Seattle Symphony, Handel’s “Messiah”; with Cristian Macelaru conducting. Dec. 19, 2014, Benaroya Hall,.

By Melinda Bargreen

“Messiah” productions are like snowflakes: no two are exactly alike.

There are so many wonderful variables: which versions of the arias and recitatives to use (and which soloists get to sing them); whether or not to trim certain portions; how large the chorus and orchestra should be.

The Romanian-born guest conductor Cristian Macelaru found some great answers to those questions in the Seattle Symphony’s current “Messiah” production, a musically vivid and exciting version of the world’s most famous oratorio.

Macelaru, who also is a violinist and currently serves as associate conductor for the esteemed Philadelphia Orchestra, gave a vividly expressive account of the score that kept the chorus on its toes and the orchestra thoroughly engaged. It was a performance of crisp attacks, wide contrasts, and strong performances.

The conductor also trimmed the score in a few places, with the biggest hiatus occurring in Part the Third – where an entire scene (four numbers) was missing. These pieces are certainly not the most inspired segments of the score – though when you have a great soprano, it’s a shame to cut “If God be for us.”

And this production assuredly had a great soprano in Jennifer Zetlan, a familiar figure at Seattle Opera and a gifted, inventive oratorio singer. (She replaced an indisposed Heidi Grant Murphy on short notice.) Equally inventive was tenor Ross Hauck, whose dazzling vocal dexterity was a pleasure to hear. (Extra points to Hauck for memorizing the score.) The warm-voiced baritone Tyler Duncan did a fine job as well, though Handelian purists might prefer to hear a true bass negotiating some of those low-lying lines. Peabody Southwell, who shone earlier this year in Pacific MusicWorks’ “Semele,” negotiated the challenging alto solos with variable success.

The orchestra was definitely a first-string ensemble, with Seattle Symphony principals in nearly every section (not always the case in “Messiahs” of yesteryear). Cellist Efe Baltacigil played perhaps the loveliest Handelian cello continuo ever heard on that stage; concertmaster Alexander Velinzon, principal violist Susan Gulkis Assadi, and principal second violin Elisa Barston made memorable contributions. Paul Rafanelli (bassoon) and Ben Hausmann (oboe) played nimbly and accurately all evening, and trumpeter James Ross nailed the big solos.

At the keyboards, harpsichordist Jillon Stoppels Dupree played with exquisite subtlety (especially deploying the instrument’s beautiful lute stop), and organist Joseph Adam was the just-right, solid foundation for the ensemble.

The Seattle Symphony Chorale, prepared by Joseph Crnko, sang with great involvement, accuracy, and gusto, following Macelaru’s mercurial changes in dynamics with apparent ease. Its members may have sung many, many “Messiahs,” but there was nothing routine about any aspect of this production.

Seattle Symphony with Joshua Roman, Benaroya Hall, Dec.11. With Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla conducting (Dec. 11-13), Benaroya Hall.

By Melinda Bargreen

Stepping out onto the Benaroya Hall stage with a cheery wave to his fans, Joshua Roman made a welcome return to the orchestra in which he once occupied the principal cello chair. Roman was a mere 22 then; now 30, he has gone on to a solo career that encompasses many directions, including composition and conducting.

Also among those directions: collaborations with the composer Mason Bates, whose Cello Concerto – in its world premiere -- was the centerpiece of this program. In a remarkable feat of memory, Roman played the complicated solo part of this 25-minute work without a score, sounding perfectly at ease with the brand new music.

Bates’ history in techno music is evident in the strong rhythmic pulse of the concerto, which culminate in a fast-moving “Leger” finale that starts off as a high-spirited jig and moves on to passages of phenomenal dexterity.

Composed in an audience-friendly tonal language with lots of intriguing percussion effects underlying the cello’s more lyrical voice, the new three-movement concerto relies rather heavily on a rising six-note theme that is stated in the opening and used frequently thereafter. There’s a sense of constant motion in that opening movement; it’s almost pictorial, like a John Williams film score. Bates is more convincing writing for percussion than for orchestral strings, but the orchestration wisely gives the soloist plenty of room to breathe (it’s easy for an orchestra to overpower a lone cello).

Attractive and tonal, featuring a first-rate soloist, this was a premiere that an audience could really appreciate, and the standing ovation was so enthusiastic that Roman finally returned for a solo encore, the Prelude movement of the first Bach Cello Suite (the G Major). Its elegant, understated simplicity was a reminder – if one were needed – that Roman hasn’t forgotten the classics.

Conducting a world premiere, particularly a concerto, poses substantial challenges for any conductor. It was impressive to see the 28-year-old guest conductor Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla’s commanding take on the new Bates work, where she was so much at home that she glanced only occasionally at the complicated score. A bundle of barely suppressed intensity, Grazinyte-Tyla was an energetic whirlwind on the podium, not only in the concerto but also in the two Russian works that surrounded it: Prokofiev’s jaunty, colorful “Lieutenant Kijé” Suite, and a suite from Tchaikovsky’s “Sleeping Beauty” (which the conductor compiled from the complete ballet score).

With a range of gesture that was both artful and expressive, Grazinyte-Tyla was riveting to watch, swooping her baton around her body, and cueing her players by thrusting an arm upward in a Statue-of-Liberty pose. The Lithuanian-born conductor is clearly a fast-rising star: this season she is both assistant conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and incoming music director of the Salzburg Landestheater.

It’s also clear that she is still learning, particularly in terms of orchestral balance: the orchestral accompaniment was too dense to allow an English horn solo through (in the Tchaikovsky), and brass chords drowned out key woodwind melodies. There were some uneven entrances. But Grazinyte-Tyla also sculpted some remarkable phrases and galvanized the orchestra with her tremendous energy.

The evening started with a heart-warming tribute to the orchestra’s bass clarinetist Larey McDaniel, who is retiring after an impressive 55 years in the Seattle Symphony clarinet section. Delivered by fellow clarinetist Laura DeLuca, the farewell hailed McDaniel’s many talents (from educational chamber-music tours to fine-art photography) and drew a warm ovation from the audience. It was a great community-building moment, uniting the orchestral “family” with the family of concertgoers on the other side of the podium.

Christmas with the King’s Singers, Benaroya Hall, Dec. 8.

By Melinda Bargreen

One of the glories of English culture is its choral tradition, and the globe-trotting King’s Singers showed a packed Benaroya Hall audience just how exquisitely refined and thoroughly enjoyable that tradition can be. It may seem odd to use the term “chorus” for a vocal sextet, but these six singers can do almost anything a full-sized chorus can do, with a degree of perfection that drops the jaw and delights the ear.

Ever since the six original members founded the group in 1968 at King’s College in Cambridge, the ensemble (in its successive configurations) has toured the world, recorded more than 150 albums, and amassed a stack of honors that include two Grammy awards and membership in the Gramophone Hall of Fame. The gradual evolution of the King’s Singers’ personnel has ensured a continuity of quality and a style of presentation that includes often-humorous program notes from the stage. Not surprisingly, none of the original singers are still performing; over the years, there have been 25 King’s Singers (countertenor David Hurley, a two-decade member of the group, is currently the senior member).

Over the years, the sextet has premiered more than 200 new works, but Monday evening’s Seattle program was more traditional than venturesome – in keeping with the “Christmas With the King’s Singers” title. The opening set paired two works each by 16th-century composer Orlandus Lassus (1532-94) and the slightly younger William Byrd (1543-1623), setting an imposing technical and interpretive standard: beautifully engineered pauses and crescendos, unanimous attacks and cutoffs, and precise intonation.

Although each of the six King’s Singers’ voices has its own distinctive timbre (the two countertenors, Hurley and Timothy Wayne-Wright, are strikingly different from each other), as an ensemble they can blend as perfectly as a chord on a pipe organ. That blend was displayed to particularly striking effect in Byrd’s “Beata viscera Mariae Virginis.”

For this listener, the loveliest moments came in the next set – three carol settings by 20th-century British composer Herbert Howells, particularly the warm sound and impeccable intonation of “A Spotless Rose.”

But there was more: a group of international Christmas songs, a charming arrangement of “The Little Road to Bethlehem” (by former King’s Singer Bill Ives), and Poulenc’s bleakly effective cantata “Un soir de neige.”

A more informal finale awaited, in close-harmony arrangements of such holiday gems as “Let it Snow” (described as “a bit of a cheeky mash-up” by one of the singers), a rhythmically clever arrangement of “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen,” a serene “Stille Nacht,” a witty version of “Jingle Bells,” and a final encore, “The Little Drummer Boy.”

The near-capacity audience was remarkable, too, for its rapt and attentive silence, a rare commodity in this season of sniffles and coughs – and in our era of shorter attention spans and devotion to electronic devices. These fans were really listening to a concert that richly repaid their concentration.

Review: Seattle Men’s Chorus Holiday Concert, Nov. 29

By Melinda Bargreen

It’s never quite holiday time in Seattle until the Seattle Men’s Chorus unveils its annual show. The 2014 version, “Our Gay Apparel,” roared into action on Nov. 29 and continues to occupy Benaroya Hall’s mainstage (off and on) through December 22 – a testament to how popular this lively, polished, and musically vivid show has become with enthusiastic audiences from all walks of life.

Every year, you wonder: how does music director Dennis Coleman and his enormous troupe of singers, dancers, instrumentalists, comedians, costumers, arrangers/composers, directors, technicians, and staff possibly do a brand-new version of the time-honored holiday show? And every year, they have a program full of answers.

Here are some of this year’s best answers:

-- Some serious musical chops. The current show has a couple of premieres, including the lovely and evocative “New Year’s Carol” of Ola Gjeilo and several successful numbers (words and music) by the group’s indispensable Eric Lane Barnes. There’s a “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” (arranged by Alex Rybeck) that’s in a “seven” meter instead of the usual foursquare stuff, and a new take on “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” (by Stephen Smith) that weaves in two oboes.

-- Inspired silliness. Not since the last visit of the travesty/drag troupe Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo has there been an outbreak of male tutus to rival the hilarity of the SMC’s “Late Bloomer” and “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies.” (Thank you, Captain Smartypants.) Almost as funny: the paean to the teddy bear, Barnes’ tribute to the well-worn and beloved stuffed toys.

-- A new twist on the SMC’s eternal favorite, “Silent Night” with a truly silent final verse in unison sign language. This year’s version was introduced with a retelling of a 1914 “Christmas truce” that really happened, in the front lines of World War I. As many as an estimated 100,000 German and British troops climbed out of the trenches, sang “Stille Nacht”/”Silent Night” together, and celebrated a momentary return to “heavenly peace” before hostilities resumed on the following day. The SMC wove the German and English versions of “Silent Night” together in a highly effective arrangement by Eric Lane Barnes.

-- Terrific backup: The SMC’s record of hiring excellent supporting musicians continues this year with the return of pianist Evan Stults, whose work has been an important part of the chorus’ continuing success. Guest instrumentalists, all well chosen, also made significant contributions.

-- And for the first two performances, a major headliner: This year it was award-winning theater star Linda Eder, whose voice soared in four very different songs: “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina,” “Man of La Mancha,” “O Holy Night,” and “Climb Every Mountain.” (Sorry, but by the time you read this, Ms. Eder – who was here only for the opening weekend -- will have departed from Seattle.)

-- An encore that’s always new: This time, a warm-hearted, rhapsodic finale in “I Love You”/”What a Wonderful World,” arranged by Craig Hella Johnson and adapted by David Maddux, as singing choristers strode up the aisles to figuratively embrace the audience in their joyful musical message.

-- Dennis Coleman. It is impossible to overstate the contribution of conductor/artistic director Coleman, whose musical instincts and ability to get great performances out of nonprofessionals makes him a solid-gold asset to Seattle’s music community. Coleman combines his podium duties with adroit commentary from the stage, effectively making the audience part of the show with a sing-along and setting everyone (musicians and listeners) at ease. Bravo – and bravi.

Jon Kimura Parker, pianist, in President’s Piano Series recital; Meany Theater (University of Washington), November 14.

By Melinda Bargreen

Audience members who called Jon Kimura Parker’s piano recital “fantastic” were right in two respects. First of all, the program consisted of musical fantasies (from the 19th through 21st centuries). But it was the quality of Parker’s playing that lifted the performance into a level worthy of that overworked adjective.

Parker has long been a Seattle favorite, both as a soloist and as a chamber artist. He has been a mainstay of the Seattle Chamber Music Society’s summer festival, and has appeared with the Seattle Symphony, as well as in recital at Meany Theater and annually at the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival. Famous for the fleet fingers that won him the prestigious Leeds Competition back in 1984, the Vancouver (BC) native has an exuberant personality that manifests itself in his playing – and in his commentary.

At Friday night’s President’s Piano Series, the affable Parker chatted with the audience at several points in the program, briefly analyzing the works on the program and why they were chosen. It was an interesting lineup. Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata (subtitled “Quasi una fantasia,” or “almost a fantasy”) was the opener, played with a gauzy shimmer and some virtuoso pedaling.

Next up was the Op. 17 Schumann Fantasy, which got some of the evening’s most memorable interpretations, from the bravura second movement to the intimately personal reading of the third and final movement. The helter-skelter lead-up to the finale of that second movement was the only place where Parker’s concentration slipped a bit (quickly recovered in time for an impressive ending).

Schubert’s famous “Wanderer” Fantasy was nicely characterized throughout, from the reflective sections to the declamatory passages. Finally came two works by Parker’s friend from Juilliard days, composer William Hirtz – music that Parker characterized as “operatic fantasies.” And they were certainly operatic in scale, though both of them were based on film scores. The first was the “Bernard Hermann Fantasy,” with themes from “Mysterious Island,” “Psycho,” and “North by Northwest.” (The eerie, driving “Psycho” music translates brilliantly to the keyboard.) The second “operatic fantasy,” Parker explained, was actually the world premiere of the “Wizard of Oz Fantasy,” in its single-piano version (the work was originally composed for two pianos). Parker quipped that in creating the single-piano version, the composer forgot to reduce the sheer number of notes played by the lone pianist. Be that as it may, Parker appeared to have no trouble making the keyboard into his own private orchestra.

Not surprisingly, a large audience turned out to hear Parker’s recital, and the fans were highly enthusiastic in response. The pianist returned after several curtain calls for a lone encore, Scott Joplin’s wistfully lovely “Solace.”

Seattle Symphony, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Augustin Hadelich; Thursday, Nov. 13; Benaroya Hall.

By Melinda Bargreen

The ability to communicate the joy of making music is a gift not shared by all performing virtuosi. But it is a stock in trade for the violinist Augustin Hadelich, whose immaculate and rapturous playing has made him a Seattle favorite – first at the Seattle Chamber Music Society, and now in a repeat visit to the Seattle Symphony.

