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Music

Seattle Symphony Stuns with Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky: workin’ it

Seattle Symphony performed Stravinsky’s three impressive ballet scores, The Firebird, Petrushka, and The Rite of Spring last week, to an enthusiastic audience. One doesn’t often see all three ballets performed in one program; the result was an evening of intense musical textures, with primal undertones.

This was a long show, spanning three hours from start to finish if you include the intermissions. Call me crazy, but maybe three hours of Stravinsky is too much – I think a shorter program would have been more successful. However, that being said, the audience last Thursday was utterly enthralled, so it’s possible that I was in the sleepy “hello, I still have to face Seattle traffic in my commute to work tomorrow” minority.

The symphony first presented the original 1910 complete ballet score of The Firebird, an iconic piece of classical music with an asymmetrical but pleasing melody. Overall,  the symphony was solid, presenting this familiar work in a new light, emphasizing all the textural and melodic painting with which Stravinsky creates his shimmering musical landscapes. The horn soloist, Jeff Fair, brought a sweet yet robust sound to his solo passages. However, not all soloists were so successful: I found that the flautist, Alexander Lipay, was a touch breathy and square in his phrasing in this piece. To be fair, I may be comparing him with my listening of CSO flautist Mathieu Dufour, which I’m not entirely sure is fair.  I did feel that the woodwinds in general were somewhat flat in terms of color and interpretation of phrase, so it’s possible this was an overall stylistic choice, not merely a choice by Lipay himself. Nonetheless, despite these minor  sections, the piece overall felt true to Stravinsky’s fantastical vision, emphasizing color, texture, as well as some really masterful melodic storytelling, bringing the Firebird to life.

Stravinsky’s Petrushka, from 1947, was just if not more successful than the previous piece. Principals Seth Krimsky (clarinet) and Ben Hausmann (oboe) really nailed this piece with its switches from folksy to intense. In my opinion, Lipay’s performance improved greatly in this piece, achieving a lighter color more suited to the music. The percussion section was particularly attentive to the conductor, and I enjoyed the various dynamic changes that were really on showcase in this piece. I felt the symphony used the Russian folktunes as a pop of musical color that grounded the piece as a whole, which worked for me.

The Rite of Spring is always wonderful for its bizarre rhythms, catchy but offbeat percussion, and generally strange ferocity. It’s one of those few pieces which is just plain fun to listen to – there’s something shocking about its in-your-face assertiveness even today that really affects an audience. The symphony performed this one admirably, with Ludovic giving it his all on the podium. He may be of small stature, but he sure is fun to watch when he gets excited – and it’s fun to watch him interact with the musicians who so clearly enjoy working with him. The brass in this piece took it to the next level, with not only clean work but well tempered dynamics ranging from all out blast-the-roof-off to tense but well-timed bursts. Of particular note were some gorgeous moments of clear unadulterated sound from trombonist Ko-Ichiro Yamamoto. This Rite of Spring was well done, retaining the teeth and snap inherent in the score.

I’ll be observing the “Rite of Summer,” aka, waiting for the season to start up again, as Seattle Symphony wraps up its season.

Arts & Entertainment, Music

What We’re Hearing This Month: Classical Music Picks For June

Soprano Mary Mackenzie performs Schoenberg’s “Pierrot Lunaire” at Town Hall Seattle on June 24

This June, Seattle’s ending the concert season with a bang, in the form of a month-long flurry of world premiere performances. Seattle Symphony, Town Hall Seattle, and Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra are among the ensembles and venues joining in on the new music fun. As the 2014-15 season draws to a close, celebrate another year of local classical music with brand-new works as well as perennial favorites.

May 30 – Jun. 8 — Our classical music critic Philippa Kiraly dubs Pacific Northwest Ballet‘s Giselle as “one of the company’s best”. Read her review and discover why this production is a must-see.

Jun. 6 — Sir Mix-A-Lot at the Seattle Symphony? The orchestra’s Sonic Evolution concert is (baby got) back, celebrating the Seattle music scene with new orchestra pieces inspired by local luminaries. Seattle band Pickwick joins Mix-A-Lot and the symphony for this unique program.

Jun. 7 — Premieres abound at Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra‘s season finale concert. Hear brand-new works by Binna Kim and Tyler Kline, as well as West Coast and North American premieres by Alex Baranowski and Gabriel Prokofiev (grandson of Sergei Prokofiev).

