During the needed break between Valkyrie and tonight’s Siegfried I did what every serious blogger does – work on his blog. I hunkered down in my office, patched together interviews, uploaded content to YouTube, and monitored site traffic. For the weeks and months leading up to the Seattle Opera’s Ring I regularly listened to Wagner. Last night, I gave a new compilation of Prokofiev piano sonatas a spin in the stereo.

My break didn’t last too long. And in fact, there was no break at all. I suspect most people who experience Wagner’s Ring find it hard to take a break from the human story that began to unfold in Valkyrie.

In the productions I have watched on DVD, Valkyrie stands in stark contrast with Rhinegold. Musically, Rhinegold deals with establishing the core motives — the DNA –  that will reappear throughout the rest of the operas. In productions, Rhinegold lurches from scene to scene avoiding anything approximating a likable human emotion or trait. There are human elements, but they are of the surly, unattractive kind – greed, trickery, disdain, …

My first encounter with this year’s Ring happened in the middle of July. For reasons that are irrelevant, I was sitting across a table from Bob Spano. Spano first conducted the Seattle Ring in 2005 and made such a positive impression that Speight Jenkins invited him back for the 2009 Ring. Here we were, with a vodka tonic in my hand and a martini in his hand, having a conversation – about The Ring.

I met Spano, and a few other people at a local watering hole. It was 11:30 pm and the conductor had finished a rehearsal of Twilight of the Gods – the nearly five hour conclusion of The Ring. A few minutes earlier Spano had pulled out the mammoth score to the opera he just rehearsed, and placed it with a thud on a nearby chair. The rest of the group, all musicians, marveled at the phone book-sized tome. Soon the musicians – with Spano’s approval – picked up the score and began going through its pages. “There’s a man who has studied Wagner’s music.” One of them …

The Seattle Symphony subscription season ended Thursday and Friday night much as it began, with a large-scale choral symphony. In September, the piece Schwarz and the orchestra put on display for Seattle was Mahler’s 8th Symphony. Thursday and Friday, the SSO took on a brand new piece by the American composer Aaron Jay Kernis.

A few years ago the Seattle Symphony and Lara and Jeff Sanderson commissioned Kernis to compose a compact, new piece of music for chorus and orchestra. Originally the work was scheduled for the 2007/2008 season. However, as Kernis was writing the piece, the size and scope of the piece grew and the premiere was delayed so Kernis could put the finish touches on what would become his 3rd Symphony — “Symphony of Meditations.” Like the 8th Symphony, vocal music is at the core of Kernis’s new piece. “Symphony of Meditations” debuted Thursday night alongside Gustav Holst’s popular orchestral suite “the Planets.”

Kernis’s piece is driven by a poem by Solomon Ibn Gabirol. Set in three movements, the symphony covers familiar spiritual themes: God’s presence, meditation, and forgiveness for …

Gerard Schwarz, Seattle Symphony; Mahler: Symphony Nr. 8 “Symphony of a Thousand” (Self Release)
Mahler’s Symphony Nr. 8 is an oversized piece of music.  This is apparent to anyone who hears a recording of this symphony.  Even more so when you see the piece performed live.  Hundreds (not thousands) of musicians, soloists, and singers are crammed onto a stage.  Whoever the unlikely person is conducting the piece is more often than not feverishly trying to balance the bloated orchestra, soloists, and multiple choruses.  The conductor is spinning plates more or less.  Keeping everything from crashing to the floor.  Because of the difficulties in staging the “Symphony of a Thousand” the piece is seldom performed.

The Seattle Symphony took up the work last September, opening their 2008/2009 season while also simultaneously celebrating the tenth anniversary of Benaroya Hall.  With the help of Martin Selig, the Seattle Symphony was able to record and release the September 2008 performance on a limited edition recording that also includes original album art from local artist Dale Chihuly.

The recording is primarily a document of the occasion.  …

Zach Carstensen: How were you introduced to the violin?

Midori: My mother is a violinist; her teaching and practicing filled our home with music, marvelous sounds that were very intriguing to a toddler’s ears. In the nature of children wanting to imitate their parents, I asked for a violin around age 3 and my mother began to teach me.

ZC: Your professional career began at a young age - you were 12 when you performed with the New York Philharmonic - what was it like being a classical music star while you are also entering your formative, teenage years?

M: When a youngster is under scrutiny from the media, they can fall into the trap of starting to believe what is said about them (whether the stories are true or not). Feeling the gaze of others is especially tough on any naturally self-conscious teenager as he or she finds their place in the world. Strong relationships with family and friends kept me from ever losing sight of my true self; they kept my ego in check while also …

For nearly ten years, the American String Project has given Seattle audiences consistently satisfying, well played string orchestra concerts. In addition to playing the standard repertoire for string orchestra, for example Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, the ad hoc group of musicians from around the world, has built its reputation playing Project founder Barry Lieberman’s arrangements of chamber music.

