Today's Birthdays

Caroline Miolan‑Carvalho (1827-1895)
Ernest John Moeran (1894-1950)
Silvestre Revueltas (1899-1940)
Nathan Milstein (1904-1992)
Jule Styne (1925-1994)
Jaap Schröder (1925-2020)
Odetta (1930-2008)
Calvin Hampton (1938-1984)
Stephen Cleobury (1948)
Donna Summer (1948-2012)
Jennifer Higdon (1962)

and

Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Nicholas Sparks (1965)
Junot Díaz (1968)

Today's Birthdays

William Croft (1678-1727)
André Messager (1853-1929)
Joseph Bohuslav Foerster (1859-1951)
Alfred Einstein (1880-1952)
Dmitri Kabalevsky (1904-1987)
Paul Bowles (1910-1999)
Sir David Willcocks (1919-2015)
Bo Diddley (1928-2008)
Bruno Canino (1935)
June Anderson (1950)
Stephen Jaffe (1954)
Antonio Pappano (1959)

and

Theodor Fontane (1819-1898)
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
Sara Lidman (1923-2004)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1879 was the premiere of Gilbert & Sullivan's operetta "The Pirates of Penzance," in Paignton at the Royal Bijou (partial preview to insure British copyright). The first full performance of the new work occurred at the Fifth Avenue Theater in New York City the following day, with Sullivan conducting and Gilbert in attendance. The New York premiere was arranged to register American copyright of the new work and pre-empt unauthorized "pirate" productions in the U.S.

Today's Birthdays

Tomás Bretón (1850-1923)
Pablo Casals (1876-1973)
Lionel Tertis (1876-1975)
Yves Nat (1890-1956)
Peggy Glanville-Hicks (1912-1990)
Billy Tipton (1914-1989)

and

William Gaddis (1922-1998)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1903 took place the first concert by the Seattle Symphony at Christensen's Hall in Seattle under the baton of violinist Harry F. West. The program includes music of Massenet, Bruch, Schubert and Rossini.

Today's Birthdays

Christian Cannabich (1731-1798)
Julius Rietz (1812-1877)
Benjamin Johnson Lang (1837-1909)
Francesco Tamagno (1850-1905)
Roger Sessions (1896-1985)
Earl "Fatha" Hines (1905-1983)
Johnny Otis (1921-2012)
Nigel Kennedy (1956)
Michel Petrucciani (1962-1999)

and

Charles Portis (1933-2020)

Today's Birthdays

Sir John Goss (1800-1880)
Tito Schipa (1888-1965)
Marlene Dietrich (1904-1992)
Oscar Levant (1906-1972)

and

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
Charles Olson (1910-1970)
Wilfrid Sheed (1930-2011)
Chris Abani (1966)
Sarah Vowell (1969)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1841, Franz Liszt performs at the Singakademie in Berlin. Women swooned and the general audience reacts with such uncontrolled enthusiasm that Heinrich Heine coins the term "Lisztomania" to describe their fanatical devotion to the performer, which soon swept through most of Europe.

Today's Birthdays

Maurice Gendron (1920-1990)
Thea King (1925-2007)
Earle Brown (1926-2002)
Phil Specter (1940-2021)
Wayland Rogers (1941)
Harry Christophers (1953)
Andre-Michel Schub (1953)
Gabriella Smith (1991)

and

Thomas Gray (1716-1771)
Henry Miller (1891-1980)
Jean Toomer (1894-1867)
Juan Felipe Herrera (1948)
David Sedaris (1958)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

 

Today's Birthdays

Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625)
Jean‑Joseph de Mondonville (1711-1772)
Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint‑George (1745-1799)
Cosima Wagner (1837-1930)
Lina Cavalieri (1874-1944)
Giuseppe de Luca (1876-1950)
Gladys Swarthout (1900-1969)
Cab Calloway (1907-1994)
Noël Lee (1924-2013)
Noel Redding (1945-2003)
Jon Kimura Parker (1959)
Ian Bostridge (1964)

and

Dorothy Wordsworth (1771-1855)
Clara Barton (1821-1912)
Rod Serling (1924-1975)

Today's Birthdays

Peter Cornelius (1824-1874)
Nikolai Roslavets (1881-1944)
Lucrezia Bori (1887-1960)
Charles Wakefield Cadman (1881-1946)
Sir Vivian Dunn (1908-1995)
Teresa Stich-Randall (1927-2007)
Mauricio Kagel (1931-2008)
Arnold Östman (1939)
Libby Larsen (1950)
Hans-Jürgen von Bose (1953)
Vasyl Slipak (1974-2016)

and

Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)
Anthony Fauci (1940)
Dana Gioia (1950)

and from The Writer's Almanac

Today is Christmas Eve. One of the best modern Christmas Eve stories is a true one, and it happened in 1914, in the trenches of World War I. The “war to end all wars” was raging, but German and British soldiers had been engaging in unofficial ceasefires since mid-December. The British High Command was alarmed, and warned officers that fraternization across enemy lines might result in a decreased desire to fight. On the German side, Christmas trees were trucked in and candles lit, and on that Christmas Eve in 1914, strains of Stille Nacht — “Silent Night” — reached the ears of British soldiers. They joined in, and both sides raised candles and lanterns up above their parapets. When the song was done, a German soldier called out, “Tomorrow is Christmas; if you don’t fight, we won’t.”

The next day dawned without the sound of gunfire. The Germans sent over some beer, and the Brits sent plum pudding. Enemies met in no man’s land, exchanging handshakes and small gifts. Someone kicked in a soccer ball, and a chaotic match ensued. Details about this legendary football match vary, and no one knows for sure exactly where it took place, but everyone agrees that the Germans won by a score of three to two.

At 8:30 a.m. on December 26, after one last Christmas greeting, hostilities resumed. But the story is still told, in a thousand different versions from up and down the Western Front, more than a century later.

