April 25th, 2013: Hilary Hahn Plays Sibelius

Last night's concert was one of the best we have been to yet this year. Excellent repertoire and excellent performances made for a very enjoyable evening. Months ago I was able to snag four seats at the front of the second tier for this concert, so I gave the second pair to my brother, whose birthday was Wednesday. He brought his girlfriend, and the four of us took our seats at about 7:20 for the 7:30 concert.

The first thing I noticed was that, just as in the open rehearsal that Christine and I went to on Tuesday, several of the key principal players were missing. Alexander Velinzon was not to be concertmaster for the evening, and Efe Baltacigil was also missing from the cello section. Demarre McGill was there though, sitting among the winds with his golden flute.

The short but powerful Xian Zhang opened the program with Sibelius' Karelia Overture. I wasn't familiar with it at all, but it was a nice piece, and very well performed. I again got the suspicion that the acoustics in the second tier are ever so slightly better than on the first tier.

Then Hilary Hahn came out to perform the famous Sibelius Violin Concerto. She got a warm greeting from the almost-sold-out hall, and then Zhang cued the violins to commence with the incredibly quiet beginning of the concerto.

Hahn played the first movement very well, with a broad range of dynamics and musical expressivity, as well as impressive virtuosity. However, very uncharacteristically of her there were a few places where she fumbled ever so slightly, or even landed on a long note slightly high or slightly low and had to slowly slide into the correct pitch. This is the first Thursday evening Masterworks concerts we've ever been to, so perhaps as my brother Oliver suggests, things are generally more polished and put together on the Saturday evenings. For the most part though, her playing was very engaging, and her tone was rich and full. The orchestra supported her playing with a full, velvety sound, and came off brilliantly during the orchestral tuttis.

Just before the cadenza of the first movement, when the hall was completely silent, somebody in the audience made a very loud noise that sounded like a combination of a gasp and a cough. I started laughing quietly, and looked at Christine, who apparently would have been okay if she hadn't noticed me laughing, but with things as they were, she began to lose it as well, and we had a rather dangerous, contained laughing fit which lasted for a good chunk of the cadenza. It was particularly unpleasant because during the cadenza there are moments of silence all over the place, so there's extra pressure to laugh as quietly as humanly possible, or ideally not at all. These can't-stop-laughing-during-a-concert stories are sure fun to tell later though.

I have never been a huge fan of the second movement of this concerto, except for the part where the low strings have a repeated driving rhythm on a low note, and the solo violin has this beautiful, twisting passage filled with double stops that descends atop it. Unfortunately, there was a disagreement as to the tempo during this passage, with Zhang lagging the orchestra badly behind Hahn's playing. By the end of the passage they were back in sync, but it sort of ruined it. This is probably something that will be fixed by Saturday. I originally had tickets for both nights, but a gig came up Saturday night, so unfortunately this is all I get of this concert.

In the third movement, Hahn was in top form. She had warmed up to the stage, or the audience, or whatever, and played the stunningly virtuosic third movement almost impeccably. Those absurd passages that the vast majority of even the great violinists can't quite pull off, she pulled off just like in her recording of the piece. There seemed no end to how long she could sustain blazingly fast passages with impeccable intonation and a full, clear tone for every single note.

Something interesting happened right at the end though. Something very understandable too. As Hahn climbed up the last rapid passages towards the final note of the piece, an air of caution seemed to gather around her, and the gusto with which she had been playing was exchanged for a carefulness to hit all the notes perfectly, particularly the last one. Right before the very last short high note of the piece, she seemed to almost pause ever so briefly to make sure her finger was in the right place, and then she played the note rather quietly and shortly, but it was there and it was in tune.

I think we all know the reason for this is because even if she played absolutely perfect for a full eight minutes, if she had missed the last note all those eight minutes would basically get thrown in the garbage in the experience of the audience. I was surprised by the degree of caution she took though; it was quite noticeable.

She got an almost instantaneous full standing ovation, returned to stage a few times, and then played an unaccompanied Bach piece for an encore. I couldn't say which movement of which sonata or partita it was, but it was beautiful and haunting as Bach always is.

