Sorry! The page you were looking for doesn’t exist.
404 - Page not Found
Upcoming
“Tchaikovsky’s first true masterpiece”: Romeo and Juliet
Dismissed by its composer as “a very noisy piece”, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture is likely his most oft-performed composition, a depiction in sound of Russia’s victory over Napoleon’s Grande Armée. Just as popular is the composer’s first musical rendering of a Shakespeare play, the fantasy-overture Romeo and Juliet, with its musical portrayals of the young lovers’ passion against the background of their families’ seething mutual hatred. The radiant soprano Allison Pohl will take the stage for a bouquet of romantic songs by Richard Strauss. Two masterly explorations of classical forms will launch this wide-ranging program: Bach’s “Little” Fugue in g, and the haunting Passacaglia of Ljubica Marić (considered the most important of 20th century Serbian composers).
"Serene cheer and warm sunshine”: Brahms’ Second
To continue this significant season in the Philharmonic’s history, the orchestra will perform Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 2, the sunniest of its composer’s four symphonies and a perennial audience favorite. Adding to the luster of the program is the local debut of eminent violinist Joanna Kurkowicz, the leading exponent of the violin music of Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969), whose Violin Concerto No. 4 will round out the season’s lineup of U. S. premieres. The program opens with the Northwest premiere of Margaret Bonds’ Montgomery Variations, written in tribute to the march for equal voting rights led by Dr. Martin Luther King in 1965.
Philharmonic "Pops"
The Philharmonic presents a special summer concert with an emphasis on works with an established popular appeal. Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet, classical music’s most widely-known evocation of Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy, shares the bill with another Russian blockbuster, Prokofiev’s alternately bold and lyrical Piano Concerto No. 1, performed by one of our major local artists, pianist Anastasia Solomatina. The 150th anniversary of the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams will be celebrated via his jaunty English Folksong Suite. Finally, in the best “pops” tradition, the orchestra will play a handful of works by America’s leading composer of “light” works, Leroy Anderson.
News, Video, Articles, and More
A Ruth Gipps Premiere
Apr 24, 2021
One of the hallmarks of the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra is to perform pieces by composers that, for various reasons, never got the platform they deserved. Such is the case of Ruth Gipps. The Seattle Philharmonic performed the U.S. Premiere of her second symphony on March 31, 2018. The following excerpt is from the program notes […]
Read More
"Serene Cheer and Warm Sunshine": Brahms' Second
Mar 1, 2021
The Philharmonic presents the third U.S. premiere of the season: Pyramid, a stirring tone poem by Sweden-based American composer Molly Kien (“a major new voice” — Fanfare Magazine). The winner of the Philharmonic’s 2019 Don Bushell Competition, the radiant soprano Allison Pohl, will be heard in a selection of lieder by Richard Strauss. Closing the […]
Read More
Holst, The Planets, Voyager 2, and a few Informal Observations
May 25, 2015
We are past the mid-point of the rehearsal cycle for our upcoming season finale, the details being worked are getting smaller and more subtle, and we’re simply getting more and more excited to finally launch into this journey. The music we’ll be playing is tremendously exciting in itself—two pieces by Ralph Vaughan Williams and one […]
Read More