Randall Goosby, Christian Reif and the Seattle Symphony; photo (c)Brandon Patoc
While the search for a permanent music director continues, versatility has been in high demand at Seattle Symphony in recent seasons. Week after week, the musicians have had to adjust to the remarkably varied styles of a revolving door of guest conductors. But the latest visitor to the podium, the German conductor Christian Reif, brought the added challenge of a program calling for drastic shifts in style from one work to the next ….
Sound Salon (the series formerly known as Byron Schenkman & Friends) has a lovely program coming up Sunday evening: English Baroque love songs for voice, oboe, viol, and harpsichord. Sweeter than Roses (the title of the program, taken from a Henry Purcell song), presents soprano Grace Srinivasan, oboist Curtis Foster, Adaiha MacAdam-Somer on viol, and artistic director Byron Schenkman on harpsichord in music not only by Purcell and Handel but by such less-familiar figures as Elisabetta de Gambarini, John Stanley, and William Babell (all associated with Handel’s work), as well as by Thomas Arne and Ignatius Sancho, who escaped enslavement and became “a successful businessman, published author and composer, and champion for the abolition of slavery,” as Schenkman notes.
Natalie Christa Rakes performed the roles of Elaine and the narrator in Steven Mackey’s ‘Memoir.’ (Photos by Carlin Ma)
SEATTLE — “Slipping into sepia” is Steven Mackey’s phrase for a composer’s process of signaling an act of memory. “Ostensibly odd musical grammar in the present tense can be understood as an artifact of the past tense when it accompanies a remembered event, like a film’s sepia hue telling us that the scene is meant to be a recollection,” he writes in his commentary on Mnemosyne’s Pool(2014), a symphonic saga that is paired with his violin concerto Beautiful Passing(2008)on the most recent recording of Mackey’s music….
My latest for Strings magazine: meeting up with the insatiably curious Rachel Barton Pine.
Stickers for Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax are emblazoned on the case that contains Rachel Barton Pine’s signature “ex-Bazzini, ex-Soldat” Joseph Guarneri del Gesù from 1742. The charismatic violinist doesn’t just defy categories. Her life as an artist is fueled by omnivorous curiosity, which Pine combines with searing musical intelligence and an impeccable virtuosity—all in the service of finding a deep connection to her audience….
Kevin John Edusei makes his Seattle Symphony debut conducting Widmann, Strauss, and Beethoven (with Steven Osborne in the Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major); image (c) James Holt
An impressive Seattle Symphony conducting debut last night with Kevin John Edusei on the podium. Absolutely captivating account of Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben, exquisitely tailored to give full weight to the more introspective moments — and reminding us that there’s even a touch of self-doubt in this score. The gorgeously shaped solos from concertmaster Noah Geller were especially thoughtful, while Jeff Fair and the horn section made a spectacular contribution. Overall I found this showcase of sonic theater more moving than usual in its effect.
Scottish pianist Steven Osborne emphasized poetry over heroics in Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto — sheer loveliness in the slow movement, where Edusei’s placement of the strings (basses and cellos to his left) enhanced the finely veiled sound. Osborne played the transition into the finale as if snapping out of a dream. The unannounced encore was apparently music of Keith Jarrett — an unexpected but beautiful choice.
A clever bit of Beethoven-related programming for the opener: German composer Jörg Widmann’s Conbrio, a deliciously paradoxical parody-of-pastiche that is serious and original, never actually quoting Beethoven yet evoking his personality at every turn through abstract gestures — as if trying to recuperate what it all once meant…. Two more chances to hear this excellent concert (Sat evening and Sunday matinee).
In my interview for Bachtrack, Colin Currie discusses the large-scale Steve Reich Festival he has organized with The Hallé (running 1-3 February 2024):
Colin Currie vividly recalls the moment he first met Steve Reich in person. The occasion was a concert at London’s Southbank Centre in 2011 featuring Reich’s landmark early work Drumming (1970–71), in a performance by Currie’s own ensemble. Though he had previously received encouragement from Reich, this was the first time that the eminent American composer’s gruelling schedule made it possible for him to hear the Colin Currie Group live….
Quynh Nguyen with the London Symphony in the world premiere recording of Paul Chihara’s Concerto-Fantasy
This year’s edition of the Celebrate Asiaconcert presented by Seattle Symphony marks the 16th season of this annual tradition. Associate Conductor Sunny Xia will helm the orchestra in a program of works by two very special composers with Seattle connections, as well as classics by Beethoven and Grieg. The concert takes place on Sunday 28 January 2024 at 4pm at Benaroya Hall. Tickets are available to purchase here. There will also be a Celebrate Asia Market starting at 3pm before the concert and after the performance, featuring the Seattle International Lion Dance Team (at 3pm) and CHIKIRI and The School of TAIKO (post-concert).
