seattle Chamber Singers’ single performance of Handel’s masterpiece. OSSCS, led by George Shangrow, is well-known in the region for their true-to-the-score Messiah (no cuts or abridged versions here). Sunday’s concert was held at the First Free Methodist Church in Queen Anne, which has hosted the OSSCS Messiah for the past several years.
Gathering Note 