September 7, 2024 • 4:39 am Comments Off on “Last Days” by Oliver Leith
For Gramophone‘s September issue, I reviewed Oliver Leith’s Last Days, based on Gus Van Sant’s 2005 film riffing on Kurt Cobain’s suicide.
‘A place where flecks of magic are chipped or hacked from mundanity – where the familiar and domestic are heightened or warped’ is how Oliver Leith sums up what he wanted to convey with Last Days, his debut opera…
Filed under: CD review, Gramophone, new opera
September 4, 2024 • 9:00 pm 1
It’s been a long wait … But Seattle Symphony has finally secured its next music director. Xian Zhang will begin her five-year tenure at the start of the 2025-26 season, it was announced today. A fantastic choice.
This season, Zhang can be heard in two programs with SSO: Holst’s The Planets (paired with Billy Childs’s saxophone concerto Diaspora, with soloist Steven Banks) on March 27-20, 2025; and a Beethoven-Prokofiev program June 12-15, 2025 (with Hilary Hahn as the soloist in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto).
From the press release:
The Seattle Symphony is pleased to announce Xian Zhang as its next Music Director, beginning a 5-year contract in the 2025/2026 season. Zhang is a long-term collaborator with the Symphony, debuting at Benaroya Hall in 2008. Zhang has a special relationship with Seattle; she supported the Seattle Symphony throughout the height of the pandemic as one of the first conductors to return to the stage with our orchestra. Throughout her career, Zhang has gained international acclaim, most notably in her eight seasons as Music Director of the New Jersey Symphony and in her recent appearances as guest conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra (with which she won a Grammy in 2023), Los Angeles Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Orchestra, among others. Zhang also holds the positions of Artistic Ambassador of Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Conductor Emeritus of Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano.
Her commitment to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in the arts has been a hallmark of her career. She has made a point of raising the profile of music composed by women and people of color while being a trailblazer herself. Zhang is the New Jersey Symphony’s first woman Music Director and the first woman to serve as Music Director of any Italian symphony orchestra. She will now be the first to lead a major West Coast orchestra.
Zhang brings boundless energy to the stage, inspiring a powerful sound and a strong connection with both musicians and audience. Most recently, she conducted the Seattle Symphony in performances of Carl Orff’s Carmina burana and Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, filling the house and impressing audiences with inspired pairings of well-known works with cutting-edge contemporary pieces. Zhang performs at Benaroya Hall twice during the 2024/2025 season as Music Director Designate. First, on March 27, 29 and 30, to conduct Holst The Planets: An HD Odyssey, also featuring saxophonist Steven Banks in a new concerto by American composer Billy Childs. Next, she conducts Hilary Hahn Plays Beethoven, on June 12, 14 and 15, featuring Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and Prokofiev’s triumphant Fifth Symphony.
“I am overjoyed to be the next Music Director of the Seattle Symphony and continue creating music with this exceptional orchestra,” said Xian Zhang, Seattle Symphony Music Director Designate. “For many years, I have been inspired by the Symphony’s incredible talent and keen desire to bring new music to the stage. Joining the Seattle Symphony now feels like coming home. From my 2008 Benaroya Hall debut to joining the orchestra in 2020 for its careful return to live performances, I have long felt a special bond with these incredible musicians. Visiting Seattle has always been a treat as well, for its beautiful landscapes, and of course, to see the clear devotion audiences have for the local arts community. As Music Director, I look forward to connecting with audiences on a deeper level, experiencing inspiring concerts together and discovering new music at Benaroya Hall, one of my all-time favorite performance halls to conduct in. Thank you to all of the wonderful people I have been able to work with at the Seattle Symphony so far — musicians, board members and administrative staff. I look forward to a wonderful future together.”
