Classical
Seattle Symphony The very opening of Erich Korngold’s violin concerto demonstrates why he was the premier film composer of the silver screen’s Golden Age. The solo violin’s upward-arcing first phrase climaxes, and lingers, on a note outside the main key, D major; that G-sharp wants-desires-aches to resolve up to the satisfying A, but the phrase instead collapses back down. (So close!) The violin tries again, reaching even higher-and at last settles into some kind of repose. The thwarted yearning in this eight-bar minidrama encapsulates all the romantic agony ever put onscreen by Warner Bros., the studio where Korngold was based from the mid-’30s to mid-’40s. This 1947 concerto came toward the end of his extraordinary career-which began as a supernaturally gifted child prodigy in Vienna and took a life-altering turn when Max Reinhardt asked him to come to L.A. to adapt the score for the director’s ravishing A Midsummer Night’s Dream. (The rise of the Third Reich, of course, was additional incentive.)
Philippe Quint, who’ll play the concerto this weekend with the Seattle Symphony, first encountered it via the classic recording by Jascha Heifetz (who premiered it in 1947), and immediately set to learn it. Quint’s own 2009 recording of the piece was nominated for a Grammy, so unsurprisingly he was the violinist invited to step in on two weeks’ notice when Hilary Hahn, the scheduled soloist, had to drop out. A fervent Korngold advocate, Quint sees him as the natural, and fully worthy, successor to the late-Romantic line of Wagner-Mahler-Strauss, calling him “one of the greatest musical minds” and pointing out that “It’s Korngold that created that Hollywood sound”-in other words, this concerto doesn’t sound like movie music; movie music sounds like it. (Though Korngold does repurpose a few themes from his Warner Bros. scores.) On his own recording, Quint brings the piece a slight nervous energy, a febrility, a plangent tone I haven’t heard in other renditions; it’s a sit-up-on-the-edge-of-your seat performance rather than a lie-back-and-wallow one, which the piece’s cushioned opulence invites. This may be because, Quint revealed to me in a phone interview, it’s a live recording. Considering this will be his Seattle debut and his first collaboration with conductor Ludovic Morlot, and that he’s the hero who saved Korngold for the SSO audience, the energy should get turned up higher still. 7:30 p.m. Thurs., Oct. 2, 8 p.m. Sat., Oct. 4. Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., Seattle, WA 98101 $20-$125 Thursday, October 2, 2014, 7:30pm
Broken Bow Ensemble This new-music chamber orchestra premieres John Teske’s min. Chapel Performance Space (Good Shepherd Center), 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N. $5-$15 Thursday, October 2, 2014, 8pm
Seattle Symphony A one-hour “Untuxed” concert of chamber music and a symphony (the Ninth) by Dvorak. Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., Seattle, WA 98101 $24-$81 Friday, October 3, 2014, 7pm
Musical Voices From Myanmar Self-explanatory, unless you weren’t aware Myanmar is another name for Burma. Brechemin Auditorium, Music Building (1st floor), University of Washington,
West Stevens Way NE & Skagit Lane, Seattle Free Friday, October 3, 2014, 7:30pm
Scrape New music for strings from this cleverly named group. Chapel Performance Space (Good Shepherd Center), 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N. $5-$15 Friday, October 3, 2014, 8pm