On Christmas Eve in 1906, the first radio program was broadcast. Canadian-born Professor Reginald Aubrey Fessenden sent his signals from the 420-foot radio tower of the National Electric Signaling Company, at Brant Rock on the Massachusetts seacoast. Fessenden opened the program by playing “O Holy Night” on the violin. Later he recited verses from the Gospel of St. Luke, then broadcast a gramophone version of Handel’s “Largo.” His signal was received up to five miles away.

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1920, the last operatic appearance ever of the Italian tenor Enrico Caruso took place in an evening performance of Halevy's "La Juive" (The Jewess) at the old Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Caruso would die in Naples (where he made his operatic debut on March 15, 1895) at the age of 48 on August 2, 1921.

Today's Birthdays

Joseph Boismortier (1689-1755)
Ross Lee Finney (1906-1997)
Claudio Scimone (1934-2018)
Ross Edwards (1943)
Edita Gruberová (1946-2021)
Elise Kermani (1960)
Han-Na Chang (1982)

and

Harriet Monroe (1860-1936)
Norman Maclean (1902–1990)
Robert Bly (1926-2021)
Carol Ann Duffy (1955)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1989, Leonard Bernstein led the first of two public performances of Beethoven's Ninth at the Philharmonie in West Berlin, with an international orchestra assembled to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall. The second performance occurred on December 25 at the Schauspielhaus in East Berlin

Today's Birthdays

Carl Friedrich Abel (1723-1787)
Giovanni Bottesini (1821-1889)
Teresa Carreño (1853-1917)
Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
Franz Schmidt (1874-1939)
Edgard Varèse(1883-1965)
Joseph Deems Taylor (1885-1966)
Alan Bush (1900-1995)
Andre Kostelanetz (1901-1980)
David Leisner (1953)
Jean Rigby (1954)
Zhou Tian (1981)

and

Jean Racine (1639-1699)
Kenneth Rexroth (1905-1982)
Donald Harrington (1935-2009)

Today's Birthdays

Zdeněk Fibich (1850-1900)
André Turp (1925-1991)
Frank Zappa (1940-1993)
Roger Lasher Nortman (1941)
Michael Tilson Thomas (1944)
András Schiff (1953)
Kim Cascone (1955)
Thomas Randle (1958)
Jonathan Cole (1970)

and

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)
Maud Gonne (1866-1953)
Edward Hoagland (1932)

Today's Birthdays

Henry Hadley (1871-1937)
Vagn Holmboe (1909-1996)
Gordon Getty (1933)
John Harbison (1938)
Roger Woodward (1942)
Mitsuko Uchida (1948)
Hobart Earler (1960)

and

Elizabeth Benedict (1954)
Sandra Cisneros (1954)
Nalo Hopkinson (1960)

Today's Birthdays

Louis‑Nicolas Clérambault (1676-1749) George Frederick Bristow (1825-1898) Fritz Reiner (1885-1963)
Paul Dessau (1894-1979)
Edith Piaf (1915-1963)
Dalton Baldwin (1931-2019)
Phil Ochs (1940-1976)
William Christie (1944)
Marianne Faithfull (1946)
Christopher Robson (1953)
Olaf Bär (1957)
Steven Esserlis (1958)
Rebecca Saunders (1967)

and

Italo Svevo (1861-1928)
Constance Garnett (1861-1946)

and from The Writer's Almanac:

It’s the birthday of French chanteuse Édith Piaf (1915). Piaf was born Édith Giovanna Gassion in Belleville, on the outskirts of Paris. Her mother was a café singer and a drug addict, and her father was a street performer who specialized in acrobatics and contortionism. Neither of them particularly cared for Piaf, so she mostly grew up with her grandmother, who ran a brothel. Piaf was looked after by prostitutes and later claimed that she was blind from the ages of three to seven because of keratitis, or malnutrition, though this was never proved.

Her father reclaimed her when she was nine and Piaf began singing with him on street corners until he abandoned her again. She lived in shoddy hotel rooms in the red-light district of Paris and sang in a seedy café called Lulu’s, making friends with pimps, hookers, lowlifes, and gamblers, until she was discovered by an older man named Louis Leplée.

Leplée ran a nightclub off the Champs-Élysées. He renamed Piaf La Môme Piaf, “The Little Sparrow,” dressed her entirely in black, and set her loose on the stage. Piaf was a hit, and recorded two albums in one year, becoming one of the most popular performers in France during World War II.

Édith Piaf died on the French Riviera at the age of 47. More than 40,000 people came to her funeral procession. Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Karachkina named a small planet after Piaf; it’s called 3772 Piaf. Her songs have been covered by Madonna, Grace Jones, and even Donna Summer.

Édith Piaf’s last words were, “Every damn thing you do in this life, you have to pay for.”

Review: VSO chamber music with Orli Shaham

It’s that time of year for musicians to play a lot of Christmas music and other festive pieces, but there’s room for something more than the typical holiday fair. That’s what the Vancouver Symphony delivered in its chamber music concert (December 13), sponsored by Ann Bardacke and David Wolf, which featured stellar pianist Orli Shaham and musicians from the orchestra playing works by Shostakovich, Mozart, and Poulenc at First Presbyterian Church.

Shaham, VSO’s Artist-in-Residence, teaches piano and chamber music at The Juilliard School, and has served on the juries of the Cliburn and Honens International Piano Competitions. Shaham co-hosts “From the Top” on National Public Radio, and her discography includes all six of Mozart’s piano sonatas on the Canary Classics label. She has appeared with the VSO several times, most recently in August at the Vancouver Arts and Music Festival, playing Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.”

In her introductory remarks to Shostakovich’s “Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor,” Shaham concisely described each of its four movements and included historical context as well. We learned that Shostakovich wrote the piece in 1944 in memory of his friend Ivan Sollertinsky, who was a musicologist, music critic, and polymath, and that the final movement, in particular, delved into Jewish folk melodies – perhaps as a defiance of the Nazis who forced Jews to dance by their own graves.