The extraordinarily precocious Korean American composer August Baikis a graduate of the 2022-2023 SSO Young Composers Workshop, where his Chuseok Overture for Orchestra was first introduced. The Young Composers Workshop is a unique program that give students the opportunity to workshop compositions with an experienced local composer and Symphony musicians.
The wonderful Paul Chihara‘s new Piano Concerto-Fantasy will receive its US premiere, with Vietnamese American pianist Quynh Nguyen as the soloist. Chihara was born in 1938 in Seattle (and was forced with his family to live in an internment camp in Minidoka, Idaho, during the Second World War as a result of Executive Order 9066). Chihara wrote Piano Concerto-Fantasy for Quynh Nguyen as part of an intensive recent collaboration involving her recording of his complete piano works on the Naxos label. She gave the world premiere in October 2022 with the Vietnamese National Symphony at the Hanoi Opera House as part of a concert commemorating normalization of US-Vietnam diplomatic relations.
Chihara found inspiration for Piano Concerto-Fantasy “in traditional Vietnamese melodies and modes, as well as his own experiences composing scores for television and film about the Vietnam War,” according to Quynh Nguyen. The music, she adds, “embodies a sense of longing for the peaceful past and for the future and its possibilities. The piece is virtuosic and intensely melodic with French and Eastern harmonies and jazz-tinged sections, and phrases reminiscent of Russian classical works. These elements are juxtaposed within the story, reflecting my personal journey of studying music in Vietnam, Russia, France, and the United States, and how their diverse cultures have shaped my life. The concerto reinforces how music transcends politics, language and culture.”
The program will also include Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3 and Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite.
Two blissful weekends of intimate music-making are about to start as Seattle Chamber Music Society’s 2024 Winter Festival kicks off on Friday, 26 January. Artistic Director James Ehnes will appear in all six programs over the festival’s two weekends. On opening night, he’ll join colleagues Amy Schwartz Moretti, Che-Yen Chen, Cynthia Phelps, Edward Arron, and Efe Baltacıgil for Brahms’s String Sextet No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 18; the program also includes Ravel’s Violin Sonata No. 2 in G major and British composer Rebecca Clarke’s Piano Trio — part of this winter edition’s focus on 20th-century British composers.
Jan. 26-28 and Feb. 2-4; Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., Seattle; $30-$65; subscriptions and streaming options available; free prelude recital starts an hour before each concert; seattlechambermusic.org
From theArts Empowering Life Foundation in Cape Cod: the latest lecture in the Building Bridges through Music series presents composer, mentor, and mensch Samuel Adler on “95 Years to Speak to Our Time.” The lecture will be streamed starting at 3.30pm ET here.
From the press release:
At age ten, Samuel Adler narrowly escaped Nazi Germany during Kristallnacht, the “night of broken glass.” As he and his father collected sheet music in the loft of the synagogue, saving all that they could on that terrifying night, soldiers heard them from down below. It was the sudden collapse of the pipe organ that allowed Adler and his father to run and escape through an underground tunnel. His family took the last train out of Germany with their bags full of sheet music, paving the way for Adler to study and nurture his musical gifts in America.
At age ninety-five, he continues to compose, sharing his prolific musical gifts. Known for building bridges through the international language of music, as well as his optimism and “life-affirming spirit,” he is uniquely positioned TO SPEAK TO OUR TIME.
The risk-taking composer of 400 published works taught for sixty three years at Juilliard, and Eastman, and has given masterclasses and workshops at over 300 universities world-wide. Having studied with Aaron Copland, Paul Hindemith, Randall Thompson, and more, he knows just about everyone on the twentieth-century American music scene and has received numerous awards including ASCAP’s “Aaron Copland Lifetime Achievement Award.” He believes that one should compose in the “energy of his time” and he is without doubt one of the greatest living composers and conductors.
Seattle Opera today announced the lineup for its 2024-25 season. Three of the five mainstage operas are warhorses from the core repertoire: Pagliacci, The Magic Flute, and Tosca. The second part of Berlioz’s magnificent LesTroyens will be presented not in a full staging but in a concert version (though this is the company’s first-time excursion into Berlioz’s epic). And Jubilee, Tazewell Thompson’s opera about The Fisk Jubilee Singers, will be a world premiere. The rest of the season includes two chamber productions and a recital by tenor Frederick Ballentine, along with various additional Opera Center events, from an “Opera 101” series to background presentations on the Berlioz and Mozart operas.
General director Christine Scheppelmann’s tenure ends with the conclusion of the current season. There has been no update yet on the search for her successor.
MEMETERIA by Thomas May 