In between The Firebird and The Rite of Spring, Stravinsky completed yet another work for ballet, Petrushka, quoting Russian folk songs and a French ditty amid original melodies, shimmering orchestral textures and masterful instrumentation. In this lively work, a flute-playing showman charms three puppets to life — among them, the awkward clown Petrushka. The traditional folk music of southern Poland pervades Szymanowski’s Second Violin Concerto, performed by expressively dazzling violinist Leila Josefowicz. Jonathan Stockhammer conducts the program, which opens with Unsuk Chin’s Rocaná (Room of Light), a musical “translation” of light phenomena, meant to depict the behavior of beams of light: their distortion, refraction, reflections and undulations.
The Seattle Symphony pays homage to two iconic composers of the Classical era. The program includes the first and last of Franz Joseph Haydn’s six Paris Symphonies, which overflow with wit, good humor and panache: his Symphony No. 82 (known as the “Bear” for its rollicking finale) and Symphony No. 87, the latter receiving its Seattle Symphony premiere performance. In between is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at his most elegant in the Piano Concerto No. 25, featuring world-renowned soloist Emanuel Ax, followed by the beloved, effervescent, all-strings serenade, Eine kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music), which, in the 21st century, remains among the most frequently performed of all classical compositions.
Charlie Chaplin directed and starred in the madcap silent film Modern Times, widely considered to be his greatest work due to its razor-sharp wit, comedic timing and of course, the music. In Chaplin’s final “Little Tramp” adventure, he plays a hapless factory laborer who clings to the hope of a brighter tomorrow alongside his beloved "Gamin" (Paulette Goddard). A self-taught musician with no formal training in composition, Chaplin also dictated the film’s score; his most famous song, “Smile,” accompanies the film’s last moments. Timothy Brock, a Seattle-born world authority on early 20th century works and silent film score preservationist, conducts the Seattle Symphony as the 1936 part-talkie comedy is projected above the stage in perfect synchronicity.
Conductor Hugh Wolff returns to the Seattle Symphony for the first time in over 25 years, joined by international star and beloved Tacoma-area mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges and the Seattle Symphony Chorale to perform Berlioz’s exquisite musical rendering of the most famous play about star-crossed lovers, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Written as a “dramatic symphony” with chorus and soloists, it was indirectly inspired by Beethoven’s Ninth; the chorus is meant to represent the two warring families, solo voices the secondary characters, while the lovers themselves are represented purely by the orchestra, combining the immediacy of sung words with the expressive power of instrumental music. Rather than being a literal retelling, his musical depiction of the tragedy focuses on the intense emotions, love and death, and is rooted in Berlioz’s passionate response to Shakespeare and actress Harriet Smithson, who acted in the first and only version of the play that he experienced, and later became his wife.
Music Director Xian Zhang presents the third weekend of our Nature in Music Festival, which finds Venezuelan-born composer and pianist Gabriela Montero performing her own effervescent Piano Concerto No. 1, a rhythm-driven rumination on Latin America that showcases the region’s charms and sensuality while making the statement, “Not everything that glitters is gold.” Ottorino Respighi takes us to Rome, exploring the harmonious relationship between Italy's “Eternal City” and the natural world. The Pines of Rome are one with the skyline, taking root in ancient ruins, shading the catacombs and standing in silhouette against the full moon. Animals, nymphs and even Neptune’s chariot pass by and play in the water of various Fountains of Rome.
Of the four symphonies by Johannes Brahms, the Third is the shy child of the family, and the only Romantic-era symphony in which all four movements end quietly, without triumphant fanfare. But beneath this restraint lies some of the composer’s richest melodies and most irresistible warmth. Join Music Director Xian Zhang and the Seattle Symphony on a lyrical journey that encourages us to hear Brahms in a new way, especially the breathtaking third-movement scherzo. The young virtuoso Daniel Lozakovich makes his Seattle debut in another Brahms masterpiece, the Violin Concerto, an epic dialog between a heroic protagonist and orchestra, often called a "symphony for the violin."
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