Intermission followed the Sibelius concerto. We sat for a little while in our box, and then wandered around the lobby a bit. We also went up to the third tier and peeked at the view of the stage from all the way in the nosebleed section. The thing I liked best about the view from up there is that you can see a beautiful aerial view of the layout of the boxes along the sides of the hall.

After intermission there was a U.S. premiere of The Battle of San Romano by Pascal Zavaro, followed by Beethoven's 7th Symphony. The Zavaro was pretty good for a work composed in 2012. It was very much like film music describing a battle, though not quite as tonal as most film music would have been. But it is certainly indicative of the modern return from the complete insanity in modern composition that was reached during the 20th century.

After the Zavaro, the stage was reset for the Beethoven. Now poor Demarre McGill got kicked off the stage as well to join the other dejected male principal musicians. It was my girlfriend who pointed out that all the missing principles were male (upon later reflection Ben Hausmann was also missing on Oboe) and made a connection between that and the fact that Zhang and Hahn, the conductor and soloist of the evening, were both female. All the people sitting in place of the regular principles were female. Was there perhaps a radical feminist agenda imposed by Zhang for the evening? Why would all these fantastic principal musicians, most of them new hires under Morlot, be made absent on the evening of the best sold show of the season?

In any case, the woman who was put on principal flute for the Beethoven sounded flat and dry compared to McGill. She's a fine player, she's good. But McGill is great, and it would have been nice to have him on flute for the Beethoven symphony (not to mention Velinzon, Baltacigil and Hausmann on violin, cello and oboe).

Regardless, Zhang was able to lead the orchestra in a very enjoyable performance of one of the greatest pieces of music ever written. It was a timeless performance, gripping from moment to moment with vivid cohesion. The ensemble was incredibly well put together; everything seemed incredibly finely polished, and the tone was unified, loud and clear. A good sign of a high quality performance of this symphony is that you're not impatient for the second movement to come. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the first movement.

Without much of a pause after the first movement, Zhang gave the downbeat for the second movement, and the I6/4 chord from the winds and brass rang out like a haunting bell. Then the low strings, working absolutely as a single unit, began what is probably the most famous piece of classical music ever written. Zhang commanded a complete focus from every player, and the music grew and grew, rising in pitch and volume, as the beautiful, intertwining melodies strove upwards. Every entrance from a new string section was impeccable, gliding perfectly into the existing texture, and as the music approached the first climax I got goosebumps.

The beginning of the third movement burst out from the stage like an eager stallion too long held in a stable. The staccato gestures galloped along with crisp, bright joy, and before too long the movement was over.

Interestingly, Zhang was conducting this symphony memorized. It must be a favorite piece of hers, or one with which she is extremely familiar. She showed incredible energy and involvement in her conducting. My brother's girlfriend commented at the end that it looked like she was going to fly off the podium. Indeed, with no stand or score to deal with, she was free to move about with wild gestures and passionate motions, which she did.

The fourth movement followed suit, with the endless driving figures in the strings relentlessly pushing the music forward. During this movement I was reminded of the last movement of Mozart's 39th Symphony under Jun Märkl back in January. There was a similar sense of excitement and transcendence emanating from the stage. I again wished it wouldn't end.

And that brought to an end an incredibly well-played and enjoyable concert. I feel it lived up to all the hype that I gave it. I'm very sorry to be missing Saturday.

Next up is Mozart and Haydn on May 4th!

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April 23rd, 2013: Seattle Symphony Open Rehearsal

Today we went to observe an open rehearsal of the Seattle Symphony. Guest conductor Xian Zhang worked with the orchestra on the first two movements of Beethoven's 7th Symphony, which is being performed on Thursday and Saturday this week in the concerts featuring Hilary Hahn performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto.

The invitation stated that they would be rehearsing Beethoven and Sibelius, and I assumed the Sibelius referred to the Karelia overture which will open the concert. However, Zhang was pleased with the orchestra after an hour of Beethoven rehearsal, and let them go early.

It was open-house seating on the main floor only, which meant we had to choose between close/bad-viewing-angle/bad acoustics, medium/good-viewing-angle/bad acoustics, and far/great-viewing-angle/good acoustics. This is why I always sit in the tier when I can. We sat in what are considered the "prime" orchestra seats, about fifteen or sixteen rows in on the isle. The view is decent (though too far for my taste), but it's a bit like there's a wall of styrofoam blocking the sound from fully getting to you.