“Today we are witnessing history being made with the appointment of Xian Zhang as the Music Director of the Seattle Symphony,” said Seattle Symphony President & CEO Krishna Thiagarajan. “Her passionate musicianship is inspiring, her technique is clear and precise and the resulting performances captivate our audiences in heart and soul. Xian was among the first conductors to return to the stage with our orchestra during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, she has forged strong bonds here in Seattle. In fact, her concerts rank among the highest-attended performances since audiences have returned to Benaroya Hall. As Seattle has grown into an important world city and gateway to the Pacific, Xian’s diverse expertise across Asian, Oceanian, European and American orchestras and music schools — from Beijing to New York, Melbourne to Milan — makes her the perfect choice to lead the orchestra in this new era. I am excited by the possibilities and personally could not be happier to gain such a wonderful colleague for our organization. I want to thank the Seattle Symphony search committee, musicians, staff and audiences, who all played a crucial role in this process, as we welcome Xian and her family to the Pacific Northwest. What seemed like a dream a few months ago has now become a reality. Welcome, Xian Zhang!”
“Xian Zhang’s outstanding performances with the orchestra during this search process easily made her a leading choice for Music Director of our Seattle Symphony,” said Susan Detweiler, MD, Seattle Symphony Music Director Search Committee Chair and Board Member. “Our musicians immediately responded to the depth of Xian’s artistry, producing performances that thrilled both us and the audience, making the Board confident that her extensive experience and deep understanding of classical repertoire will further enhance the Symphony’s artistic development. We eagerly await her return to the Seattle Symphony’s podium in March.”
Filed under: conductors, music news, Seattle Symphony
September 3, 2024 • 12:57 pm Comments Off on Rattle, BRSO, and Mahler 6 at Lucerne Festival
One of those nights — my insta-review of Sir Simon Rattle’s return to Lucerne, this time with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, to perform Mahler’s Sixth Symphony:
Last night’s interpretation of Mahler’s Sixth by Sir Simon Rattle and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks at Lucerne Festival ranks with the great ones. Rattle has obviously put his all into his recent grapplings with a work that is loaded with special significance for him. (He chose it for their recent North American tour in spring.) This was my first time hearing Rattle conduct the Bavarians, and they’ve clearly forged a strong bond. Their sound has a wonderful darkness and even something almost raw that is burning even at the lyrical. Not a trace of sentimentality – the cowbells actually worked.
Rattle lingered over the “daydreams” embedded in the overall framework. The realization that they insubstantial pageants, fading, happens gradually and was made to underline the tragedy. The Andante (placed, importantly, second in order in Rattle’s interpretation) was especially stirring and emotionally authentic.
Rattle navigated the continual shifts in perspective in the Scherzo and in the vast, unfathomable finale with a translucent attention to detail. The twofold hammer strokes (the third left unstated) seemed a plausible continuation, through the orchestra, of the dramatic thunder-lightning storms of the night before. The final chord’s bitter fadeout was devastating, and it seemed no one wanted to acknowledge it was simply over — was almost afraid to. Immense applause, and Rattle gracefully trying to indicate that he wasn’t begrudging the audience an encore — but that it was simply impossible to continue playing after this. (Fun fact: Not until 1947 did Mahler’s Sixth have its US premiere.)
Filed under: Lucerne Festival, Mahler, review, Simon Rattle
August 31, 2024 • 3:14 pm Comments Off on Leonard Slatkin at 80
Happy 80th birthday to Leonard Slatkin! I had a chance to speak with the great American maestro about his career — and ongoing projects — for this story in Gramophone‘s August issue:
His vivid curiosity is unmistakable in the variety of projects planned for this milestone birthday year. These range from publishing a pair of books and spending more time on his own composition to launching a new partnership as artistic consultant to the Las Vegas Philharmonic. Appearances on the podium are naturally also on the calendar. This autumn brings reunions with the three American orchestras indelibly shaped by Slatkin’s years at their helm (in St Louis, Washington DC and Detroit); some international conducting engagements beckon as well.
