Conrad Tao’s Playlist Series concert for the Seattle Symphony: a journey beyond boundaries
When the Seattle Symphony presented pianist Conrad Tao with an opportunity to curate a program anchored by a Mozart piano concerto, his answer was an emphatic yes.
‘I love programming, it is one of my favorite things about getting to be a musician professionally’, Tao said recently.
His forthcoming concert is the second of three Playlist Series performances by the Seattle Symphony this year. Tao is a logical choice for the series. Not only has he played with many of the major orchestras of the world, but he is also a composer who studied under Christopher Theofanidis, and a curator with a knack for concert programming. He particularly enjoys finding harmony between ‘unexpected’ works partnered in the same performance or album.
The Playlist Series features smaller ensembles mixing chamber and orchestral pieces, and it is one of the hidden gems of the Seattle Symphony’s current season. Mozart is a recurring composer across the series: an earlier program featured his Piano Concerto No.20. In May, Concertmaster Noah Geller will take the stage with his own program, anchored by Mozart’s Violin Concerto No.5.
The genesis for Tao’s Playlist program – set for 1 March – is Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.24 in C minor. ‘It’s a piece that I’m really obsessed with. The central idea for the program was inspired by the opening of the Mozart concerto’, he remarked. ‘The concerto is extremely dramatic and subtle and has a lot of shadow in it’.
From this seed, he grew a program that features Stravinsky, Purcell and two modern works. ‘The program is inspired by the combination of haunting mystery and formal elegance found in the Mozart’, said Tao. ‘The alien sensation of that opening Mozart phrase, the way Mozart’s phrases often take subtly strange turns yet feel perfect’.
Stravinsky’s ‘Dumbarton Oaks’ concerto jolts the program to life. Baroque influences abound in this three-movement work, and he uses short, incisive phrases to build a rhythmically taut masterpiece that recalls Bach’s Brandenburgs – allowing it to sound both old and modern. Per Tao, ‘It is classic Stravinsky, the phrases strut in unexpected ways’.
Purcell’s F major Fantasia for strings takes us back to the pinnacle of viol composition with complex layering of string voices and energetic rhythms, and two contemporary pieces round out the program: Morton Feldman’s ‘The Viola in My Life’ No.3 and Linda Catlin Smith’s ‘Orient Point’. Feldman’s piece unfolds naturally and asks listeners to let the music in, rather than carrying us through with familiar forms and melodies. Tao paired Feldman’s work with Mozart’s concerto previously in a concert with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. The pieces complement one another in his view: ‘It’s unsettled harmonically compared to the Mozart, but so is the opening of the Mozart’.
Smith’s ‘Orient Point’ is probably the least familiar piece on the program. The 67-year-old Canadian composer might be known to contemporary music aficionados, but for others she is likely a new musical voice. ‘Orient Point’ is named for the easternmost tip of Long Island where sky and sea meet in a constantly changing environment. The work is scored for string orchestra and is, at the composer’s insistence, agnostic when it comes to narrative. It doesn’t try to create an image of the actual Orient Point the way a programmatic piece might, which is an aspect that attracted Tao. ‘I was really attracted to the beauty of it. The enigma is that Catlin Smith kind of insists that her music is not necessarily personally expressive, which I don’t disagree with. There is a mysterious, almost objective quality to her work’. This objectivity opens the possibility for multiple responses from both the audience and the performer: it can represent the sounds of water, wind, nature or even a deep personal longing.
Even if much of the music may be unfamiliar, the pieces each have a purpose. The audience experiences neoclassical and Baroque idioms before abandoning rigid structure for the atmospheric soundworlds of Feldman and Smith. ‘Listen to the beauty of the sounds’, Tao advised. ‘There is a drama in the music, but it is a drama that unfolds in contemplative and sometimes surprising ways’. Eventually, Tao returns the audience to the familiar world of Mozart, where we appreciate the composer’s genius with a refreshed perspective.
Inspired by Mozart, Conrad Tao has crafted a program that transcends boundaries. Each work offers its own experience, inviting listeners to explore new sonic territories. With Tao as the guide, we are reminded of the profound power of music to surprise us by evoking unexpected emotions and revealing surprising, delightful connections.
Zach Carstensen
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