The Esoterics The evolve-or-perish mantra may hold for, say, consumer electronics, but doesn’t necessarily govern the performing arts. GASP! Heresy! The graying of the audience! Classical music is dying! I hear you, but I will offer a counterexample: The Esoterics, which, since its 1992 founding by then-UW student Eric Banks, has thrived as few local choirs have simply by doing what it’s always done. He established its niche early: a cappella choral music, from 1900 at the earliest, impeccably performed and thoughtfully thematically programmed. Add a social conscience and Banks’ own diverse skills-an encyclopedic knowledge of the repertory, a first-rate compositional gift, and a knack for languages (he seems to pick them up the way you and I pick up groceries on the way home from work)-and you have a concert experience beloved by its fan base like none other. (And if it ain’t broke<202F>.<202F>.<202F>.<202F>) This weekend’s concert, titled “Aetheria,” is the third of three “choral ecologies” in The Esoterics’ 2014 season paying homage to the natural world, and includes music by the winners of the choir’s annual composition competition as well as Banks’ The Syrian seasons, sung in Arabic and English. St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 4805 N.E. 45th St. $10-$20 Friday, October 3, 2014, 8pm
Clarinettissimo Recitals, master classes, vendors, and more. Noon-8 p.m. Sat., Oct. 4 (concert at 6), noon-9 p.m. Sun., Oct. 5 (concert at 7). Seattle Pacific University, 3214 Fourth Ave. W. Free Saturday, October 4, 2014, 12pm
Branford Marsalis From this sax master, baroque works with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. Meany Hall for the Performing Arts, UW Campus, Seattle, WA 98105 $10-$55 Saturday, October 4, 2014, 7:30pm
Byrd Ensemble Choral music from the Spanish renaissance. Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, 1245 Tenth Avenue EastSeattle, WA 98102 $10-$20 Saturday, October 4, 2014, 7:30pm
Orchestra Seattle/Seattle Chamber Singers Opening their season with a curious miscellany; Bach, Wagner, Johann Strauss, and more. First Free Methodist Church, 3200 Third Ave. W., Seattle $10-$25 Saturday, October 4, 2014, 7:30pm
Trio Pardalote Their ongoing series of Shostakovich’s 15 string quartets (they’re up to number 12) makes room for Britten and Irving Fine too. Kenyon Hall, 7904 35th Ave. S.W. $5-$14 Saturday, October 4, 2014, 7:30pm
Seattle Symphony The very opening of Erich Korngold’s violin concerto demonstrates why he was the premier film composer of the silver screen’s Golden Age. The solo violin’s upward-arcing first phrase climaxes, and lingers, on a note outside the main key, D major; that G-sharp wants-desires-aches to resolve up to the satisfying A, but the phrase instead collapses back down. (So close!) The violin tries again, reaching even higher-and at last settles into some kind of repose. The thwarted yearning in this eight-bar minidrama encapsulates all the romantic agony ever put onscreen by Warner Bros., the studio where Korngold was based from the mid-’30s to mid-’40s. This 1947 concerto came toward the end of his extraordinary career-which began as a supernaturally gifted child prodigy in Vienna and took a life-altering turn when Max Reinhardt asked him to come to L.A. to adapt the score for the director’s ravishing A Midsummer Night’s Dream. (The rise of the Third Reich, of course, was additional incentive.)
Philippe Quint, who’ll play the concerto this weekend with the Seattle Symphony, first encountered it via the classic recording by Jascha Heifetz (who premiered it in 1947), and immediately set to learn it. Quint’s own 2009 recording of the piece was nominated for a Grammy, so unsurprisingly he was the violinist invited to step in on two weeks’ notice when Hilary Hahn, the scheduled soloist, had to drop out. A fervent Korngold advocate, Quint sees him as the natural, and fully worthy, successor to the late-Romantic line of Wagner-Mahler-Strauss, calling him “one of the greatest musical minds” and pointing out that “It’s Korngold that created that Hollywood sound”-in other words, this concerto doesn’t sound like movie music; movie music sounds like it. (Though Korngold does repurpose a few themes from his Warner Bros. scores.) On his own recording, Quint brings the piece a slight nervous energy, a febrility, a plangent tone I haven’t heard in other renditions; it’s a sit-up-on-the-edge-of-your seat performance rather than a lie-back-and-wallow one, which the piece’s cushioned opulence invites. This may be because, Quint revealed to me in a phone interview, it’s a live recording. Considering this will be his Seattle debut and his first collaboration with conductor Ludovic Morlot, and that he’s the hero who saved Korngold for the SSO audience, the energy should get turned up higher still. 7:30 p.m. Thurs., Oct. 2, 8 p.m. Sat., Oct. 4. Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., Seattle, WA 98101 $20-$125 Saturday, October 4, 2014, 8pm
