Today's Birthdays

Georg Anton Benda (1722-1795)
Laszlo Lajtha (1892-1963)
John Duke (1899-1984)
Lena Horne (1917-2010)
James Loughran (1931)
Giles Swayne (1946)
Stephen Barlow (1954)
Esa-Pekka Salonen (1958)

and

John Gay (1685-1732)
Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004)

Portland Opera's Barber of Seville racks up the laughs

Aleksandra Romano as Rosina, John Moore as Figaro, Adam Lau as Don Basilio, Eduardo Chama as Doctor Bartolo, Jack Swanson as Count Almaviva, , and Antonia Tamer as Berta in Portland Opera's 2019 production of Rossini's The Barber of Seville. Photo by Cory Weaver/Portland Opera.

Portland’s Opera’s performance of The Barber of Seville was pure comic fun with an exceptional cast, led by John Moore as the ebullient and resourceful Figaro, raking in the laughs from all corners of Keller Auditorium on closing night, June 15th. Director Christopher Mattaliano really has this Rossini number dialed in, because the singers used a compendium of well-timed gestures, winks, and nods in a totally fluid way that perfectly conveyed the humor of the story.

The production, a revival of the one used by the company last time in 2010, featured staging from Minnesota Opera and costumes from Washington National Opera. While some of the scenery looked a little tired, the colorful, mostly modern garb, enhanced the comedy.

John Moore as Figaro, Aleksandra Romano as Rosina, and Jack Swanson as Count Almaviva in Portland Opera's 2019 production of Rossini's The Barber of Seville. Photo by Cory Weaver/Portland Opera.

Entering from an aisle in the midst of the audience, Moore’s energetic Figaro had moxie and charisma to spare, bringing down the house with the famous “Largo al factotum.” Jack Swanson’s lyric tenor graced every note given to the role of Count Almaviva, and his annoying nasal tone as the music teacher generated buckets of chuckles. Aleksandra Romano created a charming yet foxy and absolutely compelling Rosina, who stayed one step ahead of the men. Among Romano’s many highlights was a moment when her character fainted yet kept singing!

Eduardo Chama had a field day as the conniving but bungling Dr. Bartolo. Adam Lau was terrifically funny as the Don Basilio, and his animated singing of “La calunnia,” a lesson in dirty tricks, caused a riot of laughter. Antonia Tamer, shone as Berta and made her one big aria about the plight of being an old maid a memorable highlight of the evening.

Eduardo Chama as Doctor Bartolo and Aleksandra Romano as Rosina in Portland Opera's 2019 production of Rossini's The Barber of Seville. Photo by Cory Weaver/Portland Opera

The ensemble numbers were splendid, especially the sextet at the end of the first act in which main character are fighting each other in a chaos of thoughts and emotion. The chorus sang with gusto and hammed it up as an inept police force.

George Manahan conducted the orchestra expertly and doubled on the harpsichord. Here and there he played riffs from Bach’s Toccata and Fugue and Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, that added a little extra amusement for opera buffs.

One newish wrinkle in this production was an implication that Dr. Bartolo had a secret attraction to men. This was instigated through a snippet of flirtatious behavior by Figaro and capped off at the very end of the opera when Figaro planted a kiss on Dr. Bartolo, who embarrassingly enjoyed it. The seeming innocence of it all did add to the comic lightheartedness of story and accepted with chuckles by the audience.

Today's Birthdays

Aarre Merikanto (1893-1958)
Nelson Eddy (1901-1967)
Leroy Anderson (1908-1975)
Frank Loesser (1910-1969)
Bernard Hermann (1911-1975)
Rafael Kubelik (1914-1996)
Ezra Laderman (1924-2015)
James Dick (1940)
Joelle Wallach (1946)
"Little Eva" Boyd 1945-2003)
Anne-Sophie Mutter (1963)

and

Antoine de Saint Exupéry (1900-1944)
James K. Baxter (1926-1972)
Oriana Fallaci (1929-2006)

Oregon Bach Fest article in Classical Voice North America

CVNA has posted my article about the Oregon Bach Festival here. It contains a synopsis of the latest news and a preview of the festival's offerings this year.

