MEMETERIA by Thomas May

January 23, 2026 • 5:44 am Comments Off on Seong-Jin Cho in Seattle: A Flair for Freedom at the Keyboard

Seong-Jin Cho in Seattle: A Flair for Freedom at the Keyboard

*Seong-Jin Cho; (c)James Holt / Seattle Symphony*

Some thoughts on Seong-Jin Cho’s recent Seattle recital:

The self-effacing persona Seong-Jin Cho projected from the Benaroya Hall stage throughout his solo recital stood in striking contrast to his musical confidence – a confidence grounded not only in extraordinary technical security but in an evident willingness to take risks. Cho’s sense of interpretive freedom made itself felt from the outset, in a program that invited close attention and repaid it generously…

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Filed under: Bartók, Beethoven, Chopin, Franz Liszt, pianists, review

January 20, 2026 • 10:11 am Comments Off on A Rite of Spring Turned Inward: Strauss’s ‘Daphne’ at Seattle Opera

A Rite of Spring Turned Inward: Strauss’s ‘Daphne’ at Seattle Opera

*Daphne* in concert at Seattle Opera; photo: Sunny Martini

My Bachtrack review:

Richard Strauss’ Daphne is among the works most plausibly suited to Seattle Opera’s recent turn toward including concert performances as part of its main-stage season. Written late in the composer’s career, Daphne belongs to the turbulent political and cultural climate of 1930s Germany….

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Filed under: review, Richard Strauss, Seattle Opera

January 16, 2026 • 11:44 am Comments Off on ‘The Struggles of Our Time Are Ours to Own’: Curtis Stewart

‘The Struggles of Our Time Are Ours to Own’: Curtis Stewart

Virginia Symphony Orchestra premieres Curtis Stewart’s I wouldn’t stop there: in the words of a KING this weekend. He spoke with The Strad about the work:

Curtis Stewart embodies a distinctly contemporary vision of the classical violinist today. On stage and off, he operates with a directness that resists polish for its own sake, favouring instead a sense of immediacy and responsibility. As a violinist and composer in equal measure, with education central to his work, he treats classical music as something to be actively made, not simply handed down….

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Filed under: American music, The Strad, violinists

January 12, 2026 • 8:36 am 4

Ioffe Conducts the Seattle Symphony in Varied Faces of Romanticism

*Alevtina Ioffe conducts the Seattle Symphony; © James Holt | Seattle Symphony*

A fine start to the new year at Seattle Symphony:

Romanticism has proved more adaptable than its obituaries suggested. Across the 20th century, composers continued to return to music grounded in subjective expression, even when critical fashion leaned elsewhere….

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Filed under: Leonard Bernstein, Rachmaninoff, review, Romanticism, Seattle Symphony

January 4, 2026 • 6:36 pm Comments Off on Bryce Dessner in Prague

Bryce Dessner in Prague

Bryce Dessner; photo by Peter Hundert

I wrote a profile of Bryce Dessner in connection with his residency this season with the Czech Philharmonic:

This February, a pair of electric guitars will slip into the sonic bloodstream of the Czech Philharmonic. Then, later in the season, in May, audiences at Prague’s Rudolfinum will hear a new cello concerto written for and performed by Anastasia Kobekina. Both moments centre on Bryce Dessner, the orchestra’s first ever composer-in-residence, in a role that brings several strands of his musical life into rare alignment.

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Filed under: Bryce Dessner, profile

December 30, 2025 • 10:51 am Comments Off on Esa-Pekka Salonen’s SF Symphony Farewell

Esa-Pekka Salonen’s SF Symphony Farewell

An especially memorable performance in 2025: Mahler’s Second with the San Francisco Symphony and Esa-Pekka Salonen, which concluded his tenure as the orchestra’s music director:

SFS-June 2025-Salonen’s Powerful Farewell Download

Filed under: Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mahler, review, San Francisco Symphony

December 29, 2025 • 9:03 am Comments Off on Late-Afternoon Walk

Late-Afternoon Walk

Filed under: photography

December 28, 2025 • 11:39 am Comments Off on Anna Clyne: ‘Abstractions’

Anna Clyne: ‘Abstractions’

My Gramophone review of Abstractions, an album of Anna Clyne’s orchestral music performed by Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony:

This engaging portrait album highlights a defining impulse in Anna Clyne’s music: to create vivid soundscapes through a symbiotic dialogue with visual art – one in which textures, forms and atmospheres are translated across disciplines…

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Filed under: Anna Clyne, CD review, Gramophone

December 26, 2025 • 12:24 pm Comments Off on ‘Pur ti miro’: Martin Stegner on Listening, Balance, and Freedom

‘Pur ti miro’: Martin Stegner on Listening, Balance, and Freedom

The Berliner Philharmoniker violist Martin Stegner discusses reimagining early music for sheng, viola and double bass on Pur ti miro, an ECM New Series release bringing together Wu Wei (sheng), Stegner and Janne Saksala (double bass) in an unconventional but remarkably cohesive trio.
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Filed under: early music, The Strad, viola

December 19, 2025 • 10:17 pm Comments Off on Seattle Bach Festival’s ‘Christmas Oratorio’ Offers ‘Messiah’ alternative

Seattle Bach Festival’s ‘Christmas Oratorio’ Offers ‘Messiah’ alternative

Seattle Bach Festival orchestra and Evergreen Ensemble (choir), with SBF founder Tekla Cunningham (in blue), during their concert of Bach cantatas at St. Mark’s Cathedral in May. They will perform Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio” this year and next. (Dennis Browne)

For some, Handel’s “Messiah” remains a cherished ritual.

For others, it has become so predictable as to feel almost unavoidable — a seasonal monument polished smooth by repetition.

This season, the Seattle Bach Festival is offering a different way into the Christmas story — one that trades “Messiah’s” grand sweep for a more kaleidoscopic, scene-by-scene celebration of the Nativity: Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio.”…

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Filed under: Bach, Seattle Bach Festival, Seattle Times

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