A Dose of Contemporary

Catalyst Quartet

Thursday, March 19, 2015

7:30 PM

Karla Donehew-Perez, Violin

Jessie Montgomery, Violin

Paul Laraia, Viola

Karlos Rodreguez, Cello

String Quartet No. 1 - Charles Ives

Chorale: Andante con moto

Prelude: Allegro

Offertory: Adagio cantabile

Postlude: Allegro marziale

String Quartet No. 3 "Mishima" - Philip Glass

1957: Award Montage

November 25: Ichigaya

Grandmother and Kimitake

1962: Body Building

Blood Oath

Mishima/Closing

In Memory - Joan Tower

-Intermission-

Strum - Jessie Montgomery

Tenebrae - Osvaldo Golijov

String Quartet Op. 11 - Samuel Barber

Molto allegro e appassionato

Adagio

Molto allegro (come prima) - Presto

The Catalyst Quartet is a much younger quartet that likes to play a lot of contemporary music. Naturally I'm not a fan of contemporary music, but I did attend the concert since it is part of the Chamber Music Series and I bought tickets to see the entire series. While the musicianship was fine it didn't mask the overuse of dissonance that has been all too present in an effort to follow certain musical rules at the expense of the music just sounding good. What was interesting is that the Catalyst Quartet certainly lacked the stage presence of more seasoned quartets. For example, after they finished a piece, they would bow, sit down, bow again, and rearrange the violin players (the only professional quartet that didn't have set first and second violinists). It just seemed that outside of playing the music itself, the quartet wasn't really sure what they were doing, almost as if they were playing together for the first time and never really went over things such as bowing at the end of a piece. It really detracted from the performance and would make the Catalyst Quartet not worth a repeat attendance.

Sibelius Festival!

Currently the Seattle Symphony is in the midst of its Sibelius Festival, where it will perform all of Sibelius' symphonies and other select works over the course of several weeks. This past weekend I was able to attend the first series of performances featuring the first two symphonies and guest conductor Thomas Gausgaard.

Luminous Landscapes: Sibelius Symphonies 1 & 2

Saturday, March 14, 2014

8 PM

Thomas Dausgaard, Conductor

Finlandia, Op. 26, No 7 - Jean Sibelius

Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Op. 39 - Jean Sibelius

Andante, ma non troppo - Allegro energico

Andante, ma non troppo lento

Scherzo: Allegro

Finale (quasi una fantasia): Andante - Allegro molto

-Intermission-

Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 43

Allegretto

Andante, ma rubato

Vivacissimo

Finale: Allegro moderato

With Dausgaard, the conductor of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, at the helm, this was easily the best performance by the Seattle Symphony I had witnessed thus far. Dausgaard brought a sense of excitement and energy that the orchestra had previously lacked, making the performance much less mechanical than previous performances. Dausgaard's passion and extensive knowledge of Sibelius was very apparent. Unfortunately I will be out of town for the remaining concerts of the series, but if you get the chance and are able to definitely find some tickets to the remaining concerts.

Restaurant Spending Now Outpacing Grocery Store Spending

Recently I came across some interesting data from the American Enterprise Institute on the food spending habits of Americans. For the first time since statistics were tracked, the amount of money that Americans are spending at restaurants outpaced the amount being spent in grocery stores for the first time this January.

(Click to Enlarge)

Naturally, since this comes from the American Enterprise Institute from a professor of economics, the primary issue that is addressed in the publication (and several others that note the milestone) is of the economic nature, in that the improving economy has lead to increased discretionary spending, and thus increased restaurant wages (the last part being a very recent trend). It's interesting that the social and personal aspect of this has more or less been ignored, particularly as to why this has just happened, instead of before the most recent recession (though trends from then also indicated that this would be happening).

First Business Class Flight! Asiana Old Business

The following is adapted from my trip report from Flyertalk, and will be split into two posts (one for each flight). These flights came at the conclusion of my winter trip to Australia and were booked on points, saving me a lot of money in the process.

Part 2 can be found here!

OZ602
SYD-ICN
Boeing 777-200ER
Seat 2D
January 2, 2015

I was sad to leave Australia and return to the relative cold of the US (and returning to work). However, I had been looking forward to these flights in particular due to it being my first time in a real premium cabin and flying a new airline (Asiana).

Our plane at the gate (Click to Enlarge)