Today's Birthdays

Napoléon Coste (1805-1883)
Joseph Joachim (1831-1907)
Richard Rodgers (1902-1979)
Arnold Shaw (1909-1989)
Sergiu Celibidache (1912-1996)
George Lloyd (1913-1998)
Giselher Klebe (1925-2009)
Robert Xavier Rodriguez (1946)
Philip Fowke (1950)
Thomas Hampson (1955)

and

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936)
Eric Ambler (1909-1989)
Mark Helprin (1947)

Today's Birthdays

Friedrich Silcher (1789-1860)
Toti Dal Monte (1893-1975)
Karel Reiner (1910-1979)
George Theophilus Walker (1922-2018)
Ruth Schönthal (1924-2006)
Anno Moffo (1932-2006)
Hugh Wood (1932)
Daniel Asia (1953)
Nancy Gustafson (1956)
Magnus Lindberg (1958)
Robert King (1960)

and

James Smithson (1765-1829)
Paul Lawrence Dunbar (1872-1906)
Helen Keller (1880-1968)
Frank O'Hara (1926-1966)
Lucille Clifton (1936-2010)
Alice McDermott (1953)

Today's Birthdays

Big Bill Broonzy (1893-1958)
Hugues Cuénod (1902-2010)
Wolfgang Windgassen (1914-1974)
Giuseppe Taddei (1916-2010)
Syd Lawrence (1923-1998)
Jacob Druckman (1928-1996)
Claudio Abbado (1933-2014)

and

Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973)
Walter Farley (1916-1989)

Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival announces its 4th season

From the press release:

The Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival announces it’s 2019 season, featuring music and wine pairing performances over three weekends, August 3 rd -18th. The Festival brings world class chamber music into intimate, one-of-a-kind winery spaces to create unique concert experiences that enhance the beauty and craft of both. In 2019, the Festival will explore the theme of “Old World, New World” through the works of both well-known and emerging composers. Acclaimed violinist and composer Jessie Montgomery will serve as the Festival’s 2019 Composer-in- Residence, sharing insight into her music and performing with Festival musicians. Programs will also feature works by Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, as well as women composers including Caroline Shaw, Elisabeth Jacquet, and Amy Beach, and celebrated Oregon violist and composer Kenji Bunch.

In 2019, the Festival continues its partnerships with signature Oregon wineries. The season kicks off with performances in the J. Christopher Wines barrel room on August 3-4. The second weekend features new winery partner Archery Summit Winery on August 10 th and a return to Elk Cove Vineyards on the 11 th . The season will conclude on August 17-18 with two performances at Sokol Blosser Winery . All performances include a wine tasting chosen to pair with each program and celebrate the craft of the host winery.

Old World, New World Both wine and chamber music celebrate the past and reinvent it for the future. The Festival’s 2019 season explores the connections between past, present and future in both wine and music. Each concert in the 2019 season pairs a masterpiece by one of the big “B’s” – Bach, Beethoven and Brahms – with works by brilliant living masters.

“This season we’re excited to continue celebrating pioneering voices by exploring the creativity and power that come from traditions handed from one generation to the next,” said Sasha Callahan, violinist and Festival co-founder. “There’s a special energy and vitality that comes from experiencing masterpieces of the past alongside fresh new works by some of today’s most exciting voices. It’s particularly exciting when the composer is present as performer and collaborator, which is a unique part of Festival concerts.” The season showcases both Jessie Montgomery and Kenji Bunch as performers and composers. It will be a powerful opportunity for audiences to hear these brilliant creative minds in conversation with the masters that inspired them to search for their own distinct voice.

“Music, like wine, comes to life in unique ways when enjoyed live, in the company of others,” said Leo Eguchi, cellist and Festival co-founder. “Yet it’s not often that audiences are given an opportunity to savor them together. This year’s programs strike an artful balance between the old masters and the need to express a new time and place. True craft and technique come from hard work and tradition, and it’s exciting to hear the connections between old and new.”