Filed under: American music, commissions, conductors, Leonard Slatkin
August 16, 2024 • 2:17 pm Comments Off on Summer at Santa Fe Opera
Here’s my review essay for Musical America covering three of the productions at the 2024 Santa Fe Opera Festival:
SANTA FE, NM— “Love is terrifying,” observes the protagonist of The Righteous, the affecting new work by Gregory Spears and Tracy K. Smith at Santa Fe Opera. A preacher elected to be governor during the 1980s, he’s referring to the early years of the AIDS crisis in this highly era-specific opera. But his observation emerged as a theme in Louisa Muller’s new production of La traviata, which bookends the company’s summer-based season running from late June to August.
Filed under: directors, Donizetti, Mozart, review, Richard Strauss, Santa Fe Opera, singers
August 15, 2024 • 7:51 pm Comments Off on Tippett Rise Art Center’s 2024 Concert Season
Tippet Rise Art Center launches its ninth concert season on Friday, August 16. Running through September 15, it offers more than 25 indoor and outdoor performances over five weekends, including free pop-up concerts and family concerts and repertoire.
The season features four world premieres and the opening of a new outdoor performance venue, the Geode, designed by Arup. To mark this occasion, two special concerts are planned, including the world premiere of Àkweks Katyes (The Eagle Flies) (2024), a Tippet Rise commission by Grammy-nominated world music composer Dawn Avery, which the cellist Arlen Hlusko will perform, and flutist Claire Chase performing alongside shamisen player Hidejiro Honjoh in the world premiere of Dai Fujikura’s Reizei for flute and shamisen (2021).
The audience at the Geode will have a unique sonic and visual experience, experiencing music as if set indoors while amidst a breathtaking backdrop of seven surrounding mountain ranges.
The August 17 concert also presents the world premiere of Paul V. Cortez’s Hyacinth Garnishes from Bouquet Suite (2024), a work written as part of his participation in a Weill Music Institute program at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. On August 18, mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska and pianist Kunal Lahiry make their Tippet Rise debuts with the North American premiere of composer and pianist Nahre Sol’s Apperceptive Algorithms (2022).
In addition to the world premiere of Dai Fujikura’s Reizei on August 24, Valentyn Silvestrov’s Twelve Waltzes of the Moment and One Serenade for violin and piano will be unveiled by Jennifer Frautschi and Evren Ozel on August 30 and 31. This is the eighth of ten works commissioned by Tippet Rise in 2022 from Silvestrov, Ukraine’s leading living composer.
The Wander series returns, which moves musicians and audience members among sculptures, returns on September 14. This year, the concert visits Ai Wei Wei’s Iron Tree and Patrick Dougherty’s Daydreams and Cursive Takes a Holiday. A group of wind players perform music by György Ligeti, Endre Szervánszky, Astor Piazzolla, and Samuel Barber.
Filed under: art, music festivals, music news
August 12, 2024 • 11:24 am Comments Off on “The Righteous” at Santa Fe Opera
I reviewed Santa Fe Opera’s The Righteous for Musical America. The latest in the company’s distinguished history of commissions, The Righteous is an ambitious collaboration between composer Gregory Spears and poet-librettist Tracy K. Smith. The opera unfolds across the span of the Reagan era and features a large cast to tell the story of a charismatic Southwestern preacher who gets elected as state governor:
Filed under: American opera, Musical America, new music, review, Santa Fe Opera
August 8, 2024 • 5:34 am Comments Off on James Robinson named General and Artistic Director of Seattle Opera
Seattle Opera has announced that James Robinson will be its next General and Artistic Director — the fifth person to lead the company in its 61-year history. Robinson begins his tenure in a little less than a month, on 4 September 2024. He replaces Christina Scheppelmann, who is taking on the reins as General and Artistic Director of La Monnaie/De Munt in Brussels starting in January 2025; she just completed her contract with Seattle Opera at the conclusion of the 2023-24 season.
