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An evening of piano four-hands and Mendelssohn’s Octet launch Seattle Chamber Music Society’s summer festival, with distinct personalities repeatedly braiding into something larger.

Presented without staging, Seattle Opera’s concert Daphne places Strauss’ extreme vocal demands and saturated orchestral writing in sharp relief, offering a high-risk encounter with a rarely heard late opera.

In ‘The Eloquent Oboe’, Tekla Cunningham and colleagues draw out the quiet drama in solo Bach cantatas – where the oboe’s sigh becomes the soul’s own speech.

A lean Seattle Symphony under guest conductor Ivars Taurins brings stylish energy to Baroque orchestral theater by Telemann, Hasse and Handel.

Two rhapsodies anchor a program that ranges from brass-driven bravura to Ravel’s iridescent orchestral color. Seattle Symphony closes its season with breadth, nuance and elegant command from emeritus Ludovic Morlot. 

Kazuki Yamada returns to the Seattle Symphony with a pair of Requiems and a rousing Elgar Enigma.

South African musical phenomenon Abel Selaocoe plays multiple roles as the soloist in his Four Spirits, which is complemented by a shockingly fresh Symphonie fantastique under Lawrence Renes.

Hilary Hahn and Brahms are the big name draws, but Seattle Symphony's program introduces a remarkable young conductor who makes a powerful impact.

The New York Phil concluded its six-concert residency at this summer’s Bravo! Vail Festival with a survey of Stephen Sondheim’s legacy stylishly led by Leonard Slatkin.

Chamber music values and luxury casting with world-class string players enriched this hefty program of an elegiac Bach sonata and valedictory works by Bartók and Brahms.

A light, amiable touch predominates in the Peter Kazaras production of Le nozze di Figaro, with a focus on the opera's impeccable comic pacing.

PatKop gives a life-or-death account of Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto with the Seattle Symphony and Thomas Dausgaard on a programme framed by Scandinavian colours.

As he prepares to lead an all-Berlioz programme at the Round Top Festival in Texas, the widely travelled German conductor shares his ideas on what makes an authentic musician.