About the Festival’s 2019 Composer-in-Residence 2019 Composer-in-Residence Jessie Montgomery is one of the most in demand composers living today, with a unique and powerful new voice. Drawing from her classical training as a violinist and also from growing up in her father’s NYC recording studio listening to jazz, rock, and music from around the world, Montgomery subtly evokes the rallies and protests her mixed race parents were engaged in on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 1980’s into a vocabulary at once familiar and distinctly her own. Her music tells her story as an African American woman simultaneously in love with the classical tradition and eager to expand it to include her experience. As a violinist, she’s a member of the Catalyst Quartet and a collaborator with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silkroad Ensemble. Recent compositional milestones include residencies with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and New York Philharmonic, and commissions from some of the world’s leading chamber ensembles.

Ticket Information Tickets are available at www.wvchambermusic.org . Tickets are $50 for general admission and $35 for members of each hosting winery’s wine club and include a wine tasting paired with each program. Tickets for students and youth are available for $20, and season subscriptions are available for $120.

Performance Details The Festival features performances on Saturday and Sunday afternoons for three weekends beginning Saturday, August 3 rd and closing Sunday, August 18 th .

Weekend 1: August 3rd-4th The Festival kicks off with opening weekend performances in J. Christopher Wines’ barrel room, located in Newberg, OR. Surrounded by J. Christopher’s maturing vintages, both concerts will be anchored by Bach’s monumental Goldberg Variations, arranged for string trio, and complemented by Caroline Shaw’s Limestone and Felt and Missy Mazzoli’s Lies you can believe in. Shaw’s work explores the contemplative, sacred components of the Bach, while the Mazzoli plays with the more driving, rock and roll variations.

Weekend 2: August 10 th -11th The second weekend, Saturday, August 10 th at Archery Summit Winery in Dundee, and Sunday, August 11 th , at Elk Cove Vineyards in Gaston, will center around the sublime Op. 111 String Quintet by Johannes Brahms, as well as music by Amy Beach and Caroline Shaw. Performances will include works and conversation with Festival violist and composer Kenji Bunch

Weekend 3: August 17 th -18th The final weekend at Sokol Blosser opens with a rarely performed Sonata for violin and cello by the almost forgotten, extraordinary early Baroque master Elisabeth Jacquet. Concerts will then welcome 2019 Festival Composer-in-Residence Jessie Montgomery for performances of two of her string quartets, Strum and Source Code. Jessie will join Festival musicians on violin as well as for conversation about her music. The programs will conclude with Beethoven’s transcendent Op. 132 String Quartet, his great prayer of thanksgiving written after recovering unexpectedly from a serious illness.

About the Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival The Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival is a dynamic Festival of classical music concerts in Oregon wine country. Founded by violinist Sasha Callahan and cellist Leo Eguchi, the Festival is focused on bringing people together to experience the world’s greatest musical masterpieces alongside the Willamette Valley’s world-class wine. The 501(c)3 organization’s goal is to enrich the lives of Oregon and Willamette Valley communities through concerts that celebrate the beauty and craft of extraordinary wine and music hand-in-hand. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit: www.wvchambermusic.org , or find WVCMF on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .

Today's Birthdays

Gustave Charpentier (1860-1956)
Arthur Tracy (1899-1997)
Bill Russo (1928-2003)
Kurt Schwertsik (1935)
Carly Simon (1945)

and

Antoni Gaudí (1852-1926)
George Abbott (1887-1995)
George Orwell (1903-1950)
Sonia Sotomayor (1954)

Today's Birthdays

Harry Partch (1901-1974)
Pierre Fournier (1906-1986)
Milton Katims (1909-2006)
Denis Dowling (1910-1984)
Terry Riley (1935)

and

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)
John Ciardi (1916-1986)
Anita Desai (1937)
Stephen Dunn (1939)

Today's Birthdays

Carl Reinecke (1824-1910)
Mieczyslaw Horszowski (1892-1993)
George Russell (1923-2009)
Adam Faith (1940-2003)
James Levine (1943)
Nigel Osborne (1948)
Nicholas Cleobury (1950)
Sylvia McNair (1956)

and

Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966)
Michael Shaara (1928-1988)
David Leavitt (1961)

Recommended concerts for this summer in Oregon

The Oregonian published my list of recommended concerts for this summer in the Friday print edition of the paper and here online.  It's always difficult to make a selection, because there are so many great concerts.

