Tag Archives: mahler

Arts & Entertainment, Music

Spectacular Mozart and Mahler at Seattle Symphony This Weekend

The Seattle Symphony performs works by Mozart and Mahler on April 6 & 7 at Benaroya Hall. More details and tickets are available at the Seattle Symphony website.

Thursday evenings might be my new favorite time to catch a Seattle Symphony performance. I’m usually a Sunday matinée concertgoer, but my experience at Benaroya Hall last night may convince me to exchange all my remaining Seattle Symphony subscription tickets for Thursday night shows.

The weeknight atmosphere at Benaroya Hall is relaxed and low-key, with a smaller crowd that’s energetic and diverse. Most importantly, there’s ample space on the foyer balcony to relax on a couch and enjoy my tradition of intermission chocolate while gazing at the nighttime city views. No more cowering from the wineglass-toting hordes in a dark corner near the bathrooms!

Pianist John Lill

Concert hall atmosphere aside, the Seattle Symphony can make last night’s program of Mozart and Mahler shine on any day of the week. Conductor Laureate Gerard Schwarz returned to the podium for yesterday’s performance, which featured the famous Overture from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor featuring renowned pianist John Lill, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 1. This program will be repeated tonight and tomorrow night.

The Overture from The Marriage of Figaro was an ideal way to start off the evening of classical favorites. In Mozart’s opera, the Overture sets the stage for the madcap hijinks and comedic action to follow. Likewise, the familiar strains of the Overture provided a lighthearted introduction to last night’s Seattle Symphony program, balancing out the dramatic elegance of the Mozart piano concerto and the epic scale of the Mahler symphony. The orchestra played Mozart’s overture with a charming energy despite occasional balance issues.

Pianist John Lill brought a refined elegance to his performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor. Fans of the flying fingers and keyboard pyrotechnics found in Romantic Era piano concertos might balk at the relative simplicity of Mozart’s concertos, which are solidly rooted in earlier, Classical-era traditions. But under the fingers of a legendary pianist like Lill, the melodic lines and textures of a Mozart piano concerto come alive. Lill brought eloquence and meaning to every note, collaborating well with Schwarz and the orchestra to enhance the effects of one of Mozart’s most dramatic piano concertos.

The evening ended with the eagerly anticipated Mahler’s Symphony No. 1. Although the composer began writing this work he was only in his twenties, it is considered one of his finest and most beloved. The work is nicknamed “Titan” after the title of a popular novel by Jean Paul Richter. All four movements of the symphony are highly programmatic. When strung together, they create a musical tale of epic proportions. Although Mahler wrote detailed program notes to explain each movement, these are often omitted in modern performances, leaving it up to the audience to create their own storyline for the piece. During last night’s concert, I delighted in crafting my own narrative to go along with the music.

Seattle Symphony’s performance of the Mahler was an immersive journey into a world full of color, drama, and adventure. Mahler’s writing took advantage of the full range of orchestral palette of sounds. Schwarz and the Symphony painted a remarkable picture, making the score come alive. Outstanding solo work by the French horn section lent a rustic, pastoral feel to the first and fourth movements. In the dirge-like third movement, solos by members of the woodwind section cut through the somber strains of a funeral march like a knife.

I wasn’t the only one who found the Symphony’s rendition of Mahler stirring and inspiring. A young woman sitting with her date in the row in front of me spent the entire performance conducting along with the orchestra, complete with full interpretation of dramatic effects and mood changes. She probably wasn’t a conducting student or a Mahler scholar, just a playful concertgoer experiencing the music around her in a creative, refreshing way. Don’t miss this chance to be inspired by one of Mahler’s most beloved works.

Arts & Entertainment, Music

Gerard Schwarz Takes His Last Bows–For Now

Seattle Symphony's Gerard Schwarz

This weekend sees the final concert of Gerard Schwarz’ long tenure as music director of the Seattle Symphony (June 18, 8 p.m., tickets). He’ll be back, as conductor laureate, for several weeks next season but Thursday night’s audience at Benaroya Hall treated him to a prolonged ovation—several minutes—as he came out on stage with former governor Dan Evans and the Symphony’s board chair, Leslie Jackson Chihuly.

Chihuly paid tribute to Schwarz, describing him as a “big dreamer,” emphasizing his tremendous energy and thought for the community’s musical wellbeing, as well as being the force behind the building of Benaroya Hall itself. Evans spoke of Schwarz’s comnmitment to Seattle, moving to live and raise his family here, and the building of the orchestra.

In brief and graceful comments, Schwarz said: “The music says it all. My gratitude goes to the musicians. I love you all.” Then he turned to the audience and thanked us, for being there, supporting the orchestra over the years. He received more applause, including from the musicians themselves.

Then it was down to business.

Philip Glass

The first item on the program was the last of this season’s 17 Gund-Simonyi Farewell Commissions, Philip Glass’s Harmonium Mountain in its world premiere. All of these were stipulated to be short concert openers, and this one came in at just under five minutes. An appealing work, it is in the composer’s minimalist vein, but much less aggressively so than some of his other works. Perhaps it was the short length, but this sounded more like a kaleidoscope of colors shifting frequently, with different patterns in the music but without any theme per se, and very basic rhythms.

Because of the length of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, the “Resurrection,” the major work on the program, one more short work came before intermission, Schubert’s Overture to Rosamunde, which was given a well-shaped performance that brought out its dramatic portent as well as its singing melodies.

The Mahler is a huge work, around 75 minutes. It requires huge forces, such as ten horns and eight trumpets, all the flutes doubling on piccolo, and plenty of percussion, not to mention a chorus and two vocal soloists. Perhaps Schwarz wanted to have on stage for his farewell all the musicians with whom he whas worked in recent years, including all those who have substituted. Perhaps it was the grandeur of the work, and its message of death and resurrection, as metaphor for “Au revoir” which means “to meet again” or in today’s laconic parlance, “See you!”

Whatever the reason, this was an excellent performance. Mahler’s was an extraordinary accomplishment, to create a work of such length while constantly holding the attention of the listener. Schwarz achieved the same feat, maintaining the symphony’s nuances, triumphs, despondency and joys, its descriptions, its charm, and above all its endless variety. Soft sections had fine tone and transparency, and there were startling salvos from the brass—which sounded superb all evening despite catching a few minor frogs.

The Seattle Sympony Chorale in the last movement could easily be heard over the orchestra forces without straining, and the two young soloists, soprano Angele Meade and mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, have voices it would be a pleasure to hear again. I was particularly taken with Cooke’s mezzo, which has the true alto quality and timbre essential for Mahler.

Schwarz has his detractors. Almost all conductors have feet of clay to their orchestra musicians, but I think nobody would deny that when he came in, 26 years ago, the Seattle Symphony was a provincial orchestra. Nobody could describe it that way now. He has been a consummate orchestra builder. He has brought in excellent players, and his programming has been consistently enlightening, adventurous at times without turning off the audience.

He hands off to Ludovic Morlot a fine-tuned precision instrument able to do anything Morlot requires of them.

The audience brought him and the soloists back three times. At the last one, when Schwarz signaled the orchestra to rise, concertmaster Maria Larionoff shook her head slightly and the orchestra remained seated, giving the applause to him.