Before she even began the first movement with them, Zhang noted to the trumpets that she had changed their notes in a couple places, moving them down an octave. Sorry Zhang. You can't change Beethoven.

The orchestra sounded wonderful throughout the first movement. Very beautiful, professional playing. Zhang did some technical work with them in a few places, mostly on issues of ensemble and togetherness. She didn't say anything remotely deep, philosophical or engaging about the music though; she merely did some technical tweaking, very similar to what a sophisticated computer might have been able to do.

I was very pleased again with the orchestra's performance in the famous second movement. The lower strings began with a rather short stroke, which Zhang lengthened fortunately, and as the music built up, the strings displayed engaging expressiveness and a tight ensemble. Beethoven's other-worldy music spoke clearly from the stage. Zhang did some important work with them in this movement, tightening the ensemble in the fugue-like section in the middle of the movement where the strings are very exposed, leading back into the explosive recap of the main theme.

Overall, it was very enjoyable to see them in rehearsal, however I was disappointed with Zhang's lack of depth as a leader. The way she interacted with the orchestra was no different than many memories I have of sitting in youth orchestras. There were no revelations or insights of any kind brought forth from her. Just purely technical work.

Thursday evening we attend the concert!

April 20th, 2013: Stravinsky's 'Firebird' Suite

This was an exquisite and exciting concert. It was one that I passed over for a long time due to the lack of pre-20th century music on the program, but as the date got closer, I realized that I couldn't miss out on seeing HK Gruber live. HK Gruber is one of the most extraordinary human beings alive, and he conducted last night's concert. He is a composer/conductor who is most well known for his work "Frankenstein," which he performs with orchestras around the world.

Last night's program opened with A Jazz Symphony by George Antheil, which was followed by Rough Music, a concerto for percussion and orchestra composed by HK Gruber himself. The second half contained Bernstein's Symphonic Suite from On the Waterfront and Stravinsky's Firebird Suite.

Seeing HK Gruber live was everything I had hoped it would be. From the minute he first came on stage to conduct the Antheil, he was emanating an incredible passion and zest for life. Every glance, every motion of his, seemed to suggest that he felt this night was the highlight of his career. Everything seemed the most exciting thing ever to him. It was very inspirational to observe.

He led the orchestra through A Jazz Symphony with unbounded exuberance, clearly in love with every single note. The orchestra, inspired by his enlightened presence, seemed to take flight in their performance, matching the brilliant intensity brought forth by their leader. Even having never heard Antheil's work before, I was entranced from beginning to end. When it was over, Gruber did something extraordinary. After he had the orchestra stand up, and after individual acknowledgments were over, he held up high the score of the work so that the audience could directly applaud Antheil as well. It was the first time I'd ever seen that done, and I thought it was wonderful.

Michael A. Werner, the Seattle Symphony's principal percussionist, was the soloist for Gruber's concerto. And as the stage was reset for the second piece, Gruber and Werner took up microphones to address the audience. I was very excited to get to hear Gruber speak. He was out of breath from conducting the Antheil, but he spoke very highly of Werner, and then passed the spotlight to him to explain to the audience what it's like performing Gruber's work. Werner spoke for a little while, very engagingly and humorously, about the roles of the various percussion instruments in the piece. He even asked Gruber why he included cow bells in the work, to which Gruber replied that he was inspired by Spike Jones.

The work was very enjoyable to hear and observe. Werner frequently had to travel quickly between the various sets of instruments, but he always stayed on top of it. The piece was at times loud and violent sounding, and at others very lyrical and beautiful. During some particularly thorny (rhythmically) passages for the strings, many of the violins, including the concertmaster, were unable to keep up perfectly, and shortly after a "yikes" look passed over Velinzon's face, a complete discombobulation of the bowing was noticeable throughout the first violin section. Not long after that, Velinzon again found himself falling off the horse slightly, and after grimacing, he looked cautiously over at Gruber on the podium, to see if he had noticed.

Intermission followed the percussion concerto. Something interesting that I noticed last night (even from before the concert began) was that the dress code was considerably better than average. There were a handful of ties visible throughout the audience, which is normally not the case. Also, in Box F on the left side of the tier, there was a pair of older gentlemen who looked exactly like psychologists from the 19th or early 20th century. One of them had a top hat, a three piece suit and a pair of spectacles, and the other had a similar appearance. They looked like Freud and Jung sitting together at the symphony. It was really great.

