Symphony – Page 5 – Gathering Note

Questioning the conductors: Thomas Dausgaard

This week’s Seattle Symphony concerts could be a sleeper hit of the 2009/2010 season. Thomas Dausgaard is in town to lead the orchestra in performances of Sibelius’ Fifth and Lutoslawski’s Fourth Symphony. These two 20th century view of the symphony bookend a 20th Century concerto – Rachmaninov’s Fourth Piano Concerto. Sibelius’s Fifth isn’t as well known by orchestras and audiences as his First and Second Symphonies. Rachmaninov’s middle piano concertos – the Second and Third – hold sway over most with their long, aching melodies. And Lutoslawski, for all of his inventiveness, has failed to win the hearts and minds of most classical audiences. But, take all three pieces together and you have a program that is intellectually and aurally exciting.

What a concert like this needs is a conductor like Thomas Dausgaard. In my thirty minute chat with Dausgaard, he impressed me with his belief in the three pieces on his program, and especially Sibelius and Lutoslawski. Dausgaard gives the impression of someone who likes to get inside the music he is conducting; he’s not just counting time. If anyone can win converts to Sibelius’ Fifth and Lutoslawski’s Fourth it is Dausgaard.

Our conversation covered a lot of ground. We talked about Sibelius’ symphonic narrative, Danish composers other than Carl Nielsen, and what Lutoslawski would have said in response to Mahler’s assertion that the symphony must be like the world.

Thomas Dausgaard talks with TGN from Zach Carstensen on Vimeo.

Questioning the conductors: Vassily Sinaisky

My series of interviews with the guest conductors taking the SSO podium continues with Vassily Sinaisky. Sinaisky wrapped up a series of four concerts with the SSO this weekend that paired Brahms’ Double Concerto for cello and violin and Ravel’s “Daphnis et Chloe.” This program is a departure, of sorts, for Sinaisky. In his previous engagements with the orchestra, Russian music has figured prominently on his programs. Of course, when I asked Sinaisky about this he didn’t see the program as a departure.

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I caught up with Sinaisky immediately after the Friday night performance. I arrived a bit early at Benaroya Hall, and the SSO’s public relations manager kindly took me backstage and we watched in rapt attention the final ten minutes or so of “Daphnis et Chloe.” Even with Benaroya’s thick stage doors, you could feel the music vibrating through the floor and walls (how cool!)

Once Sinaisky composed himself, we chatted about the SSO, Russian conductors and non-Russian repertory, rehearsal methods, and record stores. We also talked about his ongoing Franz Schmidt symphony cycle with the Malmo Symphony for the Naxos label. When the final two disks are released this year, it will be only the second complete cycle every recorded of these Mahler and Bruckner inspired symphonies.

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from gatheringnote on Vimeo.

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, the Brahms Double Concerto for violin and cello from 1887 and the complete ballet score of Ravel’s “Daphis and Chloe” from between 1910 and 1912 are alike only in their use of a big orchestra and their vitality and musical imagination.
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Sinaisky returns to Seattle with Brahms and Ravel

It was couples only night Thursday at the Seattle Symphony. French and German. Ravel and Brahms. Cello and Violin. Daphnis and Chloe. Returning to the podium was the conductor Vassily Sinaisky.

With everyone wondering who will be the Seattle Symphony’s next music director, Sinaisky is undoubtedly at the top of the list for some people. The conductor is currently the head of the Malmo Symphony and the Chief Guest Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Russian is eyeing an American Post as the next step in his career.

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OSSCS takes Torke, Strauss, and Bartok to Meany Hall

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About once a year, Orchestra Seattle performs its “big orchestra” concert at the University of Washington’s Meany Hall. A few years ago, Benjamin Britten’s “War Requiem” was chosen for the concert. Last year, the orchestra was absent from the Meany Hall stage. This season, Orchestra Seattle returned to the University of Washington with a concert of music by Torke, Strauss, and Bartok.

For the first half, Shangrow programmed Michael Torke’s Saxaphone Concerto and Richard Strauss’ “Four Last Songs.” Eleanor Stallcop-Horrox sang the Strauss and Erik Ibsen-Nowak played the Torke as soloists. After the intermission, the orchestra took on Bela Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra.
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Ingrid Fliter Makes Her Seattle Debut Thursday night at Benaroya Hall

By R.M. Campbell

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Until pianist Ingrid Fliter was awarded the Gilmore Artist Award four years ago, she was little known beyond the borders of her native Argentina. That coveted prize gave her international press she could not buy and launched her career. Prestigious dates at prestigious halls and with prestigious conductors followed quickly. So did a recording contract with EMI.

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Elisa Barston shines in Mozart “Turkish” Concerto

By Peter A. Klein

Elisa Barston, the Seattle Symphony’s principal second violinist, was the featured soloist in three all-Mozart concerts this past weekend. With everything else going on in town, Benaroya Hall was not full, but still comfortably well-populated on Saturday evening. Those in attendance were treated to some fine playing, with Music Director Gerard Schwarz’ many years as a Mozart conductor informing the proceedings.

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Auburn Symphony dazzles in all Franck concert

By Philippa Kiraly

I love hearing the Auburn Symphony Orchestra. Let me count the ways (not counting the time it does to get there from Seattle): No cost and no problems parking. An acoustically good auditorium, large enough to host a symphony orchestra but small enough for the audience to feel close up and intimate with it. Top ticket price $25. And an orchestra that is worth the trouble to get there.

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Chamber sized Mahler is part of “Romancing the Muse”

Douglas Boyd's recording of Stein's Mahler Four.

It isn’t surprising Erwin Stein picked Mahler’s Fourth Symphony to reduce for chamber ensemble for performance in Schoenberg’s Society of Private Musical Performance. The symphony is Mahler’s smallest in scope even if the impetus is other-worldly. As with all of Mahler’s symphonies, the composer sought to encompass themes larger than himself even if they are somewhat obscured. On the one hand, there are moments of childlike innocence suggesting naive love. This is the approach embraced by the Northwest Sinfonietta’s music director Christoph Chagnard. An alternative view, is that the symphony reveals the infinite pleasures of heaven, exemplified by the fourth movement — a setting of “the Heavenly Life” for soprano from the Youth’s Magic Horn.

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