Hadelich’s performance of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto Thursday evening demonstrated a remarkable partnership with the guest conductor, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, whose attentive baton and sense of scale made the performance seem as intimate as chamber music. Eloquent and unforced, Hadelich’s violin lines were shaped by a technique as fine as anything you’ll hear on today’s concert stages.

The audience ovation was so enthusiastic that Hadelich returned to the stage for a high-octane encore: the Paganini Caprice No. 5, a dizzying tour-de-force of speedy fingerwork and fluent bowing, tossed off with evident enjoyment.

Harth-Bedoya, whose conducting assignments extend from orchestras of Spain and Japan to Los Angeles and Auckland, also is booked to record the Mendelssohn Concerto (along with Bartok) with Hadelich. An exuberant and emphatic figure on the podium, Harth-Bedoya got extremely responsive performances from the orchestra in an unusually colorful program. Bracketing the violin concerto were two challenging pieces: Esteban Benzecry’s 2002 “Colores de la cruz del sur” (Colors of the Southern Cross) and Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.”

Harth-Bedoya took the microphone for a brief and succinct discussion of the five movements in the Benzecry “Colores,” which was colorful indeed (and a massive workout for the percussion section). No introduction was required, of course, for “Pictures,” an orchestral staple transcribed by Ravel from Mussorgsky’s original piano score (inspired by an exhibition of drawings by Mussorgsky’s friend Victor Hartmann).

Here the results were a bit more mixed. There was some gorgeous playing (particularly by saxophone soloist Fred Winkler); there was the mighty rumble of Mike Gamburg’s contrabassoon and Seth Krimsky’s eloquent bassoon, as well as the fluent piccolo of Zartouhi Dombourian-Eby. There also were several solos that went awry, and ragged entrances here and there in a work with many stops, starts, and changes. The overall effect was tremendous, but – as the saying goes -- the devil is in the details.

Seattle Symphony Baroque, with Nicholas McGegan, conductor, and Robert Levin, piano soloist; Benaroya Hall, Oct. 24.

By Melinda Bargreen

It’s good news for Seattle music lovers whenever Nicholas McGegan comes to Benaroya Hall, where the British-born conductor is a favorite among performers and listeners alike. Droll and witty, easy to follow, and consummately musical, McGegan has a light touch with both orchestra and audiences.

Right from the opening remarks, when McGegan quipped that the baroque ensemble was “a Jenny Craig-sized orchestra, but just right for Bach,” the audience was ready to enjoy and to appreciate. And so was the orchestra, which rallied for a string of engaged and attentive performances of J.S. Bach, Handel, C.P.E. Bach, and Telemann. McGegan’s beat is clear and unfussy, and also highly descriptive; he indicates a delicate cutoff by a flick of the left-hand’s fingers, as if shaking off a few croissant crumbs.

It was a small but expert ensemble that joined McGegan for the program (the remainder of the orchestra was over in McCaw Hall, playing for Seattle Opera’s “Don Giovanni”). The principal strings were all strong: Emma McGrath and Elisa Barston in the violins, double bassist Jordan Anderson, cellist Meeka Quan DiLorenzo. The orchestra’s new principal oboe, Mary Lynch, joined guest second oboist Harrison Lynsey and guest bassoonist Edward Burns for a virtuoso trio that shone particularly in the opening Bach Sinfonia (from Cantata No. 42).

McGegan’s light touch on the podium was reflected in the fleet, nimble bowing and the almost vibrato-free performances from the strings.

The evening’s soloist, pianist Robert Levin, was featured in two Bach concerti: No. 1 in D Minor, and No. 5 in F Minor. Levin is known as a Bach specialist (and has made extensive recordings of Bach works), so it was a bit of a surprise to see him using a score for two concertos that are technically difficult but not particularly challenging in terms of memorization. The big concert grand was disconcertingly out of balance with the more lightweight orchestra at first, but Levin adroitly adjusted the balances as the performance went on, lightening his technique a bit. The delicately ornamented Largo movement of No. 5 was particularly fine.

As stagehands moved the piano off the stage after Levin’s second performance, McGegan quipped that he was the “in-flight entertainment” while offering intriguing program notes on the rest of the program. He is a master at these off-the-cuff remarks, finding just the right balance between brevity and enlightenment – setting everyone at ease, and provoking thought in all kinds of intriguing directions. He’s always a popular guest artist, and it would be good to hear him in wider ranging repertoire as well

The series of which this program was a part is called “Baroque and Wine,” with a considerable array of the latter available to concert patrons in the lobby. It’s possible that the imbibing contributed to a rather somnolent atmosphere in the audience during the concert's second half, when listeners were mildly appreciative but perhaps not as responsive as the concert’s quality merited.

Seattle Opera’s “Don Giovanni,” with Gary Thor Wedow, conductor, and Chris Alexander, director; Oct. 18-Nov. 1, McCaw Hall, Seattle.

By Melinda Bargreen

The Aidan Lang era at Seattle Opera is underway – and off to an imposing start with an engaging remount of the company’s 2007 “Don Giovanni.” Lang, who follows Speight Jenkins’ stellar 31-year tenure as company general director, has worked alongside Jenkins for the past six months, though opera seasons are of necessity planned so far in advance that the 2014-15 season was already programmed when Lang came aboard. This “Don Giovanni” is, in a way, a melding of the company’s past and present: an updating of a proven success.

Staged by the inventive Chris Alexander on Robert Dahlstrom’s brilliantly versatile set, this “Don Giovanni” mixes its metaphors with considerable dash. We have the Don exiting on a shiny new motorcycle, even as his servants and house musicians are wearing 18th-century powdered wigs and frock coats. Two new casts of singers and a different conductor guarantee a brand-new musical take on the production. And if neither cast’s title-role baritone is quite enough to eclipse the memory of the 2007 Giovanni (Mariusz Kwiecien), the dashing Nicolas Cavallier made a mighty impression with an energetic, suavely sung opening-night performance as Mozart’s most charming bad boy. With his almost frantic zest for life and ladies, Cavallier convincingly revealed the protagonist’s dangerous edge beneath the charming surface.

Soprano Erin Wall, in her company debut, displayed a resplendent soprano and convincing acting as Donna Anna – opposite today’s go-to international bel canto tenor and company favorite, Lawrence Brownlee, as Don Ottavio. What a pair! Wall’s voice has both size and subtlety; Brownlee’s exquisitely shaded “Dalla sur pace” and meltingly lovely “Il mio tesoro” ignited audience ovations. Elizabeth Caballero’s excellent Donna Elvira was edgy, complicated, and compelling; Cecelia Hall made an exquisitely charming Zerlina, opposite Evan Boyer’s excellent Masetto.

As Don Giovanni’s hapless sidekick, Erik Anstine was an effective Leporello, and Jordan Bisch’s stentorian Commendatore looked and sounded frighteningly appropriate. The next-to-last scene, in which he inexorably draws Don Giovanni toward the flames of hell to disappear into a descending pit of smoke and fire, is an image that persists indelibly through the anticlimactic and chipper final scene.

On Sunday, the alternate cast took over, with Mark Walters in a sinuous, vocally commanding take on the title role. It was a high-energy performance with every detail considered, right down to a cartwheel. Alexandra LoBianco sang Donna Anna; her powerful and sumptuous soprano was a pleasure to hear, though some of the passagework could have been clearer. Ashraf Sewailam provided lots of adroit physical comedy and mellifluous singing as Leporello, and Randall Bills was an appealingly lyrical Don Ottavio.

Conductor Gary Thor Wedow, presiding at the fortepiano (to excellent advantage during dialogue/recitative passages), was both stylish and perfectly attuned to his singers. An onstage “banda” contingent from the orchestra, wearing full 18th-century formal dress, responded to the action, and had the pleasure of being showered with money by Don Giovanni, something that unfortunately seldom happens to musicians in real life. Michael Partington played the impeccable mandolin solos for the serenade.

The production boasts a dramatic lighting design by Duane Schuler, as well as Wade Madsen's subtly charming choreography and Marie-Therese Cramer's effective costumes.

Not all the drama was on the stage. On opening night, a medical emergency near the end of the final act (an unwell audience member exited early and fell in the aisle only a few feet from general director Lang, who promptly went to his aid) was resolved without stopping the performance.

Equally unforeseen – though less serious – was the Sunday audience’s reaction to the opera’s opening scene, when the Commendatore is killed in a duel with Don Giovanni. As the dying man calls out piteously for help, several audience members were laughing merrily. It’s always hard to know how listeners will react in a show that mixes humor and horror, but this is the kind of response that reminds directors how unpredictable audiences can be.

Choral Arts, Robert Bode, conductor; October 10, 2014

By Melinda Bargreen

Among Seattle’s musical riches is an unusually strong vein of choral activity, including everything from ethnic and folk-based groups to nationally recognized professional choruses. There are boychoirs, girlchoirs, youth choirs, LGBT choruses, choruses for Boeing employees or Bach aficionados, and the rousing barbershop harmonies of the Sweet Adelines. If you want to sing in Welsh or Norwegian or Chinese, to mention only a few linguistic possibilities, there’s a chorus you can join.

Some choruses accept all comers; some don’t care if you read music (you can always learn the pieces by ear, recording them during rehearsals). And some adhere to the highest professional standards, like the Seattle Opera Chorus, whose work is the backbone of the Opera and has drawn international praise in reviews of the Wagnerian “Ring”.

At the professional level, things get quite interesting; the region’s top choruses are well known nationally, often the recipients of prizes for performance, recording, and commissioned works. Most of these choruses have a mission to discover and present new music; the Esoterics, for example, host an annual “Polyphonos” competition for composers (this year’s winners were Stef Connor, Greg Simon, and Dale Trumbore.)  At the other end of the date spectrum is the Medieval Women’s Choir, whose founding director Margriet Tindemans leads her ensemble in a 25th-anniversary season this year that features everything from the 12th-century Hildegard of Bingen to a new work by Seattle composer/conductor Karen P. Thomas.

Many of the top choruses – including Seattle Pro Musica, Seattle Men’s Chorus, the Northwest Chamber Chorus, and Seattle Choral Company, start their season with a Christmas/holiday program. Others, like the Seattle Chamber Singers, Seattle Women’s Chorus, and Choral Arts, have already launched their 2014-15 seasons in October.

The opening program for Choral Arts on October 10/11, “The Ecstasies Above,” coincided with the news of the group’s third-place win of the national American Prize for their new recording, “Life Stories: The Choral Music of Eric William Barnum.” Artistic director Robert Bode, who just won a national 2nd place in the 2013 American Prize, lined up the kind of imaginative program that has become one of the group’s hallmarks: eclectic and wide-ranging repertoire that extended from the 18th to the 21st century – beginning and ending with that capstone of the choral world, J.S. Bach.

Choral Arts often performs a cappella or with piano(s) or guitar, but this time there was not only a piano duo (Lee Thompson and Melissa Loehnig) but also an excellent string quartet (Tom Dziekonski, John Kim, Sue Lane Bryant, and Meg Brennand). In between the two Bach works (“Der Herr denket an uns” and “Lobet den Herrn”) were two pieces solidly anchored in Bach’s tradition: Rheinberger’s “Sanctus” and Mendelssohn’s “Richte mich, O Gott”. And then there were two pieces that were quite different: strikingly new, original, challenging to performers and listeners alike, and full of amazing musical rewards.

First of these was “The Ecstasies Above,” a brilliant and terrifyingly exposed high-wire act of a piece composed by Algerian-Irish composer Tarik O’Regan in 2006. Complex and occasionally shattering in its impact, this work demanded the utmost clarity and security of intonation and timing, and Bode drew a spectacular performance from his ensemble.

The second 21st-century piece on the program was the Northwest premiere of William Averitt’s compelling five-movement song cycle, “The Deepness of the Blue.” Composed to poems of Langston Hughes, a poet whose work has been the focus of two other Averitt song cycles, this one opened with the chorus accompanied by the duo pianists in the treble register, playing delicate notes that sounded like the gentle breaking of ice crystals. Subsequent songs included a brief and compelling a cappella eulogy to a lost friend, and a couple of pieces with the air of a 1930s cabaret brought forward into a tougher musical aesthetic. Each of the songs was beautifully characterized, illuminating the text in masterly ways.

The program launched Choral Arts’ season in remarkably fine style. Fans are already looking forward to the group’s now-famous one-hour Christmas concerts, in which the uninterrupted choral music is knit together seamlessly by guitar interludes. Classical KING FM listeners will get first dibs on this concert, when Choral Arts presents the program in the radio studios at 8 p.m. on December 12. Repeat concerts will be held in Seattle on the following two evenings; visit http://choral-arts.org for details.

Seattle Symphony, Ludovic Morlot; violin soloist Philippe Quint; October 1, Benaroya Hall, Seattle.

By Melinda Bargreen

More than one critic has quipped that the Erich Wolfgang Korngold Violin Concerto is “more corn than gold.” But on Oct. 1, the Seattle Symphony presented a performance by violin soloist Philippe Quint that weighed in decidedly on the “gold” side, shining up that often overlooked 1945 concerto with beautiful tone and a stylish interpretation.

Quint, making his Benaroya Hall debut with these concerts, was a replacement for the eagerly awaited Hilary Hahn, who was originally booked to play the Korngold but has taken a break in her schedule because of a muscle strain. With many performances and a Grammy-nominated recording of the concerto to his credit, Quint was a great choice, as was clear right from the warmth and sweetness of his opening phrases.

Playing with plenty of panache and evident enjoyment, Quint made an excellent case for the concerto, with its picturesque and lush harmonies reminiscent of the cinema (where Korngold made much of his career writing swashbuckling movie scores). Hearing the concerto was a reminder of how much today’s movie composers -- most notably John Williams -- owe to the Korngold’s sweeping, heart-on-sleeve compositional style.

Quint’s technique was solid, and his passionate commitment to the score was evident in every line.

The program’s opener was John Adams’ high-energy “Lollapalooza,” a minimalist piece that plays with repetitive jazzy motifs in a fairly limited tonal palette.

Morlot and the orchestra – now in their fourth season together -- have begun this fall season with programs featuring the last three symphonies of Dvorák, and it is the final and most famous of those – the “New World” Symphony, No. 9 – that is the focus of this week’s concerts. Full of glorious tunes, with prominent passages for all the solo woodwinds and many opportunities for spectacular brass playing, the “New World” is unquestionably one of the most popular works of the symphonic repertoire.

Morlot clearly has his own ideas about the piece (including some unusual phrasing in the opening of the Largo movement), and many of them proved effective in a performance of both majesty and intensity. Not all the woodwind soloists were in top form Thursday evening, but Stefan Farkas’ extended English horn solo in the Largo was downright lovely: eloquent, lyrical, and straight from the heart.

Seattle Symphony, Ludovic Morlot; Khatia Buniatishvili, piano soloist; Benaroya Hall, Sept. 25, 2014.

By Melinda Bargreen

The Seattle Symphony is on a roll with its concerto soloists, bringing in the second outstanding young pianist in the second subscription program of the season. Two for two is a fine start; the audience gave an unusually warm response to newcomer Khatia Buniatishvili’s first performance here on September 25.

