The San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) has opened its Ute and William K. Bowes, Jr. Center for Performing Arts Center, transforming the Civic Center. Yo-Yo Ma was on hand to inaugurate the performance hall with a recital.
On 12 February 2022, there will be an open house for the public, with tours and performances throughout the day.
Here’s the report I wrote for the New York Times in 2018 when SFCM announced a major gift funding the new project, located just south of San Francisco City Hall.
–From Kate Soper, the final revision of her metaphysical cabaret piece The Fragments of Parmenides (score is available here, audio here). Plus, Soper’s “telepathy installation manual” ClearVoice is out now in the latest issue of McSweeney’sQuarterly. Order here (use the code “audioodyssey” for a 10% discount).
–Meredith Monk’s latest evening-length work, Indra’s Net, inspired by the ancient Buddhist/Hindu legend of the same name, premieres in a concert version at Mills College on 12 and 13 November to both limited in-person audiences and online via livestream.
–-world premiere recording of Yotam Haber’s Estro Poetico-armonico III, one of the winners of the 2020 Azrieli Music Prize: continues a long exploration into the music of Rome’s Jewish community, as discovered through the archival recordings of ethnomusicologist Leo Levi. The recording also includes Yitzhak Yedid‘s Kadosh Kadosh and Cursed, Keiko Devaux’s Arras and Dissidence by Pierre Mercure (arr. by Jonathan Monro); liner notes here.
—FLOW, new studio album from the amazing clarinetist/composer Kinan Azmeh: after his award-winning album Uneven Sky with the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Azmeh returns with the NDR Bigband led by conductor/arranger Wolf Kerschek. “I was the Damascene in New York and the New Yorker in Damascus,” observes Azmeh. “I am now more interested in being the New Yorker in New York and the Damascene in Damascus…Both cities with all their contrasting qualities are intellectually stimulating to me. Places, people, nature, tragedies, and celebrations, all of these elements have found their way into the music I create. Being in a constant state of FLOW is now my new zone of comfort.”
–link to Abraham’s Land steaming site — an original musical by playwright Lauren Goldman Marshall and Pulitzer-nominated composer, Roger Ames, with additional music by David Nafissian and Paul Linnes, premiered to widespread acclaim at Kirkland Performance Center, Kirkland, WA, 15-18 July 2021
Nostalgic clip from October 2009, when Ludovic Morlot was rehearsing with the Seattle Symphony
Congratulations to Ludovic Morlot, Conductor Emeritus of Seattle Symphony, who has just been named music director of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra. His tenure startsSeptember 2022 for an initial four seasons. He succeeds Kazushi Ono.
From the press release:
Morlot will conduct a minimum of eleven weeks a year. Ambitious plans together will include an increased digital presence, CD recordings, international residencies, talent development and youth programs, and a commitment to expand the permanent symphony orchestra size. His appointment is the culmination of a three-year search process, and follows conducting weeks with the orchestra in December 2020 and then again last month.
Robert Brufau, the Director of L’Auditori, stated that ‘with Ludovic Morlot at the helm, the OBC reaches an international level to defend the role that symphonic music has to play in the 21st century. Morlot has proven his capacity to promote the artistic growth of large groups that, thanks to his leadership, have achieved great success. Modernity and rigour are part of his DNA as an artist, and this is evident in everything he does, from management to the stage with full awareness of the challenges of modern society’.
Morlot remains Associate Artist of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, and Conductor Emeritus of the Seattle Symphony – an honorary title bestowed on him for the extraordinary achievements of his eight years as the orchestra’s Music Director.
The public of Catalonia will next be able to enjoy Ludovic Morlot’s artistry in the week of 17 January at L’Auditori, conducting the Barcelona Symphony in works by Bach, Betsy Jolas, Schumann, Carter, and Mahler, with the pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard as guest soloist.
Next up from Byron Schenkman & Friends: on Sunday 14 November 2021at 7:00 PM, Pacific Time, Byron is joined by violinist Rachell Ellen Wong and violist Susan Gulkis Assadi for an all-Mozart program. You can watch the performance free on YouTube (you can donate here).
To get in the mood, tonight, Friday 5 November, Sean MacLean hosts all three musicians in a live studio performance on Classical KING FM 98.1at 8:00 PM. They will play Mozart’s “Kegelstatt” Trio in E-flat major from the upcoming concert and other musical gems Byron wants to share.
