The 2006/2007 Seattle Symphony subscription season at a glance

Raymond Chen

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.

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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).

Raymond Chen

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