It terrified me when I was 10, and it terrifies me now: Janet
Leigh’s gaping, water-ringed mouth and, most of all, that sonic
avatar of a slashing knife, violins shrieking like maddened ravens in
Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. I shouldn’t have seen that
iconic scene so young, but I was a dutiful viewer of channel 13’s Night
at the Movies and its host, Stanley Kramer. By then equally steeped in
Hollywood lore and alcohol, the great producer/director rightly
declared the shower-stabbing sequence a perfect marriage of sound and
image.
This weekend, the Seattle Symphony plays Bernard
Herrmann‘s score live, synchronized to a giant projection of
Psycho (Thurs–Sat Oct 29–31, Benaroya Hall, 7:30 pm,
$17–$99). Adam Stern, an underrated conductor who champions
neglected corners of the repertory with the Seattle Philharmonic
Orchestra, leads the band. I might be too creeped out to go.
Later this weekend, don’t miss the
Seattle Pianist
Collective (Sun Nov 1, Seattle Asian Art Museum, 2 pm, $15/$10),
which commingles pianists specializing in classical and contemporary
composition with jazz and other improvised musicians. Dawn
Clement, Julie Ives, Oksana Ezhokina, Peter
Stevens, and Kelly Wyse perform music by
Shostakovich, Arvo Pärt, and Ervin Schulhoff.
The
Michael Owcharuk Trio, Don Larson, and
electronic-music maestro Rafael
Anton Irisarri complement
the bill with their own tributes to the Day of the Dead.
Another impressive collective has a new venue: Tuning the Air moves its regular Thursday performances (through Dec 17 except for Nov
26, Fremont Abbey, 7:45 pm, $10) upstairs to the resonant “Great Hall”
of the Fremont Abbey. From a winning cover of “Kashmir” to pieces
influenced by the classical guitar tradition, flamenco, and progressive
rock, this surround-sound collective of guitarists immerses you
in strums, chords, and melodies that tilt, rotate, and swirl.
The Earshot Jazz Festival continues (through Sun Nov 8,
various venues, see www.earshot.org for details) with several
must-see groups, notably the Jim Knapp Orchestra (Sat Oct 31,
Poncho Hall at Cornish, 8 pm, $18) and the free-improvising trio of
Frank Gratkowski, Wilbert de Joode, and Achim
Kaufman (Mon Nov 2, Chapel Performance Space, 7:30 pm, $15).
Also, I moderate a preconcert discussion with Wayne Horvitz and Robin Holcomb, who present an evening of chamber music,
including a new string quartet by Holcomb along with Horvitz’s These
Hills of Glory for string quartet and improviser (Wed Nov 4,
Recital Hall at Benaroya, 7:30 pm, $19/$29). I treasure this pair as
makers of “rural classical,” music that embodies a sense of
isolation that is neither urban nor existential yet remote and content
with solitude. Together, Horvitz and Holcomb pry the notion of
classical music just a tiny bit wider. 
