Filed under: Schumann
March 18, 2016 • 4:55 pm 1
John Adams’s Extraordinary Night with the Seattle Symphony
John Adams with the Seattle Symphony (photo credit: Chris Bennion)
Here’s my Seattle Times review of last night’s Seattle Symphony concert with John Adams at the podium:
The chance to hear a great living composer conducting his own music is rarity enough. But the new work John Adams has brought with him is rarer still: a composition created in the here-and-now that shows every sign of becoming part of the canon.
Leila Josefowicz, photographed by Chris Lee, 5/13/15. Photo by Chris Lee
Filed under: John Adams, review, Seattle Symphony, Seattle Times, violinists
March 16, 2016 • 12:40 am Comments Off on Jeremy Denk’s “iPhone Shuffle about Syncopation”
Jeremy Denk’s “iPhone Shuffle about Syncopation”
UPDATE: This morning (16 March) I was informed that Mr. Denk — not uncharacteristically — has announced a last-minute change of program. The first half remains the same; the second half (originally Haydn, Beethoven, and Schubert/Wanderer Fantasy) will be replaced by the Goldberg Variations.
Here’s my latest story for the Seattle Times:
He’s got rhythm — “fascinatin’ rhythm,” as Ira Gershwin might say.
Toes will inevitably tap when pianist — and New Yorker contributor — Jeremy Denk returns to Seattle to perform at Meany Hall on Friday evening, March 18. For his recital, which concludes the President’s Piano Series at the University of Washington this season, Denk has programmed a dim sum of pieces to illustrate the way composers across the centuries have played with the beat.
Filed under: pianists, preview, Seattle Times, Uncategorized
March 14, 2016 • 8:13 pm Comments Off on Classical Editor Picks: March 2016
Classical Editor Picks: March 2016
Here are my top picks for this month, now posted on Rhapsody:
Music for the keyboard launches this playlist, and starting us off is Ukrainian pianist Vadim Kholodenko in a pair of neglected but fascinating Prokofiev piano concertos. Even being a Van Cliburn Competition gold medalist (Kholodenko won in 2013) doesn’t guarantee the chops needed to take on Prokofiev’s fiendishly difficult challenges, but Kholodenko dazzles and astonishes from start to finish. Seong-Jin Cho, who won last year’s Chopin Competition, has just released his debut solo album — fittingly, of Chopin. And the homage to the late Pierre Boulez continues with a superb set of his complete solo piano music performed by Marc Ponthus.
Filed under: editor picks, Rhapsody
March 12, 2016 • 10:08 am Comments Off on John Adams Conducts Scheherazade.2 at Seattle Symphony
John Adams Conducts Scheherazade.2 at Seattle Symphony
The cover story of the weekend section of The Seattle Times‘ is my feature on John Adams. He’ll be in town this coming week to conduct the Seattle Symphony in the West Coast premiere of his brilliant new violin concerto/dramatic symphony Scheherazade.2:
Some people feel like they’ve missed out because Mozart and Beethoven lived in a different century. But they’re overlooking the great artists who are in our midst today — composers writing music that is just as meaningful, and just as likely to last.
Filed under: American music, John Adams, Seattle Symphony, Seattle Times
March 11, 2016 • 7:48 am Comments Off on Maria Stuarda at Seattle Opera: Donizetti Fever Rages on from Coast to Coast
Maria Stuarda at Seattle Opera: Donizetti Fever Rages on from Coast to Coast
Joyce El-Khoury in the title role of Maria Stuarda; image credit: Jacob Lucas
My review of Maria Stuarda at Seattle Opera — where soprano Joyce El-Khoury has made a spectacular company debut — is now posted on Bachtrack:
Tudormania continues its invasion of America. Later this month at the Met, Sondra Radvanovsky will have added the third and final jewel to her Donizetti crown when she sings Elizabeth in Roberto Devereux. And across the continent, Seattle Opera has been presenting its company debut of Maria Stuarda (1835).
Filed under: bel canto, directors, Donizetti, review, Seattle Opera
March 9, 2016 • 7:24 am Comments Off on Kosky & Co. Recharge the Magic of Flute at LA Opera
Kosky & Co. Recharge the Magic of Flute at LA Opera
Musical America has posted my review of the Barrie Kosky/Suzanne Andrade-directed Magic Flute (behind a paywall):
LOS ANGELES— Singspiel meets silent film in this genuinely innovative production of The Magic Flute directed by Barrie Kosky and Suzanne Andrade. Initially created in 2012 for the Komische Oper Berlin …
Filed under: Los Angeles Opera, Mozart, review
March 8, 2016 • 7:05 pm Comments Off on Women’s Indelible Mark on Classical Music
Women’s Indelible Mark on Classical Music
The 29-year-old Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla gives hope that more women will have influential roles in classical music.
Here’s my Rhapsody piece for International Women’s Day:
It took until 1920 for the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to be ratified, guaranteeing female citizens the right to vote. But almost 100 years later, the status quo in classical music still needs a whole lot of shaking up if women are to have any chance of fair representation.
Filed under: essay, music news, Rhapsody
March 6, 2016 • 9:36 am Comments Off on A Bright Mahlerian Cosmos from Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic
A Bright Mahlerian Cosmos from Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic
My review of this weekend’s Mahler 3 by Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic is now posted on Bachtrack:
No work is more emblematic of Mahler‘s symphonic philosophy than the Third. Or at least that version of his philosophy filtered by Sibelius, who recollected Mahler’s words decades after their meeting in 1907, long after his colleague’s death: ‘The symphony must be like the world. It must embrace everything’.
But it was another Mahlerian statement that Gustavo Dudamel’s interpretation with the Los Angeles Philharmonic brought to mind – a statement reported by his confidante Natalie Bauer-Lechner referring specifically to the Third Symphony when it was still a work in progress: ‘To me, “symphony” means constructing a world with all the technical means at one’s disposal’.
Filed under: conductors, Gustavo Dudamel, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Mahler, review
MEMETERIA by Thomas May 