hp's blog

A little game I play

2008-04-05T15:32:47Z

We've subscribed to the Seattle Symphony for a number of years and before the beginning of each season, I enter both the concert dates and program details in my calendar. It takes some time, and I've always thought given the number of concerts in ...

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Russian Sunday

2008-02-18T18:07:43Z

I am normally not a fan of matinée concerts; there is something about sitting in a darkened auditorium in the middle of the day that just doesn't work for me. But, yesterday, I made an exception for the Russian National Orchestra--and I'm glad I d...

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Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2

2007-11-11T17:30:13Z

I need to start doing a better job of tagging my posts. I could have sworn I posted previously about the Brahms second piano concerto. But I can't seem to find it. So forgive me if I'm repeating myself. ------------------------------ This week t...

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Stephane Deneve

2007-11-04T16:39:36Z

An interesting evening last night at the symphony. First of all, a fantastic program, mostly French (Ravel's G Major Piano Concerto, Fauré's "Pelléas et Mélisande" Suite and Debussy's "Ibéria") with some Stravinsky (Jeu de cartes) thrown in to s...

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Awadagin Pratt

2007-10-27T14:34:44Z

Years ago, when the symphony played weeknights in the old opera house, we subscribed to a season that included a concert with Awadagin Pratt as soloist. These days, classical soloists wear all manner of outfits on stage. But, back then, tux-and...

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Pretty darn empty in the third tier

2007-10-07T14:27:26Z

Last night was our first symphony concert of the season. The program was excellent. Two favorites: Stravinsky's Pulcinella Suite and Schumann's Symphony No. 2. And one work I was not familiar with but greatly enjoyed: Bartok's Violin Concerto No....

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Mahler. Sigh.

2007-07-01T15:32:24Z

The last concert of the season (at least since we've been subscribing) is Mahler. Last night, it was the Mahler Third, which run an incredible 1 3/4 hours. Though our years of subscribing to the symphony, I've come to appreciate all sort of musi...

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Schumann

2007-03-09T02:33:26Z

We are currently listening our way through Bob Greenberg's The Symphony lecture series. I am already pretty familiar with the symphonic repertoire, so there isn't much that's earthshakeningly new -- but some nice tidbits and fresh perspectives on ...

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Five concertos in two days

2007-03-03T14:55:54Z

For me, one of the highlights of this year's symphony season is John Lill performing all five Beethoven piano concertos in a two-day series. Last night was the first night, which kicked it off with concertos #4 and #5 (1-3 are tonight); I'm not ...

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Here's something that might help the Symphony

2007-03-02T17:47:52Z

In the press, the Seattle Symphony has stated the following in justifying the price increase: Because the Third Tier has been selling out while more expensive seats on the main floor remain unsold, the Symphony administrators decided to raise Th...

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