Rameau Remembered
Evening Music | May 6, 2010
Besides his operas, Baroque composer Jean-Philippe Rameau is remembered for his meticulous (and sometimes adventurous) approach to music theory. We’ll hear some musical reminiscences tonight from composer Hugh Aitken in his “Rameau Remembered,” plus a few choice pieces from the master himself.
Composer Hugh Aitken has had a long-standing relationship with conductor Gerard Schwarz; they first met at Julliard where Schwarz was a Trumpet major and where Aitken taught for many years. “Rameau Remembered” was written for and premiered by Schwarz at the White Mountains Festival in New Hampshire in 1980, and we’ll hear Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony perform the work in our second hour, with flute soloist Scott Goff. We’ll also hear a couple of little works by Rameau himself: pianist Mordecai Shehori plays the brief but delightful “Tambourins,” then Gustav Leonhardt leads the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in a Contradance and Rondeau from “Les Paladins.”
The first hour of our program, however, is sounded on the strings: guitarist David Russell opens with Regino Sainz De La Maza’s “Zapateado,” followed by Ernesto Lecuona’s “Argentine Rhapsody” with pianist Thomas Tirino and the Polish National Radio Orchestra. Then the late great pianist Grant Johannesen transports us back to fin de siècle Paris with Deodat de Severac’s “Sous les lauriers roses,” while cellist Hidemi Suzuki performs (and conducts) C.P.E. Bach’s Cello Concerto in A with the Bach Collegium Japan.
And later in the evening (as usual on Thursdays) we’ll feature music from the movies. John Adams conducts the London Sinfonietta in selections from Leonard Rosenman’s score for the 1955 film “East of Eden.” We’ll also enjoy the invigorating “Symphonic Dances” from Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story,” with Lenny himself conducting the New York Philharmonic. Works by Brahms, Telemann and Britten fill out the evening, as well as our continuing tribute this week to the late composer George Rochberg.
Composer Hugh Aitken has had a long-standing relationship with conductor Gerard Schwarz; they first met at Julliard where Schwarz was a Trumpet major and where Aitken taught for many years. “Rameau Remembered” was written for and premiered by Schwarz at the White Mountains Festival in New Hampshire in 1980, and we’ll hear Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony perform the work in our second hour, with flute soloist Scott Goff. We’ll also hear a couple of little works by Rameau himself: pianist Mordecai Shehori plays the brief but delightful “Tambourins,” then Gustav Leonhardt leads the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in a Contradance and Rondeau from “Les Paladins.”
The first hour of our program, however, is sounded on the strings: guitarist David Russell opens with Regino Sainz De La Maza’s “Zapateado,” followed by Ernesto Lecuona’s “Argentine Rhapsody” with pianist Thomas Tirino and the Polish National Radio Orchestra. Then the late great pianist Grant Johannesen transports us back to fin de siècle Paris with Deodat de Severac’s “Sous les lauriers roses,” while cellist Hidemi Suzuki performs (and conducts) C.P.E. Bach’s Cello Concerto in A with the Bach Collegium Japan.
And later in the evening (as usual on Thursdays) we’ll feature music from the movies. John Adams conducts the London Sinfonietta in selections from Leonard Rosenman’s score for the 1955 film “East of Eden.” We’ll also enjoy the invigorating “Symphonic Dances” from Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story,” with Lenny himself conducting the New York Philharmonic. Works by Brahms, Telemann and Britten fill out the evening, as well as our continuing tribute this week to the late composer George Rochberg.