Collaborating with violinist Eva Richey (VSO’s concertmaster) and cellist Jonah Thomas, Shaham and her colleagues delved into the Shostakovich with passionate earnestness. The piece started with a haunting eeriness, because the notes for the cellos were extremely high, while the violin sounded from its middle to second was much faster and briefer – with periodic sonic lunges. The musicians galloped ahead impressively right up to the final note. Shaham laid down a slow passacaglia in the third movement, which evoked a solemn and sad atmosphere. And it remained serious even after the pizzicato passage for the strings and the quickening tempo. The musicians conveyed a sense of depth and tragedy in the final movement.

The second movement was much faster and briefer – with periodic sonic lunges. The musicians galloped ahead impressively right up to the final note. Shaham laid down a slow passacaglia in the third movement, which evoked a solemn and sad atmosphere. And it remained serious even after the pizzicato passage for the strings and the quickening tempo. The musicians conveyed a sense of depth and tragedy in the final movement.

The group maintained a terrific balance throughout the Shostakovich. Richey and Thomas deftly conquered a lot of tricky passages, and Shaham was the epitome of a chamber musician, listening to her collaborators while playing her part with the highest level of musicality.

Before playing Mozart’s “Sonata for Piano and Violin No. 21 in E minor”, Shaham remarked on how the piece, (completed in 1778) remains one of few that Mozart wrote in a minor key. She also mentioned that scholars thought that it was written in response to the death of Mozart’s mother, but that more recent evidence has led some to think that he wrote or at least began it before is mother died.

Shaham, who has a real affinity for Mozart, teamed up with Brandon Buckmaster to create an elegant and lovely performance of the sonata. They displayed excellent dynamics throughout, exchanging phrases seamlessly and with refinement. The beautiful melody in the second movement was strong and soothing at the same time, which made it all the more satisfying to hear.

In describing Poulenc’s “Sextet for Piano and Winds,” Shaham noted how it was influenced by circus music, and it had a fair amount of quirky humor. The sextet (flutist Rachel Rencher, clarinetist Igor Shakhman, bassoonist Margaret McShea, hornist Dan Partridge, oboist Alan Juza, and pianist Shaham), got into the spirit of the piece, but it was more difficult for me to grasp because the heating system came on and was fairly loud.

The sextet, which Poulenc finished in 1932 and revised in 1939) offered a lot of switching back and forth from jaunty episodes (like the opening) to plaintive passages to rhapsodic sections to elegant sequences, and even segments in which phrases seemed to wander all over the place. After an interjection of seriousness, the piece concluded with an emphatic, majestic sound that almost gave it a triumphant feeling – which was the exact opposite from where it began, enhancing the eccentric quality of Poulenc’s music.

Shaham returns on May 19th for another chamber music program with musicians of the VSO, and it will also be held at First Presbyterian. The acoustics of the church are fairly good – as long as the heating system doesn’t kick in.

Today's Birthdays

Charles Wesley (1707-1788)
Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)
Edward MacDowell (1860-1908)
Fletcher Henderson (1897-1952)
Rita Streich (1920-1987)
William Boughton (1948)
David Liptak (1949)
Christopher Theofanidis (1967)

and

Saki - H. H. Munro (1870-1916)
Paul Klee (1879-1940)
Christopher Fry (1907-2005)
Abe Burrows (1910-1985)

Today's Birthdays

Domenico Cimarosa (1749-1801)
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Arthur Fiedler (1894-1979)
Ray Noble (1903-1975)
Art Neville (1937)

and

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)
Ford Madox Ford (1873-1939)
William Safire (1929-2009)
John Kennedy Toole (1937-1969)

and from The Writer's Almanac:

It's the day that The Nutcracker ballet was performed for the first time in St. Petersburg, Russia (1892). Czar Alexander III, in the audience, loved the ballet, but the critics hated it. Tchaikovsky wrote that the opera that came before The Nutcracker "was evidently very well liked, the ballet not. ... The papers, as always, reviled me cruelly." Tchaikovsky died of less than a year later, before The Nutcracker became an international success.

Today's Birthdays

François Adrien Boieldieu (1775-1834)
Augusta Holmès (1847-1903)
Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967)
Turk Murphy (1915-1987)
Steve Allen (1921-2000)
Dame Thea King (1925-2007)
Alice Parker (1925)
Kenneth Gilbert (1931-2020)
Rodion Shchedrin (1932)
Philip Langridge (1939-2010)
Trevor Pinnock (1946)
Isabelle van Keulen (1966)

and

Jane Austin (1775-1817)
George Santayana (1863-1952)
Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944)
Sir Noel Coward (1899-1973)
Noël Coward (1899-1973)
V. S. Pritchett (1900-1997)

Today's Birthdays

Michel‑Richard Delalande (1657-1726)
Lotte Schöne (1891-1981)
Stan Kenton (1911-1979)
Ida Haendel (1924-2020)
Eddie Palmieri (1936)
Nigel Robson (1948)
Jan Latham-Koenig (1953)

and

Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof (1859-1917)
Maxwell Anderson (1888-1959)
Freeman Dyson (1923-2020)
Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928-2000)
Edna O'Brien (1930)

Today's Birthdays

Maria Agata Szymanowska (1789-1831)
Joseph Jongen (1873-1953)
Georges Thill (1897-1984)
Spike Jones (1911-1965)
Rosalyn Tureck (1914-2003)
Dame Ruth Railton (1915-2001)
Ron Nelson (1929)
Christopher Parkening (1947)
Thomas Albert (1948)
John Rawnsley (1949)

and

Shirley Jackson (1919-1965)
Amy Hempel (1951)

Today's Birthdays

Anna Milder-Hauptman (1785-1838)
Alexis de Castillon (1838-1873)
Josef Lhévinne (1874-1944)
Eleanor Robson Belmont (1879-1979)
Samuel Dushkin (1891-1976)
Victor Babin (1908-1972)
Alvin Curran (1938)

and

Mary Todd Lincoln (1818-1882)
Kenneth Patchen (1911-1972)
James Wright (1927-1980)
Lester Bangs (1948-1982)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1836, at a musical soiree at Chopin's apartments in Paris, the female writer "George" Sand, determined to make a good impression with her host, arrives wearing white pantaloons and a scarlet sash (the colors of the Polish flag). Paris Opéra tenor Adolphe Nourit sings some Schubert songs, accompanied by Franz Liszt. Liszt and Chopin play Moschele's Sonata in Eb for piano four-hands.

