Tag: Video

Questioning the conductors: Christian Knapp

Christian Knapp is the only guest conductor this season, with or without an orchestral post who has admitted to being interested in having his own orchestra. You can draw all sorts of conclusions from his openness. Is he angling to be the SSO’s next music director? Given his history with the orchestra as its associate conductor a few years back, the thought of returning to Seattle in the orchestra’s top artistic spot is probably very enticing. Or, perhaps he has eyes on other posts? Indianapolis is looking for a new conductor (Knapp has guest conducted there as well) and so is the Richmond Symphony.

Knapp is back in Seattle this week to lead the SSO in a performance at the Paramount Theater with the Mark Morris Dance Group. Mark Morris is back for a third year, and this year his troupe will dance to Haydn, Bach, and Vivaldi.

Established conductors, with larger (and fragile) egos, might bristle at being a secondary focus for the audience. Not Knapp, he takes it in stride. Just because Knapp’s temperament is self effacing doesn’t mean he lacks ideas about how the music he will take charge of starting tonight should sound. Quite the contrary. Knapp is full of ideas about Haydn, Bach and Vivaldi, but also new music, repertory staples, and the qualities that he would find ideal for an orchestral post in the United States or abroad.

from on .

Questioning the conductors: Jun Markl


Update : I am not entirely sure what happened with the video for two minutes in the middle. I apologize and will upload a mirror copy tonight.

I had a chance to sit down with Jun (pronounced June) Markl earlier this week. Markl, no stranger to the Seattle Symphony, is guest conducting a program of German music that covers Schumann, Beethoven, and Wagner. Though his program is uber-traditional, Markl takes a relativist view of Beethoven and the masterpieces of the classical music repertory. Markl doesn’t embrace just one view of how Beethoven should sound. As he says in our interview, Beethoven played in France can sound different from Beethoven played in the United States. Differences resulting from geography should be embraced for what they bring to the music.

Markl’s embracing attitude is important for someone in his position. His own family bridges two cultures (his mother is Japanese and his father is German). He also currently leads two orchestras: one in Lyon, France and the other in Leipzig, Germany and is a regular guest conductor in the United States too. Because of his firm command of the Franco-German repertory, I assume some have placed high high on their list of conductors they would like to see replace Gerard Schwarz after next season.  His previous visits to Seattle have given audiences shapely,poised interpretations of mostly familiar repertory.

These interviews often take on a life of their own when the camera is turned off. This time was no different.  When the camera was shut off I had a spirited conversation about the economic differences between American and European orchestras with Alex Prior. Prior, who is assistant to this season’s guest conductors, sat in on the interview. Afterward, I asked him what he thought about Markl’s response to my questions on the subject (which you can watch) and his own thoughts. Prior approached the subject with the free market enthusiasm of someone just beginning to get a handle on American consumerist culture and with the experience of seeing European orchestras hew to the political whims of appropriators.

Our exchange came in the context of contemporary music. In Europe it isn’t uncommon, as Markl explains, for orchestras to offer contemporary music festivals even when they know ticket sales will flatten or dip. In the United States, prolonged encounters with the music of today is a recipe for orchestra fiscal ruin. European orchestras have the luxury of being able to program difficult pieces because of the state subsidies they receive. By contrast American orchestras depend on a steady flow of private subsidies. Prior’s argument is that the American system of orchestra funding is better, because it is market oriented, which allows the audience to have more of a say. I cautioned that if orchestras are purely market oriented there is a risk that new music would be squeezed out by a parade of Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and Mozart.

I hope to be able to speak with Prior for more than a few moments here and there. In the meantime, take a moment to watch what Markl had to say about orchestra economics, the German tradition, and contemporary music.

from on .

Quarter notes: Amelia trailer

Seattle Opera is up with their Amelia trailer on YouTube. If RM Campbell’s review doesn’t make you want to see Speight Jenkins’ first commissioned opera, surely this trailer will.

Quarter notes: Le Grand


Gyorgy Ligeti supposedly spent the last years of his life worried that when he died no one would remember him or his music. His worries weren’t entirely unjustified. The work of many, many composers has slipped into obscurity. For Ligeti, an artist on the fringes of the musical mainstream, the possibility of anonymity is even more pronounced.