Jun. 8 & 14 — Northwest Chamber Chorus concludes the concert season with “Vices and Virtues”, a musical journey that explores the qualities that make us all human. The wide-ranging program features everything from Baroque classics by Bach and Monteverdi to music by living composer Alice Parker.

Jun. 13 — Seattle Modern Orchestra tackles the theme of “Musical Commentaries” with three pieces that pay tribute to the legacy other composers. The program includes a recent work by UW professor Joël-François Durand as well as music by 20th century composers Franco Donatoni and Earle Brown.

Jun. 15 — Piano and harpsichord maestro Byron Schenkman concludes the inaugural season of his concert series with a performance of Schubert’s Trout Quintet. Schenkman is joined by a quartet of local musicians for this beloved chamber music masterpiece.

Jun. 19 & 21 — With his ballets The Firebird, Petrushka, and The Rite of Spring, Stravinsky cemented his legacy as one of the great composers of the 20th century. In a near-superhuman feat, the Seattle Symphony performs all three of these masterworks in a single program.

Jun. 24 — The month of world premieres continues at Town Hall Seattle. The Town Music series features new works by Raymond Lustig, Amir Shpilman, Wang Jie, and Artistic Director Joshua Roman. Also on the program: Soprano Mary Mackenzie sings Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire song cycle.

Arts & Entertainment, Music

A Blissful Autumn Afternoon With the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra

Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra performs at Benaroya Hall’s Nordstrom Recital Hall in 2011 (Photo: UW)

The crisp air, rainless gray sky, and golden leaves spoke of a perfect autumn Saturday afternoon in the Wallingford neighborhood. Inside the Chapel Performance Space housed in the historic Good Shepherd Center, the atmosphere was cozy and warm. The intimate venue’s cathedral-style ceilings and wood-paneled walls provided an ideal setting for the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra (SMCO) season opener concert, featuring a delightful program of music by Hector Berlioz and Igor Stravinsky.

Founded in 2009 by conductor Geoffrey Larson and a group of local performers, SMCO serves as an important resource for up-and-coming classical musicians. The orchestra is mostly comprised of young professionals in their 20s and early 30s, including many graduates from local universities like the University of Washington, Western Washington University, and Central Washington University. Performing with SMCO gives them the opportunity to tackle adventurous repertoire for smaller ensembles. Besides giving Seattle audiences a sneak peek into the future of local classical music, SMCO provides a chance to hear works by emerging composers alongside beloved gems.

SMCO Associate Conductor Kim Roy

Since 2012, Larson has shared conducting duties with Associate Conductor Kim Roy, who also works with the Seattle Rock Orchestra and directs the Snohomish County Music Project and the Westside Symphony. Roy took the podium for Saturday’s concert, bringing a clear, no-nonsense conducting style to the short program, which contrasted Berlioz’s Romantic orchestral song cycle Les nuits d’été (“Summer Nights”) with Stravinsky’s small ensemble work L’Histoire du soldat (“A Soldier’s Tale”).

The orchestra was joined by local mezzo-soprano Melissa Schiel for “Summer Nights.” Originally composed in 1841 for voice and piano, Berlioz arranged the work for orchestra and vocal soloist in 1856. Based on short poems by Théophile Gautier, the six songs represent the height of the 19th century Romantic Era in both poetry and music. Despite the cheerful title, the songs actually evoke a bit of dark spookiness, conjuring up imagery of faded roses, lost love, and ghostly apparitions. It’s a perfect work for the Halloween season.

After a few bumpy transitions between soloist and ensemble during Villanelle (“Pastoral Song”), the first song of the cycle, Schiel and the orchestra clicked in for the rest of the piece. Schiel’s captivating mezzo-soprano voice floated perfectly above the string-heavy ensemble, sounding both warm and deliciously live in the Chapel’s intimate, wood-filled space. As a soloist, Schiel is delightful to watch in action. Her tasteful, well-timed gestures and expressions added personality and charm to the performance.

Mezzo-soprano Melissa Schiel

Berlioz’s short songs are full of memorable musical moments. Especially effective were the dense string textures of the third song, Sur les lagunes (“On the lagoons”), which recalled images of a stormy sea. Schiel’s chilling refrain — “Ah! To go to sea without love!” — punctuated the layers of string sound, blending perfectly with a haunting horn call. Flutists Maggie Stapleton and Jessie Polin brought a sweet quality to their solo refrain in Au cimetière (“At the cemetery”), evoking the sound of a dove’s “morbidly tender melody” amidst the graves.