Vancouver Symphony brightens packed house with festive music

You could practically feel the vibe at Skyview Concert Hall as long lines of patrons delayed the start of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s holiday pops concert (January 9). The packed house eagerly greeted music director Salvador Brotons and the orchestra, which spiced up its seasonal colors with splashes of red bow ties, ribbons, socks, scarfs, vests, and Santa hats. The festive spirit aptly fit the concert program, which offered selections from the world of animated films in the first half and Viennese favorites plus a little French ballet music in the second., setting a wonderful tone to close out the year.

The music-making took flight with a splendid performance of Vince Guaraldi’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas” in an arrangement by Davis Pugh. Augmented with a lively trap set, the orchestra immediately put the audience in a good mood with the jazzy, breezy sounds from the film. The sinewy strings deserved kudos for creating the swirls of falling snow – a magical winter scene.

The Concert Suite from Alan Silvestri’s music for “The Polar Express” in an arrangement by Jerry Brubaker featured a bombastic opening in the grand Hollywood tradition. The quickened pace of train ride heading to the North Pole propelled the piece forward, and it ended with a majestic blend from the brass and horns.

Wonderfully raspy trumpets and trombones accented “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” by Albert Hague and Theodore Geisel (arranged by Jerry Brubaker), and that gave the piece a smoky, jazz-club-like atmosphere. The strings excelled with the melodic line and principal trumpet, Bruce Dunn and the horns made the most of their exposed sections.

An arrangement of music from “Frozen” (written by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez) included foot stomping by the musicians, tricky licks for the trombones and horns, an anvil-like clang, sweet solos by concertmaster Eva Richey and Ann van Bever on the English horn. The best part came at the end with the sweeping rock beat of “Let it Go,” enhanced with a bit of glee from an electric guitar.

Switching things up a bit, the orchestra performed the world premiere of Kurt Rosenberg’s “Strolling Down Brighton Pier,” which featured the thrilling voice of baritone Anton Belov. The lyrics told of a young woman who would walk out to the beach of the seaside town, waiting for her lover, a military man, who would return home. The piece had a bit of nostalgia and poignancy, but it didn’t quite fit with the Christmas theme of the evening.

Belov and forces swept the audience into the Christmas spirit with a heartwarming rendition of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” in an arrangement by John Moss. Belov put a pillowy soft high note at the very end of the piece, which made it glow.

A tour of several seasonal tunes in Bruce Chase’s “Around the World at Christmas Time” rounded out the first half of the concert – with the brass choir putting a lot of verve in the final number, “Go Tell it on the Mountain.”

After intermission, the orchestra launched into Franz von Suppé’s “Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna Overture” with vim and vigor. Principal cellist Dieter Ratzlaf provided an elegant contrast to the boisterous opening with his melancholic solo. That segued nicely to a mixture of effervescent Viennese waltzes and polkas.

Three selections from Leo Deibes “Coppélia” gave listeners a delightful taste of French ballet music. The brass got a tad too loud in the Prelude and Mazurka from Act I, but the robust running line for the principal trombonist Li Kuang was impressive. A highlight from the Entr’Acte and Waltz from Act II was the evocative playing of principal flutist Rachel Rencher, and the orchestra executed several sharp attacks in the final Waltz and Czardás.

The orchestra had a fun time with Johann Strauss Jr’s “Tristch-Tratch Polka,” especially when the players got to let out a “Hooo!” Strauss’s “Vienna Blood” also received a spirited performance with some well-turned dynamics.

The good mood continued with three encores, starting with Leroy Anderson’s frolicking “Sleigh Rode,” in which Dunn created an outstanding neighing sound at the very end of the piece. Strauss’s “Pizzicato Polka” featured an animated Brotons leading the plucking strings, and the concert concluded with Brotons guiding an enthusiastic audience to clap with gusto during Johann Strauss Sr’s “Radetzky March.” That capped off a festive evening with the local band.

PS: The concert on Sunday afternoon was sold out. Hmm… perhaps next year the VSO will add a third concert…

Today's Birthdays

Andrey Schulz‑Evler (1852-1905)
Kurt Atterberg (1887-1974)
Frank Sinatra (1915-1998)
Philip Ledger (1937-2012)
Donald Maxwell (1948)
Margaret Tan (1953)
Jaap van Zweden (1960)
David Horne (1970)
Evren Genis (1978)

and

Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880)
Edvard Munch (1863-1944)
John Osborne (1929-1994)

Today's Birthdays

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)
Joseph Jongen (1873-1953)
Mieczyslaw Karlowicz (1876-1909)
Leo Ornstein (1893-2002)
Elliott Carter (1908-2012)
David Ashley White (1944)
Neil Mackie (1946)

and

Grace Paley (1922-2007)
Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006)
Grace Paley (1922-2007)
Jim Harrison (1937-2016)
Thomas McGuane (1939)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1918, Russian-born conductor Nikolai Sokoloff leads the first concert of the Cleveland Orchestra at Gray's Armory, presented as a benefit for St. Ann's Church. His program included Victor Herbert's "American Fantasy," Bizet's "Carmen" Suite, two movements of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4, Liadov's "Enchanted Lake," and Liszt's "Les Préludes".