Thank goodness for the NY Philharmonic then, which is preparing a concert performance of Ligeti’s opera Le Grand Macabre May 27-29. When the opera hits the concert stage later this month it will be the NY premiere of this 20th Century masterpiece. To prep listeners, the orchestras have released three new videos in their FlipCam series.

Doug Fitch, Le Grand’s director, takes the Phil’s FlipCam camera man (or woman) on a tour of his studio and reveals some of the designs that will be used.

The NY Phil has a number of other videos — non FlipCam — worth investigating too. In this video, Douglas Fitch and Edourad Getaz give an overview of the opera and the project.

In another video (a non FlipCam video) Alan Gilbert shares his own thoughts on Le Grand.

The adventurous can always download (or buy a CD version) of Sony’s EP Salonen led performance of the piece.

Closer to home, don’t forget Seattle Opera’s Amelia which will be unveiled to the concert going public for the first time tonight. Amelia, unlike the photo of Ligeti at the top of this post, is guaranteed not to frighten (that’s my own personal guarantee not Hagen’s or SO’s.) There is lots of good information about the opera (especially J. Dean’s listening guide) over at . If you don’t like to read, here is the final video is SO’s series.

Questioning the conductors: Andrew Manze

Andrew Manze

The early music world has known Andrew Manze for years as an accomplished Baroque violinist, but the rest of the classical music world is getting acquainted with Manze as an assured, intelligent conductor working hard to establish a reputation as an interpreter of core 18th and 19th century repertory.  Manze’s recent Beethoven recordings have even been met with praise from David Hurwitz, a period performance skeptic of sorts.

For my interview with Manze yesterday, I was most curious about his view on the limits of historically informed performance practice (HIPP). We talked at length about vibrato, its appropriateness, and HIPP as it relates to 20th Century music. Manze’s concerts this week with the Seattle Symphony juxtapose music by Corelli and Tallis with Tippett, Elgar, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. 3/5 ths of the program was composed in the first half of the last century.

Manze struck me as an artist who lets HIPP guide his work on the podium without dominating it. He readily admits that Elgar wouldn’t sound like Elgar without vibrato and the contends (although not explicitly) that there hasn’t been a time before vibrato and a time after vibrato.

There was one shocking moment in the interview. As we talked about how he inhabits the musical world of the composers he is conducting, Manze admitted (after a question from me) that he doesn’t understand Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, and other nationalist composers.

The SSO is split this week and for the next few weeks because of Seattle Opera’s premiere of Amelia.  Even with the smaller forces of the SSO Manze’s insights from the podium and a Baroque influenced program should make for good listening this week.

from on .

May Day! May Day! part three

May Day! May Day! has come and gone. Thanks to everyone who attended. But I’d also like to thank the musicians who made it possible. The whole day a quote from Robert Spano was ringing through my head “there is no ghetto for new music.” By taking Seattle’s vibrant new music scene and putting it in a venue like Town Hall for 12 hours, I believe we helped the cause of new music. But I also think the performances helped too the cause too.

If you think new music is only noisy and unapproachable then this was the festival for you. It would have definitely changed your view of what constitutes new music in our city.

In my sets, there was the Odeonquartet’s performance of Nat Evans’ Candy Cigarettes. You can hear the piece, as performed on Saturday .

The composer says about the piece:

“One idea I keep coming back to is one particular may day event when I was in elementary school. every year on may day the whole school went out to the front lawn and had lunch, then went to the big field in the back for various events and games. everyone always looked forward to this day because it was a day away from class, and after may 1 you could wear shorts to school! anyway, one particular year, in first grade, Victor Merril — the class bully and general rabble rouser — was overjoyed and ecstatic to discover that he had candy cigarettes in his lunch! I was entranced by them and wanted one, as did everyone else. victor wouldn’t share…but then, just as the whole class was running in a rush out to the field after lunch victor (who was wearing cowboy boots, cut off jeans shorts and had a mohawk) secretly gave me one! I was overjoyed at this sudden act of generosity, and as I went around to the different may day stations out on the field I felt great knowing i’d been acknowledged by the class bully and gotten a candy cigarette.”

