September 2009

Zach Carstensen named NEA arts journalism fellow

September 30, 2009

Congratulations are in order for Zach Carstensen, freelance writer and TGN man about town, because he received an NEA fellowship to the NEA Arts Journalism Institute in Classical Music and Opera. Is that a long-winded title or what! Anyway, this is a terrific program that promotes journalism in the arts, and ZC is doing a [...]

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Mahler Five tix $9

September 30, 2009

If Mahler’s Fifth Symphony wasn’t enough of a reason to hear the SSO and Schwarz play this weekend, now you have a financial reason as well.  Ticket prices have been reduced for this weekend’s performances and now start at $9 each — less than the cost of going to the movies.

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Interview with Haochen Zhang, Van Cliburn Gold Medalist

September 29, 2009

Portland Piano International will feature Haochen Zhang in its first recital for this season on Sunday (October 4) at the Newmark Theatre. In June, I heard Zhang at the Van Cliburn competition, and he shared top honors with Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii. Zhang, age 19, moved to Philadelphia from Shanghai, China five years ago in [...]

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Oregon Symphony collaborates with Thile, Meyer, Fleck, and Hussain in outstanding concert

September 28, 2009

A near-capacity audience at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall reveled in an unusual gala concert with the Oregon Symphony and virtuosi of the banjo, mandolin, tabla, and double bass on Saturday evening (September 26). The orchestra welcomed Bela Fleck, Chris Thile, Zakir Hussain, and Edgar Meyer and whipped up some very new music by these [...]

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Mahler’s emancipation: Symphony No. 5

September 28, 2009

For those of you interested in seeing the Seattle Symphony this season, this weekend would be a great time to see them. The program for this Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday (October 1-4) is Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, with guest soloist Isabelle Faust, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor. I have a special affinity [...]

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Quarter notes: upcoming

September 28, 2009

Tomorrow night, Anton Batagov emerges for his Seattle debut and first public recital in 12 years at the Good Shepherd Center in the Wallingford neighborhood. The Russian composer/pianist is famous in his country for his movie scores for television and movies. His recital will include music from some of his television and movie scores. Also [...]

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Portland Opera dishes up wonderful La Bohème

September 27, 2009

A terrific set of young singers energized Portland Opera’s production of Puccini’s “La Bohème,” which opened on Friday night at Keller Auditorium. The opera, which tells the lives of four poverty-stricken ex-students and their friends in Paris around 1830, received exceptional performances by the principals, with Kelly Kaduce leading the way.

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An unusual, remarkable “Romeo et Juliette”

September 26, 2009

Drop your preconceptions of a story length ballet: a classical spectacular with splendid costumes? A stultified, stylized waste of time? Go to see the current Pacific Northwest Ballet production of “Romeo et Juliette” with choreography by Jean-Christophe Maillot. It will confound you, absorb you, shake you, upset those preconceptions and leave you feeling wrung but [...]

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Review: Shaham and Parker play Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos

September 25, 2009

Earlier this week I was standing in line at a bookstore with my iPod turned on and my ear buds tucked into my ears. I was listening to Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos; pre-listening for last night’s Seattle Symphony performance with guest pianists Orli Shaham and Jon Kimura Parker. When it was my turn at [...]

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Orli Shaham and Jon Kimura Parker share their thoughts on Mozart’s Two Piano Concerto

September 24, 2009

Tonight the Seattle Symphony begins their subscription season with the piano pyrotechnics of Orli Shaham and Jon Kimura Parker. Parker and Shaham are accomplished pianists in their own right, but the Seattle Symphony has both of them this week as they play Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos in E-flat major. It is the first time [...]

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Oregon Symphony gala accents Meyer, Fleck, Hussain, and Thile

September 23, 2009

This year, the Oregon Symphony is presenting a different kind of gala. There will be plenty of music, but the soloists will be four of the hottest names in the classical-crossover-to-jazz-bluegrass-world-music arena: Edgar Meyer, Bela Fleck, Chris Thile, and Zakir Hussain. The concert program will have something old and something new, and should appeal to [...]

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Recording round up

September 21, 2009

Peter Breiner, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra; Janacek Orchestral Suites from the Operas Vol. 3 (Naxos) **** I am a fan of volume I and II in this series of orchestral suites drawn from Janacek’s various operas. Peter Breiner is both an able composer and conductor. He has produced a number of successful orchestrations and arrangements [...]

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Pacific Northwest Ballet’s new Juliette

September 21, 2009

Jean-Christophe Maillot’s “Romeo et Juliette” was a sensation in Seattle when Pacific Northwest Ballet performed it for the first time in January 2008. Choreographed in 1996 for the Ballet de Monte Carlo where he is director, he set Juliette on ballerina Bernice Coppieters, and Coppieters has been here at PNB this fall to stage the [...]

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Review: Town Music’s new season opens

September 18, 2009

.!. tripping the rift the movie online It’s a pleasure to hear chamber music at Town Hall. Players and audience being close to one another in a warm acoustical atmosphere makes for a satisfying experience, and of course, that’s how chamber music got its name: music played in a not-so-big room, a chamber, for a [...]

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RIP: Leon Kirchner

September 17, 2009

Leon Kirchner died today.  You can read about Kirchner over at New Music Box.  You can also read a very personal blog post by Jeremy Denk about Kirchner, a composer Denk obviously believed in and someone who the pianist considered a friend.  Denk posted a follow up to his original post this morning.

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The Rachmaninov piano (and Zenph Studios) plays Rachmaninov

September 16, 2009

Sony is set to release a Sergei Rachmaninov re-performance recording. This is the third re-performance album made possible because of the partnership Zenph Studios and Sony. Zenph Studios’s technology examines historic performances, reproduces them, and turns them into digital files that are then sent to a player piano. In the case of the upcoming Rachmaninov [...]

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New concert hall in Puerto Rico

September 15, 2009

A new concert hall is scheduled to open next month in Puerto Rico as the home of the Symphony Orchestra of Puerto Rico. The new 1,300-seat Sala Sinfonica Pablo Casals will host a variety of musical performances, serving a range of symphonic, chamber, and popular music styles. Architect Rodolfo Fernández designed the hall, which is [...]

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Quarter notes: Anton Batagov, Jun Iwasaki, and the Seattle Symphony

September 14, 2009

After a lengthy Ring hangover, the new classical music season is upon us and I am back to blogging. The Seattle Symphony they wait divx movie online kicked off their season this weekend with a gala celebration, before that they paired three mini-concerts with wine tasting. The orchestra’s subscription season gets underway in earnest next [...]

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Seattle Symphony season opens with gala and warhorses

September 13, 2009

This year’s gala performance by the Seattle Symphony Saturday night celebrated the opening of music director Gerard Schwarz’s 25th season with a brief graceful speech in his praise from board president Leslie Chihuly. She also noted this was the orchestra’s 106th opening night concert, and in his reply, Schwarz also praised the orchestra and asked [...]

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Review: Beethoven and Wine Festival

September 10, 2009

It’s a fine idea to begin this Seattle Symphony season with three concerts specifically geared to the sophisticated but not-so-wealthy, need-an-evening-out crowd. The Beethoven and Wine Festival began last night, Wednesday, and continues the next couple of nights with different, shorter (less hours to pay baby-sitters) programs each night at a starting price of $9, [...]

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