“It has been quite a spring for the Seattle Symphony,” writes James R. Oestreich in Sunday’s (5/8) New York Times. “In April the orchestra released its first CDs on its own label, Seattle Symphony Media.… In May, conducted by its music director, Ludovic Morlot, it performed the Pulitzer Prize-winning ‘Become Ocean,’ by John Luther Adams (a work it commissioned), in its New York premiere at Carnegie Hall as part of the Spring for Music festival. And last week Mr. Morlot led the orchestra, as the host ensemble for the annual conference of the League of American Orchestras, in wildly contrasting programs at its splendid Benaroya Hall, for audiences made up of League representatives and the public alike. On Thursday evening it performed a French program: Henri Dutilleux’s Symphony No. 2 and, with the Seattle Symphony Chorus, Ravel’s ballet score “Daphnis et Chloé.’… This was a fine example of the orchestra working in traditional mode at its current high level. The Friday concert was something else again.… Many orchestra managers present must have positively drooled at the energy in the hall and the number of teenagers in the audience.… The big draws here were the rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot and [soul revival group] Pickwick. … Sir Mix-a-Lot … invited women from the audience to dance onstage to his anthem, ‘Baby Got Back.’ … There were also premieres of works devoted to noted musicians somehow associated with Seattle: Bill Frisell, in Luís Tinoco’s ‘FrisLand,’ and Ray Charles, in Du Yun’s ‘Hundred Heads.’ ” A video clip of Six Mix-a-Lot’s appearance with the Seattle Symphony—which had 1.5 million hits as of June 10—can be viewed here.
Posted June 10, 2014
Pictured: Sir Mix-a-Lot with Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra at Benaroya Hall on June 6, 2014