Today's Birthdays

Francesco Manfredini (1684-1762)
Étienne Nicolas Méhul (1763-1817)
Frank Heino Damrosch (1859-1937)
Jennie Tourel (1900-1973)
Walter Leigh (1905-1942)
Sir Peter Pears (1910-1986)
Hans-Hubert Schönzeler (1925-1997)
Pierre Thibaud (1929-2004)
Libor Pešek (1933)
Pierre Amoyal (1949)
Christopher Norton (1953)

and

Harriett Mulford Stone Lothrop (1844-1924)
Erich Maria Remarque (1898-1970)
Billy Wilder (1906-2002)
Joseph Papp (1921-1991)
Meryl Streep (1949)
Elizabeth Warren (1949)

Today's Birthdays

Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (1732-1795)
Henry Holden Huss (1862-1953)
Hilding Rosenberg (1892-1985)
Harry Newstone (1921-2006)
Lalo Schifrin (1932)
Diego Masson (1935)
Philippe Hersant (1948)
Judith Bingham (1952)
Jennifer Larmore (1958)

and

Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1972)
Donald Peattie (1898-1964)
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)
Mary McCarthy (1912-1989)
Ian McEwan (1948)

and from the Composers Datebook

On this day in 1890. Richard Strauss's tone-poem "Death and Transfiguration" and "Burleske" for Piano and Orchestra were given their premieres in Eisenach, at a convention of the General German Music Association, with the composer conducting and Eugen d'Albert as the piano soloist in the "Burleske".

Today's Birthdays

Joseph Martin Kraus (1756-1792)
Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880)
Wilfred Pelletier (1896-1982)
Chet Atkins (1924-2001)
Ingrid Haebler (1926)
Eric Dolphy (1928-1964)
Arne Nordheim (1931-2010)
Mickie Most (1938-2003)
Brian Wilson (1942)
Anne Murray (1945)
André Watts (1946)
Lionel Richie (1949)

and

Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948)
Lillian Hellman (1905-1984)
Josephine Winslow Johnson (1910-1990)
Vikram Seth (1952)

Today's Birthdays

François Rebel (1701-1775)
Johann Wenzel Stamitz (1717-1757)
Carl Zeller (1842-1898)
Alfredo Catalani (1854-1893)
Sergei Taneyev (1856-1915)
Guy Lombardo (1902-1977)
Edwin Gerschefski (1909-1988)
Anneliese Rothenberger (1926-2010)
Elmar Oliveira (1950)
Philippe Manoury 1952)

and

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
Pauline Kael (1919-2001)
Tobias Wolff (1945)
Salman Rushdie (1947

Today's Birthdays

Antonio Maria Bononcini (1677-1726)
Ignaz Pleyel (1757-1831)
David Popper (1843-1913)
Sir George Thalben-Ball (1896-1987)
Edward Steuermann (1892-1964)
Manuel Rosenthal (1904-2003)
Eduard Tubin (1905-1982)
Paul McCartney (1942)
Hans Vonk (1942-2004)
Anthony Halstead (1945)
Diana Ambache (1948)
Eva Marton (1948)
Peter Donohoe (1953)

and

Geoffrey Hill (1932-2016)
Gail Godwin (1937)
Jean McGarry (1948)
Chris Van Allsburg (1949)
Amy Bloom (1953)
Richard Powers (1957)

