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Danish Conductor Dausgaard at Seattle Symphony: Scandinavian Music is Done Justice

Guest conductors are nothing new for orchestras these days. Over the past few decades, permanent conductors have become peripatetic and are at home base only part of the year, conducting all over the world the rest of the time. Ludovic Morlot, conductor and music director of the Seattle Symphony, is no exception, and we enjoy hearing our orchestra under talented guests.

Now for the first time, we have a permanent guest conductor. Thomas Dausgaard has been here to conduct before, but he will now have a regular connection with the Seattle Symphony, directing three programs a year, starting next season. Dausgaard, 50, brings valuable credentials which complement those of Morlot. A Dane, he brings a fine understanding and love of the Scandinavian musical repertoire, which apart from the most familiar works of Sibelius and Grieg, has not been much present in programming here for many years.

He is also steeped in the classical repertoire, and this past week he was here to conduct the orchestra in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto — so called as it has three soloists — and Schubert’s Symphony No. 9, the “great” C Major, so called as he also wrote a “little” C Major symphony.

His performance with the orchestra last weekend garnered enthusiastic applause, and he appeared to be well liked and admired among the orchestra musicians. (They only tap their bows or shuffle their feet, clapping if they have both hands free, for conductors of whom they approve.)

The Beethoven soloists are all young, all appearing here for the first time, and all wonderful musicians it will be a delight to have here again. Violinist Alina Pogostkina, 30, showed a delicacy of touch, a nice sense of classical drama, and complete ease with Beethoven’s music. The hands of pianist Christian Ihle Hadland rippled over the keys so seemingly relaxed that the notes floated out, yet there was plenty of power when needed. Cellist Andreas Brantelid, 26, drew a rich warm tone from his instrument, so that it sang. The three played in excellent harmony with each other and with the orchestra, which Dausgaard made sure did not drown them out.

Playing with soloists requires the conductor to work closely with them, giving them the lion’s share of prominence, but it’s in works without soloists that the conductor’s interpretations come to the fore. Conducting without a score, Dausgaard paced the huge Schubert work so that each movement had shape and fit within the overall structure. He is dynamic on the podium, using his whole body to indicate to the musicians what he wants, often guiding them rather than tightly controlling every nuance, yet making his wishes clearly known. The result was a lively performance, never dull, never overloud, but with myriad shades of meaning, reaching an exciting peroration at the end.

Dausgaard will be welcome here, and we look forward to the music he brings, particularly in light of the large Scandinavian presence Seattle enjoys.

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

Members of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra pose with a local icon (Photo: SMCO)

Just as the blustery, wet weather is making us want to scuttle off to the nearest concert hall, the October calendar looks like it’s filling up with an impressive list of appearances by some of classical music’s biggest names. The coming month is also burgeoning with performances by local artists and ensembles, all looking to kick-start the concert season with exciting repertoire and top-notch music-making.

Oct. 1 — Mandolinist and 2012 MacArthur “Genius Grant” winner Chris Thile first achieved fame as a member of bluegrass ensembles Nickel Creek and Punch Brothers. Since then, he’s branched out to folk, classical, jazz, and rock traditions. The UW World Series brings Thile to the University of Washington’s Meany Hall, where he’ll perform music by Bach as well as contemporary works and original compositions.

Oct. 5 – 6 — The singers of Choral Arts kick off the concert season with a program that has something for everyone. Spanning from Palestrina to Pärt, the performance features three versions of Ave Maria, including settings by Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Grieg. New music fans will be treated to world premieres by Rick Asher and John David Earnest, as well as to works by local composers Melinda Bargreen and John Muehleisen.

Oct. 6 — Help Seattle’s vibrant chamber music community welcome a new concert series to town. Local pianist and harpsichordist Byron Schenkman presents the debut of his “Byron Schenkman & Friends” series at Benaroya Hall’s intimate Nordstrom Recital Hall with performances by a host of local chamber music luminaries. Hear three of Beethoven’s early piano quartets alongside music by Haydn and 18th century composer Luigi Boccherini.

