There’s not a lot that I’m finding compelling in the Seattle Symphony’s 2008-2009 season, but there some events worth noting if you’re ever in the habit of taking in a couple concerts in the Emerald City.<\/p>\n
The San Francisco Symphony w\/ Michael Tilson Thomas – they’re making two concert stop: January 20 and 21, 2009. The blockbuster program for me is the Jan 20th: Copland Our Town<\/em>, Berg Three Pieces for Orchestra<\/em>, Op. 6, and Brahms Symphony No. 1. On the 21st is MTT’s Street Song<\/em> for brass, Prokofiev’s Fifth Piano Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony.<\/p>\n The line-up of soloists in Seattle is a healthy one – they share Lang Lang with us, along with Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, and Garrick Ohlsson.<\/p>\n In addition, they’ve got some soloists who I’m either keen to hear or who haven’t been back to Oregon (with the OSO) for some time: cellist Lynn Harrell (who’s been a returning favorite at the Cascade Festival), pianist Marc-Andr\u00c3\u00a9 Hamelin, and the violinist Midori.<\/p>\n Particularly intriguing is Portland favorite Leila Josefowicz with Thomas Ad\u00c3\u00a8s’ violin concerto Concentric Paths<\/em> – so cool, what a combination! I’m also keen to hear violinist Julia Fischer, violinist Hilary Hahn in recital with pianist Valentina Lisitsa – a powerhouse combination, for sure. And finally, Emmanuel Ax and Yefim Bronfman playing a duo piano recital.<\/p>\n On the conductor front, they’ve got Ignat Solzhenitzen conducting on their Mainly Mozart series, and Leonard Slatkin (music director designate of the Detroit Symphony) is conducting Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique.<\/p>\n The most exciting thing to me, and it has nothing to do with the orchestra itself, is that they are presenting a complete cycle of the Beethoven string quartets split amongst six leading string quartets: from the US, the Pacifica, Ying and American Quartets; from Canada, the Borealis Quartet; from France the Eb\u00c3\u00a9ne Quartet; and from the Czech Republich, the Talich Quartet. The concerts stretch from October to April and will be performed in the Nordstrom Recital Hall (not known for friendly acoustics to performers).<\/p>\n As for the brochure (which you can download in pdf format by clicking here<\/a>) design, it’s attractive, but pretty confusing, at least flipping through it on a computer screen. Series are spread apart on multiple pages, smaller series or special subscriber-only promotions dot different areas with little continuity. I find the Oregon Symphony’s brochure to be much more intuitive to navigate, and everything has its own, discrete place. Kudos to the OSO for such good design. If you’d like to receive an OSO 08-09 brochure, click here<\/a> to get one mailed to you.<\/p>\n On the whole, however, the Seattle Symphony’s season is quite conservative, mixing warhorses with newer or more unfamiliar works, or balanced with a big-name soloist or conductor, or both. Clearly, the SSO is also dealing with the realities of the marketplace, and it’s kind of a shame, given how major a commitment they used to have to unusual, uncommon, or new repertoire. In that aspect, it seems remarkably in step with the season that the Oregon Symphony announced earlier this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There’s not a lot that I’m finding compelling in the Seattle Symphony’s 2008-2009 season, but there some events worth noting if you’re ever in the habit of taking in a couple concerts in the Emerald City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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_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":[115,201,135,2],"tags":[590,263],"class_list":["post-795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-seattle","category-soloists-recitals","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-2008-2009-season","tag-seattle-symphony"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-cP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7294,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/02\/08\/season-announcements-soloists\/","url_meta":{"origin":795,"position":0},"title":"season announcements – soloists","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 8, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm revisiting my previous post, in which I somewhat lazily dissected the season announcements\u00a0 of three orchestras (Chicago, Seattle, and Nashville) for 2012-2013, to a look at the soloists that they've engaged for the season (plus those slated for the LA Philharmonic as well, to add some more (?) into\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "soloists & recitals"","block_context":{"text":"soloists & recitals","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/soloists-recitals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2006\/02\/27\/milton-katims-1909-2006\/","url_meta":{"origin":795,"position":1},"title":"Milton Katims 1909-2006","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 27, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The great violist and conductor Milton Katims has passed away in Seattle. Here are some links which help to illustrate the life of this great artist, who played principal viola in Toscanini's NBC Symphony and was the music director of the Seattle Symphony from 1954 - 1976. Eulogy by friend\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":6188,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/04\/16\/great-concerts-ahead\/","url_meta":{"origin":795,"position":2},"title":"great concerts ahead","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 16, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 In just two hours the Oregon Symphony will play the first of three subscription concerts in Portland that may be a high point of our season thus far. I think Carlos arrived at the hall on Thursday with a burning desire to show that he's still a relevant and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/james-ehnes-4507-5x7.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1113,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/09\/10\/schwarz-to-leave-seattle-symphony\/","url_meta":{"origin":795,"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":795,"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":5728,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/01\/19\/seattle-symphony-announces-killer-season\/","url_meta":{"origin":795,"position":5},"title":"seattle symphony announces killer season","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I downloaded the pdf file of next season's brochure, and it made me salivate jealously.\u00a0 Such a good balance between the new and old, warhorses and novelties.\u00a0 Makes me wonder what we've got on tap here at the Oregon Symphony... Here's the link to the brochure file - let me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "programming"","block_context":{"text":"programming","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/programming-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Untitled-300x400.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795","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=795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}