After intermission Gruber conducted the Bernstein and the Stravinsky. I was never bored throughout the works, courtesy of Gruber's intense presence and the orchestra's excellent playing, but regrettably I am extremely unfamiliar with both compositions, so I cannot comment on any particularities of Gruber's interpretation of them. After each in turn, he again held up the scores for the audience to applaud, this time kissing both the Bernstein and Stravinsky, something he had not done with the Antheil. The Stravinsky in particular got a roaring applause when he held up the score. Perhaps I should get to know it better.

This coming Thursday we go to hear Hilary Hahn perform the Sibelius Violin Concerto!

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April 13th, 2013: Gerard Schwarz Conducts Mozart

Yesterday evening pianist Garrick Ohlsson performed Mozart's 9th piano concerto with the Seattle Symphony, under the baton of Conductor Laurette Gerard Schwarz. After intermission, Schwarz led the orchestra through a performance of Bruckner's 4th symphony.

Throughout the concerto the sound of the orchestra was very warm, something that it appeared was being brought about deliberately by Maestro Schwarz. He seemed to cushion every movement of his throughout the piece. In contrast, the piano sounded a little bit on the harsher side. Ohlsson played fine, but I didn't feel it was a groundbreaking performance by any means. And during the third movement he began to flub some of the fast runs, always a grave disappointment to me.

On the whole it was a fine performance of the work, but it was not very memorable. Once again the orchestra/soloist displayed how difficult it is to convincingly deliver a piece of Mozart.

I was at a concert around the same time last year where Schwarz conducted Mozart's 24th piano concerto and Mahler's 1st symphony, and I remember the same phenomenon happening that night; that even though I'm clear the Mozart is a superior work, the Mahler was more engaging due to the ease at which the orchestra is able to give a convincing performance.

I don't particularly like Bruckner's 4th symphony, and yet I was still less frequently bored throughout its sixty-four minutes than I was during the thirty minutes of the piano concerto. Schwarz commanded a stern grip over the orchestra throughout the work, bringing out all sorts of subtleties, exercising great dynamic contrasts, and drawing a nice arc throughout the four movements.

At some point during the third movement, Christine began to laugh about something. I looked all over the stage but couldn't find what might be the source. She was beginning to have a really hard time not bursting out laughing completely, and I became really curious what was going on. Finally I found what I thought was the source. The sixth violinist in the second violin section looked like he was a small child entering disneyland, his face completely aglow, especially when the piece would get loud and the strings would have fast repeated notes. He seemed he would burst with joy, or go rocketing into the air. Whenever the piece would rev up, his face said "Yes!!! Here we go!!!" You'd have to see it to really grasp the extent of elation and exuberance. I don't think any literary description can do it justice.

However, it turned out that that wasn't was Christine was laughing about. Toward the end of the fourth movement, for the first time during the work I looked around the auditorium and surveyed the state of the audience. They looked like they were about to die of boredom. One old woman was completely collapsed back in her chair fast asleep, another man was chewing on his thumb, all over the auditorium there was constant, restless motion; people shifting position, rubbing their foreheads, collapsing onto their partners. It was quite a spectacle. By this point they had heard an hour of Bruckner non-stop, and I'm sure many of them didn't know exactly how much longer it was going to be.

I had asked Christine beforehand if she had brought a book along to read during the Bruckner, but she actually enjoyed it quite a bit, as did I. It seems though that my joke was not very far off for a great deal of the audience. The bizarre thing was that they still gave a standing ovation at the end of the symphony.

It's not surprising that there is no Bruckner at all in the 2013-2014 season. Bruckner just isn't in right now. Next week we see HK Gruber conducting Antheil, Gruber, Bernstein and Stravinsky!

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March 30th, 2013: Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade

This was not a concert that I had been planning on going to, and I only exchanged into it a day or two beforehand. I've always liked Liadov's The Enchanted Lake, but Kancheli's Styx and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade were pieces I was more skeptical about. My brother has been raving about Scheherazade for the past several weeks, which is why this concert was on my radar at all. Then, after listening to Styx on the Naxos player, I decided this would probably be a very enjoyable concert.