The arrangements aren’t easy, Lieberman plays the double bass, and as he explained at Saturday’s concert, the challenge is figuring out what the bass will play. Does the bass just double the cello part? Or, are there opportunities for the instrument to underscore other parts and even carry the melody from time to time?

Saturday’s concert, the second of the American String Project’s three 2009 concerts, demonstrated the rewards and peril associated with arranging small ensemble pieces for a string orchestra. The Project programmed three pieces: Robert Schumann’s String Quartet Nr. 3, Serge Prokofiev’s String Quartet Nr. 2; both arranged by Barry Lieberman, and Manual de Falla’s “Siete Canciones Populares Espanolas” which was arranged by Stephanie Chase, one of the violinists in the ensemble.

Of …

I understand why someone might be afraid to take a chance on the current run of Seattle Symphony concerts. The program is eclectic and unfamiliar. If people are put off by the unfamiliar pieces on the program, they certainly would embrace the performances — especially the solo performances in the first half — which on Thursday night can only be described as amatzigane.

The first half includes three virtuoso solo pieces; one for English horn and orchestra and two for violin and orchestra. Gaetano Donizetti’s concertino for English horn, Maurice Ravel’s craggy, central European inspired “Tzigane,” and the “Havanaise” for violin and orchestra by Camille Saint-Saens are not go-to solo pieces. I was only familiar with the concertino because I had downloaded it in preparation for a story I wrote last summer. I was familiar with “Tzigane,” but had never heard it. The second half was equally unfamiliar. Gerard Schwarz picked Richard Strauss’s 1917 revamp of “The Would Be Gentleman” - but not the familiar orchestral suite derived from the same incidental music. Schwarz opted for …

David Zinman, Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra; Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 5 (RCA) ***
The current release in the Tonhalle’s Mahler cycle is curious.  On the one hand, it is a no-nonsense performance of perhaps Mahler’s most popular symphony.  There is tension and drama but its not overdone.  The SACD recording quality is splendid.  But, on the other hand, the disc lacks the punch of other recordings of this symphony.  When I first heard this disc, I didn’t like it at all.  Then again, I was comparing it to my preferred recording by John Barbirolli who takes an expansive, romantic approach to the piece.  After repeated hearings, the transparency, and fluid sound of the orchestra grew on me.  This recording is easily better than the recent release of the same symphony by Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony and it is a recording Mahler fans will want to hear even if it ultimately won’t rank as one of the best.

Terry Riley “In C” (Sony) ****
This release marks the 40th anniversary of the original recording of Terry Riley’s masterpiece “In …

In his informative essay, Speight Jenkins calls “The Marriage of Figaro” “the perfect opera…The opera has, in six of its eight arias, as famous solo pieces as exist as well as many brilliant ensembles.  Its story is involving but can be understood, and the music unfailingly illuminates and expands the text.”  While the perfection of Mozart’s design for “Figaro” can be debated, the second cast line up assembled for the Seattle Opera’s current performance of “The Marriage of Figaro” is up to the task of breathing life into this “perfect opera.”

“Figaro’s” story is complicated, but employs many standard comedic gags that point the listener in the right directions – disguises, ageism, infidelity, mistaken identity, and of course cross dressing.  Cherubino, the Count’s teenage page, is played by a mezzo-soprano dressed up as an adolescent boy.  Even by today’s comedic standards, I couldn’t help but giggle a little when Sarah Castle first comes on stage playing Cherubino and sings “Non so piu cosa son”

Basically, Figaro and Susanna are set to get married when Susanna reveals the …

The Seattle Opera is doing it again; appealing to a younger demographic with a creative way to frame opera in a way that is understandable to most twenty and thirty-somethings.  In conjunction with this summer’s production of “the Ring,” the Seattle Opera is launching a  contest for one lucky winner to be part of a ten minute documentary - “Confessions” -  tracking the latest production of “the Ring.”

Contestants must fill out an application and submit a one or two minute video on why they would be the perfect host for the documentary.  The winner (and I like this the best) must be comfortable with Twitter, blogging, and social networking sites like Facebook.  For better or worse, the way forward for classical music and opera will be with digital and Internet technology.

One of the unending challenges of classical music these days is how to reach new audiences with technology.  Technology holds a lot of promise, but so far no one technology offers the ideal way to reach a younger audience while balancing the needs of the current audience, which in my opinion …