I put together this little pocket guide to the 2006/2007 Seattle Symphony subscription season for my symphony friends to help them decide which ticket package they wanted. Maybe it’ll help you, too. Maybe not. But since I already put it together, I may as well post it. Explanatory notes follow the table.
| Weekend | Program | Comments | Masterpiece | Listener’s Choice |
Encore | Ovation | Bravo | Crescendo | Applause | Musically Speaking |
Popular Classics |
Allegro | M | L | E | O | B | C | A | S | P | G | F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 09/28/2006 | Rachmaninov: Third Piano Concerto Beethoven: Symphony #3 (Eroica) |
Excellent Awesome |
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| 10/05/2006 | Copland: Music for the Theatre Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto Brahms: Symphony #1 |
Okay? Awesome Excellent |
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| 11/02/2006 | Berlioz: Royal Hunt and Storm Harbinson: Double Bass Concerto† Tchaikovsky: Symphony #5 |
Okay? Nervous? Excellent |
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| 11/09/2006 | Brahms: Hungarian Dances Bartók: Violin Concerto #2 Stravinsky: Petrouchka |
Excellent Okay? Polarizing |
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| 11/16/2006 | Grieg: Peer Gynt Williams: Bassoon Concerto Schumann: Symphony #1 (Spring) |
Excellent Wildcard? Excellent |
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| 12/01/2006 | Weber: Invitation to the Dance Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake (excerpts) Prokofiev: Cinderella (excerpts) Ravel: La Valse |
Excellent Excellent Excellent Awesome |
½ | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 12/28/2006 | Beethoven: Symphony #9 | Awesome | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 01/04/2007 | Dvořák: Serenade for Strings Barber: Cello Concerto Elgar: Enigma Variations |
Excellent Okay? Good |
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| 02/01/2007 | Kernis: Newly Drawn Sky Kodály: Hary Janos Suite Brahms: Piano Concerto #2 |
Nervous? Good Awesome |
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| 02/08/2007 | Grieg: Piano Concerto Bruckner: Symphony #9 |
Awesome Polarizing |
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| 02/15/2007 | Rimsky-Korsakov: Russian Easter Overture Pärt: Tabula Rasa Sibelius: The Swan of Tuonela Sibelius: Symphony #7 |
Excellent Polarizing? Okay? Good |
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| 03/03/2007 | Beethoven: Piano Concerto #2 Beethoven: Piano Concerto #1 Beethoven: Piano Concerto #3 |
Excellent Awesome Awesome |
½ | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 03/15/2007 | Beethoven: Egmont Overture Beethoven: Triple Concerto McKinley: Sympho ny #7† Stravinsky: Symphony in Three Movements |
Good Good Nervous? Polarizing |
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| 03/22/2007 | Weber: Ruler of the Spirits Mozart: Violin Concerto #4 Shostakovich: Symphony #10 |
Good? Good? Polarizing |
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| 04/05/2007 | Beethoven: Missa Solemnis | Good | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 04/12/2007 | Stravinsky: Feu D’artifice Prokofiev: Piano Concerto #3 Messiaen: L’Ascension Debussy: La Mer |
Good? Good Polarizing? Excellent |
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| 04/19/2007 | Ravel: Ma Mère L’oye (Mother Goose) Szymanowsky: Symphony #4 Mussorgsky/Ravel: Pictures at an Exhibition |
Excellent Nervous? Awesome |
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| 04/29/2007 | Prokofiev: Symphony #1 (Classical) Bobby McFerrin Improvisation Bizet: Symphony in C |
Excellent Excellent? Good |
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| 05/31/2007 | Martinů: Double Concerto Kurtág: … quasi una fantasia … Bartók: Bluebeard’s Castle |
Nervous Nervous? Wildcard |
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| 06/07/2007 | Janáček: Glagolitic Mass | Nervous? | |||||||||||||||||||||
| 06/14/2007 | Mendelssohn: The Hebrides Bruch: Scottish Fantasy Stock: Symphony #5† Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier |
Good Excellent Nervous? Polarizing |
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| 06/21/2007 | Schoenfield: Klezmer Rondo Poulenc: Gloria Dvořák: Symphony #8 |
Wildcard? Nervous? Excellent |
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| 06/27/2007 | Mahler:Symphony #3 | Polarizing |
| † | Premiere |
| M | Masterpiece |
| L | Listener’s Choice |
| E | Encore |
| O | Ovation |
| B | Bravo |
| C | Crescendo |
| A | Applause |
| S | Musically Speaking |
| P | Popular Classics |
| G | Allegro |
| F | Afternoons with the Symphony |
Notes: This chart doesn’t include “one-off” concert series such as the Visiting Orchestras or Distinguished Artists series. Two boxes in the Bravo series are marked ½. The Thursday Bravo series includes the Ravel concert, whereas the Saturday Bravo series includes the Beethoven concert. The comments column very crudely categorizes the works to assist my less-classically-aware friends. This is, of course, a highly subjective rating system, but I tried to view each piece from the ears of somebody new. Thus, I rated downward pieces that I personally like but which others might not. These predictions have, of course, proven wrong in the past. For example, this season, I was pleasantly surprised to find that one of my friends started getting into Kodály after hearing the Dances of Galanta. (I consider Kodály an acquired taste.)
Here’s what the comments mean:
- Awesome: Guaranteed crowd-pleaser.
- Excellent: You will definitely like this piece.
- Good: You will probably like this piece.
- Okay: You may like this piece.
- Nervous: I have a bad feeling about this one.
- Polarizing: Some people will love it; others will hate it.
- Wildcard: I have no idea what will happen.
A question mark means that I am not familiar with the piece and am basing my evaluation on what I know about the composer (or am just guessing).
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