Oct. 10 & 12 — Though pianist Simone Dinnerstein has dazzled audiences with her interpretations of Bach, she’s also received attention for championing works by living composers, including a recent collaboration with singer-songwriter Tift Merritt. Still a classical pianist at heart, Dinnerstein joins the Seattle Symphony for Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major.

Oct. 11 — Bach fans, rejoice! Pianist András Schiff returns to Seattle for a solo recital at Benaroya Hall. The famed Bach expert performs the composer’s celebrated “Goldberg” Variations, some of Bach’s most difficult keyboard works.

Oct. 12 — Guest conductor and violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock joins the Seattle Baroque Orchestra for their first concert of the season, featuring music from 17th century Italy and Germany. Early music buffs will enjoy pieces for solo violin, duos, and trios, as well as works for the full ensemble. This concert kicks off a yearlong search for a new music director for the SBO. Future performances this season feature appearances by a prestigious international roster of guest conductors.

Oct. 19 — Seattle Opera begins the concert season with Donizetti’s sparkling romp The Daughter of the Regiment. The libretto follows the trials and tribulations of two young lovers: Marie, a tomboy adopted and raised by a regiment of soldiers, and Tonio, a young man from the local village.

Oct. 25 — The title of Pacific MusicWorks‘ season opener says it all. “Welcome to All the Pleasures” is a program of English music spanning several hundred years of the country’s history. Five vocal soloists join a chamber orchestra of lute, strings, and harp for works by beloved British composers Handel, Britten, Purcell, and Dowland.

Oct. 26 — Now in its fifth season, the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra combines some of the city’s brightest young talent with adventuresome programming that combines the best of new and old repertoire. Founder and music director Geoffrey Larson and the orchestra tackle iconic works of the 19th and 20th centuries: Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été (“Summer Nights”) and Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du soldat (“The Soldier’s Tale”).

Reveling in Ravel

Music Director Ludovic Morlot opened Seattle Symphony’s new season with an all Ravel program over the weekend.

Ludovic Morlot, just beginning his third year on the podium of the Seattle Symphony as music director, has shown he is a master at programming. This is particularly noticeable in his choices to open this season.

Last weekend, he and the orchestra gave a wildly successful gala performance with pianist Lang Lang; this week began the first of the season’s Masterworks series and, judging by Saturday’s audience, the program brought in a big, enthusiastic, and attentive crowd.

Morlot went with an all Ravel program: two piano concertos with Jean-Yves Thibaudet as soloist in both, and four works all with the Spanish flavor so loved by the composer. With composer, conductor, and soloist all French, how could there not be a sense of complete understanding of the music on stage?

The D major Concerto for the Left Hand was written for one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein (he lost the other in World War I), and seemingly makes no allowance for the pianist performing with one hand what would normally take two. It’s fiendishly difficult, yet Thibaudet played with ease, from the first long meditative solo to the colorful cadenza just before the end.

In the program’s second half, playing Ravel’s only other piano concerto, Thibaudet displayed the same ease and innate understanding of Ravel’s music, with both hands bringing to life the composer’s newfound interest in Jazz. This alternated with languorous sections, sensual and relaxed, in the first movement. The quite short second one is notable for its peace and quietude, soft and unhurried, utterly beautiful in the way the music unfolds. You could have heard a pin drop in the audience as Thibaudet caressed the music out of the keys and the orchestra kept with him as support. The third movement is a total contrast, jaunty, fast, and jazzy with many solos from individual orchestra members, who were recognized in the prolonged applause.