From Seattle Opera’s press release:
Robinson comes to Seattle from Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (OTSL), where he has served as Artistic Director since 2008. During his tenure, Robinson transformed OTSL into one of the country’s most forward-looking opera festivals, commissioning 11 world premieres and presenting imaginative new productions of core repertoire. Many of these commissions have been recognized for their impact on the industry and produced by houses around the world. These include Huang Ruo’s An American Soldier, which was hailed in The New York Times’ “The Best of Classical Music 2018,” and Terence Blanchard’s Champion and Fire Shut Up in My Bones, the latter of which opened the 2021/22 season at the Metropolitan Opera, becoming the first work by a Black composer to appear on that stage.
As a stage director, Robinson has developed a rich portfolio, having directed at least 75 new productions at the world’s top theaters and over 30 world premieres. He has also seen success with productions of standard repertoire. Robinson’s production of the Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess opened the 2019/20 season at the Metropolitan Opera, and later won a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. And in January 2004, Robinson directed a blockbuster production of Georges Bizet’s Carmen at Seattle Opera that sold more tickets than any opera in company history.
“We are thrilled to have a leader of James’s caliber join us as General and Artistic Director of Seattle Opera,” said Jonathan Rosoff, chair of the search committee. “An accomplished stage director and administrator, James is widely recognized as a leading creative force in this industry, and his productions have appeared at many of the world’s most respected opera houses. Between his steadfast leadership, his impressive record of innovation, and his deep knowledge of opera, we are confident that James will make an immediate impact at Seattle Opera and lead the company into an exciting and inventive new era.”
“I couldn’t be more excited to be joining the tremendous staff and board at Seattle Opera,” said Robinson. “Seattle is an opera town. It has opera in its DNA, and I am honored to be able to build on that rich tradition. I can’t wait to get to work creating art with and for the passionate audiences that have made Seattle Opera into the company it is today.”
One secret to Robinson’s success has been his community-based approach to programming, which begins at the grass-roots level long before artistic decisions are finalized. Along with former OTSL General Director Timothy O’Leary, Robinson spearheaded OTSL’s New Works, Bold Voicescommissioning program, which aimed to tell diverse, modern-day stories in partnership with the local St. Louis community.
“Like politics, all arts are local,” said Robinson. “It’s vital to include the community in decision-making processes, working with them to identify stories they want to see on stage. This is an area where Seattle Opera has established itself as a leader, and I look forward to continuing this work with communities across the Pacific Northwest.”
“Jim Robinson is one of our greatest visionaries—as a director, a commissioner of new work, and a producer,” said O’Leary, who now serves as General Director of the Washington National Opera. “He cares deeply that work is not just great artistically, but also resonates with the audience, and many of his commissions have been box office hits, attracting new and diverse audiences.”
Robinson’s work with companies of all sizes and with a wide range of resources has given him a keen insight into how opera companies can create art in a sustainable manner. During his time at OTSL, Robinson mounted productions of the highest quality while maintaining fiscal responsibility, streamlining the company’s workflow to allow for a more efficient allocation of resources. He also helped foster strong donor relationships that resulted in a $45-million legacy gift in early 2020, then the largest in the company’s history.
That ability to forge relationships has enabled some of Robinson’s most prominent artistic collaborations. “I have my opera career due to James Robinson,” said Terence Blanchard, whom Robinson first approached about commissioning an opera more than twelve years ago. “Jim saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself. His capacity to make connections that others can’t see has allowed him to create new and exciting work. Having him as the new General and Artistic Director at the Seattle Opera is nothing short of a coup.”
