Seattle Symphony

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• Benaroya Hall
• John Cerminaro
• Gerard Schwarz
• Classical Music
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

One of the warmest ovations I’ve ever heard for a piece of new music in Benaroya Hall greeted Samuel Jones’ 2006 Tuba Concerto, a sweeping, colorful showcase for a neglected, unfairly stereotyped instrument. (A CD of the work, with soloist Chris Olka, has just been released by Naxos.) A horn concerto for John Cerminaro followed last season, and third in the series, to be premiered this weekend by the Seattle Symphony, is Jones’ Trombone Concerto. Commissioned by Charles and Benita Staadecker and subtitled Vita accademica, the work evokes Charles’ years at Cornell with musical allusions to a college alma mater and marching-band football weekends, and fully exploits the mastery of SSO principal trombonist Ko-ichiro Yamamoto. Jones says, “He has this magnificent, heraldic sound. . . then in addition, he has the most incredible, beautiful legato trombone tone I’ve ever heard. I wanted to particularly capitalize on that in the slow movement; he’s accompanied entirely by muted strings, and he sounds like one of them! On top of that, he has technique to burn.” Brahms’ Violin Concerto, with soloist Vadim Repin, and David Diamond’s whizbang Rounds for strings fill out the program; Gerard Schwarz conducts. GAVIN BORCHERT
Thu., April 2, 7:30 p.m.; Sat., April 4, 8 p.m.; Sun., April 5, 2 p.m., 2009