Chamber Music

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 [...]

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Seattle Chamber Music Festival enters final week of 2010 season

August 10, 2010

By R.M. Campbell Memories can be short and distorted, but it seems to me, as the Seattle Chamber Music Festival enters its final week of the summer, this season has been if not the best than one of the best in its nearly 30-year history. Two things are certain. The move from the dull acoustics [...]

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A tribute to Shangrow and an evening of remarkable music making

August 5, 2010

By Philippa Kiraly Seattle Chamber Music Society’s summer festival has headed to The Overlake School in Redmond for its final five concerts, the first of which took place in those beautiful surroundings Wednesday night. But first, the Society’s associate artistic director, James Ehnes, came out to give a tribute to the late George Shangrow, citing [...]

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Seattle Chamber Music Society wraps up Seattle festival, heads to Redmond

July 31, 2010

By Philippa Kiraly Despite concerns and trepidation over its move from the bucolic ambiance of Lakeside School to the urban Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya, Seattle Chamber Music Society’s summer festival there has been an undoubted success. It managed to fill, mostly, over 100 seats more than Lakeside has for each concert and recital. It [...]

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Mozart to Barber Wednesday Night at Festival

July 29, 2010

By R.M. Campbell There has been so much to admire in the concerts that I’ve attended at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival this season at Nordstrom Recital Hall, it seems redundant to say so yet again. But it is the truth. As always there are musicians making their festival debut. A more significant new element [...]

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A lot of good and some bad close out third week of SCMS festival

July 25, 2010

By the third week of the Chamber Music Society’s festival the excitement of opening week is gone.  We’ve heard enough expertly crafted chamber music to carry us through to the fall.  A number of musicians have come and gone by the third week.   The third week is also when repertory experiments takes place. The [...]

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Schwarz’s Trio for Violin, Horn, and Piano to be premiered next week

July 23, 2010

By Peter Klein We all know about Gerard Schwarz, conductor. Lately, we’ve been hearing more and more about Gerard Schwarz, composer. Schwarz’ latest work, a “Trio for Violin, Horn, and Piano” (Horn Trio for short), will receive its world premiere at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival on Monday, July 26 at 8:00 PM in Benaroya [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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, [...]

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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 [...]

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Music of Romantic era dominates festival on second night

July 8, 2010

By R.M. Campbell The inaugural season of the Seattle Chamber Music Festival in its new home — Nordstrom Recital Hall — has gotten off to a splendid beginning. The first concert Monday night was a major success, even with the absence of pianist Andrew Armstrong because of an infection in his leg. The second concert, [...]

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SCMS Summer Festival opens new season in new hall

July 6, 2010

By R.M. Campbell The Seattle Chamber Music Festival, which opened its 29th season Monday night, has a long, distinguished history. For nearly all of its 28 years, it has been located at the Lakeside School. The New England-style prep school informed the festival a few years ago that it was claiming summer usage of its [...]

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Quarter notes: SCMS edition

July 5, 2010

Update: SCMS is putting a limited number of rush tickets on sale for $25 30 minutes before tonight’s performance.  On the program is Debussy’s Piano Trio, Barber’s String Quartet (with its famous adagio), and Brahms’ Op. 8 Piano Trio.  With the sun lost behind the clouds this summer, let chamber music brighten your day. Although [...]

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The Onyx Chamber Players end their season with Haydn and Mendelssohn at Town Hall

June 23, 2010

By Dana Wen One of the great joys of chamber music is the conversation that unfolds between the musicians on stage. Each performer is given a chance to contribute to the musical dialogue in a very prominent way. In such an intimate environment, the personality of each musician inevitably emerges. Sometimes the going gets rough, [...]

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Joshua Roman returns to Seattle for world premiere of Dan Visconti’s Americana

June 13, 2010

Back in the day, when Joshua Roman was the hot-shot, super-talented, ever-modest, principal cellist of the Seattle Symphony the press and younger concertgoers — many who had never set foot in a recital hall before Roman came along — fawned over him. Roman was the closest thing Seattle had to a classical music rebel – [...]

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Schumann birthday celebration with Simon Trpceski

June 9, 2010

By Philippa Kiraly Robert Schumann was born 200 years ago Tuesday, and that night, in this year of 2010, there was a chamber music concert in his honor at Nordstrom Recital Hall with members of the Seattle Symphony and pianist Simon Trpceski (who plays a Saint-Saens concerto at the regular symphony concerts this Thursday, Saturday [...]

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Road report: Moscow Conservatory

May 29, 2010

Our performance Friday night at the Moscow Conservatory was truly a wonderful experience. It was an honor to play at such a venerable institution. Founded in the 1860’s, it has been the training ground for countless great Russian musicians. Tchaikovsky, who presided over the Conservatory for a time, is represented by a gorgeous statue in [...]

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Road report: playing at Dom

May 28, 2010

Last night we played at a small venue called “Dom” (means “house”). This is apparently the only place in Moscow where contemporary, avant-garde, or unusual music is performed. Folkloric acts come through and we heard that our friend Carla Kihlstedt, the violinist who improvised with ODEON at Benaroya Hall in November on Wayne Horvitz’ “These [...]

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Road report: old friends, new friends in Moscow

May 26, 2010

After a very long flight from Seattle to San Francisco to Los Angeles to Moscow, ODEONQUARTET finally arrived in Russia on a rainy Tuesday. We had time the next day before our rehearsal to take the Metro to Red Square and see the incomprehensibly huge square and its famous Basilica as well as the Kremlin. Probably [...]

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