Every year, I put together a little pocket guide to the Seattle Symphony subscription season for my symphony friends to help them decide which ticket package they want. As before, you might find it helpful, you might not, but here it is anyway.
| Weekend |
Program |
Comments |
18 |
12 |
9A |
9B |
6A |
6B |
6C |
6D |
6E |
4A |
4B |
MS |
MM |
PC |
| 09/27/2007 |
Bright Sheng: Tibetan Love Songs
Shostakovich: Violin Concerto #1
Tchaikovsky: Symphony #4 |
Nervous?
Good
Excellent |
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| 10/04/2007 |
Stravinsky: Pulcinella
Bartók: Violin Concerto #1
Schumann: Symphony #2 |
Excellent
Okay
Excellent |
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| 10/12/2007 |
Mozart: Requiem |
Excellent |
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| 10/25/2007 |
Beethoven: Creatures of Prometheus Overture
Mozart: Piano Concerto #23
Beethoven: Coriolan Overture
Schubert: Symphony #2 |
Good
Awesome
Excellent
Awesome |
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| 11/01/2007 |
Stravinsky: Jeu de cartes
Ravel: Piano Concerto in G
Fauré: Pelléas et Mélisande
Debussy: Ibéria (Images) |
Okay?
Excellent
Good
Excellent |
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| 11/08/2007 |
Brahms: Piano Concerto #1
Brahms: Symphony #2 |
Awesome
Awesome |
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| 11/10/2007 |
Brahms: Piano Concerto #2
Brahms: Symphony #4 |
Awesome
Excellent |
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| 11/15/2007 |
Britten: Russian Funeral
Liszt: Piano Concerto #2
Shostakovich: Symphony #11 "The Year 1905" |
Nervous?
Excellent
Polarizing? |
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| 11/29/2007 |
Corelli: "Christmas" Concerto
Vivaldi: Concerto for Two Cellos
Granger: Molly on the Shore
Tchaikovsky: Nutcracker (excerpts) |
Good
Good
Excellent
Awesome |
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| 01/03/1008 |
Beethoven: Leonore Overture #2
Mozart: Piano Concerto #20
Beethoven: Symphony #5 |
Excellent
Awesome
Awesome |
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| 01/17/2008 |
Mozart: Symphony #1
Mozart: Concertone for Two Violins
Mozart: Violin Concerto #3
Haydn: Symphony #102 |
Excellent
Good
Excellent
Awesome |
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| 01/31/2008 |
Brahms: Tragic Overture
Schönberg: Pelléas und Mélisande
Brahms: Symphony #1 |
Excellent
Nervous
Awesome |
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| 02/07/2008 |
Varèse: Intégrales
Herbert: Cello Concerto #2
Rachmaninov: Symphony #3 |
Nervous
Good
Okay |
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| 02/14/2008 |
Wagner: Die Meistersinger (Excerpts)
Samuel Jones: Horn Concerto†
Dvořák: Symphony #9 "New World" |
Good
Nervous?
Awesome |
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| 02/28/2008 |
Mozart: Symphony #38
J. C. Bach: Flute Concerto
Beethoven: Symphony #4 |
Awesome
Good?
Excellent |
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| 03/13/2008 |
Kernis: World Premiere
Glazunov: Violin Concerto
R. Strauss: Symphonia domestica |
Wildcard?
Excellent
Polarizing |
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| 03/20/2008 |
Bach: Mass in b minor |
Good |
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| 03/27/2008 |
Liszt: Prometheus
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto #1
Saint-Saëns: Symphony #3 "Organ" |
Okay
Awesome
Excellent |
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| 04/03/2008 |
Bruch: Violin Concerto #1
Bruckner: Symphony #5 |
Excellent
Nervous |
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| 04/17/2008 |
Mozart: Don Giovanni Overture
Mozart: Piano Concerto #27
Schubert: Symphony #9 "The Great" |
Excellent
Awesome
Excellent |
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| 04/24/2008 |
Mendelssohn: Sinfonia #10 in b minor
Dvořák: Cello Concerto
Sibelius: Symphony #1 |
Excellent?
Awesome
Good |
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| 05/04/2008 |
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons |
Awesome |
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| 05/29/2008 |
Martinú: Symphony #3
Korngold: Violin Concerto
Various: Genesis Suite (Chihuly visuals) |
Nervous?