With music director Ludovic Morlot on the podium, Buniatishvili gave a highly kinetic but surprisingly subtle account of Rachmaninoff’s popular “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.” Technically polished and capable of accelerating like a Ferrari, the 27-year-old Georgian-born pianist didn’t make the obvious choices. Clad in a spectacular red spangled gown, she played the lyrical Variation 18, whose melody is immediately recognizable to many music lovers, with subdued delicacy and restraint, but later charged forth with mighty octave passages so fast that audience members could scarcely see her hands. The frenzied finale displayed a technique that made it clear why Buniatishvili (like last week’s soloist Daniil Trifonov) won the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition.

Conductor Ludovic Morlot has frequently programmed the music of his late countryman Henri Dutilleux, whose 1964 “Metaboles” was the first work on the program. Morlot recited the titles of the work’s five movements in their original French, explaining that the sounds of the spoken French evoke the spirit of each movement. He also reminded the audience of a fact that bears repeating here: Symphony concert tickets are free to youngsters aged 8-18 when accompanied by a paying adult (details at http://www.seattlesymphony.org/symphony/buy/connections.aspx). “Family Connections” is a great policy that should come to the attention of parents, grandparents, and teachers throughout the region.

The program concluded with the second of three Dvorak symphonies to be featured this fall: the tuneful and pastoral No 8, with its solidly Slavic warmth and its rich trove of melodies (particularly for the cellos and winds).  Here Morlot’s tempi were less flexible than they could have been, but he drew some fine playing from the orchestra and many of its solo players, from acting concertmaster Emma McGrath to flutist Erik Gratton and clarinetist Ben Lulich. 

The Dvorak series concludes Oct. 2-4, when Morlot conducts the orchestra in the ultra-popular “New World” Symphony, and another promising soloist arrives: violinist Philippe Quint, whose 2009 recording of the work he’ll play here (the Korngold Concerto) was nominated for a Grammy.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Byron Schenkman and Friends, with the ensemble Gut Reaction; Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall, September 21, 2014.

By Melinda Bargreen

Schmelzer, Weichlein, & Rosenmüller: a German law firm? No, a partial list of the 17th-century composers featured on the season-opening concert of “Byron Schenkman and Friends.” This wide-ranging and imaginatively conceived concert series brings together top chamber players in repertoire that spans three centuries, seldom making obvious choices.

Sunday’s program, “Before Bach,” included the works of Heinrich Biber and Biagio Marini, as well as the three aforementioned composers. If you’re imagining dainty, bloodless evening of “ye olde” music, think again: the sonatas, partitas, and other pieces on the program are dashing, colorful virtuoso works, full of brilliant roulades and given performances that were downright theatrical.

Much of the theatricality came from baroque violinist Ingrid Matthews, the longtime duo partner of Schenkman (who plays a wide range of keyboard instruments). Matthews was, as usual, spectacular in her virtuosity and her musicianship. In the earliest work on the program, Marini’s Sonata No. 14 (1629), Matthews launched into florid, almost operatic lines with tremendous dash and flair, matched in every measure by Schenkman’s intuitive keyboard playing.

The evening featured the West Coast debut of the ensemble Gut Reaction (a pun on the source of strings for early bowed instruments), founded by violist Jason Fisher – who missed the concert because of the early arrival of his baby. Luckily, Seattle’s Laurel Wells was available to sub for him in fine style. The other players were Jesse Irons (violin), Sarah Darling (violin/viola), Michael Unterman (cello), and Schenkman at the harpsichord.

The level of ensemble was remarkable: clean intonation, beautifully resonant sound (the bottom octave of that cello made the whole recital hall rumble), and artistic phrase-making of considerable impact. There was plenty of drama: sound levels brought down to a mere thread, then suddenly built up again in a massive crescendo. Violinists Irons and Matthews traded lines back and forth, each embellishing the music a bit more; violists Wells and Darling engaged in some high-energy “dueling violas” passages.

Every piece was given its own character. The final Johann Rosenmüller Suite in C, with its stately Pavane and then a series of more spirited dances, was so danceable that toes were tapping in the audience.

It wasn’t a very big audience, though: clearly the word hasn’t gotten out yet. Next up for this series is a Nov. 23 concert featuring a quintet of musicians playing Mozart and Weber, musical cousins with a lot in common.

Seattle Symphony, Ludovic Morlot; piano soloist Daniil Trifonov. Benaroya Hall, Sept. 18, 2014.

By Melinda Bargreen

It’s what music lovers live for: a talent compelling and thrilling enough to lift you right out of your chair.

That wish was thoroughly granted on Thursday evening, when the 23-year-old Russian-born pianist Daniil Trifonov made his Seattle Symphony debut in one of the great warhorses of the concerto repertoire, the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1. It wasn’t his first Seattle appearance; that came in April of 2013 at the President’s Piano Series, where Trifonov’s recital made listeners gasp at his virtuosity but wonder at his penchant for “fast and loud.”

Not any more. Trifonov’s Tchaikovsky concerto with the Symphony and music director Ludovic Morlot was the performance of a fully-formed virtuoso with an artistic soul to match his mighty fingers. There was finesse and subtlety along with the thunder-power that concerto demands; it was clear that Trifonov has ideas of his own about the piece. These include a spectacular and mercurial array of colors, with playing that moves from brilliantly incisive to dreamy and soft-focus, often within seconds. In some places the music slowed almost to a standstill as the soloist mused over a sensitive phrase, then exploding with octave passages taken at frankly impossible speeds.

Hunched over the instrument with his long chin often just a few inches away from the keyboard, Trifonov ended the Tchaikovsky’s first movement on such a blaze of virtuosity that the audience bypassed the “no applause between movements” custom and clapped anyway. The second movement began like a private reverie, all misty eloquence; the fiery finale brought everyone to their feet with a lengthy and heartfelt ovation. Let’s hope the Symphony administrators are already lining up Trifonov for return engagements.

Morlot and the orchestra had no easy task accompanying this firebrand, but did so with considerable care and alacrity.

Morlot opened the program with a magisterial account of Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger” Overture, and the finale was Dvorak’s lovely Symphony No. 7; this is the first in a series of concerts that will offer all nine of the Czech master’s symphonies. The characteristic “Furiant” third movement (a rhythmic Bohemian dance) was especially well done. The Seventh offered many chances to hear the talented solo woodwinds, including new principal clarinet Ben Lulich, guest oboist Dan Williams, and guest principal flutist Erik Gratton (a finalist for that position).

More Dvorak, Morlot, and another piano soloist (Khatia Buniatishvili) will be on hand for next week’s subscription programs. Here’s hoping lightning strikes twice in the same place.

Seattle Symphony Opening Night Concert, with Ludovic Morlot conducting, and Gil Shaham, violin soloist; Benaroya Hall, September 13, 2014.

By Melinda Bargreen

Since its founding nearly 111 years ago, the Seattle Symphony has presented many festive opening-night gala concerts – but it is safe to say that no previous such event ever featured a baritone in what looked like a bumblebee costume.

It was all part of “An Evening in Paris,” Saturday night’s lighter-than-air opening concert launching the fourth season in the tenure of French-born music director Ludovic Morlot. Short on substance but long on charm, the program wafted its way through Satie “Gymnopédies” and Delibes ballet music (from “Coppélia”), to selections from Offenbach’s “Orphée aux enfers” (“Orpheus in the Underworld”). The program also included two showpieces for the evening’s soloist, violinist Gil Shaham.

From the stage, the genial Morlot explained that he deliberately programmed “no Debussy, Ravel, or Berlioz,” focusing instead on “music we hear seldom, of another time.” The least-familiar music on the program was probably the 1928 opener, a six-movement “Suite Symphonique: Paris” of Jacques Ibert.

The Suite also gave the audience plenty to see, as well as hear: a 13-minute silent film produced by filmmakers Matt Marshall and Ghizlane Morlot (the conductor’s wife), featuring delightful period footage whose themes relate to the titles of the six short Ibert movements. Displayed on a large screen suspended above the stage, the film was a collage of moving images of cars, trains, workers, schoolgirls, cafes -- vignettes of all kinds. As the opening piece of the concert, this treatment of the Ibert essentially reduced the music to a soundtrack, but its novelty and eye appeal charmed the audience.

The star of the evening, violin soloist Gil Shaham, gave expressive and virtuosic accounts of Saint-Saëns’ “Havanaise” and the Sarasate “Carmen Fantasy.” Not all the details were in place (especially some of the harmonics), but the sheer virtuosity of his speedy thirds near the end of the Sarasate drew smiles from many orchestra members. Shaham returned to the stage for an unusual encore: a jazzy Stéphane Grappelli/Django Reinhardt version of “La Marseillaise” called “Echoes of France,” performed with the Symphony’s principal double bass Jordan Anderson and guest guitarist Michael Nicolella (both excellent).

And about that insect: in the program’s Offenbach finale, baritone Charles Robert Stephens and soprano Alexa Jarvis donned wings (and, in Stephens’ case, a bee-like costume) for a humorous and buzzing “Duo de la mouche,” or “Fly Duet,” from “Orpheus in the Underworld.” The ever-popular “Can-Can” from the same opera brought down the house – or perhaps we should say “brought up,” since happy audience members leaped to their feet for the kind of ovation that augurs well for the start of the season.

The Seattle Opera’s “Speight Celebration Concert,” McCaw Hall, August 9, 2014.

By Melinda Bargreen

Maybe it was the moment when baritone Greer Grimsley choked up in the final bars of Wotan’s Farewell (in “Die Walküre”).

Or the soul-searing soprano of Mary Elizabeth Williams, singing the wrenching “My Man’s Gone Now” (from “Porgy and Bess”).

It’s hard to pinpoint the most moving event in Saturday night’s “Speight Celebration Concert,” as the Seattle fans said goodbye to the stellar 31-year tenure of general director Speight Jenkins. From beginning to end, the evening was a moving and thoroughly affectionate tribute to a man who’s going to be very hard to replace – even though hopes are high for Jenkins’ successor, Aidan Lang, who is figuratively waiting in the wings.

All the artists performing in the farewell gala donated their services, which in itself is a mighty accolade to the man who featured them in so many memorable productions. With Joyce Castle as master of ceremonies, the arias and scenes on Saturday night presented singers of all types and nationalities, including Alwyn Mellor, Stephanie Blythe, William Burden, Brent Polegato, Antonello Palombi, Arthur Woodley, Clifton Forbis, Christiane Libor, Peter Rose, Gordon Hawkins, Nuccia Focile, and Kate Lindsey.

They were backed by the Seattle Opera Chorus (in top form), and led by two conductors: Carlos Montanaro and Sebastian Lang-Lessing.

Pervading the entire evening was a sense of grateful good will and generous helpings of Wagner, the composer for which the company has become famous. Starting things off on a literal high note, a section of Wagner’s “Die Walküre” with two stars of the 2013 “Ring” (Grimsley and soprano Alwyn Mellor) presented the archetypical scene with Brünnhilde’s famous “Hojotoho” battle cries. Mighty mezzo Stephanie Blythe took over the stage next, singing a hilarious aria from Offenbach’s frothy “La Grande-Duchesse de Gerolstein” with the men of the Seattle Opera Chorus.

It would be hard to find two better-matched and mellifluous singers than tenor William Burden and baritone Brent Polegato, who sang the gorgeous “Au fond du temple saint” duet from Bizet’s “The Pearl Fishers.” Arthur Woodley offered a noble Bellini aria, and Peter Rose was an affecting Boris Godunov.

The gala was a good night for the mighty tenor Antonello Palombi, who sang both an aria from Verdi’s “La Forza del Destino” and a duet with Nuccia Focile (from Verdi’s “Otello,” with such an explicit threat of violence that you wanted to urge Focile to make sure her life-insurance policy was up to date). Another duet, with the powerhouse pair of Grimsley and Blythe, fairly crackled with menace as the two plotted against the hapless Samson (in Saint-Saens’ “Samson and Delilah”).

There were familiar pieces (Mellor’s very fine “Liebestod” from “Tristan und Isolde”) and obscure ones (Polegato’s lovely, honeyed aria from Korngold’s “Die Tote Stadt”). There was the chance to hear the radiant Sieglinde of Christiane Libor, and the frightening Iago of Gordon Hawkins. Kate Lindsey turned in a “La Cenerentola” aria of great clarity, range, and technical finesse, and the young tenor Issachah Savage – winner of the International Wagner Competition only two days previously – gave hope for the future with his radiant “Mein lieber Schwan” (from “Lohengrin”).

Stephen Wadsworth – director of 27 shows in the past 31 years – gave a heartfelt tribute to Jenkins, drawing a big laugh by calling him “the only man I ever met who talked more than I did.”

And then there was the man himself, onstage with the all the performers as they sang the joyous “Wach’ auf!” from Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger.” What a classy sendoff for Jenkins, who has lifted Seattle Opera to new heights and earned the heartfelt gratitude of opera lovers worldwide.

Seattle Opera’s International Wagner Competition, with Sebastian Lang-Lessing, conductor; McCaw Hall, August 7, 2014.

By Melinda Bargreen

The audience voted, the orchestra voted, and the judges also voted. Excitement ran high in Marion Oliver McCaw Hall for the third International Wagner Competition, with nine young competing singers who have the potential to make careers in one of the most demanding vocal categories of all. These are natural voices that could blow the amplified pipsqueaks of the TV “Voice” and “Idol” competitions right off the stage, and it was a thrill to hear these young singers in all their infinite variety as they vied for a total of 0,000 in cash prizes.

In the end, it was a big night for tenors Issachah Savage and David Danholt. Danholt, a Danish singer of beautiful timbre and elegantly polished phrasing, won one of the two First Prizes – the decision of a distinguished panel of judges that included famed singer Stephanie Blythe, incoming Seattle Opera general director Aidan Lang, opera directors Peter Kazaras and Stephen Wadsworth, and Cincinnati Opera general director/recording producer Evans Mirageas.

Savage, whose big and lyrical tenor was at its best in “Mein Lieber Schwan” (from “Lohengrin”), won not only the judges’ other First Prize, but also both the audience’s and the orchestra’s popular vote. He was further honored by Seattle Opera’s retiring general director and master of ceremonies, Speight Jenkins, who chose Savage to fill in a slot in Saturday’s opera gala, the “Speight Celebration Concert and Dinner.”

It was clear on Thursday evening that both Danholt and Savage are ready to go out on the world’s Wagnerian stages as accomplished professionals (in fact, they already have done so). But so were several of the other seven singers, all of whom presented two different Wagnerian arias from familiar and more obscure operas. It was certainly possible to envision a top award going to soprano Marcy Stonikas, who has already appeared in major roles at Seattle Opera and whose radiant “Dich, teure Halle” opened the competition on a literal high note.