In Ravel’s Spanish-inflected music, Morlot chose works with different aspects, from the effervescent yet sultry “Alborado del gracioso” to the swirling, sensual “Rhapsodie espagnole” to the elegant and stately “Pavane pour une infante defunte” — not, as often thought, intended as a dirge for a dead princess, but intended to remember how she might have danced, the young girl in so many of Velasquez’s paintings — and ending up with the mesmeric “Bolero.” In each, Morlot created transparency, so that all the inner voices of Ravel’s masterly use of instrumental colors could be heard. There are many solos for different instruments, showing a particular love, in these works, for the bassoon. Often, Morlot trusted the musicians to phrase each solo their own way, without conducting them.

Morlot starts his new season with community and musicians respecting his musicianship, enthusiastic about his programming and performances, appreciating his venturesome ideas, and enjoying his determination to include musicians of all different stripes. He is consolidating his hold now that he is a more known entity, and we are lucky to have him.

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

The Byrd Ensemble (Photo: Charleen Cadelina)

As the summer sun sets and fall begins, Seattle’s musicians are returning to the city’s halls and auditoriums for the start of a new concert season. The Seattle Symphony is always one of the first to kick things off with their annual opening night concert and gala in mid-September. Several other early-bird ensembles will follow suit, though many local groups don’t begin their concert season until next month.

Still, September might be one of the best months to catch a concert in Seattle. Crowds are smaller, programming is adventurous, and there’s a palpable sense of excitement in the air about the season ahead.

Sep. 13 — You’ve heard of Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and Rachmaninoff, but do you know Frolov, Shchedrin, and Zapolsky? Experience works for violin and piano by both beloved masters and lesser known talents at the Russian Chamber Music Foundation of Seattle‘s first concert of the season, “Russian Kaleidoscope”.

Sep. 15 — Lang Lang returns to Benaroya Hall for the Seattle Symphony‘s opening night concert and gala. The ebullient pianist performs Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, a masterpiece full of keyboard fireworks. The orchestra gets plenty of time in the spotlight as well with a colorful medley of folk dances by Brahms, Dvořák, and Bartók.

Sep. 19 — Town Hall Seattle celebrates composers of the 20th and 21st centuries with the ever-popular TownMusic series. The 2013-14 season kicks off with a concert by vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth. The 8-person group received a lot of press earlier this year when member Caroline Shaw won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Music. Join TownMusic artistic director Joshua Roman before the show for a happy hour and season preview.

Sep. 20 – 22 — Hear three brand-new works for a cappella chorus performed by contemporary choral ensemble The Esoterics. These choral pieces were winners of the ensemble’s annual Polyphonos composition competition. This year’s winning composers hail from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and British Columbia and will all be on hand for the premiere of their works.

Sep. 22 — Eclectic performances! Interactive music classes! Food trucks! The Seattle Symphony‘s free Day of Music packs Benaroya Hall with music and art for all ages. Watch music director Ludovic Morlot conduct the orchestra, then wander through the building to catch a variety of local chamber musicians, rockers, rappers, and jazz cats in action.

Sep. 27 – Oct. 6 — Pacific Northwest Ballet honors Twyla Tharp with Air Twyla, a set of three works celebrating the renowned choreographer. The production spans thirty years of Tharp’s career, ranging from 1982’s ballroom-flavored Nine Sinatra Songs to the world premiere performance of Waiting at the Station.

Sep. 28 — Travel back in time to the English Renaissance with the Byrd Ensemble. They’ll sing music by Thomas Tallis, William Byrd, and other famous Renaissance Brits. The program culminates in a performance of Alessandro Striggio’s Agnus dei, which contains 60 independent vocal parts.

 

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Seattle Symphony Premieres John Luther Adams’ “Become Ocean”

John Luther Adams (Photo: Evan Hurd)

An eager sense of anticipation filled Benaroya Hall on Thursday as audience members gathered to hear the world premiere performance of John Luther Adams’ newest work for orchestra, Become Ocean. The crowd was buzzing with questions. How exactly would Adams’ work channel the majestic waterways of the Pacific Northwest? Would Become Ocean follow the pattern of Adams’ other works, which immerse listeners in evocative soundscapes? Most importantly, what would the music sound like?

