CLASSICAL
by Christopher DeLaurenti


THURSDAY 11/15

SEATTLE SYMPHONY--Conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson leads the SSO in two warhorses and a premiere: Sibelius' Fifth Symphony, Grieg's Piano Concerto, and Michael Hersch's Ashes of Memory. As a new-music nut, I'm grateful for the premiere, but I hope Music Director Gerard Schwarz will someday forsake the Grade B Greats (Haydn, Mendelssohn, Grieg, Vaughan-Williams, et al.) and remedy the SSO's egregious omission of post-1950 classics (Penderecki's Threnody, Varèse's Deserts, Xenakis' Metastasis, etc.). I pray that by 2020 the Mostly Mozarts will be supplanted by reams of Reich, definitely Dlugoszewski, and a passel of Partch (with the original instruments!). Benaroya Hall, 200 University St, 215-4747, 7:30 pm, $11-$71. Also Nov 16 and Nov 17 at 8 pm.


FRIDAY 11/16

REQUIEM--The Cathedral Choir of St. James, Opus 7 (a vocal ensemble), the Seattle Girls' Choir, Seattle Pro Musica, and Choral Arts Northwest team up to present Japanese composer Shigeaki Saegusa's Requiem. As a casualty of the tightening economy and shrinking column inches, this Classical calendar needs a requiem too. While this section of The Stranger will be no more, Classical music and its experimental offspring have no need of last rites. There will always be music lovers who insist on delving directly into music's past and probing the overlooked corners of the present--regardless of newspapers, magazines, or music writers like yours truly. St. James Cathedral, 804 Ninth Ave, 382-4874, 8 pm, $18; students and seniors pay as able.


SATURDAY 11/17

LA VENEXIANA--The Early Music Guild has imported La Venexiana, an ensemble dedicated to Baroque vocal music. These Italian singers attempt to scale one of the summits of Western civilization, the five-voice madrigals of Claudio Monteverdi. Town Hall, Eighth and Seneca, 325-7066, 8 pm, $18-$27.


SUNDAY 11/18

ORCHESTRA SEATTLE--With all the squawking about digital piracy and copyright infringement, it is easy to forget that composers have plundered their peers and progenitors for centuries. Stravinsky was perhaps the 20th century's wittiest musical thief; his Pulcinella, rife with pilferings from Pergolesi and other forgotten 18th-century Italian composers, bounces along with verve and panache. This generous gig also features Le bal masqué, a song cycle for baritone and chamber ensemble by Francis Poulenc, a piano concerto from the pen of Seattle composer John Verrall, and some Mozart I can actually recommend, the "Jupiter" symphony. Recital Hall at Benaroya, 200 University St, 682-5208, 3 pm, $7-$25.


MONDAY 11/19

COLORADO STRING QUARTET--This perpetually touring outfit drops by Cornish and plays music by Samuel Barber, Charles Ives, Laura Kaminsky, Karel Husa, and Irving Fine. Ives fans should note that the Coloradans have exhumed his rarely-heard String Quartet No. 1 from 1896. PONCHO Concert Hall, 710 E Roy, 726-5011, 8 pm, $7/$15.


OUT OF TOWN

SPACEBREATH, COPTER

Thurs Nov 15, Blackbird, Portland

JUDO FOR THE BLIND, BACHAUS, THE LATE GREATS

Fri Nov 16, Shoboat, Tacoma

FARHEED HAQUE, ALAN HERTZ

Fri Nov 16, Backstage Lounge, Vancouver, BC

THOMAS MAMPFUMO & THE BLACKS UNLIMITED

Fri Nov 16, Wild Duck Music Hall, Eugene

WORKS IN PROGRESS BENEFIT w/ CALVIN JOHNSON, ANDRAS JONES, SANDMAN, REBECCA PEARCY, JASON TRAEGER

Sat Nov 17, Olympia World News, Olympia

STACEY EARLE

Sat Nov 17, Blue Heron, Missoula

SEA JANE TRIP, ONCE FOR KICKS, 6FG

Sat Nov 17, Shoboat, Tacoma

HAWAIIAN MUSIC FESTIVAL

Sun Nov 18, University of Puget Sound Concert Hall, Tacoma

ICP ORCHESTRA

Sun Nov 18, Western Front, Vancouver, BC

GOOD CHARLOTTE, LEFTY, MEST

Mon Nov 19, Bourbon Street Stage, Boise

EAGLE-EYE CHERRY, LEONA NAESS

Tues Nov 20, Berbati's Pan, Portland

BRUCE GUTHRO, LEAHY

Tues Nov 20, Orpheum Theater, Vancouver, BC

TOO SLIM & THE TAILDRAGGERS

Fri Nov 23, Barnaby's Pub, Walla Walla