Thomas May's Blog, page 5
May 6, 2025
Helen Kim’s Thrilling Vivaldi

My latest review for The Strad: Though the Seattle Symphony fielded a notably smaller ensemble for this week’s Baroque programme – some players are doubling in Seattle Opera’s Tosca, which opens on the weekend—the aesthetic impact was anything but modest…
May 3, 2025
Rufus Wainwright’s “Dream Requiem” in Los Angeles
I’ve been a fan of Rufus Wainwright’s wonderful songwriting for decades, so it was a special pleasure to have the opportunity to write the program essay for the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s performance of his Dream Requiem – an epic project that is receiving its North American premiere on Sunday evening, 4 May. The amazing Grant Gershon conducts, with Liv Redpath as the soprano soloist and Jane Fonda as the narrator.
Rufus Wainwright and Jane Fonda in conversation
May 1, 2025
Third Coast Percussion with Jessie Montgomery

I spoke with Third Coast Percussion’s David Skidmore about their upcoming program on 3 May at Meany:
Think percussion is just about hitting things? Think again.
With instruments that shimmer, thrum, ping and even gurgle underwater, Third Coast Percussion has spent the past 20 years expanding horizons for what a percussion ensemble can do. The Chicago-based quartet returns to the University of Washington’s Meany Center for the Performing Arts on May 3 as part of a milestone anniversary tour….
April 27, 2025
Fantasies and Afterlives: Kavakos and Pace at Pierre Boulez Saal

My essay for the recital by Leonidas Kavakos and Enrico Pace at the Pierre Boulez Saal on 29 April is here.
Complete program:
Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata for Violin and Piano in A major Op. 47 “Kreutzer”
Richard Dubugnon: La minute exquise; Hypnos; Retour à Montfort-l’Amaury
Franz Schubert: Fantasy for Violin and Piano in C major D 934
The program that Leonidas Kavakos and Enrico Pace bring to the Pierre Boulez Saal offers three perspectives on the violin–piano duo, from the fire and drama of Ludwig van Beethoven to the rhapsodic lyricism of Franz Schubert—with a contemporary interlude of enigmatic, nocturnal miniatures by the Swiss-French composer Richard Dubugnon….
April 25, 2025
A Dance, a Dream, a Riot of Color

Dalia Stasevska has returned to guest conduct Seattle Symphony this week with a relatively brief but refreshing program. Thursday night’s performance offered plenty of dazzling energy, albeit a curious combination of early Prokofiev sandwiched between two vibrant Latin American works.
Alberto Ginastera’s Malambo from the 1941 ballet Estancia — music that put him on the international map – launched the concert with such kinetic force that it reminded me what a crime it is that his music remains so rarely programmed in the US. (Bravo to the Miró Quartet for recording the entire Ginastera string quartet cycle, forthcoming later this year as part of the ensemble’s 30th-anniversary celebrations.) Stasevska articulated the layered rhythms and boldly strident dissonances of Ginastera’s dance with razor-sharp clarity. Even at just a few minutes in duration, it left the audience breathless.
So did violin soloist Augustin Hadelich — though in a very different way. A Seattle favorite – he gave a deeply memorable account of the Britten Violin Concerto on his last stop with the orchestra two years ago – Hadelich brought his signature artistry Prokofiev’s precocious Violin Concerto No. 1.
From his first phrases, which open the concerto, Hadelich astonished with the sheer beauty of his sound, caressing Prokofiev’s melodic line as if entering into a dream. Phrasing glissandi with effortless sprezzatura, he brought a transportive intensity to his account that was never schmaltzy. Hadelich embraced the concerto’s oneiric, fairy-tale character with personal warmth. Stasevska created a more integrated, immersive orchestral blend by positioning the brass stage right and offered sensitive, fluid support.
Hadelich then delighted with an encore that nodded to the evening’s Latin American framing: his own arrangement of Carlos Gardel’s Por una Cabeza, proving, with wryly elegant melancholy, that it doesn’t always take two to tango.
The concert’s second half was devoted to Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas’s La noche de los Mayas, a quasi-symphony fashioned from his score for the now-forgotten 1939 film of the same name, which uses a tragic love story to romanticize pre-Columbian Mayan culture. Stasevska underscored the piece’s rhythmic elan and churning colors, along with its touches of chaos a la Stravinsky Rite.
The musicians seemed to thoroughly enjoy giving their all to the score – whether in the weighty brass chords evoking solemn ancient rituals, the mixed meter and collective revelry of a nighttime fiesta, or a touching Mayan serenade duet for flute and percussion.
The last movement opened up into a tour de force spectacle for a massively expanded percussion section that calls for an orchestra-within-the-orchestra, complete with rattles, güiro, and conch shells. I came way impressed by Stasevska’s versatility—a world away from the Sibelius of her last Seattle appearance, and wholly in the spirit of the evening’s exuberance.
(c)2025 Thomas May
April 12, 2025
Fiddles and Folklore: Kronos as a Hardanger Band

I spoke with Kronos Quartet violinist Gabriela Díaz for The Strad about Elja, the ensemble’s new Hardanger fiddle collaboration with Benedicte Maurseth and Kristine Tjøgersen, which recently premiered at Carnegie Hall:
Few ensembles are as voracious for new experiences as the Kronos Quartet. This season has brought dramatic change for the adventure-loving American group, which launched its second half-century with two new members: violinist Gabriela Díaz and violist Ayane Kozasa, who joined founder and violinist David Harrington and cellist Paul Wiancko (a member since 2023)….
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April 10, 2025
Takács Quartet and Marc-André Hamelin

A recent interview with the wonderful Richard O’Neill from Takács:
This year, the Takács Quartet celebrates its 50th anniversary with global tours, new commissions, and another opportunity to savour their artistry on disc. Their latest album — made in collaboration with a favourite partner, keyboard phenomenon Marc-André Hamelin — continues the ensemble’s commitment to expanding the chamber music repertoire by championing female composers….
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April 1, 2025
Review of Schubert’s “Great” C major Symphony: Edward Gardner and CBSO

My Gramophone review is now posted:
Edward Gardner’s complete Schubert cycle reaches its conclusion with this fourth volume, marking the culmination of a project that began in 2018 – just as he was wrapping up his well-regarded five volume Mendelssohn survey with Birmingham. …
March 29, 2025
Xian Zhang Returns to Seattle Symphony

I reviewed Xian Zhang’s first concert with Seattle Symphony since being named music director designate :
With just a few gestures, Xian Zhang began conjuring a cosmos.
Returning to Benaroya Hall for her first full program since being named , Zhang drew the nearly sold-out concert hall Thursday night into her orbit with her focused, magnetic conducting.
March 20, 2025
James Ehnes in The Strad

Along with my feature on Abel Selaocoe in Strings, my other cover story this month is a profile of the fabulous violinist and music director James Ehnes for The Strad:
Over a weekend in early December 2024, James Ehnes was in Seattle to perform all ten violin sonatas of Beethoven, partnering with pianist Orion Weiss. Presented in two concerts, each met with rapt attention, the performances were part of a new initiative of Seattle Chamber Music Society (SCMS) to engage audiences during the long interval between its flagship summer festival and the winter festival starting in late January.
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