Concert review
Xian Zhang has been very much in the news as she launches her first season as Seattle Symphony’s new music director.
Following the Sept. 13 opening gala concert, last week brought another milestone: the season’s first regular program, performed Sept. 18 and 20 (the performance I attended). Saturday’s concert offered an early glimpse of how she and the orchestra are beginning to shape their partnership.
Zhang has a visually fascinating podium presence. While her right hand keeps the musical narrative on course with the aid of a baton, she makes an eye-catching variety of micro-gestures with her left to shape moment-by-moment nuances of expression. The result feels like a process of co-creation with the musicians rather than a top-down imposition of will.
The evening opened with Michael Abels’ “Delights and Dances.” A Los Angeles-based composer best known for his scores for filmmaker Jordan Peele, Abels shared the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for music with Rhiannon Giddens for their opera “Omar.”
Abels wrote “Delights and Dances” in 2007 to celebrate the Sphinx Organization, which supports talented young Black and Latino musicians. Conceived as a mini-concerto for string quartet and orchestral strings, the Seattle Symphony performance featured an array of Sphinx Competition laureates: violinists Rubén Rengel and Melissa White, violist Celia Hatton and cellist Gabriel Cabezas, who serves as Seattle Symphony artist in focus this season.
Beginning with a searching solo cello line, Cabezas was soon joined by his colleagues as Abels skillfully wove this spirit of lyrical freedom with material drawn from blues and bluegrass idioms. Each musician showed a distinct personality while blending their voices into a layered conversation that felt connected yet spontaneous.
In brief remarks before the concert began, Zhang invited the young guest artists to speak about their careers rather than introduce herself. By opening with a piece created to celebrate diversity in classical music, she framed the program with a clear message: amplifying a range of voices will be part of her vision as music director.
As the opener for the first regular program of the season, however, the piece made for something of an odd choice. Involving only the string section, the Seattle Symphony was relegated to an accompanying role, offering little to showcase the musicians themselves.
From there, the focus shifted squarely to Zhang and the orchestra with another dance-inspired work, Zoltán Kodály’s “Dances of Galánta.” Written in 1933 to mark the 80th anniversary of the Budapest Philharmonic, the piece draws on Hungarian dance melodies Kodály remembered from his childhood years in the eponymous town.
“Dances” moves gradually from rhapsodic, lyrical reflections to increasingly frenzied episodes, with kaleidoscopic colors and rhythms that test the precision and flair of the entire ensemble.
Zhang showed a keen sense of pacing in this slow-burning arc, building the tension gradually while pulling back at key moments for sudden — and strikingly effective — changes in volume. The prominent solo clarinet parts, rendered with eloquent agility by principal Benjamin Lulich, were a particular highlight, setting the tone for the other winds, who also excelled throughout.
Occupying the program’s second half, Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” in Ravel’s colorful orchestration for expanded forces, packed the stage with musicians — including a formidable battery of percussion arrayed across the upstage area.
Zhang worked closely with the players to shape a compelling sense of narrative. The abrupt transition from the bustling “Limoges Market” to the sepulchral sonic depths that open the “Catacombs” section was especially gripping, highlighting her instinct for timing and contrast. She balanced playfulness and drama, culminating in a “Great Gate of Kyiv” that felt both thrillingly surprising and inevitable.
As the first of nine programs Zhang will lead in Seattle this season, the performance suggested a partnership still taking shape but already marked by mutual purpose. Her tenure seems likely to develop into one defined by collaboration, refreshing detail and a broadening of voices on the Seattle Symphony stage.
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