Russian guest conductor Andrey Boreyko had an incredibly distinguished and suave demeanor to him. He came out to conduct the first piece with the gravitas of a Tsar, and he seemed very suited to lead the orchestra in this program of Russian music. The music depicting a pristine, magical body of water floated up into the air. There was a perfect balance between all the instruments in the very delicate orchestration, Baltacigil's solos on the cello were gorgeous, and McGill's leaping octaves above the whole body of sound were golden. I actually wished he hadn't played them in such a staccato manner, but perhaps they were going for depicting little fluttery creatures or fairies floating above the water.

The eight minute piece came to an end all too soon, and then they reset the stage for the Kancheli. Kancheli's terrifying and beautiful piece is about the river Styx, which separates the living world from the dead. It is composed for a full orchestra plus a piano and harpsichord, a solo violist, and full chorus. It creates an incredible world of sound which I can't describe very well in any way here. It's something that has to be experienced. Maxim Rysanov was the guest violist for the solo part, and his haunting strains interweaved with the erie choir voices. Maestro Boreyko did a superb job leading the 100+ musicians through this incredible piece. I'm not very familiar with Kancheli's work or with post-modern music in general, but to me it seemed an exquisite performance, and I think it was. The Seattle Symphony again displayed very high professionalism in their execution of this work. It was fully alive and engaging from beginning to end, and always completely, 100% in sync in the many places throughout the work where it would build to an overwhelmingly loud crescendo and then suddenly cut to almost nothing. There was no hesitation, no disconnect, no miscommunications anywhere. The full impact of Kancheli's terrifying vision was delivered seamlessly.

During intermission Christine and I headed to the Friends Lounge as usual for tea. For the first time they asked to see my membership/donor card before they let us in. I thought that was nice, though I don't think anyone who isn't a donor had gone in there at any of the other concerts that I'd been to. After not too long we made our way back to our seats to take in the famous Scheherazade.

I should mention that the hall was almost full for this concert. I believe it's because of the Scheherazade, but it's still rather unusual for it to be close to full for a concert with none of the greatest composers on the program.

Boreyko again practiced a solid, masterful grip with the orchestra in his conducting of Scheherazade. I do believe now more than ever that the Seattle Symphony has reached the level of the great second tier orchestras of the nation such as the St. Louis Symphony and the Atlanta Symphony. The level of polished, dynamic professionalism emanating from the stage left me wanting nothing at all. By this point I had heard the work maybe a total of two or three times, so I still wasn't that familiar with it, and it still is not a favorite of mine, but I could not help admiring the technical and musical excellence that the orchestra displayed in their performance of it. Alexander Velinzon, the new principal violinist, was impeccable in his solos depicting Scheherazade. His tone was smoother than silk, and his musicality brought to life the beauty and desperation in Scheherazade's repeated attempts to save her life through telling tales to the Sultan. It was always a pleasure when another one of his solos would come along. At times Velinzon, McGill and Baltacigil had solos all at the same time, which gave us a wonderful opportunity to hear three of the new principal hires almost as though in a trio. They sounded fantastic.

I have to say that one of my favorite parts of the piece was the ending. Throughout most of the piece I was really enjoying the incredibly high level of playing from the orchestra, but the music was still not convincing me to go out and buy a recording of it for repeated listenings. However, when we got close to the end, as Velinzon's haunting solos juxtaposed with the motive of the Sultan, this time slowing down and sinking, I was transfixed by the music. I thought to myself that if the whole piece is as great as this, that it will end up being one of my favorites, destined for many repeated listenings.

Velinzon rose higher and higher, finally reaching that harmonic up at the very end of his fingerboard, which shone like a gold star above the orchestra as the piece hauntingly moved further towards its close with a series of chords from the orchestra delaying the inevitable tonic. Again, in a moment of great delicacy like this, the orchestra proved its meddle by maintaining impeccability in its delivery. The piece finally ended and Boreyko and the orchestra got an almost complete standing ovation.

I'm very excited about the next concert we're attending on April 13th. It's the first time we'll be seeing Gerard Schwarz conduct this year. The program is Bruckner's 4th Symphony and Mozart's 9th Piano Concerto!

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