~ Alan Hovhaness Centennial News ~
Seattle Symphony 2010-11 Season to Honor Hovhaness Centenary
For the last three decades of his extraordinarily productive life, Seattle was the home of Alan Hovhaness, and the city's musical establishments honored their adopted musical son frequently during his years as a local resident. It is therefore unsurprising that the most high profile Hovhaness centennial concert celebrations will occur there, where the city's Seattle Symphony will commemorate Hovhaness in two concerts during March 2011, the month in which the 100th anniversary falls.
On 24th March 2011 at Benaroya Hall three Hovhaness works will be heard: Symphony No.7 Nanga Parvat, Prelude and Quadruple Fugue, and the famous Symphony No.2, better known as Mysterious Mountain. The concert will end with Dvorak's popular Cello Concerto.
Two days later a 26th March concert will feature two more contrasting Hovhaness symphonies: No.14 Ararat, and the more famous No.50, Mount St. Helens which commemorates the 1980 eruption of that volcano. Another well-loved cello concerto, of Englishman Sir Edward Elgar, will close the evening.
The Seattle Symphony's outgoing conductor, Gerard Schwarz, told the Seattle Times "We're going to make it into a community celebration". Schwarz is a long-time Hovhaness champion having first recorded the composer's orchestral music in the 1990s for the Delos label, andlater for the Telarc label.
The Ararat symphony will be performed by the University of Washington Wind Ensemble, conducted by another staunch Hovhaness advocate, Keith Brion. Most famous for his New Sousa Band concerts and recordings, Brion has long been associated with the music of Hovhaness. The Ararat symphony is just one of six Hovhaness wind symphonies that Brion has recorded in the last few years for the Naxos label.