Today's Birthdays

John Wesley (1703-1791)
Charles Gounod (1818-1893)
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
Hermann Reutter (1900-1985)
Einar Englund (1916-1999)
Galina Ustvolskaya (1919-2006)
Sir Edward Downes (1924-2009)
Christian Ferras (1933-1982)
Gérard Grisey (1946-1998)
Derek Lee Ragin (1958)

and

M. C. Escher (1898-1972)
John Hersey (1914-1993)
Ron Padgett (1942)

Today's Birthdays

Niccolò Vito Piccinni (1728-1800)
Helen Traubel (1899-1972)
Willi Boskovsky (1909-1990)
Sergiu Comissiona (1928-2005)
Lucia Dlugoszewski (1931-2000)
Jerry Hadley (1952-2007)
David Owen Norris (1953)

and

Geronimo (1829-1909)
Joyce Carol Oates (1938)

Today's Birthdays

Franz Danzi (1763-1826)
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)
Ernestine Schumann‑Heink (1861-1936)
Guy Ropartz (1864-1955)
Robert Russell Bennett (1894-1981)
Sir Thomas Armstrong (1898-1994)
Otto Luening (1900-1996)
Geoffrey Parsons (1929-1995)
Waylon Jennings (1937-2002)
Harry Nilsson (1941-1994)
Paul Patterson (1947)
Rafael Wallfisch (1953)
Robert Cohen (1959)

and

Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827)
Saul Steinberg (1914-1999)
Dava Sobel (1947)

Today's Birthdays

Antonio Sacchini (1730-1786)
Simon Mayr (1763-1845)
Nicolai Rubinstein (1835-1881)
John McCormack (1884-1945)
Heddle Nash (1894-1961)
Rudolf Kempe (1910-1976)
Stanley Black (1913-2002)
Theodore Bloomfield (1923-1998)
Natalia Gutman (1942)
Lang Lang (1982)

and

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896)
John Bartlett (1820-1905)
Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971)
Ernesto (Che) Guevara de la Serna (1928-1967)
Jonathan Raban (1942)
Mona Simpson (1971)

Today's Birthdays

Anton (Antonín) Wranitzky (1761-1820)
Anton Eberl (1766-1807)
Elisabeth Schumann (1888-1952)
Carlos Chavez (1899-1978)
Alan Civil (1929-1989)
Gwynne Howell (1938)
Sarah Connolly (1963)
Alain Trudel (1966)

and

Frances Burney (1752-1840)
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
Mary Antin (1881-1949)
Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957)
William S. Burroughs (1914-1997)

Today's Birthdays

Vanni Marcoux (1877-1962)
Werner Josten (1895-1963)
Alexandre Tansman (1897-1986)
Leon Goossens (1897-1988)
Maurice Ohana (1913-1992)
Ian Partridge (1938)
Chick Corea (1941)
Oliver Knussen (1952)

and

Harriet Martineau (1802-1876)
Charles Kingsley (1819-1875)
Egon Schiele (1890-1918)
Djuna Barnes (1892-1982)
Anne Frank (1929-1945)

Today's Birthdays

Francesco Antonio Bonporti (1672-1749)
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
George Frederick McKay (1899-1970)
Shelly Manne (1920-1984)
Carlisle Floyd (1926)
Antony Rooley (1944)
Douglas Bostock (1955)
Conrad Tao (1994)

and

Ben Jonson (1572-1637)
William Styron (1925-2006)
Athol Fugard (1932)

Today's Birthdays

Heinrich von Herzogenberg (1843-1900)
Frederick Loewe (1904-1988)
Ralph Kirkpatrick (1911-1984)
Tikhon Khrennikov (1913-2007)
Bruno Bartoletti (1925-2013)
Mark-Anthony Turnage (1960)

and

Gustave Courbet (1819-1877)
Terence Rattigan (1911-1977)
Saul Bellow (1915-2005)
James Salter (1925-2015)
Maurice Sendak (1928-2012)