Soprano Helena Dix also was among the top contenders, winning many admirers with her strong and attractive tone in Sieglinde’s “Der Männer Sippe” and Isolde’s “Liebestod.” Tenor Kevin Ray gave two beautifully presented performances of Siegmund’s arias (in the “Ring”), nicely shaded but a bit underpowered. Tamara Mancini displayed a soprano to be reckoned with in Isolde’s Narrative and Curse: loads of passion, volume … and vibrato. Suzanne Hendrix proved an Erda of highly distinctive tone quality and heft; tenor Ric Furman was at his lyrical best in Lohengrin’s “In fernem Land.” Roman Ialcic gave a good but rather understated account of Wotan’s final aria from “Das Rheingold”; his voice was attractive but not the right timbre for “Hagen’s Watch.”

Everything about the competition was first-class, including Robert Dahlstrom’s beautiful stage set – with large paintings on the side walls, and alcoves displaying gorgeous glass objets. Another special touch: a quartet of new Wagner tubas performing a new “Speight Motif” fanfare composed by Daron Hagen. The orchestra, under Sebastian Lang-Lessing’s baton, rose splendidly to the challenge of 18 different Wagnerian arias in succession.

The Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer Festival, July 23

By Melinda Bargreen

Mendelssohn magic struck again in the Nordstrom Recital Hall, where the musicians of the Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer Festival ignited the July 23 audience with the composer’s Trio No. 2. It was the second Mendelssohn trio to raise the hall’s rafters, following a white-hot July 9 performance of Trio No. 1 in D Minor.

This time, it was violinist Stefan Jackiw, cellist Edward Arron, and pianist Max Levinson who brought the firepower to a composer whose smaller-scale works don’t routinely bring down the house. When you have the ultra-expressive Jackiw and Arron trading off phrases and leaning toward each other to catch each nuance, however, you have a duo of soaring lyricism far above the ordinary. They were matched by the keyboard sizzle of Levinson, who tore into the third movement at a thrilling tempo. There wasn’t a single dull phrase or humdrum line in the entire performance, and the audience erupted afterward with the kind of ovation that leaves no doubt about the success of the music-making.

The programming this year features an unusual amount of vocal music, and some of that was on offer Wednesday evening: the baritone James Westman in two song cycles by George Butterworth “Five Songs from ‘A Shropshire Lad’”) and his mentor, Ralph Vaughan Williams (“How Cold the Wind Doth Blow”), and mezzo-soprano Allyson McHardy in Kodaly’s “Molnar Anna” and Brahms’ “Two Songs” (Op. 91). Both singers have distinctive and effective voices; Westman’s baritone is mellow, easily produced, and clearly enunciated, with great expressive power. His performances of these mostly melancholy songs were both affecting and effective. McHardy’s voice is warm and opulent, but the articulation is occasionally a bit unwieldy.

A few changes in the program were made to accommodate the unexpected absence of festival director/violinist James Ehnes, who departed early to be on hand for the birth of his second child. Erin Keefe stepped in for Ehnes to perform with Westman in the Vaughan Williams.

The concert was launched by a Schubert hors d’oeuvre, the Adagio and Rondo Concertante (D.487), with violinist Alexander Velinzon, violist Michael Klotz, cellist Bion Tsang, and pianist Inon Barnatan.

The pre-concert recital featured Levinson in two works of Bartok, for which the pianist issued a curious introduction that seemed to apologize for his programming choice (after the “Three Rondos on Hungarian Folk Tunes,” Levinson said encouragingly, “Not so bad, right?”) Indeed it wasn’t. Nor was the lively and often evocative performance of Bartok’s “Out of Doors” Suite, though Wednesday’s monsoon-like weather made “out of doors” the last place concert patrons wanted to be.

The Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer Festival, July 21

By Melinda Bargreen

Sometimes the most unexpected event is the most delightful.

That was certainly the case in Monday’s concert at the Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer Festival, where some last-minute program adjustments created an impromptu duo good enough to go out on the road and tour.

The early departure of director/violinist James Ehnes from the festival’s ranks (he left to attend the imminent arrival of his second child) left the musicians and management in an interesting quandary. It was solved when cellist Edward Arron and pianist Inon Barnatan put together a quick solution. Both of them had fairly recently played the Chopin Cello Sonata (though not together), and had the music “in their fingers.” A couple of speedy rehearsals, and the new duo was ready for prime time.

Arron and Barnatan knocked the audience’s socks off with the Chopin, in a performance full of passionate energy and solid artistic partnership. Arron proved himself to be one of today’s most interesting and accomplished cellists, pouring out beautifully shaped phrases throughout a wide dynamic range. The Largo movement in particular was beautifully shaped, subtle, and elegantly unforced.

Arron played with conviction and authority, with a lot of life in his cello sound and the utter technical security to make the performance look easy. At the keyboard in this very pianistic score, Barnatan was perfectly in step with his new duo partner. The two of them started, stopped and negotiated phrases in a remarkable accord, playing expressively with immense freedom. The ovation they earned was particularly warm. Audiences tend to be grateful when the day is saved in such spectacular fashion.

The program opened with Haydn’s “Emperor” String Quartet No. 62, the one whose second-movement melody became the German national anthem. The violinists were Seattle Symphony concertmaster Alex Velinzon and Stefan Jackiw (the latter stepping in for Ehnes in that slot), with violist Michael Klotz and cellist Bion Tsang. Together they provided a spirited performance with lots of character and energy.

The Festival doesn’t always provide vocal music, which made the finale -- Brahms “Liebeslieder Waltzes” – all the more welcome. With pianists Jeewon Park and Max Levinson sharing the keyboard, four singers (Hyunah Yu, Allyson McHardy, Nicholas Phan and James Westman) presented the 18 charming songs with plenty of interpretive spin. There were some occasional minor lapses in piano ensemble, but the lilting waltz songs were a hit all the same, with Phan offering some of the nicest moments in a dulcet reading of the next-to-last song, “Nicht wandle, mein Licht.”

The Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer Festival, July 14

By Melinda Bargreen

The eternal lure of the chamber music festival is the chance to hear great works leap to life again in an entirely new way – with a new configuration of fine players combining to put their unique spin on the music.

The five musicians who gathered in the Nordstrom Recital Hall to play Shostakovich’s landmark Piano Quintet (Op. 57) may never have performed this piece together in concert, and might never do so again. But the Seattle Chamber Music Society’s audience on Monday evening got to hear a new spin on the fiery energy and ironic melancholy of the Shostakovich, as this newly formed quintet (Martin Beaver, Augustin Hadelich, Jonathan Vinocour, Ronald Thomas, and Orion Weiss) had their own excellent way with the music. (What a piece of “luxury casting,” too, to have Hadelich – rated by many as one of the finest violinists performing today – playing second violin in this piece.)

Every year, the festival also offers a brand-new work, brought to life by its Commissioning Club, which underwrites the composition. The 2014 premiere, presented Monday evening, was “Death with Interruptions for Violin, Cello, and Piano,” by the award-winning American composer and clarinetist Derek Bermel (a former student of Seattle native son William Bolcom, among others).

Bermel’s new work, inspired by the death of his father, is an attractive and contemplative trio. It opens with almost childlike descending passages that have a pop-music feel, but the music soon grows in complexity with larger-scale, louder rhythmic and tonal departures. The clearly indicated heartbeat, the pulse of the music, gradually slows and dwindles into nothingness. The excellent players, all clearly committed to the new score, were James Ehnes, Bion Tsang, and Anna Polonsky.

Three strong musicians – violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti, violist Cynthia Phelps, and cellist Efe Baltacigil – gave a mellow, warmly expressive account of Schubert’s B-Flat String Trio (D.581). Moretti’s vividly shaped, strong lead (sometimes a bit on the forceful side) was answered in kind by the other two players. It wasn’t an ideal performance, but it had both artistry and vitality.

The rest of this week introduces several vocal selections in the mostly-instrumental lineup, including Brahms’ warm-hearted “Liebeslieder Waltzes” and Vaughan Williams’ celestial “On Wenlock Edge.” It’s another and welcome turn of the musical kaleidoscope.

The Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer Festival, July 9

By Melinda Bargreen

Sometimes, when music lovers are very lucky, they get a performance like this one: the great Mendelssohn D Minor Piano Trio in a reading to take the breath away.

Augustin Hadelich (violin), Efe Baltacigil (cello), and pianist Jon Kimura Parker played the trio in a manner that literally gave the listeners nothing further to wish for. Warmly soulful, incredibly speedy, consistently inventive, and artful in every line, the Mendelssohn was so refined and nuanced that it made other versions seem somehow crude.

The first movement was taken at a speed possible only to a pianist like Parker, whose perfectly even arpeggios set the tone for the white-hot performance. After the movement concluded, the hall was full of the suspended sound of an overexcited audience trying not to applaud and break the trio’s spell.

The applause came later, after the lovely freedom of the second movement, the “faster than a speeding bullet” supercharged scherzo, and the impassioned finale. The listeners charged to their feet, shouting and whistling and applauding through several curtain calls. Everyone in the hall knew what was happening Wednesday night: a performance you hear only rarely, the sound of gifted musicians creating lightning together. This is why people go to concerts: waiting for that lightning strike, for the kind of thrill that can never really be captured in anything but live music.

Anything afterward would surely be an anticlimax, and that was the fate of a very fine reading of the first of Beethoven’s Op. 59 string quartets. Violinist and festival artistic director James Ehnes gave a beautifully shaped, patrician lead to the quartet, which included violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti, violist Richard O’Neill, and cellist Robert deMaine: not a weak link anywhere. The level of ensemble playing was remarkably high, and the playing sounded fresh, unforced, and natural.

The evening opened with a rare outing for the Stravinsky Octet for Winds, a jaunty, high-energy piece featuring not only a pair of trombones (Ko-ichiro Yamamoto and Carson Keeble), but also a pair of bassoons (Stéphane Lévesque and Seth Krimsky) and trumpets (Jens Lindemann and David Gordon), along with a lone flute (Lorna McGhee) and clarinet (Anthony McGill). Good-humored, picturesque, and occasionally hilarious, the performance had a few ensemble problems but lots of virtuosity.

This opening week of the festival, not surprisingly, is sold out. Wednesday’s Mendelssohn alone should cause a run on the box office for the remaining programs.

The Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer Festival, July 7

By Melinda Bargreen

You know it’s really summer when the lights dim inside the Nordstrom Recital Hall and the music starts. On Monday evening, the Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer Festival swung into its 2014 season – the first one since the 1982 opener without the late founding director Toby Saks in the house. She is greatly missed, but the quality of music making surely does credit to her vision and that of her successor, violinist/director James Ehnes.

The hero of the evening unquestionably was Augustin Hadelich, the German-born violinist who played the pre-concert recital and the opening performance in the main concert that followed. One of today’s brightest string stars, Hadelich combines technical brilliance with stylistic assurance and supple, pliant artistry; he is fascinating to hear and to watch. In the pre-concert recital, he performed five of the seven movements of David Lang’s “Mystery Sonatas” – angular, challenging solo pieces that Hadelich premiered last April in New York to rapturous acclaim.

From an opening movement in eerie harmonics to one recalling hints of country fiddling, Hadelich played with a big-hearted intensity that gave the insistent, arching lines the best possible hearing. It was his first time playing from an iPad instead of a conventional score, with foot pedals to advance the page turns (he confessed the presence of a second iPad backstage in case this one went amok).

Hadelich returned to the stage for an exquisite reading of Saint-Saens’ “Fantaisie in A Major” with harpist Valerie Muzzolini Gordon (of the Seattle Symphony) – all delicious tone, refined and shaped and impossibly fluid against the shimmering context of the mercurial, virtuoso harp. The audience was enraptured, but there was more to come.

Cellist Robert deMaine found an ideal partner in pianist Jon Kimura Parker for the familiar Rachmaninoff Cello Sonata, in a performance full of power and conviction. DeMaine gave a big-scale, impassioned reading of the four movements, though the tone could have been a bit more pliant and more varied; Parker sailed through the virtuoso accompaniment with careful attention to balances. It was a remarkable partnership.

The finale, Schubert’s huge Octet in F Major, brought together five virtuoso string players (Ehnes, Amy Schwartz Moretti, Richard O’Neill, Efe Baltacigil, and Jordan Anderson) with clarinetist Anthony McGill, bassoonist Stéphane Lévesque, and Jeffrey Fair, horn. The performance had everything: refinement, gracefulness, boisterous energy, and crisply incisive leadership from Ehnes. McGill, the brother of greatly missed former Seattle Symphony principal flutist Demarre McGill, was a particular standout.

This year’s festival is appropriately dedicated to the memory of the late Gladys Rubinstein, a founding board member of the festival and longtime supporter. Today’s audiences owe a lasting debt to the enlightened patronage and advocacy of people we never see on the stage, but whose influence makes everything we hear possible.

The Seattle Symphony Orchestra with Ludovic Morlot, pianist Jonathan Biss, June 12, Benaroya Hall, Seattle.

By Melinda Bargreen

The Seattle Symphony has moved its focus from France to Vienna in the current subscription program, featuring three composers with close ties to the land of waltzes and Sachertorte … and serialism. Music director Ludovic Morlot was on the podium, and (briefly) behind the microphone for Thursday’s opening performance.

Following a graceful account of Johann Strauss Jr.’s familiar, lilting “Emperor Waltzes” (Op. 437), Morlot addressed the concertgoers, as he often does when about to perform a work he thinks they won’t like. With the thorny Schoenberg Piano Concerto looming ahead, Morlot explained that though music lovers are often scared by the name of Schoenberg, the performance would last only 20 minutes, and we should “listen to the emotions” portrayed in the work.

It took a brave soloist to come out after that introduction, but Jonathan Biss is assuredly that and considerably more. He played with authority, finesse, and clarity, although Biss still needed a score and a page-turner. Perhaps it is impossible to perform the Schoenberg Concerto without them; this famously difficult concerto offers unique challenges to the memory. Biss’s performance was warmly received.

The more familiar musical language of Brahms, in his warmly beautiful Symphony No. 2, was the audience’s post-intermission reward. Despite a rocky first-movement start, Morlot got a good but not great performance from the orchestra, which responded to his baton with some beautiful woodwind playing and a generally strong horn section. This symphony is particularly rich in lovely melodies, not all of which were shaped in a manner that clarified their rise and blossoming and subsiding, and gave them expressive depth. The performance could have benefited from more contrast and vitality.

Orchestra players – even principals – do not always get the attention they deserve over the course of a long career, and that is why it was gratifying to see the pre-concert appreciation of principal clarinetist Christopher Sereque, who is retiring at the end of the current season. Sereque’s section colleague Laura DeLuca gave a speech recognizing his important contributions over the last 35 years, calling his impending departure “a reconfiguring of the constellations.”

And the audience rose, applauding at length and cheering for this veteran who has contributed so many beautiful solos. It was a heart-warming moment.