The final half of the program was devoted to another Halloween-appropriate work, Stravinsky’s “A Solider’s Tale.” This programmatic piece tells the story of a soldier who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for worldly riches. Written for an unusual 7-piece ensemble of violin, double bass, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, and percussion, the work features signature Stravinsky characteristics, including overlapping rhythmic patterns, clashing harmonies, and meandering melodies. Stravinsky’s interest in different musical genres is apparent here, especially in a trio of dances that touch on tango, waltz, and ragtime.

SMCO’s performance of the fiendishly difficult piece was full of thrilling solo and ensemble playing. After mounting tension in the ironically-titled “Pastorale” movement, which had clarinetist Sabrina Pope and bassoonist Jamael Smith reaching to the very top of their ranges, bold performances by David Hall on trumpet and Sota Takagi on trombone strode to the forefront, especially during the energetic “Marche royale” movement.

Depicting the story’s wayward soldier, violinist Mitchell Drury brought a decidedly fiddle-like character to virtuosic passages that often had him sliding through unusual chords and harmonic progressions. Bassist Ross Gilliland and percussionist David Solomon brought a jazzy quality to many of the movements, especially during pizzicato sections in the bass. Despite occasional issues with balance which left me yearning to hear more from the woodwinds, the ensemble worked very well together, fused by Roy’s clear direction and a solid sense of momentum from bass and percussion.

Concerts like Saturday’s season opener demonstrate why SMCO is an ensemble to watch. Larson, Roy, and the orchestra combined inspired programming and an intimate concert setting with energetic performances from some of Seattle’s best young musicians, all in a bite-sized package (90 minutes including intermission) that’s inviting to families with children and newcomers to classical music.

There’s a lot to look forward to in SMCO’s upcoming season. February brings a program of chamber music, while June’s season finale features the winner of the SCMO’s composition competition, as well as the North American premiere of works by Alex Baranowski and Gabriel Prokofiev (grandson of Sergei Prokofiev).

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Arts & Entertainment, Music

What We’re Hearing This Month: Classical Music Picks for March

March is upon us, but it’s still blustery, rainy, and cold outside. Luckily, Seattle’s got plenty of live classical music to keep you warm while we all hunker down and wait for spring to arrive. Our picks for the month range from epic choral works to 20th century piano pieces. Experience chamber music in a cafe or hear a jazz trio perform Stravinsky. There’s something for everyone!

The Bad Plus (Photo: The Durham Herald-Sun)

Mar. 1 – 3 — Welcome the month of March with some modern dance. Limón Dance Company performs works by Latin American choreographers at University of Washington’s Meany Hall.

Mar. 9 — Head over the pond to Bellevue to Cafe Cesura, where members of the Parnassus Project and Classical Revolution present a free evening of French chamber music. Relax with a cup of coffee and enjoy live classical music in a casual setting.

Mar. 10  — Experience The Rite of Spring in an entirely new way. Experimental jazz trio The Bad Plus performs the score for Stravinsky’s revolutionary ballet at Tacoma’s Pantages Theater.

Mar. 10 — Four brand-new choral works by composers Mason Bates, Ted Hearne, Paul Crabtree, and The Esoterics‘ own Eric Banks at St. Joseph’s on Capitol Hill, featuring Bates’ Sirens (2009), a six-movement piece commissioned by Chanticleer that explores the seductive, mythical creatures from a variety of cultures.

Mar. 10 – 11 — St. James Cathedral provides a spectacular setting for Seattle Pro Musica‘s performance of  J. S. Bach’s masterpiece, the St. John Passion.

Mar. 14 — Support local composers! Choral Arts performs Pietá, a work by Seattle composer John Muehleisen, at St. Mark’s Cathedral.

Mar. 17 – 18 — Seattle Pianist Collective presents “End Times”, a program of piano works by Olivier Messiaen. The March 17 concert is at the Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center. March 18’s performance is at the Seattle Asian Art Museum.

Stephen Stubbs, director of Pacific Musicworks (Photo: Berkshire Fine Arts)

Mar. 30 – 31 — Head to Daniels Recital Hall downtown for Pacific Musicworks‘ performance of Handel’s Il Triomfo del Tempo (“The Triumph of Time”), featuring four vocal soloists and a full Baroque orchestra.

Mar. 31 — Music Northwest celebrates Debussy’s birthday with a concert of the composer’s most celebrated chamber music works, held at Olympic Recital Hall on the South Seattle Community College campus.

Mar. 31 – Apr. 7 — Witness the talented cast of Seattle Opera Young Artists perform Donizetti’s Don Pasquale at University of Washington’s Meany Hall.

