Chamber-music festivals break the winter ice

Northwest audiences tend to think of chamber-music festivals as a summer activity, but two leading organizations have regularly and exuberantly bucked that trend with highly regarded winter festivals.

This year, the festivals overlap in time frame — both are this weekend — but that shouldn't hinder their success in attracting audiences. The Seattle Chamber Players' Icebreaker Festival will be crammed with new and adventurous material, including eight world premieres. And the Seattle Chamber Music Society's Winter Festival finds its forte in a mix of great past works (such as Bach's "Goldberg" Variations) with a sprinkling of newer pieces (such as Libby Larson's "Slang").

Icebreaker IV

The Icebreaker festivals are biennial, and started in 2002 with "New Voices from Russia"; "Baltic Voices" (2004) and "The Caucasus" (2006) followed. This year's presentation, "The American Future," moves away from the lands-of-ice concept and focuses squarely on the work of 15 emerging and midcareer American composers, 14 of whom will be in Seattle for these performances. There's also an extensive nod to composer Morton Feldman, who is considered a grandfather of the minimalist movement.

Paul Taub, founding flutist of the Seattle Chamber Players, explains that the ensemble has asked its favorite critics — Alex Ross of The New Yorker and The Village Voice's Kyle Gann, who is also a composer — each to "curate" an evening's concert lineup.

"It's like the curator of an art exhibit," explains Taub of this process. "We asked Kyle and Alex to help select the composers because of their in-depth exposure to the younger generation of composers." The critics worked closely with Elena Dubinets, the artistic adviser for the festival, which this year garnered financial support for the new commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, Seattle's Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs and others.

Another departure for the SCP: It is partnering with On the Boards, because of that company's history of presenting new works, something that "really parallels our mission," notes Taub. OTB also makes sense as a partner because several of the festival's new works have electronic components, and OTB's staff has expertise in electronic amplification. The former home of the Icebreaker Festivals, the Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall, is better known as a center for acoustic music.

Joining the SCP will be Seattle Symphony cellist Joshua Roman and Russian pianist Ivan Sokolov, among other guest artists. Ross and Gann will also be on hand for a Sunday lecture (plus, Ross will talk about his latest book on Friday, and Gann's composition will be performed Saturday); on Sunday, the Morton Feldman events move to Seattle Art Museum.

"We'll be performing Feldman's music in an area displaying art by artists he was associated with, like Rothko and Pollock," Taub says, "and the public is invited to walk around while listening and viewing the art."

What will some of the new commissions be like?

Taub explains how Alaskan composer John Luther Adams created his new piece "The Light Within": The SCP's four core players (Taub, violinist Mikhail Shmidt, clarinetist Laura DeLuca and cellist David Sabee) recorded long tones on pitches predetermined by Adams, and sent the recordings to the composer.

"He turned them into electronic music that is totally spectacular sounding," Taub says. "It's a very beautiful meditation."

There are other interesting novelties, including works by Seattle composer Janice Giteck and by her son, Max Giteck Duykers. Another likely ear-opener: William Duckworth's "Cathedral: Live in Seattle," with a narrator, electronics, a DJ, virtual instruments, an array of toys and Seattle maverick Stuart Dempster on the didgeridoo and trombone. "Cathedral," whose live performance will be on the Internet, has been played around the world, with listeners joining in via electronic options on the fascinating Web site (http://cathedral.monroestreet.com/index.php — try out the "pitchweb" function).

In addition to the live nature of the Cathedral project, the online New Music Box of the American Music Center will be doing an Internet radio broadcast of the entire festival, and critic/writer Frank Oteri will make comments on its Web site (www.newmusicbox.org).

"This broadcast has a national appeal and international recognition. Very cool for us!" Taub says.

Seattle Chamber Music Society's Winter Festival

If you'd like to know more about Jeremy Denk, one of the stars of the Seattle Chamber Music Society's Winter Festival in the Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya, head over to his thoughtful blog ("Think Denk," at www.jeremydenk.net).

Denk will be heard in the festival's third evening in Bach's landmark "Goldberg" Variations. Whether he is mulling over the verbal excesses of Rachael Ray or considering the complexities of Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" Sonata, Denk's musical and extramusical ruminations are always well worth reading. His Saturday recital is a joint one with pianist Adam Neiman, another festival regular, who will perform Rachmaninoff's "Symphonic Dances for Two Pianos" (Op. 45) with Denk on the same program.

In this week's Winter Festival, Denk will have lots of company, including fellow pianist Anna Polonsky, cellist Amos Yang (formerly of the Seattle Symphony; he is officially on leave this season while he plays in the San Francisco Symphony, where he is assistant principal) and other illustrious chamber players (see programming box for more details).

Artistic director Toby Saks has programmed works of Ravel, Wolf, Schubert, Amy Beach (Piano Quintet) and Dvorak (Piano Quartet) for Friday evening.

Carrying forward its longtime educational mission, the festival will host a Family Concert (with the Saint Helens Quartet) at 3 p.m. Saturday, called "The Sounds of Winter" and including everything from Disney classics to Vivaldi's "Winter" from "The Four Seasons." There's a musical instrument "petting zoo" in the Nordstrom Recital Hall lobby before the concert, so kids (and their adult companions) can try out an array of new sounds before sitting down to listen.

Melinda Bargreen: mbargreen@seattletimes.com

Icebreaker IV

Friday: "Worlds in Collision," curated by Alex Ross, author of "The Rest is Noise" and music critic of The New Yorker.

10 a.m.- 4:15 p.m., "Meet the Composers" sessions, with Mason Bates, William Brittelle, Anna Clyne, Alexandra Gardner, Judd Greenstein, Nico Muhly and Max Giteck Duykers.

4:15 p.m., talk, "The Rest is Noise" by Ross.

6 p.m., film, "The End of New Music" by Stephen Taylor.

7 p.m., preconcert talk, by Ross.

8 p.m., concert, featuring works of the above composers with the Seattle Chamber Players performing.

Saturday: "Classics of Downtown," curated by composer and Village Voice critic Kyle Gann, a professor at Bard College.

10 a.m.-4:15 p.m., "Meet the Composers" sessions, with John Luther Adams, Janice Giteck, Elodie Lauten, Eve Beglarian, William Duckworth and Gann.

4:15 p.m., talk, "Music Downtown" by Gann.

6 p.m., talk, by Seattle bassoonist/composer Seth Krimsky.

7 p.m., preconcert talk, by Gann.

8 p.m., concert, featuring works of the above composers with the Seattle Chamber Players performing.

Sunday: Morton Feldman Marathon, Third Floor Galleries at SAM.

10 a.m.-1 p.m., lecture/discussion by Ross, Gann and others.

1:30-5 p.m., performances of Feldman's music.

Seattle Chamber Music Society's Winter Festival

Thursday: 6:30 p.m. opening recital of Haydn and Beethoven from pianist Anna Polonsky; 7:30 p.m. concert, Mozart (Denk and Polonsky), Turina trio, Mendelssohn string quartet (Erin Keefe, Scott Yoo, Che-Yen Chen, and Toby Saks) and Brahms Piano Trio (Op. 87, with Soovin Kim, Bion Tsang and Denk).

Friday: Works from Ravel, Wolf, Schubert, Amy Beach (Piano Quintet) and Dvorak (Piano Quartet).

Saturday: 3 p.m. Family Concert with the Saint Helens Quartet.

Sunday: 2 p.m. recital, clarinetist Sean Osborn; 3 p.m. concert with works from Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Richard Strauss and Libby Larson, with Carmit Zori, Lily Francis, Yang and Denk among the players.