Okay
Nervous? |
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| 06/05/2008 |
Weill: The Little Mahagonny
Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra |
Good
Excellent |
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| 06/12/2008 |
Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky |
Polarizing? |
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| 06/19/2008 |
Hindemith: Concert Music for Strings and Brass
Bloch: Schelomo, Hebraic Rhapsody
Franck: Symphony in d minor |
Nervous
Nervous?
Excellent |
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| 06/26/2008 |
Wagner: Prelude and Liebestod (Tristan and Isolde)
Mahler: Symphony #6 |
Polarizing
Polarizing |
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18 |
12 |
9A |
9B |
6A |
6B |
6C |
6D |
6E |
4A |
4B |
MS |
MM |
PC |
| † |
Premiere |
| MS |
Musically Speaking |
| MM |
Mainly Mozart |
| PC |
Popular Classics |
Notes:
This chart doesn't include "one-off" concert series such as the Visiting Orchestras or Distinguished Artists series.
Explanations for the partial blocks: The 18A series gets the 11/8 program; 18B gets 11/10. The Musically Speaking concerts typically omit one of the pieces from the evening program, substituting on-stage commentary.
The comments column very crudely categorizes the works to assist my less-classically-aware friends. This is, of course, a highly subjective rating system, but I tried to view each piece from the ears of somebody new. Thus, I rated downward pieces that I personally like but which others might not and rated up pieces that I may not find musically satisfying but which nevertheless tend to be crowd-pleasers. These predictions have, of course, proven wrong in the past. For example, this season, my rating of "Okay" for Copland's Music for the Theatre was too optimistic.
Here's what the comments mean. Note that they do not indicate whether the piece is significant in a musicological sense; they're just my guess as to whether my friends are going to like it.
- Awesome: Guaranteed crowd-pleaser.
- Excellent: You will definitely like this piece.
- Good: You will probably like this piece.
- Okay: You may like this piece.
- Nervous: I have a bad feeling about this one.
- Polarizing: Some people will love it; others will hate it.
- Wildcard: I have no idea what will happen.
A question mark means that I am not familiar with the piece and am basing my evaluation on what I know about the composer (or am just guessing).
" Shostakovich: Symphony #11 "The Year 1905""
That’s almost a reason to book a flight to Seattle right there. I’m guess I’m positively polarized. :-)
I had the pleasure of performing the New World Symphony when I was in a youth orchestra in Fort Worth, TX. It is probably my all time favorite piece, ever. It is one of the most beautiful pieces of art ever created. Another one we played with the runner up of the Van Cliburn piano competition was Brahms: Piano Concerto #2. It is also one of the greatest all time works.
(Note: Even though it was a youth orchestra, we were very good. The year before I made it in, they actually performed with Van Cliburn, the Van Cliburn).
Now I wish I lived in Seattle to make use of that chart.
I’m with mschaef on the Shostakovich — I’m a big Dmitri fan. And you’re certainly right, Raymond, about the subjectivity: the Bach b-minor Mass is one of my favourite pieces… and it only gets a “Good” from you. À chacun, son goût, indeed.
I can see the nervousness about the Martinu, though I like him. But there’s little to be nervous about in either the Hindemith or the Bloch on 6/19 — neither is particularly “challenging” to the listener. Probably both should be “Okay”.
A friend once told me a story of when he and his parents first heard Bartok’s “Concerto for Orchestra”. They hated it so much that they just started using the word “Bartok” (spoken with their Boston accent, so rather like “BAH-tawk”) to refer to any horridly annoying music. (It’s OK… my friend got better, and came to love the piece as an adult.)
What a good concert season!
Thanks for posting this. Even though it doesn’t do me a lot of good, it’s fun to see it.
Oh, the chart makes quite a bit more sense when not viewed through an RSS reader. All the cells show up blank in Sage (Firefox extension).
Get over your nervousness wrt the Bruckner 5th. It’s huge and accordingly lays out a lot of material to work with; but it is his clearest and least mannered work and the final fugue is one of the very greatest triumphs of the human mind and spirit. If the last phrase of the chorale doesn’t raise every hair on your body, it just isn’t being played right. Don’t take my word: check out the recordings by Haitink or Harnoncourt or Barenboim.
I’ve sung some of Sam Jones’ work, and it’s quite tuneful and lovely. Just in case you wanted more info.
The pocket reference guide for 2008/2009.