Filed under: photography
January 7, 2019 • 1:07 pm Comments Off on The Adventurous Mahan Esfahani
The Adventurous Mahan Esfahani
Harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani plays with the Seattle Symphony on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 11 and 12. (Kaja Smith)
“Controversial artist” is not one of the images that a professional harpsichordist tends to conjure. It cuts against the grain of countless stereotypes involving restraint, uptightness, dusty academicism. But flipping stereotypes is one way of characterizing the remarkable career of Mahan Esfahani, who makes his Seattle Symphony debut this weekend (Jan. 11 and 12) as the soloist in a program juxtaposing two generations of the Bach family.
Filed under: Bach family, Seattle Times
January 2, 2019 • 7:43 pm Comments Off on Brahms, the Consoler
Brahms, the Consoler
January 2, 2019 • 12:00 am Comments Off on Michael Vincent Waller: Musical America‘s New Artist of the Month
Michael Vincent Waller: Musical America‘s New Artist of the Month
Composer Michael Vincent Waller: photo by Alan Del Rio Ortiz
Congratulations to Michael Vincent Waller on being selected Musical America‘s New Artist of the Month at the start of 2019. Here’s my profile of this talented young composer:
The contemplative aura that gently emanates from Michael Vincent Waller’s music suggests a hard-won focus on the essential, distilled from long decades of reflection and experience. But the composer was already shaping this unique sound world while still in his 20s. Now 33, he’s poised for a breakout moment as his work draws increasing attention from international new music circles.
Filed under: Musical America, new music
January 1, 2019 • 12:00 am Comments Off on Turning the Page: Happy New Year 2019
Turning the Page: Happy New Year 2019
Here’s one way to start the New Year: with this remarkable interpretation of Book I of The Well-Tempered Clavier by Samuil Feinberg. The opening Prelude and Fugue in C major in particular sounds like a fresh start, yet already shadowed by experience.
Filed under: Bach, miscellaneous
December 31, 2018 • 12:53 am Comments Off on Hip To Be HIP
Hip To Be HIP
This was one of my favorite projects to research in 2018 — and one of many assignments that helped me to keep my sanity during a dark year.
Enraged Alcina (Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek, mezzo-soprano) casts a curse on the love of Angelica (Sharon Harms, soprano) and Medoro (Brian Jeffers, tenor); from Jonathan Dawe’s Cracked Orlando: dramma per musica e fractals at Juilliard, 2017; photo by Nanette Melville
My story on the creative connections between early music performers and contemporary composers is the current cover story in Early Music America Magazine‘s fall 2018 issue:
When early and new music intersect, alliances are opening up a sense of fresh potential for both sides …
Filed under: early music, new music
December 29, 2018 • 12:10 pm Comments Off on Revolution No. 9
Revolution No. 9
I was considerably more optimistic when I wrote this two years ago. It’s going to be a while before I can attend a performance of the Ninth again.
It was premiered almost two centuries ago. And Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 still feels as urgently needed today as ever.
Filed under: Beethoven
December 28, 2018 • 11:36 am Comments Off on RIP Amos Oz (1939-2018)
RIP Amos Oz (1939-2018)
The literary giant and peace activist has died at 79 — another terrible loss of 2018.
Filed under: literature
December 24, 2018 • 2:05 pm Comments Off on A Fuller Monty: Christmas Vespers by Monteverdi
A Fuller Monty: Christmas Vespers by Monteverdi
David Fallis and colleagues
Early Music Seattle presented this remarkable concert over the weekend: and it was just what the doctor ordered in these jaded times.
Even if he hadn’t composed a single opera, Claudio Monteverdi would still belong to the greatest of the great for his achievements as a master of sacred music. His Vespro della Beata Vergine, published in 1610, is hailed as a landmark of the literature – and is the work instantly conjured whenever you hear the phrase “the Monteverdi Vespers.” But it was an altogether different setting of the Vespers service that Early Music Seattle presented at this concert, the most recent installment in the ongoing Northwest Baroque Masterworks Project.
Filed under: Monteverdi, review
December 23, 2018 • 5:14 am Comments Off on Kinan Azmeh and His CityBand
Kinan Azmeh and His CityBand
My piece for Boulez Saal on Kinan Azmeh as he completes an incredibly creative year with stops with his CityBand and friends in Berlin and Amsterdam:
Filed under: Kinan Azmeh, Pierre Boulez Saal
MEMETERIA by Thomas May 