Program for 14 November Concert
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:
Sonata in G Major, K. 301, for violin and piano
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:
Sonata in C Major, K. 330 (300h), for piano
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:
Adagio in C Major, K. 356 (617a), for glass harmonica (or piano)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:
Trio in E-flat Major “Kegelstatt” K. 498 for violin, viola, and pian
On Tuesday 2 November, an online series delving into the life and music of Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942) will be launched. Titled Recovered Voices 2021: Schulhoff and More and presented by the Los Angeles-based Colburn School’s Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices, the series will explore this prolific and multi-faceted composer who drew on an enormous range of styles and influences.
From the press release:
The Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices was established in 2013 with the purpose of championing composers such as Schulhoff whose lives were disrupted—or even ended—during the years of the Nazi regime in Europe. In collaboration with Robert Elias and with the critical support of individual philanthropists, the Initiative continues to bring this important repertory back to life for generations to come through performances, classes, competitions, symposia, recordings, and more. For the past seven years, the Ziering-Conlon Initiative offered an annual semester-long course, “Recovered Voices: An Examination of Lesser-Known Composers and Works of the Early Twentieth Century,” with weekly lectures by Conlon, Elias, and other experts. Due to COVID, the annual in-person course was reimagined for digital platforms. This free series will consist of four 45-minute multimedia presentations by Conlon exploring the life and legacy of composer Erwin Schulhoff, including musical examples—most performed and recorded by Colburn musicians—in each installment.
Recovered Voices 2021: Schulhoff and MorePresented by James ConlonAll episodes premiere at 12pm PT Nov. 2, 2021Recovered Voices 101 Nov. 16, 2021Erwin Schulhoff’s Early Life and Music: Tradition Meets Dada Nov. 30, 2021Erwin Schulhoff: A Classical Music Jazz Prophet Dec. 14, 2021Erwin Schulhoff: The Twenties and a Turn Toward Socialist Realism
Bernard Haitink has died. The 92-year-old conductor passed away peacefully at home, according to his representatives.
I had the privilege of attending his very final concert, in the summer of 2019, when he led the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at Lucerne Festival. He maintained a close association with Lucerne for many years, including a nearby residence. Haitink’s farewell song was Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 (without score), paired with Beethoven’s G major Piano Concerto, with Emanuel Ax as the soloist.
Christian Wildhagen penned an eloquent review: ““Hatte er zuvor bei Beethovens 4. Klavierkonzert vorrangig Emmanuel Ax, einem feinsinnigen Pianisten der alten Schule, in nobel-zurückhaltender Weise die Bühne bereitet, so kam bei Bruckner noch einmal der grosse Architekt, der überragende Formgestalter Haitink zur Geltung. Wie beim späten Günter Wand wird die Detailarbeit hier mitnichten zur Nebensache, sie bildet aber lediglich die Basis für eine viel weiter ausgreifende Gestaltung, in der Entwicklungen teilweise über drei, vier Minuten behutsam entfaltet werden (etwa in der magischen Rückführung zur Reprise im ersten Satz oder beim grossen Wagner-Epitaph im Adagio), während sich die Spannungsbögen sogar bruchlos über ganze Sätze wölben.”
That summer–the last before the pandemic–there was also a vernissage for the publication of Erich Singer and Peter Hagmann’s fine collection of essays and conversations with Haitink: Dirigieren ist ein Rätsel. An English translation has yet to be issued.
Byron Schenkman & Friends launch their ninth season on Sunday, 17 October, with the program Joy and Sorrow Across the Waters. It promises to be a fascinating program, presenting traditional music and stories of the Coast Salish People alongside 17th-century European Baroque music for violin and harpsichord from Spain, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands. The performers include Native American flutist Paul Chiyokten Wagner, Ingrid Matthews, and Byron Schenkman.
The beloved Seattle-based pianist Judith Cohen will be joined Jill Timmons, Terry Spiller, and Dean Williamson for an intriguing edition of the Governor’s Chamber Music Series on Sunday, 10 September, at 3pm at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, WA. Titled Two Pianos, 40 Fingers, the eight-hands program includes music by Liszt, Debussy, Ravel, Piazzolla, and more.
The much-anticipated new book by the eminent musicologist and artistic programming genius Elena Dubinets has just been published: Russian Composers Abroad: How They Left, Stayed, Returned. I had the honor of contributing one of the cover blurbs for this study of a century of Russian émigré composers (especially from the 1970s on) and diasporic identities.
As Vice President of Artistic Planning and Creative Projects for Seattle Symphony, Elena Dubinets not only played a decisive role in shaping that institution — its international profile grew significantly under her tenure — but left a mark the American orchestral field generally.
To Seattle’s loss, Dubinets left the SSO just before the pandemic and has only recently embarked on a new path as Artistic Director of the London Philharmonic. The LPO is going through an exciting period of transition as it returns to live performances under its new Chief Conductor, Edward Gardner.
MEMETERIA by Thomas May 