When he arrives in September, Robinson will take over Seattle Opera’s $25-million budget, overseeing an annual season that features five mainstage productions and a slate of community programs, classes, and public events. Since its founding in 1963, Seattle Opera has become a cornerstone of the arts economy in the Pacific Northwest, employing more than 800 people in 2023. Recognized as an industry leader in efforts to diversify opera, Seattle Opera developed its Racial Equity and Social Impact plan in 2019 to guide decision-making at all levels of the organization. Seattle Opera is also a dedicated proponent of new American opera, mounting the world premieres of A Thousand Splendid Suns (’23) and the upcoming Jubilee (’24), as well as co-productions like X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X (’24), which set a company record for the most single tickets sold to any contemporary opera.
“I am very happy that James will be taking the reins of this wonderful company,” said Christina Scheppelmann. “James has an impressive track record as a stage director and his extensive network will present tremendous opportunities for collaboration. I am sure he will accomplish great things at Seattle Opera, together with this amazing staff and supportive board. Seattle Opera is in good hands.”
Filed under: music news, Seattle Opera
August 7, 2024 • 3:30 pm Comments Off on Afghan Youth Orchestra & Zohra Orchestra: U.S. Tour
From press release: “Afghan Youth Orchestra (AYO) has returned to the USA for the first time since its U.S. debut in 2013. The premier ensemble of the displaced Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM), the orchestra comprises 46 male and female musicians aged between 14 and 22, whose diverse backgrounds testify to the strength and resilience of the Afghan people. Together with ANIM’s celebrated all-female Zohra Orchestra and conductor Tiago Moreira da Silva, AYO will perform traditional Afghan and Western classical music, on both Afghan and Western instruments, in a pair of concerts at Carnegie Hall (the final concert of the inaugural World Orchestra Week on Aug 7) and the Kennedy Center (Aug 8).
Marking the ensembles’ first U.S. appearances since the Taliban’s return to power and ANIM’s subsequent flight to safety, these performances represent potent acts of defiance against the regime that has not only outlawed music but also imposed gender apartheid in Afghanistan.
AYO returns to New York and D.C. under the baton of young Portuguese conductor Tiago Moriera da Silva. Performed on a combination of Western orchestral instruments and traditional Afghan instruments, including the rubab, sitar, tambur, and tabla, their program juxtaposes ancient ragas and folksongs with the conductor’s original arrangements of music by Brahms, Kodály, and Afghan composers Amir Jan Saboori, Ustad Din Mohammad Zakhail, and Ustad Nainawaz, the father of Afghan pop.
AYO will give the U.S. premiere of Saudade do Afeganistão, a multi-movement work by composer and former faculty member William Harvey that traces ANIM’s turbulent recent history, and ANIM’s mould-breaking Zohra Orchestra will interpret songs celebrating freedom and women’s rights. At a time when women in Afghanistan are prohibited from working, attending school, or leaving their homes unaccompanied, Zohra’s performance sends a powerful message of resistance, embodying the unwavering spirit of Afghan women.
At Carnegie Hall, where da Silva makes his house debut, AYO’s performance represents the final concert of World Orchestra Week (WOW!), a new festival that brings together seven youth orchestras from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the United States for a week of cultural exchange and music-making with internationally renowned artists in New York. AYO will be joined on Carnegie Hall’s main stage by members of the European Union Youth Orchestra, and the program will be expanded to include accounts of traditional Sufi songs by ANIM’s Qawwali vocal ensemble.”
