![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/06\/benaroya2.jpg?resize=375%2C250\")
<\/p>\nLast Friday, a group of us from the OSO went up to Seattle to hear a matinee performance of the Seattle Symphony.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a group of management, staff, and musicians who made the trek.\u00c2\u00a0 It was quite the interesting experience.\u00c2\u00a0 Primarily, I’d like to provide my basic impressions of the experience as someone who’s only been to Benaroya Hall once before (to hear the Philadelphia Orchestra on tour last year).<\/p>\n
I thought we’d be able to park under the hall, but it turned out that you had to have prepaid your parking through the ticket office in order to park there.\u00c2\u00a0 Not a huge problem since there were many other garages nearby.\u00c2\u00a0 We circled the block and parked across Union street from the hall.\u00c2\u00a0 For the time we were there it cost $23 – that was a bit of a problem (though we did stay for dinner afterward in order to wait out rush hour).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Benaroya Hall has one of the best lobbies of any hall in the country.\u00c2\u00a0 It offers a spectacular view from the balconies out to the downtown landscape, with glimpses of Puget Sound between the buildings.\u00c2\u00a0 Amazing!<\/p>\n
View from inside<\/a> | Originally uploaded by Elena777<\/a> We were seated in the Third Tier, first row, in the back of the hall.\u00c2\u00a0 Fine seats, but the railing is such that it would be exceedingly easy to go over it and plummet the three or four story drop to the seats on the main floor.\u00c2\u00a0 I wish I’d taken a photo of the situation, but the aisle that leads to the front row basically runs right into the corner of the railing.\u00c2\u00a0 Many people had vertigo getting to their seats, and one couple had to find different seats due to the drop off.<\/p>\n The SSO was in fine form.\u00c2\u00a0 The viola section sounded great in their big solo in the Hindemith Concert Music for Strings and Brass<\/em>, Op. 50, and the brass were suitably heroic, though often extremely loud.\u00c2\u00a0 Balances were somewhat of a problem in that regard, though I did see Schwarz continue to give them “the hand” to keep it down through the course of the concert.<\/p>\n SSO Principal cellist Joshua Roman played Bloch’s Schelomo<\/em> to close out the first half.\u00c2\u00a0 Roman has been an almost instant phenom in Seattle since his hiring two years ago, and I have to admit that it’s fact that I’ve thought about more than a little bit in the midst of the endless media fascination with him.\u00c2\u00a0 I think that when you’re very talented, young, a bit counter-culture, have a passing resemblance to Napoleon Dynamite, and are replacing a previous principal with a very long tenure, excitement is easier to create.\u00c2\u00a0 He tapped into the zeitgeist of what the hipper-than-thou crowd was interested in in the Seattle music scene, capitalized on it, and became a sensation.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t mean for this to sound cynical – because I believe that he’s very sincere about his beliefs and aims to try to change the way classical artists do business – but, it’s easy to read situations like this cynically, because the classical music world is full of people who work the trends to become the ‘it’ musician of the moment with clever marketing and hype. Clearly, others have been assessing his legacy in Seattle – check out Zach Carstensen’s essay<\/a> at The Gathering Note for more on Roman and the concert.<\/p>\n Roman’s a very good cellist, there’s no doubt about that, with an effortless manner and technical facility.\u00c2\u00a0 However, his sound just did not project when anything other than the strings were playing, and his treatment of this very dramatic, liturgically-inspired work left me cold.\u00c2\u00a0 Distance might have been a factor, but I found myself wanting more.<\/p>\n The concluding work was Franck’s D minor Symphony, which I must say I enjoyed much more as a listener than as a performer.\u00c2\u00a0 In particular, I liked that the 2nd movement was taken at a bit brisker pace than the plodding, glacial, pace at which one often hears it performed.\u00c2\u00a0 Overall, the performance was quite good, but I was again, as in the Hindmith, concerned that the whole did not quite equal the sum of the parts.\u00c2\u00a0 In particular, the brass section seemed to be content to blow the strings off the stage rather than blend in to the overall sound, and there were some ensemble issues as well.<\/p>\n Overall, it was quite a pleasant experience.\u00c2\u00a0 The orchestra sounded quite good, the hall is spectacular, and we got to see Joshua Roman make is SSO concerto debut.\u00c2\u00a0 Add in a lovely day of fine weather and some after-concert shopping, and it was an enjoyable trip to Seattle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last Friday, a group of us from the OSO went up to Seattle to hear a matinee performance of the Seattle Symphony.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a group of management, staff, and musicians who made the trek.\u00c2\u00a0 It was quite the interesting experience.