David Finckel, Wu Han, Phil Setzer in UW Meany World Series, May 21.

By Melinda Bargreen

An appreciative audience gathered in Meany Theater to hear a chamber-music program featuring cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han … wait, wasn’t there also a violinist? Yes, there was Phil Setzer, Finckel’s former Emerson String Quartet colleague, playing what seemed like an occasional obbligato violin line to the more forceful duo of Finckel and Han. At least, that’s what it sounded like in the first half of that chamber concert, where Beethoven’s early Piano Trio No. 2 and the popular “Dumky” Trio of Dvorak emerged in artful but rather lopsided fashion.

You could say there may have been some role reversal: Setzer, who alternates with Eugene Drucker as first violinist of the long-running quartet which Finckel left last year, has called a lot of shots from that first violin position over the years.

In Meany Theater, though, the tone this time was definitely set by Finckel, who poured out the big, rough, occasionally forced-sounding cello lines in the mild-mannered Beethoven score while Setzer almost disappeared into the background.

Finckel and Han (the two are a married couple) are now the award-winning directors of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, as well as artistic directors of Korea’s Chamber Music Today Festival and the San Francisco Bay Area’s Music@Menlo chamber festival. At Lincoln Center, their tenure as directors was recently extended through the 2018-19 season; in 2012, they were jointly named Musical America’s Musician(s) of the Year. They’re definitely one of the “power couples” of classical music, and that power appears to inform their playing.

The second piece on the Meany program, the Dvorak, found the ensemble level slightly better, but still occasionally unbalanced, with some heavy-handed and over-pedaled playing by Han as well as the aggressive approach from Finckel.

Matters improved considerably in the final work on the program, Schubert’s mighty Trio in E-Flat Major. Here there was more balance, more interplay, among three players who handed off themes, took their moments in the spotlight and then stepped back, and listened to each other.

In the Schubert, the trio members really seemed to be working together, and that was great to hear. Finally.

The Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Chorale with Ludovic Morlot, Benaroya Hall, June  5.

By Melinda Bargreen

The current Seattle Symphony program is an exploration of sensuous textures, shimmering colors, and virtuoso orchestration. Music director Ludovic Morlot, who is on the podium for this pair of subscription concerts, is playing to his greatest strength: the interpretation of repertoire from his native France, in which he clearly excels.

Music lovers don’t often get the opportunity to hear Ravel’s complete “Daphnis et Chloé”; usually orchestras perform a shorter suite from the ballet score (often it’s the much-recorded Suite No. 2), without the wordless chorus that adds so much to the impact of the music. So that the audience could follow the story of the ballet, an overhead screen above the Benaroya Hall stage gave play-by-play details of the swiftly progressing plot: “The earth opens up. All flee.” Occasionally the titles became highly entertaining, as when we read: “In front of the Nymphs’ altar, Daphnis swears his faith on two sheep.”

The Chorale, which owes its success to director Joseph Crnko, did a mostly exemplary job with the demanding choral part (with a few minor blend issues in the tricky a cappella section). The singing heightened the drama of this score so greatly that it will be hard to settle for “just the orchestra” after this.

The program’s opener was the Symphony No. 2 (“Le Double”) of Henri Dutilleux, composed nearly 50 years after the Ravel work. Dutilleux is an important figure in Morlot’s professional life; the conductor has already recorded Dutilleux’s Symphony No. 1 with the Seattle Symphony, and more explorations of the composer’s repertoire are planned. Dutilleux, who died last year at 97, was a friend (since 2001) and an important influence in Morlot’s musical development.

The Symphony No. 2 is a significant, impressive work that shows Dutilleux’s skill at creating imaginative and subtly brilliant orchestration – a knack he learned from Ravel, who was an absolute master of this craft. There are hints of the Jazz Age, a final theme that’s eerily similar to the finale of Stravinsky’s “Firebird,” and a shimmering close to the second movement that recalls Respighi’s orchestration in the quieter sections of the “Fountains of Rome.”

The Dutilleux work divides the orchestra unequally into a smaller section of soloists and a larger component of players, and it requires virtuoso playing from most of them, right down to the harpsichord (Kimberly Russ) and the celeste (Joseph Adam) -- two instruments you don’t often find in contemporary symphonic repertoire. Some of the evening’s most remarkable playing came from clarinetist Ben Lulich, whose subtly upward-reaching motifs were brilliant.

The large and enthusiastic audience included some 1,000 participants in the annual national convention of the League of American Orchestras, held this week in Seattle. Here’s betting they had a good time at the Symphony program: I swear it on two sheep.

“Tales of Hoffmann,” presented by Seattle Opera; May 5th, 2014; with Yves Abel, conductor, and Chris Alexander, director. Marion Oliver McCaw Hall,

By Melinda Bargreen

It’s the end of an era – and a pretty spectacular ending, at that.

Seattle Opera’s presentation of “The Tales of Hoffmann,” which opened this past weekend, is the closing production of the stellar three-decade run of the retiring general director, Speight Jenkins. He’s certainly going out on a high note: this “Hoffmann” features some of Jenkins’ great discoveries among the cast and the production team, all working together to provide an inventive, accomplished, high-octane show that provides a consistent jolt of artistic energy.

Notoriously difficult to stage convincingly, the three acts of “Hoffmann” each take place in a different milieu, but somehow these vignettes have to hang together in a cohesive story. This production, a remount of the company’s landmark 2005 “Hoffmann,” was created by the dynamite team of stage director Chris Alexander and set designer Robert Dahlstrom, both masters of their craft. The 2014 “Hoffmann”

is more logically unified than the earlier show, partly because Hoffmann’s three inamoratas are all sung by the same soprano in both casts (Norah Amsellem and Leah Partridge). When you have singers who can do this, the show’s concept finally makes sense: all three of Hoffmann’s loves are indeed the same woman, as the libretto says.

The principal singers are new to this remount, and they’re all excellent. In the opening-night cast that sang Saturday, the all-American tenor William Burden has somehow transformed himself into an ultra-French singer; he has lightened the voice and produced the caressing timbre and all hallmarks of the traditional French operatic style. He’s an appealing and effective actor, no easy task when one is required to be both cynical and credulous, amorous and furious.

As his muse Nicklausse, the beautiful Kate Lindsey nearly walked away with the show (she sings the role in both casts). A natural actress even in male disguise, she showed great vocal agility and range, with a voice that has strength and flexibility at both ends of the compass. Lindsey is an adroit comedienne, but she also provides the show’s center of gravity, and she does it extremely well.

Amsellem, attired in spectacular gowns (by Marie-Therese Cramer), had some of Saturday evening’s biggest challenges: three very different roles, from the mechanical robot Olympia to the fatally ill young singer Antonia and the amoral, worldly Giulietta. Amsellem has appeared several times in Seattle, but this is her most impressive work: high-flying coloratura agility in the first role, warmth and fragility of tone in the second, an edgier and more blasé quality in the third. It was a fine trio of performances.

So was the quadruple-threat of Nicholas Cavallier’s four villains, each strongly sung with its own particular brand of menace. He dominated his scenes with a genuinely scary authority, aided by an arsenal of special effects – able to “wilt” a pistol, summon explosions out of the air, and magically fill a room with swirling vapor.

The supporting cast was particularly well chosen, most notably the Crespel of Arthur Woodley, Tichina Vaughn as Antonia’s mother, Steven Cole’s Spalanzani, and Keith Jameson in a quartet of roles. Eric Neuville, Stephen Fish, Jonathan Silvia, and Misha Myznikov also made significant contributions. Chorusmaster John Keene’s singers were vitally engaged in the action and vocally excellent.

Conductor Yves Abel and the orchestra coped admirably and expeditiously with Offenbach’s score, which ranges from frothy operetta to grand opera in style. Only rarely did the tempo of the chorus and the orchestra diverge. Robert Wierzel’s creative lighting was a major factor in the production’s visual success, as were the adroit choreography by Mark Haim and the often-witty English captions by Jonathan Dean.

Sunday’s alternate cast presented three new singers, all of them important voices. Leah Partridge (as the “three beloveds”) provided an attractive soprano and convincing acting, though she would probably get better results by lightening that big voice a little in Olympia’s florid coloratura passages. Russell Thomas displayed a mighty tenor as Hoffmann; this is a remarkable voice, a bit heavy for this repertoire but lustrously produced. Alfred Walker was first-rate as the four villains, singing a “Scintille, diamant” of show-stopping quality.

At the end of Saturday’s opening performance, the curtain calls were greeted with an enthusiastic ovation – but when retiring general director Speight Jenkins stepped onto the stage, a “Twelfth Man” roar went up that practically lifted the McCaw Hall roof. This is Jenkins’ last show for Seattle Opera, so he is addressing some remarks (different each time) to the audiences after each performance. On Saturday night, the listeners let him know resoundingly how much they appreciated 31 years of the kind of inspiring, hands-on leadership that is unequaled anywhere in American opera.

John Lill, piano recital; Benaroya Hall, April 30.

By Melinda Bargreen

By the end of the recital’s first half, the audience already was on its feet, whistling and cheering as British pianist John Lill gave a courtly bow. The 70-year-old Lill had just lit up the Benaroya Hall stage with a spectacular performance of Prokoviet’s fiendishly difficult Toccata (Op. 11), and there would be considerably more to come.

Lill, a true classicist whose international career includes several series of Beethoven-sonata cycles, brought a highly attractive program to Seattle music lovers: a Mozart sonata (K.322), Schumann’s Op. 26 “Carnival de Vienne,” three of Brahms’ Intermezzos, and one of Beethoven’s greatest sonatas, the “Appassionata.”

Lyrical, unfussy, technically razor-sharp and unfailingly clear, Lill’s playing featured an amazing variety of touch and an elegant simplicity. There was no grandstanding and no flailing about, just a keyboard master doing what keyboard masters do. From the clarity of the opening Mozart sonata to the firestorm of ivories that concludes Beethoven’s headlong “Appassionata” Sonata, this was playing that never smudged or muddied the music; the performance took no shortcuts, and the listeners heard all the notes (nearly all of them in the right places, too).

For sheer virtuoso thrills, that Prokofiev Toccata would take a lot of beating. Lill kept all the attacks clear and clean, but he pushed the tempo forward at a pace that riveted the audience. The five Schumann pieces were beautifully characterized in all their variety, though here it might be said that Lill was a bit too forceful in places. More introspective and dulcet, the three Brahms Intermezzos (Op. 117) emerged with an unfussy simplicity that sounded heartfelt.

Though all the visceral excitement of the “Appassionata” Sonata happens in the last movement, Lill scored some of his finest points in the opening statements, laid out with a spacious clarity that launched the sonata in splendid style. Another standing ovation met the final headlong conclusion of this sonata, and the audience called Lill back to the stage again and again, erupting in a roar when he finally returned to the keyboard for a lovely little farewell: the middle movement of Beethoven’s “Pathetique” Sonata, so warm-hearted that you wanted to hear the whole sonata as an encore. Maybe next time.

Hilary Hahn, violin, in recital with pianist Cory Smythe; Meany Theater, University of Washington, April 29, 2014.

By Melinda Bargreen

Seattle audiences normally hear violinist Hilary Hahn in Benaroya Hall, but on Tuesday evening, the venue was Meany Theater, less than half the size of Benaroya. It was an “up close and personal” recital in the Meany World Series, particularly since Hahn took to the microphone to introduce the pieces to the audience.

Regardless of what she plays, Hahn is an utterly convincing interpreter who makes the music sound natural and unforced -- even easy, when it’s decidedly not easy at all. Her approach, direct and unfussy, is underlain with a phenomenally steady bow arm and fingerwork so accurate that there’s almost never a pitch even slightly off the center of the note.

There was plenty of variety in her Meany recital, whose order she announced from the stage because Hahn and pianist Cory Smythe have found that some of the pieces illuminate each other best when played in proximity with each other. It’s not clear to this listener, however, how the skittery harmonics and wavering pitches of the opening Richard Barrett “shade” brought out the sober, exquisitely musical reading of the unaccompanied Telemann Fantasia No. 6 in E Minor, to which Hahn brought the purity and intensity with which she plays solo Bach.

Another of the 27 brief encores which Hahn famously commissioned and recorded, Antón García Abril’s “Third Sigh,” took an entirely different Spanish-accented turn, wistful and tango-like and a bit jazzy. A mighty shifting of musical gears moved the program back to Mozart, whose Sonata in A Major (K.305) found the soloist and pianist in near-perfect accord with lots of witty byplay in the second movement.

Throughout the evening, in fact, Smythe proved the best keyboard partner a violinist (or an audience) could wish for: technically brilliant, artful without excess, supportive without overwhelming, and apparently possessed of that most valued of accompanist attributes -- a sixth sense about exactly when and how the soloist is going to land on any given note. Especially in the spiky Schoenberg Phantasy (Op. 47) and the triumphant Schubert Fantasia in C Minor that ended the program, Smythe’s incredibly nimble partnership was invaluable.

Enthusiastic applause for the Schubert brought the duo back for a single lovely encore, the elegiac, passacaglia-like “Mercy” by Max Richter. (“Mercy” is another of the 27 commissioned encores.)

The near-capacity audience included lots of UW students, which is a good thing – except when the person seated next to me periodically illuminated his cell phone during the recital to check on his vital messages, with the effect of turning on a flashlight in a darkened auditorium. Another student in the vicinity was doing a little illegal filming of brief portions of the performance. Cell phones are a great boon to modern society, but unless you’re a physician on call, they have no legitimate place in the concert hall.

The Seattle Symphony Orchestra with Ludovic Morlot and Alexander Velinzon, violin soloist; Benaroya Hall, Thursday, April 24, 2014

By Melinda Bargreen

Any concert that offers two undisputed orchestral masterpieces side by side is bound to attract some notice. The Seattle Symphony’s current program, pairing the Brahms Violin Concerto with Bartok’s “Concerto for Orchestra,” drew a large and appreciative audience that also was eager to check out the merits of soloist Alexander Velinzon.

Velinzon, the orchestra’s current concertmaster, has been heard in several shorter solos with the Symphony, but this concerto appearance on a subscription program was his most prominent outing thus far. He did not disappoint, giving a solid and accomplished performance of the noble Brahms Concerto with music director Ludovic Morlot – the man who brought Velinzon to Seattle – on the podium.

Velinzon’s Brahms was expansive and unhurried, his tone moderately sized and flexible, and his technique well able to handle the concerto’s demands. Morlot and the orchestra gave him attentive support, including an eloquent oboe solo from principal Ben Hausmann. (Hausmann went on to shine in the Bartok solos as well.) Velinzon’s performance drew a warm ovation.

The “Concerto for Orchestra” was given its name by Bartok in recognition of the substantial solo demands placed upon all the sections of the orchestra, with almost everyone getting a considerable workout. The five movements are tricky to coordinate; solos flow in and out, with section after section picking up the musical threads. Morlot’s account of this colorful score was high-energy, almost driven, but it worked; the players responded with remarkable alacrity.