| Afghan Youth Orchestra & Zohra Orchestra: U.S. tour |
| Aug 7 New York, NY Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage) World Orchestra Week (WOW!) With Qawwali ensemble and members of the European Union Youth Orchestra Conductor: Tiago Moreira da Silva TRAD: Raga Pilo TRAD: Raga Bhihag Ustad SARAHANG: Tark-e Arezo Kardam (Qawwali) TRAD: Peer Man o Murad Man (Qawwali) TRAD, arr. Ahmad Zahir: Zendagi Akher Sarayad (Zohra Orchestra) Ustad KHYAL: An Selsela Mo (Zohra Orchestra) Amir JAN SABOORI, arr. Tiago Moreira da Silva: Sar-zamen-e-man Sediq SHABAB: Pa Bismillah SHANKAR-JAIKISHAN: Mera Joota Hai Japani Johannes BRAHMS, arr. Tiago Moreira da Silva: 21 Hungarian Dances, No. 5 William HARVEY: Saudade do Afeganistão (U.S. premiere) Zoltán KODÁLY, arr. Tiago Moreira da Silva: Intermezzo from Háry János Nay NAWAZ, arr. Khaled Arman: Ay Nay Naway-e Jawedan Ustad Din MOHAMMAD ZAKHAIL, arr. Tiago Moreira da Silva: An Afghan in New York Michail THEODORAKIS, arr. Abdul Wahab Madadi: Watan Ishq-e-tu Tickets and further information are available here. Aug 8 Washington, D.C. Kennedy Center Conductor: Tiago Moreira da Silva TRAD, arr. Ahmad Zahir: Zendagi Akher Sarayad (Zohra Orchestra) Ustad KHYAL: An Selsela Mo (Zohra Orchestra) Amir JAN SABOORI, arr. Tiago Moreira da Silva: Sar-zamen-e-man Sediq SHABAB: Pa Bismillah SHANKAR-JAIKISHAN: Mera Joota Hai Japani Johannes BRAHMS, arr. Tiago Moreira da Silva: 21 Hungarian Dances, No. 5 William HARVEY: Saudade do Afeganistão Zoltán KODÁLY, arr. Tiago Moreira da Silva: Intermezzo from Háry János Nay NAWAZ, arr. Khaled Arman: Ay Nay Naway-e Jawedan Ustad Din MOHAMMAD ZAKHAIL, arr. Tiago Moreira da Silva: An Afghan in New York Michail THEODORAKIS, arr. Abdul Wahab Madadi: Watan Ishq-e-tu Tickets and further information are available here. |
Filed under: Carnegie Hall, music news
August 6, 2024 • 12:31 am 1
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO) has just released two additions to its Next Stage Digital Concert Series, now available on the DSO’s YouTube channel: Franz Schmidt’s Das Buch mit Sieben Siegeln (The Book with Seven Seals) (above) and the DSO’s new Symphony Stream.
Notes the DSO: “Schmidt – whose 150th birthday arrives this December – was a late-Romantic composer who also wrote four symphonies, two operas, and works for piano and organ, but his monumental achievement was Das Buch mit Sieben Siegeln, based on the prophetic vision of the final violent destruction of the world in the Book of Revelation. Grammy-winning Louise W. & Edmund J. Kahn Music Director Fabio Luisi led the performances of the work at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, March 1–3, 2024.
Born in 1874 in what is today Bratislava, Slovakia, but at the time was in the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary, Franz Schmidt studied composition and cello at the Vienna Conservatory, eventually obtaining a post as a cellist with the Vienna Court Opera Orchestra, where he frequently played under the direction of Gustav Mahler. He was also a brilliant pianist, and much of his career was dedicated to teaching cello, piano, counterpoint, and composition at the Conservatory. Luisi has long been a champion of Schmidt’s music in general and Das Buch mit Sieben Siegeln in particular, conducting performances of the latter around the world, but the video release is especially appropriate this fall, as December marks the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Luisi explains:
| “I believe that this work, together with Britten’s War Requiem and Frank Martin’s Golgotha, is one of the most important oratorios written in the 20th century. The visionary energy of St. John’s Revelation is put in music with both grace and power, actually, and quite surprisingly without bombast. It trusts old forms such as the fugue, developed in a very virtuosic manner, and therefore creates a connection with the older style of this genre, especially with Mendelssohn and, of course, Bach and Handel. I hope listeners are seduced by the energy, the gravitas and the important meaning of this work, which also features great vocal parts and fantastic choral moments.” |
Filed under: Dallas Symphony, music news
Arts & Culture Stories from NPR
MEMETERIA by Thomas May 