Today's Birthdays

César Franck (1822-1890)
Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)
Morton Gould (1913-1996)
Sesto Bruscantini (1919-2003)
Nicholas Kynaston (1941)
Julianne Baird (1952)
Kathryn Stott (1958)
Sarah Chang (1980)

and

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Melvil Dewey (1851-1931)
Adolf Loos (1870-1933)

Today's Birthdays

Emile Waldteufel (1837-1915)
Joaquin Turina (1882-1949)
Conchita Supervia (1895-1936)
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (1915-2006)
Dennis Eberhard (1943-2005)
Christopher Robson (1953)
Donny Osmond (1957)
Joshua Bell (1967)

and

John Milton (1608-1674)
Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908)
Léonie Adams (1899-1988)
Ödön von Horváth (1901-1938)

From the Writer's Almanac:

Milton coined more than 600 words, including the adjectives dreary, flowery, jubilant, satanic, saintly, terrific, ethereal, sublime, impassive, unprincipled, dismissive, and feverish; as well as the nouns fragrance, adventurer, anarchy, and many more.

Today's Birthdays

Claude Balbastre (1724-1799)
Frantisek Xaver Dussek (1731-1799)
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
Manuel Ponce (1882-1948)
Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959)
Gérard Souzay (1918-2004)
Moisei Vainberg (1919-1996)
James Galway (1939)

and

Horace (65-8 B.C.)
Diego Rivera (1886-1957)
James Thurber (1894-1961)
James Tate (1948)
Mary Gordon (1949
Bill Bryson (1951)

Today's Birthdays

Bernardo Pasquini (1637-1710)
Hermann Goetz (1840-1876)
Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945)
Ernst Toch (1887-1964)
Rudolf Friml (1879-1972)
Richard Franko Goldman (1910-1980)
Daniel Jones (1912-1993)
Helen Watts (1927-2009)
Harry Chapin (1942-1981)
Daniel Chorzempa (1944)
Tom Waits (1949)
Kathleen Kuhlmann (1950)
Krystian Zimerman (1956)

and

Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680)
Willa Cather (1873-1947)
Joyce Cary (1888-1957)
Noam Chomsky (1928)
Susan Isaacs (1943)

Review: Handel's Messiah with the Oregon Symphony

Sasha Cooke with Chistopher Allen directing the Oregon Symphony

The setup at the Oregon Symphony’s performance of Handel’s Messiah (December 2) was a bit odd. The the tenor and bass soloists took their seats at the extreme right-hand side of the stage of the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall while the mezzo-soprano and the soprano sat on the extreme left-hand side. That released them from the burden of sitting next to the conductor and staring into the audience for long periods of time since the oratorio is filled with many terrific chorus numbers. The soloists slowly and quietly walked to the front when it was time for them to sing. But it also meant that the men had to cross the entire length of the stage in order to exit before intermission and at the end of the piece. If you are going to buck tradition, then why not allow two male soloists exit by the nearest door? There was one just a few steps from where they were sitting. Oh well, maybe another day.

In any case, this rendition of “Handel’s Messiah” didn’t include every chorus and aria from the work but presented more selections from Part 1, which centers on the birth of Jesus, rather than from Parts 2 and 3, which reflect his death and resurrection. Since Christmas is nigh, the featured numbers worked very well, and gave a satisfactory representation of Handel’s masterpiece.

Guest conductor Christopher Allen, who received The Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award in 2017, shaped each movement superbly. His slowest tempi never dragged, and his fastest didn’t cause the chorus to garble the diction. The only glitch was a choppy transition into the final “and his burden is light” at the end of the first part.

The Portland State Chamber Choir, well-prepared by Ethan Sperry, sang with verve. The sopranos, altos, and tenor sections soared magnificently, but it was very challenging to hear the basses – even from my perch in the balcony on the bass side of the choir. For example, when they sang “For the mouth of the Lord” in the very first chorus, those words should have come across much more strongly. That was a problem throughout the evening.

Sasha Cooke, one of the great mezzo-sopranos of our time, turned in a jaw-dropping-beautiful performance in all of her solos. Her voice radiated warmth, clarity, and just the right amount of volume to reach every corner of the hall. Cooke also treated the audience to the rarely heard “B” section of “He was despised and rejected." It was unfortunate that the text of that section was not printed in the program.

Deanna Breiwick’s crystalline soprano superbly hit the myriad of notes in her arias. She showed off some impressive ornamentation – especially in “Rejoice greatly.” – But her voice needed more warmth, especially when paired with Cooke in “He shall feed his flock.”

Tenor Akek Shrader distinguished himself with “Comfort ye” and “Ev’ry valley,” but pinched off a couple of high notes in “Thou shalt break them.” Bass Levi Hernandez excelled especially in the upper register of his voice, and created some terrific moments in “The people that walked in darkness,” “Why do the nations,” and “The trumpet shall sound,” but whenever these pieces plunged into the basement, his sound almost disappeared.

The sound system in the Schnitz really helped to project the harpsicord and the portative organ, both of which were placed in the back part of the orchestra. Even the bassoon, played expertly by Carin Miller, could be heard distinctly. Jeffrey Works’ solo in “The Trumpet Shall Sound” was absolutely spectacular. He perfectly balanced with the soloist and pulled back the sound as needed.

The audience responded to almost all of the selections with applause, and the “Hallelujah Chorus” received the most. But for me, the highlight was Cooke, who, I understand, likes to work with Allen. Concertgoers were very fortunate to hear her glorious voice.

Today's Birthdays

Orazio Vecchi (1550-1605)
Johann Christoph Bach (1642-1703)
Ira Gershwin (1896-1983)
Dave Brubeck (1920-2012)
Nikolaus Harnoncourt (1929-2016)
Henryk Górecki (1933-2010)
Tomas Svoboda (1939-2022)
John Nelson (1941)
Daniel Adni (1951)
Bright Sheng (1955)
Matthew Taylor (1964)

and

Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529)
The Encyclopedia Brittanica (1768)
Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898-1995)

Today's Birthdays

Francesco Geminiani (1687-1762)
Vitezslav Novák (1870-1949)
"Little" Richard Wayne Penniman (1935-2020)
José Carreras (1946)
Krystian Zimerman (1956)
Osvaldo Golijov (1960)

and

Christina (Georgina) Rossetti (1830-1894)
Joan Didion (1934)
Calvin Trillin (1935)
John Berendt (1939)
Lydia Millet (1968)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1704, George Frideric Handel (age 19) refuses to turn over the harpsichord to Johann Mattheson (age 23) during a performance of Mattheson's opera "Cleopatra," leading to a sword duel between the two. It is said that during the swordplay, Handel was saved by a button on his coat that deflected Mattheson's mortally-directed blade. The two reconciled on December 30 that year, dining together and attending a rehearsal of Handel's opera "Almira," becoming, as Mattheson put it: "better friends than ever."