There was mighty, thrilling brass, particularly in the first movement with its dramatic conclusion; fluent woodwind solos and duets, and considerable wit in the scoring (including a brass Bronx cheer and a rude remark from the trombone section). Morlot drew excellent and well-characterized playing from his musicians, highlighting important motifs and coordinating the complicated traffic of all those section solos.

It’s a pleasure to hear an orchestra on its toes in a virtuoso piece like this. As the Seattle Symphony prepares for its trip to Carnegie Hall, where the orchestra is scheduled to perform on May 6, its vital signs are heartening indeed.

Seattle listeners can hear the Carnegie program (works of Varèse, Debussy, and John Luther Adams) for free at Benaroya Hall on May 2 (at 7 p.m.); afterwards, at 10 p.m. in the hall’s lobby, members of the orchestra will also play a free performance of a mostly-contemporary chamber program they’ll perform in New York at the Poisson Rouge.

Town Music Presents Cellist Joshua Roman, pianist Andrius Zlabys; Town Hall Seattle, April 22, 2014.

By Melinda Bargreen

When Joshua Roman exploded on the Seattle music scene in 2006 as the new principal cellist of the Seattle Symphony, he was this city’s closest thing to a classical rock star. Young (only 22), personable, engaging, and gifted, Roman stayed only two seasons at the Symphony before breaking away to start a solo career.

That career has been pretty successful, too. This season he has performed the premiere of an Aaron Jay Kernis concerto with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, and played concertos with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, as well as recitals in such locations as Coral Gables (Florida), Napa (California) and Los Alamos (New Mexico).

Roman still maintains a tie with Seattle as curator of Town Hall’s “Town Music” series, in which he was featured in an April 22 recital with Lithuanian-born pianist Andrius Zlabys. As Roman explained from the stage, it was a program of “shifting gears”: some standard repertoire, some new and experimental music, and a time frame that extended from Johann Sebastian Bach to the present decade.

A good-sized audience turned out to hear Roman and Zlabys, who opened with one of the classics of the repertoire: Bach’s Cello Sonata in D Major (BWV 1028). The cellist played with a fine regard for period style (moderating his vibrato, for instance), but without much dynamic variation or the kind of phrasemaking that can make a performance come alive. It was technically highly adept, but lacked the kind of personalized expression and flair that have characterized Roman’s past performances in the solo Bach Suite repertoire.

Zlabys provided an adept and supportive performance from the keyboard. But from where this reviewer was sitting – and acoustics in Town Hall can be quite variable, from location to location – the piano (on “full stick” with the lid wide open) was slightly too loud and a bit overpowering. A more powerful and involving performance from the soloist might have tipped the balance back toward a more equal level.

The Schnittke Cello Sonata (written in 1978 by a remarkable composer who struggled with Soviet bureaucracy and health issues) exhibited the polystylistic influences that characterized much of his work – along with a deep melancholy that so often pervades Schnittke’s music. The performance was beautifully balanced and quite effective.

The Passacaglia that came next, composed by pianist Zlabys in 2011, was a short, serene piece that has occasionally served this duo as an encore; this was its premiere on the main program. “Changing gears” again, Roman and Zlabys presented a 2012 work – “Uriel” -- by Matthias Pintscher, the new music director of Paris’ esteemed Ensemble Intercontemporain. A study in “extended techniques” that was full of slithery pitches, skittery strings, and unusual thumpings and whackings on both instruments, the piece was consistently interesting but seemed to have little to do with its title (the Archangel Uriel’s name means “Fire of God,” but there wasn’t much that was fiery about this score).

Last of all came Stravinsky’s familiar “Suite Italienne,” which found both players at their best, though here too the music could have been more strongly characterized. The speedy Tarantella movement was dazzling in its speed and accuracy.

A rousing ovation brought Roman and Zlabys back for a single encore, the stately third movement from Bach’s Sonata No. 1 for Viola da Gamba.

The Seattle Symphony Orchestra with Stephane Denève, conductor, and Paul Lewis, piano soloist; Benaroya Hall, April 17, 2014.

By Melinda Bargreen

Paul Lewis is famous for his Beethoven, and Seattle Symphony listeners found out exactly why in Thursday’s program. The British-born pianist, who made his U.S. concerto debut with this orchestra back in 2002, delivered a revelatory performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with guest maestro Stephane Denève on the podium.

Poetry, clarity, virtuosity and intelligence were there in abundance, in a reading that was remarkable for the variety of touch and dynamics. Lewis charged into the first-movement cadenza with flamboyance and grandeur, then opened the second movement with a pianissimo so delicate that the audience was practically leaning forward in the seats to hear the soft-focus phrases. Lewis’ playing has exceptional evenness and clarity; it’s evident that he has a great affinity for Beethoven.

Denève gave the soloist admirable support from the podium, never overpowering Lewis even in the most dulcet moments, and rising to the exciting assertive passages. It was a great evening for the French-born conductor, who opened the program with some spoken program notes explaining the genesis of the first work: the U.S. premiere of Scottish composer James MacMillan’s dramatic and effective “The Death of Oscar.”

Denève’s introduction of the 10-minute piece, which is based on Celtic legend, included his observation that the lengthy English horn solo was “brilliantly” played by the orchestra’s Stefan Farkas, which proved to be the case. The music, jointly commissioned by the Seattle Symphony and two other orchestras, sounds like the soundtrack to a historical epic; it’s highly pictorial. The performance got a very warm response from the audience – which brought the conductor back to the stage in wave of enthusiasm not always seen during premieres of new commissions.

The program’s finale, Rachmaninoff’s tuneful Symphony No. 2, was given the full romantic treatment, with the lush melodies warmly spun out, and the more declarative passages practically exploding from the stage. Denève urged the orchestra on with swooping, commanding gestures of baton, hand, and even his hair (a wild mop of curls that seemed to take on an interpretive life of their own). The orchestra, reconfigured for these concerts with split first and second violin sections, watched Denève as if they weren’t entirely sure what he’d do next, which was quite possibly the case.

It’s a program well worth hearing in the two repeats: a fully engaged orchestra, a supercharged maestro, and a soloist who really makes Beethoven roll over.

Andre Watts, pianist, in President’s Piano Series recital; Meany Theater, April 15, 2014.

By Melinda Bargreen

On Tax Day, April 15, Seattle music lovers may well have pondered an eternal verity: the certainty of death, taxes -- and excellent performances from Andre Watts. The pianist, who drew a large and responsive audience to Meany Theater for a President’s Piano Series recital, made it clear that audiences can still depend on him for playing of immense power, technical finesse, and imaginative artistry.

The 67-year-old Watts, winner of several international prizes over the course of a career that was launched in his teens, played a classic and comprehensive program that started with Scarlatti, Mozart, and Beethoven, going on to Debussy, Chopin, and Liszt. Watts has a remarkable stylistic range, capable of the biggest and most grandiose technical feats, and also the most gossamer, evanescent effects that belie the firepower for which he is famous.

The opening Scarlatti set – which, like the Liszt works that concluded the program, involved a lot of hand-crossing and leaps up and down the keyboard – was muscular and athletic as well as graceful and delicate. There was always the sense of steel beneath those dainty melodies, however. This was not your garden-variety Scarlatti; it was more like “Scarlatti meets Liszt and … Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau?” Yes, that was Watts’ own baritone voice underlying a lot of the Scarlatti (especially the third sonata), not precisely singing, but vocalizing all the same. The vocalizing popped up intermittently in the rest of the program, and was much more pronounced than in Watts’ previous visits to Seattle.

Mozart (the sublimely wistful Rondo in A Minor) and Beethoven (an eloquent reading of the Op. 10 No. 3 Sonata) followed, and by the conclusion of the recital’s first half the audience was already on its feet for a standing ovation.

After intermission came three colorful, beautifully finished sets: Debussy’s evocative “Estampes,” three Chopin Etudes, and three demanding Liszt pieces. The Debussy set was full of elegant surfaces, with subtle effects and textures, and also plenty of muscle (as well as a little bit of interpretive choreography); the Chopin Etudes (Nos. 7, 9, and 1) ranged from tragically wistful to assertive and high-energy.  The Liszt set, music for which Watts is particularly known, was dazzling in terms of sheer dexterity and the uncanny evenness of touch that are two of the pianist’s stocks in trade. The seldom-heard “La Lugubre Gondola” (No. 2) unfolded in all its strange beauty; “ the concert etude “La Sospiro” (a favorite of the late humorist/pianist Victor Borge, who actually played it pretty well, though not this well) emerged in streams of effortless-sounding arpeggios. And the Transcendental Etude No. 10, a formidable technical challenge, was somehow made to sound almost easy.

Watts is doing a little less touring these days, though his piano prowess is as mighty as ever. Perhaps there are no more worlds to conquer; in any case, Watts certainly gave his Seattle audience plenty of reasons to forget income-tax deadlines and revel in the beauty of great keyboard playing.

Seattle Symphony with Stilian Kirov, conductor, in Orff’s “Carmina Burana”; Benaroya Hall, April 3.

By Melinda Bargreen

The mighty opening chords of “O Fortuna” are sounds to gladden the hearts of fans of Carl Orff’s ebullient “Carmina Burana.” These fans filled most of Benaroya Hall on Thursday evening, and responded to the Seattle Symphony’s production with Twelfth Man ebullience, following a mostly spectacular performance under the baton of the orchestra’s associate conductor, Stilian Kirov.

(The few who are more skeptical about the 1930s Orff classic may enjoy an Internet search for the term “Gopher Tuna,” which will lead to a hilarious cartoon video based on misheard lyrics of the score’s first-movement Latin texts.)

Why does almost everyone love “Carmina Burana”? It’s a spectacular piece, employing enormous forces in propulsive, high-energy, strongly rhythmic music that sounds like an hour-long continuous celebration. It’s wildly colorful, employing an oversized chorus with full orchestra and nearly every musical and percussive effect short of police sirens. The three vocal soloists and the choral singers are pushed to the absolute limits of their registers – and beyond, in some cases. There’s seldom a dull moment in the score.

What really made Thursday’s performance of the Orff was the excellence of the chorus, prepared to the hilt by Joseph Crnko, and featuring not only the Seattle Symphony Chorale but also the Northwest Boychoir (of which Crnko also is the music director). This combined group sang with tremendous energy, focus, and accuracy, in lyrics that range from the amorous and hopeful to the cynical and despairing.

The three vocal soloists coped admirably with music that often lies outside the normal ranges for orchestral soloists. Soprano Caitlin Lynch gave a lyrical account of her high-flying “Dulcissime”; baritone Corey McKern (who had the most music to sing) gave a moving, almost operatic reading to the highly dramatic texts. Tenor Daniel Shirley – who lurched on and off the stage to illustrate the unfortunate fate of the “roasted swan” he portrayed – sang lyrically and full-voice the extremely high lines that are more usually rendered in falsetto.

The orchestra’s associate conductor, Stilian Kirov, was tapped on short notice to replace an ailing Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos for this program. Kirov conducted with great vitality and energy as well as a fine sense of both balance and timing, and got exciting performances from all hands – chorus, soloists, orchestra.

When you have an hour-long popular favorite on the program, what do you do with the other half of the evening? This time, you present a late Haydn symphony (No. 100, the “Military”), which has little to do with the 20th-century quasi-medieval territory of “Carmina,” but was efficiently rendered by Kirov and the orchestra. It is safe to say, however, that the majority of the audience wasn’t there for the Haydn.

Seattle Symphony with Efe Baltacigil, cellist, Ludovic Morlot conducting; Benaroya Hall, March 27.

By Melinda Bargreen

You could tell the audience was primed for a great performance from Efe Baltacigil on Thursday evening. The cellist – principal cello of the Seattle Symphony, and the current concerto soloist -- got a hero’s welcome as he came out to play the Dvorak Cello Concerto with the orchestra and music director Ludovic Morlot. Immensely popular with Seattle audiences (partly from his stellar stints with the Seattle Chamber Music Society), Baltacigil gave a brilliant and deeply personal performance of a concerto that has been played here by so many greats, from Rostropovich to Starker. This is an interpretation that can stand with the best of them.

Effortlessly lyrical and very subtle, Baltacigil made a lot of points with an elegant pianissimo, well supported by Morlot and the orchestra. The cellist sailed through the bravura passages that often cause trouble with an ease that belied their difficulty. After the triumphant ending of the first movement, you could almost hear the audience’s effort in trying not to applaud and spoil the moment.

Baltacigil’s joy in the music was reflected in his expressive face, which frequently wore the expression of a World Cup player who has just scored the winning goal. That joy was echoed in the audience after the final chords, when the standing ovation was so enthusiastic that the cellist finally returned for an encore. The Allemande movement from Bach’s Suite No. 6 in D Major was enough to make listeners wish for an all-Bach evening from this remarkable player. We can only hope he’s very, very happy in Seattle.

The program also featured two works Morlot and the orchestra will bring to Carnegie Hall in May (along with a third work by John Luther Adams): Edgard Varèse’s “Déserts” and Debussy’s familiar “La Mer.” It’s never a good sign when the conductor has to take to the microphone to explain a piece to the audience, encouraging them regarding its brevity (“only 14 minutes!”), warning them that “not many people love it,” and explaining that the Varèse is “the music of the next generation.” If that last is true, it has taken the next generation awhile to find its voice. “Déserts” was premiered 60 years ago. For this listener, the chief joy of the Varèse performance was watching the choreography as two tuba players simultaneously install and remove their enormous mutes, a sight seldom seen on the Benaroya stage.

“La Mer” found Morlot and the orchestra at their best, producing urgent, lyrical washes of colors that positively shimmered throughout every section. Warm, well balanced and full of life, this is an orchestral sound of remarkable beauty -- a sound that’s definitely ready for the Big Apple.

Richard Goode, pianist, in President’s Piano Series recital; Meany Theater, March 20.

By Melinda Bargreen

Any chance to hear the pianist Richard Goode is a chance to savor. Goode’s return to Seattle after a 9-year absence to play the President’s Piano Series drew a good-sized crowd to Meany Theater for a masterly program of selections from Janacek’s “On an Overgrown Path,” and Schumann’s “Davidsbündlertänze,” with Book I of Debussy’s Preludes for dessert.

The revered pianist, a Beethoven specialist who turns 71 this year, now uses scores for some of the performance (everything except the Schumann, in the present case) – presumably so that he can concentrate on exercising his imagination instead of his memory. Most of the time Goode didn’t look at the scores anyway; they were probably just there for security’s sake.

The Janacek, a set of four atmospheric character pieces, made a nice hors d’oeuvre for the larger-scale works that followed. Schumann’s “Davidsbündlertänze” is one of the landmarks of 19th-century keyboard repertoire, and Goode gave them beautifully characterized readings, with perfectly judged dynamics and an exquisitely velvety touch in many of the pieces.

