Seattle Chamber Music Society

An increasingly enlightened audience at Seattle Chamber Music Festival

August 13, 2010

By Philippa Kiraly Time was, maybe 17 years ago, when Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer Festival was full of well known classics. We could confidently expect to hear Brahms, Beethoven, and Schumann, Mozart and Haydn, Tchaikovsky and Dvorak. Sure there was, is, plenty to choose from among much-loved works. Some amongst us grew restless, wanting [...]

Read the full article →

More superb chamber music: Bridge, Stravinsky, and Schubert

July 17, 2010

By Philippa Kiraly Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer Festival is a joy in the midst of July’s usual musical dearth. Concerts come up three times a week, each with stellar performances and programs which are never boring. Even very familiar pieces receive illuminating performances which bring out facets not perceived before. Friday’s performance at Nordstrom [...]

Read the full article →

Bliss

July 16, 2010

Without a doubt, hearing new musicians perform is the best part of the Seattle Chamber Music Society festival. We might be hearing them for the first time, but others, especially the musicians in the festival and Toby Saks are already familiar with their talents.  Over the years, Saks has plucked players out of the musical [...]

Read the full article →

Must hear Martin, Kodaly and Dvorak at Wednesday’s SCMS concert

July 15, 2010

In an alternate (maybe even perfect) universe unfamiliar composers and works would be cat nip for curious ears looking to expand their musical horizons. Dissonances would pleasantly shake listeners. We’d tap our toes to awkward rhythms and take pleasure in sorting out difficult melodies. Seats would be filled. People would be turned away at the [...]

Read the full article →

Borodin and Ravel start week two of the SCMS summer festival; Armstrong returns to the piano

July 13, 2010

The second week of the Seattle Chamber Music Society’s summer festival began with Andrew Armstrong’s return to the piano. An infection caused by a bug bite or some other intruder sidelined the pianist, putting him in the hospital even. Although Armstrong was missed by the loyal festival attendees, other pianists, including the incomparable Craig Sheppard, [...]

Read the full article →

SCMS Summer Festival at Benaroya: Mendelssohn’s Octet and Grieg’s Cello Sonata

July 10, 2010

By Philippa Kiraly It seemed odd to go to Benaroya Hall, specifically the smaller Nordstrom Recital Hall, for a Seattle Chamber Music Society Summer Festival concert but, well, we will get used to it. The Society was no longer allowed to use the Lakeside campus with its lovely grounds and peaceful ambience, but it also [...]

Read the full article →

Winter Festival closes its 2010 season Sunday

February 1, 2010

By R.M. Campbell Just as the summer festival of the Seattle Chamber Music Society has taken a quantum leap in excellence over the past few years, so has the winter festival. The four-day event, which concluded Sunday afternoon with a splendid concert, gave evidence to that claim. This is the first year in nearly 30 [...]

Read the full article →

Turina surprises and the Trout inspires at SCMS’s Friday concert

January 31, 2010

The Seattle Chamber Music Society, and its stable of talented instrumentalists, continued its winter festival this past Friday.  This year, the winter festival is celebrating the 200th anniversary of Robert Schumann’s birthday. The classical proportioned Second Piano Trio was the Schumann selection on Friday night. On either side of the trio were two pieces — [...]

Read the full article →

Seattle Chamber Music Society begins its Winter Festival

January 30, 2010

By Philippa Kiraly I’ve never heard a Seattle Chamber Music Society concert more satisfying than this one, perhaps because we don’t have much chamber music on this level in the winter here (with the exception of the UW World Series) nor much in an intimate venue. Thursday’s concert at Nordstrom Recital Hall, the opening of [...]

Read the full article →

Last concert of the Summer Festival

August 15, 2009

Extraordinary weather and extraordinary playing marked this year’s Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer Festival, first at Lakeside School (for the last time) and for the past ten days at The Overlake School in Redmond. The programming was a little uneven, though no one can have too much Brahms (who was by some standards over represented). [...]