Arts & Entertainment, Music

Morlot’s Seattle Symphony Celebrates Rhythms of Stravinsky, Gershwin, Varèse

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Ludovic Morlot at Opening Night at Seattle Symphony, 2011 (Photo: Ben VanHouten)

This program plays at Benaroya Hall tonight, September 29, at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, October 1, at 8 p.m. Tickets here.

It’s a delight to see fresh winds blowing at Seattle Symphony, courtesy of its new young music director, Ludovic Morlot.

For this week’s concerts, he announced he was celebrating rhythm, but as well as pulsing with rhythm, the Benaroya Hall stage exploded with musical excitement, flavors and colors on Thursday night, and the audience responded with enthusiasm.

Morlot programmed two very familiar works, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, and Gershwin’s An American in Paris, but then he added a composer who is not nearly as familiar, Edgard Varèse, and his work Amériques. This last choice is in accord with another statement of Morlot’s that he wants to introduce less familiar works to the audience, expanding our horizons.

Many of us are dubious about having our musical horizons widened. “We never heard of this composer. What if we don’t like it? I don’t want to pay money to go to hear somethiing I won’t enjoy.”

Never fear. So far Morlot may be bringing on music less familiar to us, but he is doing it with a discriminating hand, and a good understanding of what the audience will embrace. I heard from one concertgoer last week who had been to the concert including music by Dutilleux and Frank Zappa. She had enjoyed it so much she went out and bought a ticket to hear it again the next day.

Thursday night, Morlot created the same enjoyment. The three works were all written within a span of about 15 years, Rite in 1913, Paris in 1928 and Amériques between 1918 and 1922. It was a time of artistic ferment in Paris, even during WWI, beginning the same kind of musical upheaval which had occurred in Italy at the very end of the 16th and early 17th centuries when the Florentine Camerata and composers like Monteverdi realized that one could express all kinds of emotions dramatically in music, culminating in the birth of opera.

This time the innovation which redirected musical directions for the future was spearheaded by the Rite, the premiere of which produced near pandemonium in the theater. It’s not so far out for us today, but its onslaught of vitality, excitement and tension, its shrill discordance, unusual—to them—harmonies and sawtoothed rhythms, the seemingly disorderly cacophony, was a shocker.

All of these were present in Morlot’s performance Thursday. He brought out the musical colors and the unexpected instrumental combinations, used the sudden quieter moods and the silent pauses as clear contrasts to the relentless clangor, and he shaped the whole so that it hung together as a work. It is easy in this work to have the orchestra playing at full volume almost throughout. He never did. There was plenty of volume, but it never reached a fullscale assault on the eardrums.

Gershwin’s An American in Paris is much less wild, more urbane, and great fun. Morlot chose to perform it two weeks ago at the SSO’s opening gala, and I reviewed it then in this space. Suffice it to say I enjoyed it as much Thursday. In Morlot’s hands, this is a piece with a grin on its face, exuberance in its heart, and wings on its feet.

Varèse was born only a year after Stravinsky, in 1883, and many of the same world influences worked on him. Well before he wrote Amériques he began to look for different sounds, different instruments he could use, and was not thinking along the lines of the romantic composers he grew up hearing. Amériques which he wrote after he arrived in New York is like Gershwin’s Paris in that the sounds and ambience of the city captured him, but it is much harder to distinguish them in the music. If you listen very carefully you can maybe hear the clopping of horses’ hooves, the foghorn, or the cries of vendors, but the only unmistakable city sound is the siren which he brings in often.

Morlot said from the stage that he deliberately put this on the same program as the Rite, as the influence of the 1913 work on the 1918-22 one is obvious. Varèse uses winds similarly, and, importantly, the music has the same flavor, often even similar harmonies, and has a similar impact on the hearer. But his ideas on melody—he called it “organizational sound”—and his huge use of percussion, eleven of them and two timpanists, are all his own, as is his imagination.

However, it does feel closely akin to the Rite in every way, and that leaves one wondering why the Rite caught on and is heard everywhere, and Amériques much less so. It was fascinating to hear the two in juxtaposition. Both are noisy works, and no one could call the Gershwin a quiet dreamy piece, but the effect of all this loud exuberance did not leave this audience member with ears ringing from the blast. Rather, Morlot kept the volume at just under that point, until the last measure of the Varèse when, having thought before the orchestra was playing at full, it suddenly became an amzing blast of sound.

As Gershwin would have said: Fascinating rhythm.