January 2010

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 — [...]

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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 [...]

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One from Mozart and one from Mendelssohn

January 30, 2010

By Gigi Yellen The CD “Live in the Fiddler’s House,” played in the car as I headed for Benaroya Hall to hear “Reb Itzik” play. That would be Itzhak Perlman, the wildly famous virtuoso violinist, whose Jan. 28 concert as soloist and conductor was the second in a two-night stand that launched this year’s Seattle [...]

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Happy birthday Mozart! SSO members present a delightful tribute

January 30, 2010

By Dana Wen This week marks the 254th anniversary of Mozart’s birth, kicking off commemorative concerts across the globe. Here in Seattle, members of the Seattle Symphony presented a delightful program of the great composer’s chamber music to celebrate the event. The well-attended Tuesday night recital, a day before Mozart’s birthday on January 27, was [...]

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A Toast to Mozart

January 30, 2010

By Philippa Kiraly Celebrating Mozart on his birthday Wednesday in a Town Hall concert, pianist Byron Schenkman and several colleagues enlivened their performances with raffle drawings for an audience already enjoying wine and chocolates. Downstairs at Town Hall was jammed with people skipping the last part of the State of the Union speech to be [...]

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Let’s make a deal!

January 27, 2010

The Seattle Symphony musicians and management have reached a tentative agreement on a multi-year contract, paving the way for the next phase of the orchestra’s future.

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Lessons learned

January 27, 2010

If you went to the Seattle Philharmonic concert this past weekend you learned two lessons. First, parents should keep their young children at home. Second, among community orchestras, the Seattle Phil is the best I have heard so far this year. They are a group of musicians capable of unexpected, even stunning results.

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45th Parallel debuts in Portland

January 26, 2010

By Lorin Wilkerson Saturday night, January 16th, marked the inaugural concert of a new Portland chamber music group that goes by the name of 45th Parallel.  Its goal is to make a home for chamber music by talented local musicians, to “bring Portland’s rich chamber music culture out of the living room and onto the [...]

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Quarter notes

January 26, 2010

The Everett Symphony canceled the remainder of its season for budget reasons. This is bad for a number of reasons, but I am especially disappointed that we won’t be able to hear Mara Gearman play the Walton Viola Concerto now. And, it now appears, a federal mediator is helping SSO management and musicians hammer out [...]

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Violin is featured in Bellevue Phil and Seattle Baroque concerts

January 24, 2010

You could say the violin is the foundation of classical music.  There are more violins in the modern symphony orchestra than any other instrument.  String quartets use two of them.  Piano trios depend on the instrument’s singing qualities to balance out the piano.  Concerti for the instrument are some of the most famous pieces in [...]

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Support this site’s supporters

January 23, 2010

See the ads on the right?  Please support these fine music organizations.  The groups who advertise here help keep this site up and running.  TGN depends on every last advertising dollar.  Without them the hosting would go away and so would this site.  I doubt you will find a better classical music site in Seattle. [...]

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Richard Alston Dance Company returns to Meany Hall in splendid shape

January 23, 2010

By R.M. Campbell A breeze, both warm and cool, arrived Thursday night at Meany Hall and will stay the weekend. Its name is the Richard Alston Dance Company. The English company, named after its founding choreographer and artistic director, is known for its sunny, ebullience, the kind that is rather out-of-fashion in today’s rough-and-tumble culture. [...]

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Review: Matt Haimovitz plays the Tractor Tavern

January 23, 2010

By Gigi Yellen Celebrating the 300th birthday of his cello, the concert adventurer Matt Haimovitz returned to Seattle’s Tractor Tavern Wednesday night for a one-man show that sold out the bar. Some 250 seated and standing fans filled the funky place where Haimovitz performed Hendrix not so long ago, backed by a band of students, [...]

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Baroque music for humans at the SSO

January 19, 2010

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 [...]

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Il Trovatore Returns to Seattle Opera

January 18, 2010

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 [...]

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Musicians reject proposal and management responds

January 17, 2010

Update: Management issued a statement on the musicians’ unanimous rejection of the latest contract proposal late yesterday.  The press release hits the points management has been making in recent days, and specifically, the need for a long-term plan that ensures the financial viability of the orchestra.  Management also says they will go back to the [...]

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SSOPO: Does excellence matter?

January 17, 2010

The Seattle Symphony and Opera Players’ Association returned Leslie Jackson Chihuly and management’s fire from late last week. Hale’s manifestos read like “The Ninety Five Theses.”  They aren’t focused on any one particular issue but are all broad swipes at management, Ralph Craviso, and now Henry Fogel. A Tale of Two Cities: Does excellence matter? [...]

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Garrick Ohlsson opens a two-part series devoted to Chopin

January 15, 2010

By R.M. Campbell Frederic Chopin was born in Warsaw in 1810 and by the time he was in his early 20s he had settled in Paris for the rest of his short life. Although he had problems attracting the fickle Viennese and political problems in Italy marred his stay there, he was pretty much a [...]

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Leslie Jackson Chihuly’s “State of the Symphony”

January 15, 2010

Leslie Jackson Chihuly’s “State of the Symphony” remarks from yesterday’s SSO presser at the Fairmount. State of The Symphony By Leslie Jackson Chihuly, Board Chair Thank you for taking the time to hear about the current state of the Seattle Symphony. There is much talk about the performing arts in our community these days, focusing [...]

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Lisa Daltirus gets to the heart of Verdi’s Leonora

January 14, 2010

In Verdi’s three most popular operas – La Traviata, Rigoletto, and Il Trovatore – the heroine suffers a tragic fate.  In Traviata, Violetta loses love, gets sick, and dies just after one final encounter with her beau.  Gilda, the heroine in Rigoletto, decides to sacrifice her own life to spare that of the Duke’s – [...]

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