It was a happy audience that returned from intermission to hear the last half of the program, the Debussy Book I Preludes. Interestingly, Goode also chose these pieces for the final half of his last Seattle recital in 2005 (preceded by Beethoven and Mozart sonatas, music that I would have preferred to the Janacek). As he did in 2005, Goode gave an exquisitely Impressionist reading of the Debussy pieces, which include such favorites as “The Girl with the Flaxen Hair.” But there were some changes, too, in his approach: this time, the “Engulfed Cathedral” Prelude was taken at a brisker pace that destroyed some of the mysterious, stately majesty offered by Debussy’s music. Even with the score open on the piano, Goode made minor errors in some of the chords.

But elsewhere the playing was so lucid and so crystalline that it seemed almost magical, with moments of exuberant whimsy that always came as a surprise. No one can draw more beautiful sonorities from the keyboard, including a shimmering, almost liquid sound that completely belies the piano’s status as a percussion instrument. This was playing to make the listener forget that Goode has earned his fame as an interpreter of Beethoven, and to appreciate his painterly skills as a keyboard colorist.

Seattle Symphony, with conductor Andre de Ridder, and soloist James Ehnes, violin. March 13, Benaroya Hall, Seattle.

By Melinda Bargreen

James Ehnes is back in town, and fans of the fiddle will need no further inducement to line up at the Benaroya Hall box office to hear him play Bartók with the Seattle Symphony. Ehnes, who is the artistic director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society as well as an internationally renowned violin soloist, is a familiar and beloved figure here. And the fact that he’s playing Bartók at Benaroya will resonate with anyone who has heard Ehnes’ fiery, breathtaking performances of chamber works by that composer.

It may be possible to play the Bartók Violin Concerto No. 2 better than Ehnes did on Thursday evening, but frankly, I don’t think so. On every level – brilliance of technique, depth of interpretation, ensemble accuracy, and an obvious bone-deep love for the music – Ehnes lifted the concerto to dizzying heights, along with partnership from guest maestro André de Ridder. This is music Ehnes has long performed, and also recorded, and it is in his heart as well as his fingers.

On the podium, de Ridder was the conductor with “the score in his head, not his head in the score,” as the saying goes. His understanding of, and passion for, the Bartók was as clear as his easy partnership with the soloist.

Not many conductors have recording credits that include not only the likes of Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons,” but also Gorillaz’ “Plastic Beach.” De Ridder’s resume is unusual, including pop and opera as well as classical credits from around the world (Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Australia). Tall, thin, and intense, de Ridder concluded Dvorak’s picturesque tone poem “The Noonday Witch” as if he had suddenly been set on fire, and this intensity woke up the startled audience – which applauded with unusual vigor. The supercharged Bartók that followed, not surprisingly, got a huge audience reaction.

Did this mean the final work on the program was anticlimactic? Certainly not: Mozart’s “Prague” Symphony was given a sparkling and animated performance, with fresh, crisp playing and an interpretation that was both lyrically shaped and muscular. The finale went so fast that the players were hard pressed to keep up (an infinitesimal slowdown after the opening statement helped considerably). De Ridder shaped the music with his expressive hands, and the players responded with gusto.

Seattle Symphony. March 6, with conductor laureate Gerard Schwarz and pianist William Wolfram in an all-Strauss program.

By Melinda Bargreen

Gerard Schwarz has long been associated with the great orchestral works of Richard Strauss – which he has conducted, arranged, and recorded. This is music Schwarz knows inside out, and the current Seattle Symphony all-Strauss program displays both the maestro and the orchestra in excellent form.

The orchestra, aligned in Schwarz’s preferred configuration with the first and second violin sections on opposites sides of the podium, gets a tremendous workout in this repertoire: huge, large-scale pieces requiring brilliant colors, exposed virtuoso solos, and the delicious late-romantic sonority that Strauss requires. Four pieces of varying degrees of familiarity were featured, from the heroic “Don Juan” to the infrequently heard neo-baroque Suite from “Divertimento” (Op. 86). Alongside those two were the quirky, one-movement “Burleske” for piano and orchestra, and the grand finale, Schwarz’s own arrangement of a suite from the opera “Der Rosenkavalier.”

Would the audience get Straussed out? Not with all this variety and Schwarz’s heartfelt interpretations of these extremely varied scores. Those who like virtuoso piano music were delighted by soloist William Wolfram’s mighty technique and keyboard finesse in the “Burleske.” Listeners who love the baroque era were intrigued – and perhaps amazed – as this musical style was jolted forward into the 20th century. It’s not often that you hear a trombone alongside a harpsichord.

All this Strauss showcased some fine playing in the orchestra, particularly by oboist Ben Hausmann (in the “Don Juan,” and in a lovely “Rosenkavalier” duet with concertmaster Alexander Velinzon). Timpanist Michael Crusoe deserved an extra bow for his star turn in the “Burleske.”

The “Rosenkavalier” Suite, which Schwarz arranged in 2006 and subsequently conducted here, ingeniously underscores the drama of the opera. The performance gave a lovely glitter to the “Presentation of the Rose” scene, and the waltz sequences had an easy lilt that might have pleased Schwarz’s own forebears (who came from Vienna).

Rough edges in the ensemble were few and far between. Though the blend in the horn section could sometimes have been better, the players rose admirably to the challenges Strauss so often presented to an instrument he knew well (the composer’s father was a professional horn player). Jeff Fair and Mark Robbins alternated as horn principals.

One chance remains to hear this program, on Saturday evening. It’s Strauss worth savoring.

Seattle Opera Presents Menotti’s “The Consul,” February 22, 2014.

“The Consul” is probably the most popular opera you’ve never seen – unless you’re a very wide-ranging operaphile. The winner of a 1950 Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best musical, this opera was more popular than “Porgy and Bess” in its day. Then “The Consul” more or less sank from view, despite the fact that its themes of political oppression, soulless bureaucracy, and the quest for freedom are as timely today as at the opera’s premiere.

Seattle Opera has brought back this harrowing three-act show in a gripping production that moves from strength to strength, with solid musical, dramatic, and visual values. Much of the excitement comes from the powerful singing and acting of Marcy Stonikas as the central character, Magda Sorel. She pours that big, resonant voice and a huge wave of emotion into the role; we feel her fear, her fury, and her resignation as she struggles to join her freedom-fighter husband beyond the borders of an unnamed police state. A former Seattle Opera Young Artist, Stonikas has developed a voice that can really thrill; she will be one of the contenders in the company’s International Wagner Competition this summer.

Much of the cast, in fact, consists of former Seattle Opera Young Artists, and it has never been clearer that this program has been a major conduit of developing talent. As Magda’s husband John, company regular Michael Todd Simpson (also a former Young Artist) invests his scenes – including a disturbing dream sequence – with such compelling energy that he’s fully believable as a daring political dissident.

Other former Young Artists appearing in this production include Alex Mansoori, whose brilliant shenanigans as the magician Nika Magadoff provide a welcome counterpoint to the death and sorrow that pervades “The Consul.” (A tip of the pointed hat to the magician consultant, Samuel Shaefer.) Margaret Gawrysiak (as Vera Boronel), Joseph Lattanzi (as Assan), and Deborah Nansteel (as the Foreign Woman) also are Young Artist alums; so are Dana Pundt (as Anna Gomez) and Vira Slywotzky (who sings the role of Magda on Feb. 23 and 28). And so is – most memorably – Sarah Larsen, who just finished a run as the sexy Maddalena in the company’s “Rigoletto,” and has now made a triumphant return as the heartless Secretary who finally develops doubts about the chilling bureaucracy she implements.

Lucille Beer, heard last summer as Erda in the company’s “Ring,” is wonderful in every respect as the Mother. Steven LaBrie is all insinuating menace as the Secret Police Agent, and Colin Ramsey is a touching, effective Mr. Kofner.

Peter Kazaras’ staging is both vividly realistic and imaginative, especially in dream sequences where he gets even more creative. The nifty revolving set (designed by David Gordon) is ably lit by the resourceful Duane Schuler. And the musical values are solidly underscored by the lyrical conducting of Carlos Montanaro, who knows how to create an edgy energy in the sound, and just when and how to broaden the small orchestra to underscore a dramatic idea. And this is a production with dramatic ideas aplenty – just the right format for polishing up a seldom-heard gem for a new life on the stage again.

Seattle Symphony Presents Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion,” with Ludovic Morlot conducting; Friday evening (repeated at 8 p.m. Saturday); Benaroya Hall, Seattle; 9-6 (206-215-4747; www.seattlesymphony.org).

By Melinda Bargreen

Special to The Seattle Times

It is no exaggeration to call Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion” one of the landmarks of Western culture. With its double chorus, double chamber orchestra, cast of soloists, and intricate scoring, this is Bach at his most epic, as he sets to music the story of Christ’s crucifixion.

Produced in conjunction with Pacific MusicWorks, the Seattle Symphony’s opening performance – the first “St. Matthew” in Benaroya Hall – proved a fascinating and moving experience over the course of nearly three and a half hours.

As if presenting a vast and stately gavotte, the soloists and ensembles moved about the stage, advancing and retreating as they were featured in turn. There was surprisingly little awkwardness about who was supposed to move to which location; the flow of the performance, both musically and dramatically, was remarkably smooth. At times, the two small orchestras were a little out of sync, despite the best efforts of conductor Ludovic Morlot. Perhaps this development was inevitable, given the distance between the two ensembles, and the likely difficulty of the groups hearing each other.

But there was so much to praise in the superb lineup of vocal soloists, the high quality of the players, and the sense of drama throughout all the participating ensembles. This was no static oratorio, but a deeply moving theater piece with beautiful, contrasting musical textures: the exquisite delicacy of Stephen Stubbs’ lute, the tone colors of the viola da gamba and the onstage organ, the plangent groupings of double reeds, the purity of the Northwest Boychoir ensemble, and the robust double chorus from the Seattle Symphony Chorale. (Joseph Crnko, director of those choral groups, deserves his own round of applause.)

Tenor Thomas Cooley, who sang the pivotal role of the Evangelist, invested tremendous energy in every line, and handling the high-flying vocal lines with dexterous transitions between “head” and “chest” voice. The rest of the soloists also were impressive, particularly baritone Tyler Duncan (as Jesus), bass-baritone Matthew Brook (as Judas and Peter), and countertenor Terry Wey, with additional fine work from Shannon Mercer, Dorothee Mields, Laura Pudwell, Charles Daniels, and Aaron Sheehan.

Organist Joseph Adam was, in many ways, the center of this production – always in exactly the right place at the right time, supporting the singers and instrumentalists, filling in the music as a great continuo player must. Concertmaster Emma McGrath’s graceful and dancelike violin solos were additional high points.

Go, if you can: chances to hear this masterpiece, especially performed at this level, are rare indeed. And Bach’s smaller-scale “St. John Passion” will get a period performance at 8 p.m. this coming Saturday and 2 p.m. next Sunday (March 1-2), in the Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall, under Stubbs’ direction. It’s a great time to be a Bach aficionado in Seattle.

Joyce Yang, pianist, in President’s Piano Series; Meany Theater, Feb. 19.

By Melinda Bargreen

Sometimes you don’t have to win the gold medal.

Joyce Yang is doing just fine with the silver from the 2005 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition – building a strong concert career, as well as earning a string of other awards (including a recent Avery Fisher Career Grant).

An appreciative President’s Piano Series audience heard Yang’s challenging Seattle debut in a program of Bartók (the seldom-played “Out of Doors Suite”), Schumann (“Fantasiestücke”), and an unusual second half of all Rachmaninoff (three Earl Wild transcriptions, and the B-Flat Minor Sonata No. 2 of Op. 36).

Yang took to the microphone for an unusual amount of narration throughout her program, a concept that doesn’t always fit with a formal recital but worked just fine in this case. Attired in a beautiful silver-spangled dress, she discussed the character of the Bartók pieces, which emerged in stunning variety: by turns relentlessly percussive and gauzily subtle. The “Fantasiestücke” were probing and eloquent, with interpretations that turned on a dime – just as Schumann’s score does.

The second half was a real lesson in technique, with plenty of challenges presented by two of the greatest pianists of the last century: Rachmaninoff and Earl Wild. The latter, famous for his transcriptions as well as his miraculous fingers, was represented by three eloquently embroidered and gussied-up transcriptions of Rachmaninoff – the sort of pieces Wild himself loved to play. Yang performed “Dreams,” “The Little Island,” and a particularly effective reworking of the “Vocalise.”

After that came unvarnished Rachmaninoff, in the form of the B-Flat Minor Sonata. In her remarks, Yang called this three-movement work “Mount Everest,” and indeed it is: the sonata sounds like a piano concerto for which the piano itself also provides all the orchestral accompaniment. The scope and scale of the sonata are both huge, and Yang gave the piece a particularly powerful reading. So much so, in fact, that she joked afterwards about needed several curtain calls in order to restore the feeling to her numb fingers.

The audience called her back again and again, finally winning a charming encore: another Wild transcription, this time of Gershwin’s “The Man I Love,” festooned with keyboard embroidery in the best virtuoso style.

At 27, Yang has a strong musical personality, and she obviously loves both performing and relating to her audience. This is a potent combination that bodes well for a first-class concert career.

The Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Ludovic Morlot, conductor, and Xavier Phillips, cello soloist; Feb. 13, 2014.

By Melinda Bargreen

A composer’s obsession; a conductor’s challenge: Berlioz’s hallucinatory “Symphonie Fantastique” is a wild ride for both performers and listeners. Everything about this 50-minute symphony is over the top, including the size of the orchestra (right down to a pair of tubas and two harps) and the scope of the work (five movements instead of the usual four).

Despite all the drama and the elaborate scoring, the “Fantastique” is not easy to put across. It has plenty of brilliance, especially in the exquisitely swirling dance of the second movement and the relentless energy of the “March to the Scaffold,” but there also are pitfalls in sections that can sound chaotic and repetitious. Despite some beautiful solo playing from Stefan Farkas (English horn) and Ben Hausmann (oboe), the third movement sometimes sounded slack and enervated in Thursday’s Seattle Symphony performance in Benaroya Hall.

Conductor Ludovic Morlot emphasized dynamic contrasts and went for the drama, bringing the good-sized crowd of concertgoers to their feet after the wonderfully raucous finale of the Berlioz. Considerably less “fantastique” was the audience member’s cell phone (located on the main floor) that rang five times in the middle of the symphony. After all the warnings in Benaroya Hall to the contrary, leaving a phone unmuted during a symphony concert is unconscionable.