The Esoterics The evolve-or-perish mantra may hold for, say, consumer electronics, but doesn’t necessarily govern the performing arts. GASP! Heresy! The graying of the audience! Classical music is dying! I hear you, but I will offer a counterexample: The Esoterics, which, since its 1992 founding by then-UW student Eric Banks, has thrived as few local choirs have simply by doing what it’s always done. He established its niche early: a cappella choral music, from 1900 at the earliest, impeccably performed and thoughtfully thematically programmed. Add a social conscience and Banks’ own diverse skills-an encyclopedic knowledge of the repertory, a first-rate compositional gift, and a knack for languages (he seems to pick them up the way you and I pick up groceries on the way home from work)-and you have a concert experience beloved by its fan base like none other. (And if it ain’t broke<202F>.<202F>.<202F>.<202F>) This weekend’s concert, titled “Aetheria,” is the third of three “choral ecologies” in The Esoterics’ 2014 season paying homage to the natural world, and includes music by the winners of the choir’s annual composition competition as well as Banks’ The Syrian seasons, sung in Arabic and English. Holy Rosary Catholic Church, 4139 42nd Ave. S.W. $10-$20 Saturday, October 4, 2014, 8pm
Clarinettissimo Recitals, master classes, vendors, and more. Noon-8 p.m. Sat., Oct. 4 (concert at 6), noon-9 p.m. Sun., Oct. 5 (concert at 7). Seattle Pacific University, 3214 Fourth Ave. W. Free Sunday, October 5, 2014, 12pm
Seattle Symphony Chamber Music Mahler, Brahms, and, yes, Dvorak from SSO players. Benaroya Recital Hall, 200 University St., Seattle, WA 98101 $39 Sunday, October 5, 2014, 2pm
The Esoterics The evolve-or-perish mantra may hold for, say, consumer electronics, but doesn’t necessarily govern the performing arts. GASP! Heresy! The graying of the audience! Classical music is dying! I hear you, but I will offer a counterexample: The Esoterics, which, since its 1992 founding by then-UW student Eric Banks, has thrived as few local choirs have simply by doing what it’s always done. He established its niche early: a cappella choral music, from 1900 at the earliest, impeccably performed and thoughtfully thematically programmed. Add a social conscience and Banks’ own diverse skills-an encyclopedic knowledge of the repertory, a first-rate compositional gift, and a knack for languages (he seems to pick them up the way you and I pick up groceries on the way home from work)-and you have a concert experience beloved by its fan base like none other. (And if it ain’t broke<202F>.<202F>.<202F>.<202F>) This weekend’s concert, titled “Aetheria,” is the third of three “choral ecologies” in The Esoterics’ 2014 season paying homage to the natural world, and includes music by the winners of the choir’s annual composition competition as well as Banks’ The Syrian seasons, sung in Arabic and English. Grace Episcopal Church, 8595 N.E. Day Rd., Bainbridge Island $10-$20 Sunday, October 5, 2014, 3pm
Compline Services A half-hour meditation each week with the eight-voice Renaissance Singers. St. Clement of Rome Episcopal Church, 1501 32nd Ave. S., Seattle Free Sunday, October 5, 2014, 7:30 – 8pm
Isabelle Demers Performing on the Watjen Concert Organ, program TBA. Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., Seattle, WA 98101 $20-$31 Monday, October 6, 2014, 7:30pm
Tai Murray From this violinist, Part’s Fratres and sonatas by Debussy and Corigliano, with pianist Ashley Wass. PONCHO Concert Hall (Cornish College), 710 E. Roy St., Seattle WA 98102 $10-$22 Wednesday, October 8, 2014, 8pm
Compline Services A half-hour meditation each week with the eight-voice Renaissance Singers. St. Clement of Rome Episcopal Church, 1501 32nd Ave. S., Seattle Free Sunday, October 12, 2014, 7:30 – 8pm
