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
Verdi’s “Il trovatore” has been regarded as a joke, with great tunes; a unsurpassed example of Romantic melodrama; one of the last breaths, in 1855, of an earlier era of Italian opera, a work nearly impossible to stage with any credibility today. Enrico Caruso once quipped that all one required for a good performance were the four greatest singers in the world.
As the second opera in its Verdi cycle this season, Seattle Opera this weekend at McCaw Hall took the leap for its first ‘Trovatore” in 13 years.
By R.M. Campbell
Even though the Seattle Symphony Orchestra is in another uneasy period with troubled labor negotiations, the imminent departure of its chief executive and a long-standing deficit, it made splendid music to open the New Year Thursday night at Benaroya Hall.
The galvanizing force was Kurt Masur in his local debut. While the German conductor is in his early 80’s and suffers from Parkinson’s, he was a dynamic force on the podium, revealing his utter command over Mozart and Bruckner. SSO musicians responded with vigor and insight. The entire concert was a revelation and, for once, the cheers and standing ovation were justified.
Continue reading Kurt Masur Makes His Welcome Debut at Benaroya Hall
There is perhaps no ninth symphony as famous as Beethoven’s Ninth – the Ninth. It is the summit every composer after him sought to reach but none surpassed. Johannes Brahms’ crafted his own first symphony in the shadow of Beethoven, paying homage to the great composer through musical references. Bruckner, another great symphonist, reached his own ninth but died before it was completed. Stricken by self-doubt through his life, never sure of his own talents, it is ironically Bruckner’s own ninth which many consider his best. Then there is Mahler, who was so intimidated by Beethoven’s symphonic opus that he renumbered his own symphonies to avoid the magic number “9.”
On Saturday, December 19th, Choral Arts gave a wonderful Christmas Concert at the Trinity Parish Church in Seattle. Led by Robert Bode, and accompanied by Libby Watrous, the Choral Arts choir sang Christmas songs and carols from multiple cultures. The concert was divided up into four parts: Seeking Sanctuary, Inviting Mystery, Mother and Child, and Love Came Down. Every piece had its strong points, and among the many wonderful carols that were sung, I was very impressed with three in particular.
When the Choral Arts choir sang The Road Home from “Southern Harmony”
, arranged by Stephen Paulus, I was engulfed in the story of the song. I believed them as they sang. The sincerity that they sung with cannot be taught. In order to be that believable when you’re performing you have to perform with true intention, from a meaningful place deep inside yourself that can only be sung out in song. The vocalises before each stanza were especially poignant. The arrangement was also beautiful. The traditional treatment of the harmonies complimented the choir’s timbre. There were no individuals, only the choir as a whole. And, with the delicate pronunciation of the words, the audience wasn’t hit over the head with syllabic singing.
My favorite German piece of the program was Komm, Heil’ger Geist
by Georg Schumann. The intent behind the singing was also wonderful in this piece. That sincerity coupled with the effectiveness of their dynamic contrast and the modulation in the middle of the piece heightened the auditory response and made the performance even more powerful. Right before the modulation the sopranos were singing in octaves with the altos and the effect was heavenly. The sopranos were able to sit on top of the harmony without overpowering the choir, while enhancing the harmonics of the chord. It was an excellent way to lead the audience into the dramatic key change.
Venez, Mes Enfants
, arranged by Donald Patriquin, was also wonderful. The carol itself is very playful and light, and the mood created by the choir with their bubbling voices and delicate pronunciation emulated the phrase, “C’est La Vie.” The call and response section between the men and the women was especially enjoyable. The Choral Arts women had a strong core sound that resonated into the highest arches of the church and the men’s voices were just as powerful. My favorite part of the piece was the ending. The coordinated release at the end of the last verse was breathtaking. It made the silence following the piece all the more deafening. Overall, the performance was fantastic and I would highly recommend seeing them when they come back to Seattle. Their next concert is going to be at St. James Cathedral on Saturday, March 20th at 8PM.
Adding to the odd mix of pieces, the youthful Christmas Oratorio by Saint-Saens welcomed a leaner audience (many of the families with young children left) after the intermission. Saint-Saens music is remembered and enjoyed because it tends toward the beautiful as opposed to the innovative – not that innovative has to be ugly.
Saint-Saens, at the ripe age of twenty three, wrote the Christmas Oratorio in eleven days. The work’s placid harmonies and swooping melodies radiated from the orchestra and the chamber singers. Solos for soprano (Linda Tsatsanis), mezzo-soprano (Melissa Plagemann), alto (Tessa Studebaker), tenor (Stephen Wall) and bass (Brian Box) were delightfully shaped by the afternoon’s soloists.
I am confident that no other orchestra, choral ensemble, or chamber group performing a holiday concert this year featured a program of Prokofiev, Bozza/Kechley, or Saint-Saens. Like oil and water, these composers and the piece’s chosen for Orchestra Seattle’s holiday concert, don’t mix. This is precisely what Shangrow wants and what OSSCS observers expect. Days after the concert, I am still not sure how I feel about the collective impact of the choices. Making sense of it all, trying to deduce a purpose for the program has been maddening. Making sense of a concert, however, isn’t as important when you have a community orchestra that plays and a chorus that sings as well as OSSCS.
The piece still retained the geniality of the first half’s Serenade and Quintet. Like Bryant, Yablonsky was an assured leader. The Septet is sometimes lead by a conductor, for this performance the musicians turned to Yablonsky for their cues. Yablonsky was also at home in the piece’s violin solos, equaling the vim and vigor of the work. She was helped by balanced, soft edged playing from the winds and horn. DiLorenzo’s playing maintained the same stylishness and plush tone from the beginning of the concert to the end.
With this early Beethoven concert behind them, the SSO will turn its attention to the pinnacle of the composer’s late period – the Ninth Symphony. The annual, end of year performances, of the Ninth attracts large, adoring audiences. On purely musical terms, the Ninth is a stark counterpoint to the smiling air of his early chamber music. The story of Beethoven’s compositional life began with pieces like the Septet and Serenade, but ends, later in the month, with the still unsurpassed Ninth.
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 Gigi Yellen
Writing from New York, where an exemplary innovation in music programming launched tonight in a hall you might know as the home of that radio show “Selected Shorts.” The Peter Norton Symphony Space holds about 750 people; looked like at least 600 came out for the launch of “Contact!” a new-music series conceived by New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert and curated by the Philharmonic’s composer-in-residence, Magnus Lindberg.
The composers Arlene Sierra, Lei Liang, Marc-André Dalbavie and Arthur Kampela received the commissions for this first pair of concerts in the series. (The concert repeats Dec. 20 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.) Dressed in casual black like the musicians (and all but one of the composers—hang on), Lindberg addressed the audience, introducing each piece by doing a short interview with its composer: a couple of hand-held microphones, a couple of stools stage left, a couple of comfortable minutes.
Continue reading Alan Gilbert and New York Phil make CONTACT!
Last Friday, UW’s University Symphony gave a lively performance in Meany Hall. The orchestra began their concert with Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491 featuring one of my favorite pianists: Craig Sheppard. I’ve been a fan of Sheppard’s since I heard his live recordings of the 32 Beethoven Piano Sonatas – all of the sonatas were performed and recorded chronologically over sixteen months in 2003 and 2004. In his recordings, Sheppard engages the listener by exploring the composer’s journey through the music and creating a separate journey of his own. The same explorative qualities that make his recordings so wonderful materialized in concert last Friday.
Gathering Note 