Continue reading May Day! May Day! part three

Questioning the conductors: Robert Spano

The first thing I noticed about Robert Spano when I met him for the first time last summer was the exhilarating energy that surrounds him. His mind races through more thoughts than are possible to keep up with. His wit is quick and sharp (often at my expense). In my conversations with Spano, good ideas and pending projects were the jumping off points for other ideas, and other projects he’d like to do sometime. Listen to Spano talk and you know classical music deserves broader attention from the public.

Spano and I reunited late Tuesday afternoon after the orchestra just finished a double rehearsal of John Adams’ epic symphonic work Harmonielehre. Before we started talking on tape, he genuinely raved about the quality of the SSO’s playing and had plenty of jokes to lighten the mood. Harmonielehre, is not an easy piece — as you can hear in the video posted bellow. And, it is even harder for an orchestra who has never performed it before — which is the case for the SSO.

I was excited to see Spano again and to experience his insight on a non-Ring musical project. But I was just as excited to hear about how he turned the Atlanta Symphony — an orchestra known for stodginess — into an inventive, forward looking cultural institution. His thoughts on the subject are interesting. He says plainly that in Atlanta “there is no ghetto for new music.” But, he also is realistic about his audience and what is needed to bring them along. There are plenty of examples that validate Spano’s careful attention to new music, his orchestra, and the audience. Jennifer Higdon’s Pulitzer Prize comes just as the Atlanta Symphony prepares for her concerto for the group Eighth Blackbird. Higdon is one of the composers Spano has championed during his time in Atlanta. Then there was the sell out concert performance of John Adams’ Dr. Atomic with the Atlanta Symphony last fall.

Shortly after the SSO announced the 2009/2010 season and long after Gerard Schwarz had announced his decision not to seek a contract extension, I wondered whether Spano might be a good fit for the SSO and the city. Only the search committee knows for sure the qualities being sought in the next music director. And, only the conductors (many of them guest conductors this season and next) in the mix for the position know if they are interested in the job. Yet, as I thought about it then and think about it now, Spano as music director appeals to me. His zeal for contemporary music, ability to help an orchestra grow, intellectual curiosity, and love for the city remind me of the qualities Michael Tilson Thomas brought to the San Francisco Symphony. Could Spano be Seattle’s MTT? We’ll have to wait and see.

from on .

Update

You should also head on over to the .

Quarter notes: Gergiev, Holst, and Pro Musica

V. Gergiev about conducting, his schedule, and Russia.

Seattle Pro Musica is a semi-finalist for the American prize and the group’s conductor, Karen Thomas, is also a semi-finalist in the conducting category.  Congrats Karen and Pro Musica!

Gustav Holst and Hans Graf .

Amelia is coming fast, be sure to check out to learn about Seattle Opera’s first commission in forty years. Check out part two of Seattle Opera’s making of series.

Coming up on May 1st, I am one of the three MC’s (Gavin Borchert and Dave Beck are the other two) for new music festival at Town Hall. $5 for twelve hours of music is just about the best deal around.

Questioning the conductors: Gilbert Varga

Gilbert Varga is in town this week to conduct the SSO in a series of concerts with Stravinsky and Beethoven as the focus. Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto will have the help of Horaccio Gutierrez; after the intermission it’s Stravinsky’s ballet Petrouchka.

Varga is the son of violin legend Tibor Varga. The younger Varga also played the violin but switched to conducting. Varga is or isn’t (depending on whether he is telling you his biography or you are reading the bio prepared by his agents) a newbie to North American concert halls. Regardless, his North American career has picked up considerably during the last decade, and he is regularly making stops at the continent’s leading orchestras.

Varga’s claim to fame, perhaps, comes from his commanding baton technique. It is aggressive, imposing, and precise. You can get a sense of his craft by watching this video of him .

My conversation with Varga on this point reminded me of an old measure the writer and composer Virgil Thomson used to ask when evaluating a new piece of music: is it merely good clock work or can it actually tell time too?  Applied to Varga, is there a vision and inspiration behind his surgically precise slicing?

I am not able to attend the concerts this weekend (traveling), so I will leave this last point for audiences to judge.

from on .