Adams is one of contemporary music’s most idiosyncratic composers. Born in 1953 in Mississippi, a passion for the natural world and wild spaces brought Adams to Alaska as a young man, where he set up shop in a remote cabin in the forest. Since then, he has called Alaska home (though he’s since traded his isolated cabin for the more urban surroundings of Fairbanks). Life amidst the Alaskan wilderness has inspired and informed Adams’ unique compositional style, which seeks to musically re-create the experience of being in nature.

Violinist Sergey Khachatryan (Photo: Marco Borggreve)

In April, the Seattle Symphony hosted a performance of Adams’ songbirdsongs in the Benaroya Hall lobby. The meditative work is representative of Adams’ compositions. Rather than focusing on telling a story with musical elements like melody, harmony, and rhythm, songbirdsongs uses sonic cues to evoke a particular scene and mood. Scored for three piccolos and two sets of percussion instruments, the piece transports the audience into a forest where birds trill melodies and the breeze rustles through the trees. Adams takes the experience of observing bird calls in the forest and distills it down into musical elements, painting a detailed, vivid picture with a descriptive musical language.

At Thursday’s concert, Seattle Symphony Music Director Ludovic Morlot touched on this penchant for rich musical description in his introduction to Become Ocean. He encouraged the audience to experience the piece in the way one would observe a natural phenomenon, likening the work to a flock of billowing clouds floating across the sky, slowly changing shape and color.

Morlot also explained how the structure of Become Ocean supported this concept, providing insight into how the piece was composed. The work splits the orchestra into three distinct groups, anchored respectively by woodwinds, brass, and strings. They’re joined by celeste, piano, percussion, and a quartet of harps, which are divided amongst the groups. Morlot brought the groups onto stage one at a time, enabling the audience to see the instrumental makeup of each. During the performance, stage lighting further accentuated this structure, bathing each group in a different color of light.

From the very first downbeat, Become Ocean envelops the audience in a sea of sound. A slow and steady timpani roll and a constant low trill on the piano provide an underlying foundation throughout most of the piece. Guided by Morlot’s steady pulse, the three groups progressed through a series of interlocking melodic and harmonic fragments, blending long tones with arpeggios and tremolos.

Like clouds, the sound is constantly shifting and changing, emphasizing the timbre of one group or another. At several points in the piece, the three streams of sound convene into an enormous swell that sweeps through the auditorium, bathing the audience in sound. Tremors in the strings are joined by long reedy tones on the woodwinds, while a chorus of brass sails above, majestic calls on the higher horns punctuated by mournful foghorn notes on the tuba.

Through its 45 minutes, Become Ocean focuses on developing a meditative mood. Unlike many works in the Western musical tradition, which emphasize the build-up and release of melodic and harmonic tension, Become Ocean creates musical drama by adding and subtracting layers of musical sound. This isn’t music that will sweep you away with soaring melodies or startle you with unexpected harmonies. Instead, Adams’ work drifts along, its ambient, drone-like qualities inspiring meditation and relaxation. I emerged from Adams’ soundscape feeling refreshed and more aware.

Armenian violinist Sergey Khachatryan opened Thursday’s concert with a dazzling performance of Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto. Though he’s only 28 years old, Khachatryan is well on his way to becoming an internationally-renowned Shostakovich expert, having already released a recording of the composer’s violin concertos with the Orchestre National de France.

On Thursday, the young violinist wowed the Benaroya Hall crowd with an interpretation full of technical fireworks and amped-up drama. Though at times the tension felt a bit overwrought, Khachatryan made up for this with tender moments full of imagery, particularly in the third movement’s haunting cadenza. Morlot and the orchestra provided robust support (particularly the trio of bassoons in the first and second movements), infusing the performance with bursts of energy and momentum.

There’s still one more opportunity to hear Become Ocean in its inaugural performances. Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony will perform the same program again this afternoon.

Grappling with Britten’s “War Requiem” at Seattle Symphony

Winston Churchill visiting the ruins of the St. Michael’s Cathedral, Coventry, in 1941. (Photo: Capt. Horton – War Office)

The project of a particular kind of art is to instantiate in itself what is missing elsewhere. Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem (being performed again by Seattle Symphony on June 15) begins with a low growl and then the tolling of bells as it puts into yoke two incompatibilities: war and requiem. It had its premiere in 1962, at the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral — the 14th-century version had been reduced to its walls in a German bombing raid in 1940.

Britten’s War Requiem doesn’t recreate the cathedral as a bulwark of serenity, but as a frail structure ripped open, shot through with booming bursts and siren lamentation. It’s a work with many moving parts: the traditional Mass for the dead, in Latin, glossed by nine poems in English from World War I poet Wilfred Owen. The Latin is sung by a choir, boys’ choir, and a solo soprano — in Seattle, Seattle Pro Musica bolsters the forces of the Seattle Symphony Chorale, with the youthful voices of the Northwest Boychoir, conducted by Joseph Crnko, and soprano Christine Brewer.

Anthony Dean Griffey, tenor

The tenor and baritone soloists — here, Anthony Dean Griffey and Ivan Ludlow — sing accompanied by a chamber orchestra (the principals often fearlessly exposed), almost as if they were singing art songs. They join conductor Ludovic Morlot near the front of the stage, while Brewer sings from a raised position in the back, just in front of Benaroya’s majestic pipe organ. The boys’ choir, perched up in a box, house-left, to approximate the effect of eerie distance that Britten hoped for, is also sometimes accompanied by an organ.

With the aid of Owen’s poetry, Britten interrogates, peremptorily, the promise of eternal, peaceful rest: the naiveté in boys’ prayer for “requiem aeternam,” is followed by the chastening Owen line: “What passing bells for these who die as cattle?” Sometimes it amounts to a bludgeoning. In the Offertorium section, you hear again the tale of how Abraham was about to sacrifice his son Isaac to the Lord. Griffey and Ludlow’s voices mingle in their higher registers as new instructions come: “Lay not thy hand upon the lad, / Neither do anything to him.”

Only here, Abraham refuses: the old man “slew his son, — And half the seed of Europe, one by one.”

Much has been written about Britten’s use of the tritone, often as if instability and indeterminacy (qualities attributed to the “unsettling” C–F# tritone) are the binary opposites of resolution, rather than simple states. Britten dumps it like an acid on pieties, throughout. Nothing anthemic emerges; he switches up time schemes so as not to let listeners lapse into the security of Latin chant. In fact, he’s often action-painting scenes for you, with the military bugling and staccato shouts of “Dies irae.” (Some of the chorale’s best work.) You hear the movement of large pieces of artillery in the rumbling of the double bass, explosions from percussion. At one moment, you could swear you heard a sentry’s pacing up and down.

“Lacrimosa dies illa,” sings Brewer, her vocalizations like the expulsions of a wounded or frightened killdeer. By “Sanctus,” Brewer’s desperation makes it sound like she’s yelling “Fire!” Griffey’s voice warms and opens later in the evening, gaining finally an agility and suppleness near the top, allowing him to lean into “One ever hangs,” and the summing up of “Strange Meeting,” as a soldier meets the nameless other he’s killed. Ludlow, singing capably otherwise, doesn’t bring much intensity to this critical part — a shortcoming, too, of the chorale. Morlot ties himself in knots trying to communicate the convulsive, visceral punch he’s looking for, but often it simply gets louder. Watching their faces, I could make out no one “seized with fear and trembling.”

This was opening night, which perhaps excuses an occasionally ragged launch from the choruses; I suspect that Saturday’s performance may be earth-shattering.