\u00c2\u00a0 Primarily, I’d like to provide my basic impressions of the experience as someone who’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[148,153,115,201,135,2],"tags":[955,159,263],"class_list":["post-1016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-cello","category-music","category-seattle","category-soloists-recitals","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-benaroya-hall","tag-concert","tag-seattle-symphony"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-go","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12639,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/05\/06\/oregon-symphony-creates-phenomenon-in-seattle\/","url_meta":{"origin":1016,"position":0},"title":"oregon symphony creates phenomenon in seattle","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This past Friday, the Oregon Symphony made its debut in Seattle's Benaroya Hall (home of the Seattle Symphony, who presented the concert). As Carlos remarked from the podium, it only took us 117 years to get to Seattle. This is not such a stretch when you take the region's lamentable\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"benaroya","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/benaroya.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/benaroya.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/benaroya.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":350,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/06\/03\/elliot-bay-and-port-of-seattle\/","url_meta":{"origin":1016,"position":1},"title":"elliot bay and port of seattle","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The view from our room before we headed out to hear the Philadelphia Orchestra at Benaroya Hall in Seattle. What a spectacular night (both in sight and sound).","rel":"","context":"In \"orchestra\"","block_context":{"text":"orchestra","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/tag\/orchestra\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"seattle\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s elliot bay","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/06\/525803068_8c9a6e8c2b_b.thumbnail.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12634,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/05\/04\/can-someone-find-the-oregon-symphony-board\/","url_meta":{"origin":1016,"position":2},"title":"can someone find the oregon symphony board?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Please help us! The Oregon Symphony's board seems to be missing! The Oregon Symphony played in Benaroya Hall in Seattle for the first time in its history, and not a single current board member seems to have showed up. Clearly, something must have happened to the board members, they must\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1113,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/09\/10\/schwarz-to-leave-seattle-symphony\/","url_meta":{"origin":1016,"position":3},"title":"schwarz to leave seattle symphony","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"In a stunning announcement, the Seattle Symphony has issued a release stating that music director Gerard Schwarz will be stepping down at the conclusion of the 2010 - 2011 season. He will take on the role of conductor laureate beginning in 2011. Seattle, WA\u00a0\u201c Gerard Schwarz, Seattle Symphony's Music Director\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conducting"","block_context":{"text":"conducting","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/conducting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.seattlesymphony.org\/~\/media\/images\/artist%20226x280\/orchestra\/schwarzgerard1cbenvanhouten2202013copy.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4317,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/04\/01\/oso-music-director-to-seattle\/","url_meta":{"origin":1016,"position":4},"title":"oso music director to seattle","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"In a stunning announcement to a small group of musicians, staff and board members in Seattle's Benaroya Hall, Carlos Kalmar announced that he will be taking the helm of the Seattle Symphony after current music director Gerard Schwarz ends his tenure at the close of the 2010 - 2011 season.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1103,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/09\/07\/whither-bricks-and-mortar\/","url_meta":{"origin":1016,"position":5},"title":"whither bricks and mortar?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in the boom years of the dot-com bubble, technology start-ups bloomed like weeds in a vacant lot.\u00c2\u00a0 They marketed premises, and sometimes only even just their names, and got tons of funding for just the idea of being something.\u00c2\u00a0 We all know what happened to 99% of those corporations.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "fundraising"","block_context":{"text":"fundraising","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/fundraising\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/06\/256423660_f02748c792_m.jpg?w=580\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nclick photo to enlarge<\/em>
\n<\/span><\/p>\nThe Concert:<\/h3>\n