Today's Birthdays

André Campra (1660-1744)
Michel Pignolet de Montéclair (1667-1737)
Sir Hamilton Harty (1879-1949)
Alex North (1910-1991)
Yvonne Minton (1938)
Lillian Watson (1947)
Andrew Penny (1952)

and

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1891)
Samuel Butler (1835-1902)
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)
Cornell Woolrich (1903-1968)

Today's Birthdays

Nicolo Amati (1596-1684)
André Campra (1660-1744)
Antonio Soler (1729-1783)
Émile Waldteufel (1837-1915)
Anton Webern (1883-1945)
Halsey Stevens (1908-1989)
Ivan Sollertinsky (1902-1944)
Machito - Fransico Grillo (1909-1984)
Nino Rota (1911-1979)
Irving Fine (1914-1962)
Charles Craig (1919-1997)
Paul Turok (1929-2012)
José Serebrier (1938)
Matt Haimovitz (1970)

and

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)
Anna Freud (1895-1982)
Zlata Filipović (1980)

Today's Birthdays

Harry T. Burleigh (1866-1949)
Rudolf Friml (1879-1972)
Harriet Cohen (1895-1967)
Sir John Barbirolli (1899-1970)
Robert Moevs (1920-2007)
Maria Callas (1923-1977)
Jörg Demus (1928-2019)
Galina Grigorjeva (1962)

and

Georges-Pierre Seurat (1859-1891)
T. Coraghessan Boyle (1948)
George Saunders (1958)
Ann Patchertt (1963)

And from the Composers Datebook: On this day in 1717, J.S. Bach is allowed to leave the Duke’s Court at Weimar. He had been imprisoned since Nov. 6th by his former employer Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar for accepting a new post at Prince Leopold’s court at Cöthen without first asking permission.

Review: Oregon Symphony goes into the beyond with Strauss and has fun with Mendelssohn

It’s quite an achievement for someone in a speaking role to steal the spotlight at an orchestra concert, but Lauren Modica-Soloway, the narrator in Mendelssohn’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” did just that at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall (November 20). Even though the Oregon Symphony was led with style and panache by principal guest conductor Jun Märkl augmented by the singing of soprano Judy Yannini, mezzo-soprano Jasmine Johnson, and the Portland State University Thorn Choir, it was Modica-Soloway who had listeners on the edge of their seats with high satisfying narration that wonderfully illuminated Shakespeare’s marvelous play.

First of all, the diction, pacing, and the emotional content of each word that Modica-Soloway’s delivered was spot-on. She gave each character of the story a distinct voice, and she had fun with the humorous text, such as when she said “let me rest” and followed it with an expansive yawn and later the mock death scene when Bottom (as Pyramus) plunges a sword into himself and proclaimed “thus I die” then wheezed ever so long (twice). Modica-Soloway also excelled with the many delicious, poetic lines like “creep into acorn cups.” I have a recording of the Mendelssohn with Dame Judi Dench as the narrator, but I have to admit that Modica-Soloway’s lively interpretation was better.

Playing with immaculate precision, the orchestra created a magical atmosphere with the whirl of fairies punctuated by the braying of the donkey with whom Titania falls in love – all during the Overture. And the famous Wedding March was absolutely glorious. All of the various movements of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” worked together seamlessly, and it was fun to watch the interaction between Märkl and Modica-Soloway. It’s too bad that the lyrics were not available as supertext or printed as an insert to the program. That might have added more context for concertgoers.

In the first half of the concert, the orchestra gave a superb performance of Richard Strass’s tone poem “Tod und Verklärung” (“Death and Transflguration”). It was a beautiful journey – from the gloomy outset (the artist on his deathbed), past several thrilling eruptions (racked by pain, fever, etc.), and into the balm of a soothing lyrical lines, and then the piling of sonic layers that built to the Elysium of the finale. Märkl impressively conducted the piece from memory, taking great care to shape the entire enterprise, and when the sonic textures seemed to melt into each other at the very end – well that was bliss. Kudos to all of the musicians for eliciting a transcendental experience.

Newsy items about the local music scene in Oregon ArtsWatch

 Every now and then I'll post some short blurbs about the local music scene in OAW. You can read my latest set of scribblings in OAW here.

Today's Birthdays

François‑Xavier Richter (1709-1789)
Ernest (Louis-Etienne-Ernest) Reyer (1832-1909)
Agathe Grøndahl (1847-1907)
Lou Rawls (1933-2006)
Gordon Crosse (1937-2021
Bette Midler (1945)
Rudolf Buchbinder (1946)
Leontina Vaduva (1960)

Article on My Voice Music - a unique program for disadvantaged youth

I usually don't write about rock music, but this exceptional program called My Voice Music deserves more public attention. I hope that you take a few minutes to read about it in this article that I wrote for Oregon ArtsWatch. 