Today's Birthdays

Otto Nicolai (1810-1849)
Alberic Magnard (1865-1914)
Carl Nielsen (1865-1931)
Cole Porter (1891-1964)
Dame Gracie Fields (1898-1979)
Ingolf Dahl (1912-1970)
Les Paul (1915-2009)
Franco Donatoni (1927-2000)
Charles Wuorinen (1938)
Ileana Cotrubas (1939)

and

Baroness Bertha von Suttner (1843-1914)
George Axelrod (1922-2003)
Patricia Cornwell (1956)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1840, Franz Liszt gives a solo performance at the Hanover Square Rooms in London billed as "Recitals." This was the first time the term "recital" was used to describe a public musical performance, and it caused much discussion and debate at the time. Liszt is credited with both inventing and naming the now-common solo piano "recital."

Today's Birthdays

Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1750)
Nicolas Dalayrac (1753-1809)
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942)
Reginald Kell (1906-1981)
Emanuel Ax (1949)

and

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959)
John W Campbell (1910-1970)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1912, Ravel's ballet, "Daphnis et Chloé" was premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, by Diaghilev and the Ballet Russe, Pierre Monteux conducting.

Today's Birthdays

Leopold Auer (1845-1930)
George Szell (1897-1970)
Ilse Wolf (1921-1999)
Philippe Entremont (1934)
Neeme Järvi (1937)
Sir Tom Jones (1940)
Jaime Laredo (1941)
Prince (1958-2015)
Roberto Alagna (1963)
Olli Mustonen (1967)

and

Paul Gaugin (1848-1903)
Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973)
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000)
Nikki Giovanni (1943)
Orham Pamuk (1952)
Louise Erdrich (1954)

Today's Birthdays

Sir John Stainer (1840-1901)
Siegfried Wagner (1869-1930)
Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978)
Vincent Persichetti (1915-1987)
Iain Hamilton (1922-2000)
Serge Nigg (1924-2008)
Klaus Tennstedt (1926-1998)
Louis Andriessen (1939)

and

Pierre Corneille (1606-1684)
Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837)
Thomas Mann (1875-1955)
Maxine Kumin (1925-2014)
Robert Pirsig (1928-2017)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1931, Henry Cowell's "Synchrony" received its premiere in Paris, at the first of two concerts of modern American music with the Orchestre Straram conducted by Nicholas Slonimsky and funded anonymously by Charles Ives. On the same program, Slonimsky also conducted the Orchestre Straram in the European premieres of works by Adolph Weiss ("American Life"), Ives ("Three Places in England"), Carl Ruggles ("Men and Mountains"), and the Cuban composer Amadeo Roldan ("La Rehambatamba").

Today's Birthdays

Arthur Somervell (1863-1937)
Robert Mayer (1879-1985)
Eduard Tubin (1905-1982)
Daniel Pinkham (1923-2006)
Peter Schat (1935-2003)
Martha Argerich (1941)
Bill Hopkins (1943-1981)

and

John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946)
Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936)
Alfred Kazin (1915-1998)
David Wagoner (1926)
Margaret Drabble (1939)
David Hare (1947)

Vancouver Symphony closes out season with Andorra-inspired concerto and emphatic “Pictures at an Exhibition”

There are not many regional orchestras that can boast of a music director who can write accomplished orchestral works and place that them on equal footing with one of the most beloved pieces in the orchestral repertoire. But with Salvador Brotons, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra has an ace composer and conductor, and that’s why last weekend’s program paired the American premiere of his “Double Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Orchestra” with Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.” Tossing in the “Waltz and Polonaise” from Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” for good measure, the capacity crowd at Skyview Concert Hall on Saturday afternoon (June 1) got a real treat at the final concert of the orchestra’s 40th season.

Brotons wrote the “Double Concerto” in 2017 to celebrate Gerard and Lluis Claret, Andorran brothers who have had longstanding international careers. For the Vancouver Symphony’s concert, the featured soloists were Eva Richey, the orchestra’s concertmaster, and Dieter Ratzlaf, its principal cellist. They performed expertly, although in duet sections with the orchestra, it was easier to hear Richey because of the higher pitch of her instrument.

