Seattle

Quarter notes: farewell

August 25, 2010

I had been wondering when the Seattle Symphony would announce some big, audacious, splashy farewell for Gerard Schwarz’s final season. There was a two concert Hovhaness festival and the season finale is Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony, but neither seemed a big enough way to say good bye to a conductor who oversaw the growth of the [...]

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Quarter notes: end of summer edition

August 20, 2010

Summer is winding down, classical performance — with the exception of Seattle Opera’s head scratching new production of Tristan und Isolde – are more or less on hiatus until September. All of this leaves a blogger with little to blog about. Yet a few noteworthy bits have popped up here and there. This Sunday George [...]

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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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The Five: Jayce Ogren

August 11, 2010

Jayce Ogren is an example of what is happening in classical music these days. He’s a conductor who has stood before some of the finest orchestras in the world. Ogren finished a tenure with the Cleveland Orchestra in 2009. He has also conducted the Boston Symphony, LA Phil, and City Opera. Before that, he was [...]

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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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New production of “Tristan” opens Saturday at McCaw

August 1, 2010

By R.M. Campbell Wagner’s monumental “Tristan und Isolde”  is not a stranger to Seattle Opera: it has never been approached lightly. The opera is too important, too central to the Wagner canon, too demanding to be treated with anything less than awe and respect. The last time the company mounted the opera, in 1998, it [...]

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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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Grimsley sings Kurwenal again in Seattle Opera’s new production of Tristan

July 31, 2010

By Philippa Kiraly It was Speight Jenkins, general director of Seattle Opera who persuaded bass-baritone Greer Grimsley that he should sing Wagner. That was for the 1994 production of “Lohengrin,” and Grimsley has sung in nearly every Wagner production here since. Talking with him as he prepares to sing Kurwenal in “Tristan and Isolde” which [...]

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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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Gilbert & Sullivan classic better than ever

July 12, 2010

By Philippa Kiraly I’ve seen Gilbert & Sullivan’s “H. M. S. Pinafore” a dozen or more times, and each time I find myself enjoying it as much as ever, finding heretofore unnoticed sentiments as pertinent today as 132 years ago, and seeing different performers discovering new angles to their roles and bringing them to prominence. [...]

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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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Questioning the conductors: Meet Morlot!

July 9, 2010

Our conductor interviews end with the person chosen to lead the SSO to new artistic heights and performance excellend — Ludovic Morlot. Morlot was one of the few conductors I didn’t meet. I was in New York when he was here last fall and when he returned in the spring, an exploding volcano in Iceland [...]

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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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