The program opened with a picturesque trifle, a seldom-heard Felix Mottl orchestration of Chabrier’s original piano piece “Bourrée fantasque,” that offered plenty of style and not much substance. Sometimes it is not coincidental that a relatively little-known piece has remained obscure over the years. Morlot went on to conduct an unusually rewarding concerto performance, featuring the Paris-born Xavier Phillips in the Schumann Cello Concerto. Phillips, an international prizewinner who first appeared with the Seattle Symphony in 2005, reinforced his strong earlier impressions again with a beautifully focused tone and remarkable technical finesse. His accurate fingerwork, subtly lyrical bowing, and solid musicianship made the Schumann a consistent pleasure to hear. Phillips was well partnered by Morlot and also by the orchestra’s principal cellist, Efe Baltacigil, whose duet passages with the soloist were perfectly judged.

Morlot announced from the stage the dedication of the Schumann Concerto performance to Gladys Rubinstein, who died last month after several decades of generous philanthropy (alongside her late husband Sam) to the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Opera, and many other arts and civic groups. The dedication, made “in the spirit of Robert and Clara Schumann” (another arts-loving husband-and-wife team), was a particularly apt one.

Joshua Bell, violinist, in recital; Benaroya Hall, February 5.

By Melinda Bargreen

In today’s pantheon of concert violinists, Joshua Bell occupies a place near the top – and his Benaroya Hall recital with pianist Sam Haywood demonstrated again why Bell deserves his acclaim.

The recital program offered three important works: Tartini’s “The Devil’s Trill” Sonata (Op. 1, No. 10), Beethoven’s Sonata No. 10 in G Major (Op. 90), and Stravinsky’s “Divertimento for Violin and Piano” (after “The Fairy’s Kiss”). The playing was “gold standard” in quality: beautiful, unforced tone; lyrical interpretations; technique that made even the trickiest passages sound easy.

He is fun to watch, too, with a charismatic stage presence that rivals any virtuoso performing today.

Bell can play bravura passages with the best of them, but he knows when to back off – when, for example, to let the Tartini sonata float like a butterfly. (His pianist knows this, too, and follows Bell like his own shadow.) The Beethoven sonata emerged with a sunny, golden tone quality, in phrasing that was pliant and flexible, and lines that were precisely sculpted. In the Adagio espressivo movement, Bell’s tone was almost piercingly sweet, with an arresting quality that was completely different from the three surrounding movements.

The Stravinsky piece, with its balletic origins and vividly colorful soundscapes, was pure pleasure – from plaintive folk melodies to jolly peasant dances, broadly melodic movements, and even a feisty tango. Bell drew a full range of colors and styles with his bow, tossing aside the technical challenges and making them sound easy. This Divertimento represents Stravinsky at his most charming, and Bell made the strongest possible case for the music.

Not surprisingly, the program’s conclusion brought a vigorous ovation that demanded encores. Bell’s response was refreshing: a brief chat with the audience, complimentary to both Benaroya Hall and the victorious Seahawks (who had been greeted that day by more than 700,000 fans upon their return to Seattle). Bell said he and Haywood had prepared two encores, and identified them in advance: no awkward business about whether a continuing ovation merited still more returns to the stage. They offered up Tchaikovsky’s charming “Melodie,” all nobility of tone, and then Wieniawski’s aptly named “Polonaise Brilliante,” performed in a grand virtuoso style that brought down the house. Bravi!

The Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Jan. 23, 2014 with Marcelo Lehninger, guest conductor, and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, piano soloist; Benaroya Hall.

By Melinda Bargreen

Sometimes a concert completely upends your expectations. When this happens in a positive way, it’s a delightful surprise – and that is what occurred in a January 23 Seattle Symphony program led by guest maestro Marcelo Lehninger.

The young Brazilian-born Lehninger is not exactly a household name: he is the music director of the New West Symphony Orchestra (in Los Angeles), and the associate conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The soloist, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, is a respected soloist and recording artist, but again, not among today’s more famous concert soloists.

And the ranks of the Seattle Symphony were surprisingly thin for this program, too: you hardly ever see extras (non-members) playing principal positions in a subscription concert, but three important principal woodwind spots were thus filled, along with the trombone and timpani. The regular concertmaster was gone; so was the assistant principal second violin, and the assistant and second-assistant principal first violins.

Surprise! The program was nonetheless excellent! Most of this was due to Lehninger’s clear, precise, and nicely detailed conducting in a lineup that included Prokofiev’s “Classical” Symphony and his Piano Concerto No. 4 for the Left Hand, and Haydn’s Piano Concerto in D Major, concluding with Mozart’s beloved “Haffner” Symphony (No. 35). The opening Prokofiev symphony served immediate notice that Lehninger could get a feather-light, fleet, sparkling performance from these players.

Bavouzet’s approach to the Haydn concerto was not always convincing, with playing that was occasionally percussive. But in the challenging Prokofiev concerto, he came into his own as an artist of remarkable merit. That concerto, like the Ravel Left-Hand Concerto and several others, was composed for Paul Wittgenstein, a concert artist who responded to the loss of his right arm in World War I by resourcefully commissioning piano concertos from prominent composers of the day (also including Britten, Strauss, and Hindemith). Unfortunately, Wittgenstein didn’t like Prokofiev’s Left-Hand Concerto: He wrote to the composer, “Thank you for the concerto, but I do not understand a single note in it, and I will not play it.” And he didn’t.

Other pianists, however, have discovered its beauties (particularly a sublime Andante second movement) amidst its more acerbic passages and its considerable technical challenges. Bavouzet made the most of all of these, and knowing his audience was likely to applaud after the insouciant third movement (there are four movements, not the usual three), raised his hand briefly in a “stop” gesture before sailing into the brief final movement. It was nice choreography as well as terrific playing.

The finale, the “Haffner” Symphony, was full of elegant phrasing, sharp dynamic contrasts, and clearly delineated lines. Everyone seemed to be having a terrific time, both on the stage and in the audience.

“Tchaikfest,” Seattle Symphony Orchestra, with Carlos Miguel Prieto, conductor; Benaroya Hall, January 16, 2014.

By Melinda Bargreen

A huge, happy audience and lots of standing ovations: that’s what you get when you program concerts packed with popular piano concertos, played by exciting young prizewinners.

The recipe worked splendidly last season, when the Seattle Symphony presented a “Rachfest” with young virtuosi playing Rachmaninoff piano concertos. The atmosphere was positively electric – as it was for this year’s “Tchaikfest” opener. On Thursday night, the program offered Tchaikovsky’s first two piano concertos with two young Russian-born soloists, both under 30 and both prizewinners in major competitions.

Boris Giltburg went first, in Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 2 – a slightly longer and less-programmed work than the composer’s first concerto. The Second presents very substantial technical challenges for the soloist, but it lacks the rich fund of delicious melodies that make the First such an enduring favorite. Giltburg, a first-prize winner at last year’s Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, made a powerful impression in the thundering octave and scalar passages, with great clarity of fingerwork, and a smoothly limpid sound in the more lyrical sections.

The concerto’s second movement features prominent solo passages for the orchestra’s principal cello and concertmaster, beautifully and supportively played by Meeka Quan DiLorenzo and Alexander Velinzon, respectively.

The well-deserved ovation for Giltburg went on for so long that the pianist presented an encore: Rachmaninoff’s glittering transcription of Fritz Kreisler’s violin tune, “Liebesleid” (“Love’s Sorrow”).

Guest conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto, music director of the Louisiana Philharmonic (as well as the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Mexico and that country’s Orquesta Sinfonica de Mineria), successfully coordinated these passionate concertos and their impetuous soloists, though his beat pattern tended toward large circles that often didn’t seem to indicate a downbeat. Nonetheless, the orchestra followed him admirably.

After intermission came the Tchaikovsky piano concerto everyone knows: the mighty First, which was the signature piece of the late Van Cliburn and has become one of the most-performed concertos in the repertoire. The soloist was Alexander Lubyantsev, the winner of several prizes and awards (and also a composer, as we discovered during the encores). Lubyantsev can play fast and loud with the best of them, but he also has a highly distinctive way with a phrase, and plays some of his solo passages so delicately that they sound like a private reverie. His technique is dazzling, with octaves of staggering speed and fingerwork of brilliant accuracy.

Flutist Judy Kriewall did a particularly nice job with the important second-movement flute solos.

Lubyantsev responded to a positive earthquake of applause by playing Prokofiev’s “Satanic Apparition” as his first encore; then an impossibly speedy “Flight of the Bumblebee”

(Rimsky-Korsakov). The audience seemed disinclined to let him go, so he offered one more: his own high-energy piece called “Sunday.” If the Seahawks play this well on Sunday, they’ll win the divisional playoffs.

Verdi’s “Rigoletto,” presented by Seattle Opera; McCaw Hall, January 11-12, 2014.

By Melinda Bargreen

Few operas can boast the rich array of great tunes that pack the score of “Rigoletto,” making it a perennial favorite onstage. In Seattle Opera’s current production, you can feel the frisson that goes through the audience when the orchestra starts the introduction to one of the most famous arias in all opera, “La donna è mobile.”

A great score still requires great singing and acting and playing, however, and this “Rigoletto” has all three. A remount of director Linda Brovsky’s popular 2004 Mussolini-era production, this show yanks the opera out of Renaissance Italy and into the dissolute 1930s with the help of lots of Fascist imagery and straight-armed salutes. Robert Dahlstrom’s sets, realistic but imaginative, work well with this concept.

Brovsky transformed the original party scene at the Duke’s into a Breughel-like canvas full of colorful interactions and episodes: a little seduction, a little fracas, and a dance here and there, before the outraged Monterone (the excellent Donovan Singletary) breaks in to change the atmosphere with his curse.

The buoyant conducting of Riccardo Frizza galvanized the orchestra and singers into some compelling ensemble work. Frizza proved an adroit and flexible accompanist, supporting the singers without drowning them out, and giving them attentive backing in their arias. Aside from some questionable brass intonation, the orchestra sounded energized by Frizza’s rousing and responsive conducting. The winds, including oboe, flute and piccolo, turned in fine performances.

In the title role on Saturday, Marco Vratogna gave a performance that rose steadily in both accuracy and strength. By Act III he was top-notch, with a real “Verdi baritone” voice, powerful singing and persuasive acting. Nadine Sierra proved an appealing, vulnerable Gilda with the ability to float a lovely coloratura line (even while lying on the stage).

The Duke, Francesco Demuro, turned in a beautifully finished performance; his voice has risen steadily in power and finesse since his Seattle debut in a 2009 “La Traviata.” Hearing Demuro with Sierra in their Act I love scene was a joy: two beautiful voices, pliant and caressing in tone. It’s almost enough to make you forget that the Duke is lying to innocent Gilda and bribing her servant.

The deep and rumbling bass of Andrea Silvestrelli – who sang Fasolt and Hunding in last summer’s “Ring” – was ideal for the villainous Sparafucile. Sarah Larsen, a former Seattle Opera Young Artist, made a terrific Maddalena, rich-voiced and opulently sultry as she succumbed to the Duke.

On Sunday, three alternate principals were originally scheduled to appear, but tenor Demuro is now singing all the performances as the Duke following the withdrawal of the other tenor. Demuro showed no signs of fatigue in a compelling Sunday performance opposite the Gilda of Jennifer Zetlan, whose agile coloratura and impassioned acting made a fine impression. In his role debut as Rigoletto, Korean baritone Hyung Yun proved a skilled actor with a rich voice that’s the right color and timbre for the role (though at times on Sunday he appeared to be coasting a bit, perhaps in anticipation of the role’s length).

The supporting cast – including such singers as Doug Jones, Carissa Castaldo, Glenn Guhr, Barry Johnson, Emily Clubb, and Michael Dunlap – was uniformly excellent, joining John Keene’s well-schooled chorus for some terrific theater. As Rigoletto begs the dissipated courtiers for mercy, they turn their backs on him one by one – some cruelly, some reluctantly. Brava to Brovsky for her directorial finesse.

Garrick Ohlsson, pianist, in President’s Piano Series recital.

By Melinda Bargreen

Piano phenomena come and go – and Garrick Ohlsson just keeps on getting better.

Ever since he won the Chopin International Piano Competition back in 1970, Ohlsson has been at the top of the keyboard world, and his most recent trip to Meany Theater proved that he has become even more interesting an artist as the years go by. His technical prowess is awe-inspiring, but not just for the glittering speed at which he can toss off phrase after phrase of perfectly articulated runs and arpeggios.

Ohlsson also is a colorist of rare finesse, drawing a rich array of sounds from the piano. He can create a warmly hushed, almost golden sound in pianissimo passages where you’d think the piano keys had been not struck, but breathed upon. Somehow there is no sense of percussive articulation, but just notes that emerge so delicately and so soft-focused that it is a surprise to realize they came from the keyboard.

Not for Ohlsson is the typical format of a recital, offering first a shorter hors d’oeuvre from an earlier era – perhaps some Mozart, for instance. The first half of his Jan. 15 recital looked like the last half of most recitals: two big, important works full of substance and depth. The opener was Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 30 (Op. 109), which emerged with delightful nuances in the opening movement, and went on to a tremendously varied performance: vivid declamatory passages, a hymn-like Adagio espressivo, and a Prestissimo movement that took this title quite literally.

Schubert’s famous “Wanderer” Fantasy followed, boldly delineated from the emphatic opening statement to the hair-raising Presto and the equally phenomenal final Allegro.

The familiar Beethoven and Schubert were followed by three seldom-programmed Griffes pieces, displaying that American composer in full Debussy/Ravel mode with brilliantly colored Impressionist effects.  The “Fountain of Aqua Paola” was succeeded by the “Scherzo” (Op. 6, No. 1) and finally by the atmospheric, enigmatic “The White Peacock.” (The first and last of these three pieces are from Griffes’ exotic “Roman Sketches.) Here Ohlsson drew an array of misty and colorfully evocative effects from the keyboard, particularly in the “Fountain” movement (which recalls Ravel’s “Jeux d’eau”).

Of course, with Ohlsson you always expect some Chopin, and he did not disappoint – choosing the big Piano Sonata No. 3 in B Minor for the finale of the program. He has the technique to toss off the “big moment” gestures with an alacrity that continues to amaze the listener, but Ohlsson also devotes a great deal of energy to illuminating interior voices and making the melodies sing out. It was a vivid, highly varied performance, and the Finale was taken at a speed and energy that inspired a lengthy ovation.

The two encores, both familiar Chopin waltzes, found Ohlsson at his most entertaining, with the tempi pulled like taffy as he decided to stretch one section out to languorous length … and then hit the accelerator in another segment. It was a good reminder that the verb “to play” can be interpreted two ways; Ohlsson was clearly playing with the scores, much to the enjoyment of the audience. The two encores were the grandiose Waltz in E-Flat Major of Op. 18, and the shorter, more bittersweet Waltz in C-Sharp Minor of Op. 64 (No. 2). Ohlsson clearly identified his encores from the stage, helpfully supplying the opus numbers. This is a pianist who thinks of everything.

Ohlsson has said that Meany Theater is one of his favorite recital venues; clearly that affection works both ways, because a large and responsive audience showed up to hear and cheer him. May he return soon and often.