Category: Music
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Venezuela, Fidelio, and Minneapolis walk into a bar….
Gustavo Dudamel in his last season (literally passing the baton) with LA Phil, conducting a Ricardo Lorenz world premiere; followed by hot pianist Yunchan Lim performing Schumann’s piano concerto; and Tar — er, Kate Blanchett — performing as Goethe’s and Beethoven’s Narrator in Egmont’s incidental music, all with the fabulous LA Phil. (Holy mackerel, man,…
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Alexander Malofeev, the Golden Boy Pianist
Overall, watch out for this fellow Malofeev. He’s quite good, and it is slightly scary that he is not satisfied with “just” the piano. In that recent interview, mentioned above, he revealed that he thinks symphonies are better (!) than piano because they are “bigger.” Do I see a future where Malofeev is the next…
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Tan Dun’s Soundscape Monument for Mothers, Daughters, and Sisters
Tan Dun has called his Nu Shu a “soundscape monument for mothers, daughters, and sisters.” “Monument” is a good word choice. Despite all of the amazingly ambitious and wonderful music this composer has already made throughout his life, I can’t imagine anything will top this piece, and all of the real, human mythology surrounding it.
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My Interview with Philip Glass, and His, “New-World-Fusion-Chamber-Music-Quartet-Extravaganza!”
“CP: How insulting is it to you when you hear “New Age” or “trance music”? PG: “Oh, I don’t care, really. I’ve been called all sorts of things. Those things come and go.”
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John Adams and the Noir of January 6
Composer John Adams conducts the Seattle Symphony on the anniversary of the insurrection, January 6, 2022.
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Seattle Symphony’s Pastiche of Germans … And a Scot
The imaginative and variegated quality of tonight’s program is truly appreciated. Three completely different styles, a little something for everyone, tied together with a theme. Tonight, the theme was Germans, and heroes. While the contemporary German composer, Widmann, wrote his “Con brio” in honor of his hero, Beethoven, Ludwig himself wrote the 5th piano concerto…
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We Are the World. We are the Cello. (Jan Vogler’s Cello….)
Bao was rightfully back to her baton — this piece got so crazy, and oftentimes so fast, it would have been impossible to keep these bunch of drunks in sync without a stick with which to beat them!
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Jinkxies! — “Get Ready Bitches ‘Cause It’s Monsoon Season!”
“Get Ready ‘Cause It’s Monsoon Season!” is what Jinkx proclaimed as she was crowned the winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race in Season 5. Well, it was a slowly increasing pitter-patter (delayed, in part, by the plague), but Jinkx is now starting to truly feel more like a downpour. I think Monsoon Season is really here…
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Chapela and Kuusisto Set Antiphaser to Killing It
Mexico City composer Enrico Chapela had a world premiere tonight in Seattle of his new electric violin concerto, Antiphaser. What is that, you ask? Some sort of guitar pedal, (or anti-pedal)? Or was CCM Chapela going to explore the phasing techniques of Steve Reich? No!
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Yuja Wang don’t give a shit.
LA Philharmonic brings back the piano prima donna. By S.E. Barcus Perhaps you do not know who “Yuja Wang” is…? Well, judging by her commanding performance at the Walt Disney Concert Hall February 18, 2020, in Los Angeles, along with her confident demeanor and skyrocketing fame over the past decade … I really do not…
S.E. Barcus 