Today's Birthdays

Carl Loewe (1796-1869)
Charles Valentin Alkan (1813-1888)
Sergei Liapunov (1859-1924)
Ludwig Thuille (1861-1907)
Ture Rangström (1884-1947)
Ray Henderson (1896-1970)
Klaus Huber (1924-2017)
Günther Herbig (1931)
Walter Weller (1939-2015)
Radu Lupu (1945-2022)
Semyon Bychkov (1952)

and

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
Mark Twain (1835-1910)
L(ucy) M(aud) Montgomery (1874-1942)
Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Jacques Barzun (1907-2012)
David Mamet (1947)

Today's Birthdays

Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848)
Billy Strayhorn (1915-1967)
John Brecknock (1937-2017)
Chuck Mangione (1940)
Louise Winter (1959)

and

Amos Bronson Alcott (1799-1888)
Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888)
C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)
Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007)

Musica Maestrale: Hideki Yamaya plays Lute and Cittern from Elizabethan England

Hi everyone,

A quick reminder to purchase your tickets to the lute and cittern concerts happening this weekend!  Online sales close 24 hours before each concert; you can always get tickets at the door, but those will be full price.  And to entice you to attend, here are a couple of last-minute teasers of music in the program: two pieces by one of the greats, John Dowland.

https://youtu.be/OgmN3YlVROg?si=wvN-rdzYhAwLhIHA

https://youtu.be/y48Gjx4tOdA?si=ItW9_z7Mxm74dEef

Hope to see you this weekend in Portland, Eugene, and Astoria!

Hideki

Musica Maestrale presents:

Go from my Window:

Lute and Cittern in Elizabethan England

Hideki Yamaya, Renaissance lute and cittern

Lutenist Hideki Yamaya will perform a concert of music from the late 16th~early 17th-century England on Renaissance lute and cittern, a rarely heard instrument: wire-strung, played with a plectrum, and with a very unusual tuning. The program will feature music by John Dowland and Anthony Holborne, as well as arrangements of popular music from the period. 

Tickets
Advance: $18 general; $8 student
At the door: $20 general; $10 student (cash, check, and Venmo accepted)

Friday, December 1, 7:00PM: Astoria

Peace First Lutheran Church: 565 12th St, Astoria

Tickets: https://musicamaestrale.ludus.com/200442873

Saturday, December 2; 7:30PM: Portland

The 2509: 2509 NE Clackamas St, Portland

Tickets: https://musicamaestrale.ludus.com/200442875

Sunday, December 3; 4PM: Eugene

The Thorsson House: 1810 Tigertail Rd, Eugene

Tickets: https://musicamaestrale.ludus.com/200442876

Today's Birthdays

Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687)
Ferdinand Ries (1784-1838)
Anton Rubinstein (1829-1894)
Pamela Harrison (1915-1990)
Berry Gordy Jr. (1929)
Randy Newman (1943)
Diedre Murray (1951)

and

John Bunyan (1628-1688)
William Blake (1757-1827)
Friedrich Engels (1820-1895)
Stefan Zweig (1881-1942)
Nancy Mitford (1904-1973)
Rita Mae Brown (1944)
Alan Lightman (1948)

Today's Birthdays

Chiara Margarita Cozzolani (1602-1678)
Anton Stamitz (1750-1798 or 1809)
Franz Krommer (1759-1831)
Sir Julian Benedict (1804-1885)
Viktor Ewald (1860-1935)
Charles Koechlin (1867-1950)
Leon Barzin (1900-1999)
Walter Klien (1928-1991)
Helmut Lachenmann (1935)
Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970)
David Felder (1953)
Victoria Mullova (1959)
Hilary Hahn (1979)

and

Anders Celsius (1701-1744)
Charles Beard (1874–1948)
James Agee (1909-1955)
Marilyn Hacker (1942)
Bill Nye (1955)

Today's Birthdays

Earl Wild (1915-2010)
Eugene Istomin (1925-2003)
Alan Stout (1932-2018)
John Sanders (1933-2003)
Craig Sheppard (1947)
Vivian Tierney (1957)
Spencer Topel (1979)

and

Eugene Ionesco (1909-1994)
Charles Schulz (1922-2000)
Marilynne Robinson (1943)

Today's Birthdays

Franz Gruber (1785-1863)
Wilhelm Kempff (1895-1991)
Virgil Thomson (1896-1989)
Paul Desmond (1924-1977)
Sir John Drummond (1934-2006)
Jean-Claude Malgoire (1940)
Håkan Hagegård (1945)
Yvonne Kenny (1950)
Gilles Cachemaille (1951)

and

Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919)
Helen Hooven Santmyer (1895-1986)
Lewis Thomas (1913-1993)
Murray Schisgal (1926-2020)
Shelagh Delaney (1938-2011)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1934, conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler's article "The Hindemith Case" defending Hindemith's music appears in several German newspapers. A response attacking both Hindemith and Furtwängler appears in the Nazi newspaper "Der Angriff" on November 28. Furtwängler resigns all his official German posts on December 4 and leaves Berlin for several months. On December 6 Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels denounces Hindemith as an "atonal noisemaker" during a speech at the Berlin Sport Palace.

Today's Birthdays

Scott Joplin (1868-1917)
Willie ("The Lion") Smith (1897-1973)
Norman Walker (1907-1963)
Erik Bergman (1911-2006)
Alfredo Kraus (1927-1999)
Emma Lou Diemer (1927)
Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998)
Maria Chiara (1939)
Chinary Ung (1942)
Tod Machover (1953)
Jouni Kaipainen (1956)
Samuel Zygmuntowicz (1956)
Edgar Meyer (1960)
Angelika Kirchschlager (1965)

and

Benedict Spinoza (1632-1677)
Laurence Sterne (1713-1768)
Margaret Anderson (1886-1973)
Dorothy Butler Gilliam (1936)
Nuruddin Farah (1945)
Arundhati Roy (1961)

Today's Birthdays

Pierre Du Mage (1674-1751)
Manuel de Falla (1876-1946)
André Caplet (1878-1925)
Guy Reginald Bolton (1884-1979)
Jerry Bock (1928-2010)
Vigen Derderian (1929-2003)
Krzysztof Penderecki (1933-2020)
Ludovico Einaudi (1955)
Thomas Zehetmair (1961)
Nicolas Bacri (1961)
Ed Harsh (1962)

and

Harpo Marx (1888-1964)
Nirad C. Chaudhuri (1897-1999)
Paul Celan (1920-1950)
Jennifer Michael Hecht (1965)

and from the Writer's Almanac:

On this day in 1889, the first jukebox was unveiled in a saloon in San Francisco. It was invented by Louis Glass, who had earlier worked as a telegraph operator for Western Union and then co-founded the Pacific Phonographic Company. He was fascinated by the phonograph technology and saw a market for charging people to listen to them, since phonographs were still too expensive to buy for your own home. He installed the machine in the Palais Royal saloon simply because he knew the owner and it was close to his house, so he didn’t have to carry the machine very far.

