The Orchestra as Toy Box

Henry Fair

Artful dodger Josefowicz.

Location Info

Map

Benaroya Recital Hall

Third Ave. and Union St.
Seattle, WA 98101

Category: Performing Arts Venues

Region: Downtown

Photos

0 user reviews	Write A Review
Save to foursquare	0

Details

Benaroya Hall, Third Avenue and Union Street, 215-4747, seattlesymphony.org. $17–$110. 7:30 p.m. Thurs., Nov. 17, 8 p.m. Sat., Nov. 19.

Related Content

• Spring Arts: Calendar of Events
  February 15, 2012
• Spring Arts: Fresh Starts
  February 15, 2012
• What Seattle Drinks
  February 8, 2012
• Sing-Along Messiah
  December 7, 2011
• Hansel and Gretel
  December 14, 2011

More About

• Maurice Sendak
• Leila Josefowicz
• Luke Bedford
• Orchestral Music
• Classical Music

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

Composer Oliver Knussen made his name as a child prodigy, conducting his own Symphony no. 1 at age 15 with the London Philharmonic. In some ways he's never grown up: Perhaps his best-known work is an opera based on Where the Wild Things Are, a setting of Maurice Sendak's own stage adaptation of his book. Then there's the orchestra-as-toy box approach of Knussen's 2002 Violin Concerto. In the outer movements, the scurrying solo line dashes and weaves among splashes of alluring color erupting all around, as if it were dodging sonic paintballs; while in the central "Aria," the violin becomes reflective, singing throatily a long but not-too-somber soliloquy in front of muted orchestral clouds. Knussen's own performance of the Concerto is available on disc, a live recording from 2007 with violinist Leila Josefowicz. The pair reunites this weekend to play the Concerto with the Seattle Symphony, whom Knussen will also guide through works by Luke Bedford (Outblaze the Sky, from 2007) and Benjamin Britten.