Read the full article →

Great music and lesser works both shine at Overlake.

August 13, 2009

Toby Saks, artistic director of Seattle Chamber Music Society has a permanent programming puzzle. Every year, she has 20 concerts of chamber music to arrange: 12 at Lakeside School and five at Overlake School for the Summer Festival, plus three for the Winter Interlude at Benaroya in January. That’s about 60 chamber music works which [...]

Read the full article →

Rain can’t repel music lovers

August 11, 2009

It’s the last Overlake School week of this year’s Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer Festival and for the first time in this sunny as well as stellar six weeks of music, it rained. Lightly to be sure, but it didn’t keep away concertgoers who packed the hall to hear yet another superbly-presented evening of musicmaking. [...]

Read the full article →

Previewing the 2010 SCMS Seattle festival

August 6, 2009

Even as the Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Lakeside Festival was wrapping up, organizers and audience members were busy evaluating the festival’s future home – Nordstrom Recital Hall. After 28 years, the Seattle festival is moving from the Lakeside School on the Shoreline/Seattle border to downtown. If the summer festival were exactly like SCMS’s winter festival [...]

Read the full article →

Adam Neiman talks about his time at the SCMS Festival, romantic composers, and Toby Saks’s legacy

August 2, 2009

Adam Neiman is one of the musicians with the longest history at the Seattle Chamber Music Society’s summer festival.  Neiman came to the festival in 1997 as a 19 year old just beginning his career as a pianist.  He sat down with me moments before the final Lakeside School began to talk about his time [...]

Read the full article →

Farewell, Lakeside

August 1, 2009

On Friday evening Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer festival held its final performance in the serene surroundings of Lakeside School. No more leisurely picnics beside the playing field, no intermissions under the evening sky in the little courtyard outside St. Nicholas Hall. But hold on. This coming week and the one after you can still [...]

Read the full article →

SCMS musicians face Wednesday’s record breaking heat with cool-headed playing

July 31, 2009

Before last night’s Seattle Chamber Music Society recital and concert got underway the festival’s stage manager gave the audience welcome news – Saint Nicholas Hall was air conditioned. Unlike the concerts from earlier in the month, Wednesday evening was unpleasant weather-wise. Seattle suffered under 100 degree temperatures and it seemed, based on my observation of [...]

Read the full article →

Music of Haydn, Brahms and Bartok opens the final week of the Seattle Chamber Music Festival at Lakeside

July 28, 2009

It may be a little early to get out the handkerchiefs to say goodbye to Lakeside School, which has been home to the Seattle Chamber Music Festival for nearly 30 years. At the time of its beginnings, this quasi-pastoral setting in north Seattle was as much a novelty in the summer cultural life of Seattle [...]

Read the full article →

Three fine works and one forgettable one at Lakeside

July 25, 2009

The evening weather was glorious—again—and the lawn and auditorium at Lakeside School were packed—again—as the ninth recital and concert of Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer Festival got under way. It’s getting almost old hat to say that performance and ambiance shone, but they did. Only one work on Friday’s program was quite familiar and that [...]

Read the full article →

Ligeti split

July 23, 2009

Last night’s Lakeside concert was preceded by a recital by pianist Jeremy Denk.  Denk tossed off three of Gyorgy Ligeti’s Book One etudes — Cordes a vide, Fanfares, and Arc-en-ciel.  To help with the etudes, Denk also programmed Debussy and Liszt.  Liszt’s “Rhapsodie espagnole” was a raucous affair, but for me, there was plenty of [...]

Read the full article →

Mendelssohn and Shostakovich are the bookends for a superb concert at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival

July 22, 2009

Wednesday’s concert of the Seattle Chamber Music Festival at Lakeside School sold out more than a month ago, with a line of people waiting at the box office hoping for a returned ticket or two. A number of concerts this season, as in previous summers, have sold-out, but four weeks ahead is unusual. One has [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries