Posted in Uncategorized on April 17, 2008 | No Comments »
Not one, but two live accounts of Mahler’s Rubik’s Cube of a symphony was released this week, one on the LSO Live label featuring Valery Gergiev making his Mahler recording debut, the other was released on the LSO Live copycat label CSO Resound under the baton of the seasoned Mahler veteran Bernard Haitink. At a [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on April 6, 2008 | No Comments »
In many ways, music outside of the Classical to Romantic era, whether before it or after it, has a lot in common. Such similarities may not show themselves musically, but in other ways. Just as there are festivals for modern music, and locations where the modern will always be heard, there are the same festivals [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on April 3, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Paul Taub, flautist and member of the Seattle Chamber Players is performing at the Good Shepard Center along with Michael Partington. April 3, 2008
The Seattle Symphony performs Bruch’s always enjoyable Violin Concerto No.1 and Anton Bruckner’s mildly revised Symphony No.5. April 3, 5, 6, 2008
Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 comes to Town Hall as Christophe Chagnard [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on March 17, 2008 | No Comments »
Mark Russell Smith, currently with the Richmond Symphony, has been tapped to lead the Quad City Symphony starting next season. The Quad City Symphony is my hometown orchestra and former classical music stomping ground. Christian Knapp, a Seattle Symphony favorite and former Associate Conductor, is one of the nine finalists for the soon to [...]
Posted in Seattle, WA, Uncategorized on February 11, 2008 | 5 Comments »
The music of the Twentieth Century echoed through Seattle’s concert halls this weekend. Michael Stern and the Seattle Symphony started the weekend with performances of Edgard Varese’s rarely heard Integrales, Victor Herbert’s equally rare Cello Concerto No.2 and the romantic longing of Rachmaninov’s Symphony No.3. However, the real treat of the weekend was [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on February 5, 2008 | No Comments »
The pre-concert lecture for the recent Seattle Symphony concert was titled “In the shadow of a giant.” The title, an obvious reference to Brahms’ First Symphony. Brahms labored for twenty years on his first symphony. His creativity gripped by the belief that he could never surpass, let alone equal, the achievement in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on February 3, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Having already attended performances of the Music of the Baroque, the Baroque Band, and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, among other things, I thought I would give myself the ultimate pleasure in the city by attending a performance of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. I had shied away from going to the CSO because I [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on February 3, 2008 | No Comments »
Even though this is a blog about music, I can’t resist. My trade is politics and this, by any measure, is an amazing crowd for Senator Barack Obama.
Senator Obama’s rally today in Minnesota.
Posted in Uncategorized on February 2, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Some months back, this weekend’s Seattle Symphony concert was dubbed “Love and Tragedy.” Back in September the program featured two Brahms works - the Tragic Overture and the Symphony No.1. But, Schoenberg’s Pelleas und Melisande was also on the program.
However, the program has been considerably revised. First, the Tragic Overture is out. Perhaps [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on January 31, 2008 | No Comments »
Harmonia Mundi and its affiliate labels have a promising set of new releases and re-issue slated for the 12th of February. Some of them include, but are not limited to…
Having tackled Handel’s Op. 3 with much critical acclaim, worthy sales and a gramophone award, the Academy of Ancient Music and Richard Eggar set their sights [...]