The orchestra opened the “Double Concerto” with a dusky solemn theme that was picked up by the soloists before transitioning in to a faster passage with short runs. The change of pace and exchange of melody (based on a tune by Brotons’ father) included with some lovely duets for the soloists. The movement concluded with a soft landing and no vibrato so that the last chord lingered in a slightly eerie way.

The second movement began with a delicate passage from the woodwinds before the soloists took over. Based on two Andorran melodies, the music was more highly charged and uplifting, ending with a strong collaboration from the brass and strings.

The soloists were featured in an extended cadenza for the third movement, rising out of the depths and reaching a vantage point at which they were joined by their comrades to start fourth movement in a joyful, folksy melody that was inspired by the “Ball de la Marratxa,” a lively tune from the Andorran parish of Sant Julià de Lòria (here is a clip of Andorrans dancing to this tune on YouTube). The piece wrapped up emphatically, and the audience appreciated it with bravos and extended applause.

After intermission, Brotons and the orchestra gave a solid performance of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” – with orchestration by Ravel. Brotons, conducting from memory, paced the music extremely well. Individual contributions by members of the orchestra in their exposed parts (the principals for nearly all sections of the orchestra – with an extra tip of the hat to the saxophone, baritone, and tuba) went above and beyond. You could easily image painting of the gnarly gnomes, the spooky castle in the mist, children playing, the lumbering oxen, the ominous catacombs, and the terrifying witch.

Cutoffs were crisp and dramatic. The final build up of sound impressively created the grandeur of the Gates of Kiev. Brotons asked the orchestra to deliver a triple-plus forte and the musicians delivered! The audience was blown away and responded enthusiastically, making the occasion a memorable way to cap of the orchestra’s 40th season.

Returning to the fact that Brotons is such a fine composer, it seems to me that the City of Vancouver should commission him to write a fanfare or a march that would symbolize the city, the people, and the landscape in some creative way. I think that Brotons would uncork something pretty terrific.

Today's Birthdays

James Hewitt (1770-1827)
Evgeny Mravinsky (1903-1988)
Alan Shulman (1915-2002
Robert Merrill (1917-2004)
Irwin Bazelon (1922-1995)
Oliver Nelson (1932-1975)
Anthony Braxton (1945)
Cecilia Bartoli (1966)

and

Josef Sittard (1846-1903)
Karl Valentin (1882-1948)
Robert Anderson (1917-2009)
Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997)
Larry McMurtry (1936)

Today's Birthdays

František Jan Škroup (1801-1862)
Charles Lecocq (1832-1918)
Jan Peerce (1904-1984)
Valerie Masterson (1937)
Curtis Mayfield (1942-1999)
Greg Sandow (1943)
Lynne Dawson (1956)

and

Josephine Baker (1906-1975)
Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997)
Ruth Westheimer (1928)

Today's Birthdays

James Cutler Dunn Parker (1828-1916)
Felix Weingartner (1863-1942)
Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
Jozef Cleber (1916-1999)
Marvin Hamlisch (1944-2012)
Mark Elder (1947)
Neil Shicoff (1949)
Michel Dalberto (1955)

and

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

and from The New Music Box:

On June 2, 1938, Amy Beach began work on her Piano Trio while in residence at the MacDowell Colony. She finished the composition fifteen days later (June 18th) and published it as her Op. 150. It was to be her last major work.

Today's Birthdays

Georg Muffat (1653-1704)
Ferdinando Paër (1771-1839)
Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857)
Werner Janssen (1899-1990)
Percy Whitlock (1903-1946)
Nelson Riddle (1921-1985)
Yehudi Wyner (1929)
Edo de Waart (1941)
Richard Goode (1943)
Frederica von Stade (1945)
Arlene Sierra (1970)

and

John Masefield (1878-1967)
Charles Kay Ogden (1889–1957)
Naguib Surur (1932-1978)
Colleen McCullough (1937-2015)
Sheri Holman (1966)
Amy Schumer (1981)