Symphony

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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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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Bernstein and Schuman close out SSO season, Bernstein festival, highlighting Schwarz’s legacy

June 27, 2010

To close the Seattle Symphony’s current season, Schwarz assembled a program of Leonard Bernstein and William Schuman works. This season finale also closes out the Seattle Celebrates Bernstein festival — a city wide effort to honor the 20th anniversary of Bernstein’s death. Personal struggle has been a theme in season finales over the last few [...]

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Wagner and Mendelssohn paired on symphony program

June 18, 2010

By R.M. Campbell Nearing the end of its current season, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra is pairing the famous with the obscure for three concerts at Benaroya Hall starting Thursday night. Both composers are in the pantheon of Western icons — Richard Wagner and Felix Mendelssohn — but the works offered are less obvious. Wagner’s “Parsifal” [...]

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Trpceski and an all French program take the stage at the SSO this weekend

June 11, 2010

By R.M. Campbell Gerard Schwarz has long had an affinity for French music, thus a program like the one that opened Thursday night and continues through Sunday afternoon at Benaroya Hall. There were many pleasures along the way. Principal among them was the reading of Saint-Saens’ Second Piano Concerto by Simon Trpceski. Now, in full [...]

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The 2009/2010 season comes to an end for OSSCS and SMCO

June 8, 2010

It’s that time of year again. Orchestras, professional and volunteer, are wrapping up their seasons. Two of Seattle’s many community orchestras finished their seasons this weekend. The Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra – University of Washington conducting student Geoffrey Larson’s creation – closed their inaugural season with a concert titled “Just Dance.” The next day, George [...]

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Can youth orchestras save classical music?

May 26, 2010

Under the steady baton of Stephen Rogers Radcliffe, the energized playing of the Seattle Youth Symphony, and a heavenly contribution from the Seattle Choral Company (Fred Coleman, the Seattle Choral Company’s music director is a SYSO alum), Mahler’s Second Symphony (Resurrection Symphony) thundered across the heavens this past Sunday. Those of us who made it [...]

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Second night of American String Project features Mendelsson & Beethoven

May 24, 2010

By Dana Wen A performance by the American String Project is like chamber music on steroids. The Project beefs up the concept of the string quartet, bringing together fifteen musicians from across the country to perform arrangements of great works from the string quartet repertoire. But the size of the ensemble is not the only [...]

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Mark Morris Dance Group makes its annual Seattle visit Friday night at the Paramount

May 22, 2010

By R.M. Campbell Time passes. Is it possible that the Mark Morris Dance Group has been visiting Seattle for 25 years? It is. Morris is now middle-aged, as is everyone else still around from those days, at the very least. On the Boards was the first to bring the company here in its funky space [...]

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Youth Symphony tackles death and resurrection in Mahler’s Second Symphony this Sunday

May 19, 2010

Stephen Rogers Radcliffe, the Seattle Youth Symphony’s music director, sat perched on a stool looking out over his orchestra. He flipped through the pages of his score to Mahler’s Second Symphony, searching for a good place in the music to start rehearsal. This was only the symphony’s second rehearsal of the symphony. Press were invited [...]

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Jun Markl conducts SSO in all German program

May 14, 2010

Since January, when the legendary Kurt Masur came to Seattle to conduct the SSO in a spellbinding performance of Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony, SSO performances have steadily improved, interpretations from the podium have varied, and among musicians there is genuine excitement for the orchestra’s future. The musicians have even magnanimously stepped up their playing for Gerard [...]

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Questioning the conductors: Jun Markl

May 13, 2010

Update: I am not entirely sure what happened with the video for two minutes in the middle. I apologize and will upload a mirror copy tonight. I had a chance to sit down with Jun (pronounced June) Markl earlier this week. Markl, no stranger to the Seattle Symphony, is guest conducting a program of German [...]

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Manze makes his SSO debut

May 8, 2010

By R.M. Campbell Early in his distinguished career, Andrew Manze was known as a Baroque violinist. But not any violinist. He brought zeal, ebullience, intelligence and scholarship to everything he touched. Those qualities he brings to the podium, as his Seattle Symphony Orchestra debut testified to this weekend at Benaroya Hall. He has a small [...]

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Come for the Rachmaninov, stay for the Adams

April 30, 2010

Robert Spano’s debut with the Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall started with Jean Sibelius’ Pohjola’s Daughter and ended with John Adams’ Harmonielehre. In between, Dejan Lejic, a rising, young Croatian pianist joined the orchestra for Sergey Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2. In the build-up to the concert, the orchestra’s marketing emphasized Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto (“Before [...]

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Despite twists of fate, Seattle Symphony delivers

April 23, 2010

By Philippa Kiraly It’s the hall mark of a professional orchestra that when unexpected obstacles threaten to overcome a concert, musicians rise above them and achieve a high level of performance anyway. This week the Seattle Symphony rose to the challenge and triumphed. I’ve been at a performance elsewhere where the lights went out and [...]

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Gilbert Varga takes the podium in a commanding performance with the SSO

April 16, 2010

By Philippa Kiraly With flair, Swiss conductor Gilbert Varga made his debut on Seattle Symphony’s podium Thursday night for remarkable performances of Enescu’s “Romanian Rhapsody No. 1, Stravinsky’s “Petrouchka” and, with Horacio Gutierrez, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4. It was hard to take your eyes off him. Varga almost danced the music, gracefully using his [...]

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The masterpiece by Prokofiev and Sergei Eisenstein

April 12, 2010

By Philippa Kiraly How many film directors hope to boast that their movies are being shown and revered more than 70 years after their making? There can be few talking movies in that category before Sergei Eisenstein and Sergei Prokofiev collaborated on the epic “Alexander Nevsky” in 1938, one of the first and arguably the [...]

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Quarter notes: Levine, the Ring, and Amelia

April 5, 2010

Ring fever has hit Los Angeles. Levine pulls the plug on the rest of the Met season. Morlot returns to Seattle to fill in for Roberto Abbado.  More than a few SSO musicians are looking forward to his return.  According to the SSO, Dutilleux and Morlot are close.  Will the second date be as good [...]

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Ludovic Morlot to replace Roberto Abbado

April 5, 2010

Roberto Abbado has withdrawn from his upcoming appearance with the SSO.  In his place, the orchestra is bringing back Ludovic Morlot.  Morlot was last here in October when he conducted a concert of Martinu and Haydn.  For that concert, the orchestra was split with the opera.  This time, Morlot will have the benefit of the [...]

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Quarter notes: Chamber Music Madness, the Met, James Gaffigan, and La Traviata

April 4, 2010

On this Easter Sunday some classical music bits and pieces to tide you over. Chamber Music Madness, a local organization that helps kids grow as musicians is looking for a new executive director.  String players with good administrative and fundraising skills should apply. Vanity Fair is out with a piece questioning whether the Metropolitan Opera’s economic model [...]

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