The word “jukebox” wasn’t invented until the 1920s. Glass called his machine the “nickel-in-the-slot phonograph,” since you had to pay a nickel to hear a song play. In today’s money, a nickel was about $1.27 at the time. The first machine had four different stethoscopes attached to it that functioned as headphones. Each pair of headphones had to be activated by putting in a nickel, and then several people could listen to the same song at once. There were towels left by each listening device so people could wipe them off after using. As part of his agreement with the saloonkeepers, at the end of each song, the machine told the listener to “go over to the bar and buy a drink.”

His phonograph was a huge hit and, at a conference in Chicago, Glass told his competitors that his first 15 machines brought in over $4,000 in six months. This led to other manufacturers making their own machines. Shortly after, Thomas Edison designed a phonograph people could buy for their homes, which also cut into the market. Glass’s invention eventually made the player piano obsolete, and competitors updated the jukebox with new technologies from record players to CDs. Now there is such a thing as a digital jukebox, but they never really caught on, since they come with the size and expense of a regular jukebox, without any of the charm of flipping through the records and watching the moving parts of the machine.

Today's Birthdays

Frantisek Benda (1709-1786)
Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710-1784)
Conradin Kreutzer (1780-1849)
Edgard Varèse (1883-1965)
Hoagy Carmichael (1899-1981)
Joaquin Rodrigo (1901-1999)
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
Gunther Schuller (1925-2015)
Jimmy Knepper (1927-2003)
Hans Zender (1936-2019)
Kent Nagano (1951)
Stephen Hough (1961)
Sumi Jo (1962)
Edward Gardner (1974)

and

George Eliot (1819-1880)
André Gide (1869-1951)
Winfred Rembert (1945-2021)

And from The Writer's Almanac:

It’s the feast day of Saint Cecilia, who was the patron saint of musicians because she sang to God as she died a martyr’s death. She was born to a noble family in Rome near the end of the second century A.D.

It held a large musical festival to honor her, and the trend made its way to England in the next century. Henry Purcell composed celebratory odes to honor her, and the painter Raphael created a piece called “The Ecstasy of St. Cecilia.” Chaucer wrote about her in the Second Nonnes Tale, and Handel composed a score for a famous ode to her that John Dryden had written.

Today, Saint Cecilia is often commemorated in paintings and on stained glass windows as sitting at an organ.

Review of Metropolitan Youth Symphony's season opener

 

The MYS opened its season with a fun concert. You can read my review of it on Oregon ArtsWatch here. 

Review of Portland Youth Philharmonic season opener

 Hot off the online press is my review of the PYP's concert. You can read it here. 

Today's Birthdays

Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909)
Sigfrid Karg-Elert (1877-1933)
Coleman Hawkins (1904-1969)
Bernard Lagacé (1930)
Malcolm Williamson (1931-2003)
James DePreist (1936-2013)
Idil Biret (1941)
Vinson Cole (1950)
Kyle Gann (1955)
Stewart Wallace (1960)
Björk (1965)

and

Voltare (1694-1778)
Arthur Quiller-Couch (1863-1944)
Mary Johnston (1870-1936)
René Magritte (1898-1967)
Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902-1991)
Marilyn French (1929-2009)
Tina Howe (1937-2023)

Review of Fear No Music 's concert of (mostly) post-USSR music

 

FNM gave a terrific concert of really unique music. My preview of this concert has been published in Oregon ArtsWatch here. 

Today's Birthdays

Edmond Dédé (1827-1903)
Daniel Gregory Mason (1873-1953)
Maya Plisetskaya (1925-2015)
René Kolo (1937)
Gary Karr (1941)
Meredith Monk (1942)
Phillip Kent Bimstein (1947)
Barbara Hendricks (1948)

and

Nadine Gordimer (1923-2014)
Maya Plisetskaya (1925-2015)
R.W. Apple Jr. (1934-2006)
Don DeLillo (1936)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1805, Beethoven's opera "Fidelio" (1st version, with the "Leonore" Overture No. 2) was premiered in Vienna at the Theater an der Wien.

Today's Birthdays

Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow (1663-1712)
Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov (1859-1935)
Jean‑Yves Daniel‑Lesur (1908-2002)
Géza Anda (1921-1976)
Maralin Niska (1926-2010)
David Lloyd-Jones (1934-2022)
Agnes Baltsa (1944)
Ross Bauer (1951)

and

Allen Tate (1899-1979)
Sharon Olds (1942)

and from The Writer's Almanac:

On this date in 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It was four and a half months after the devastating battle, and it was a foggy, cold morning. Lincoln arrived about 10 a.m. Around noon, the sun came out as the crowds gathered on a hill overlooking the battlefield. A military band played, a local preacher offered a long prayer, and the headlining orator, Edward Everett, spoke for more than two hours. Everett described the Battle of Gettysburg in great detail, and he brought the audience to tears more than once. When Everett finished, Lincoln spoke.

Now considered one of the greatest speeches in American history, the Gettysburg Address ran for just over two minutes, fewer than 300 words, and only 10 sentences. It was so brief, in fact, that many of the 15,000 people that attended the ceremony didn't even realize that the president had spoken, because a photographer setting up his camera had momentarily distracted them. The next day, Everett told Lincoln, "I wish that I could flatter myself that I had come as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes."

There are several versions of the speech, and five different manuscript copies; they're all slightly different, so there's some argument about which is the "authentic" version. Lincoln gave copies to both of his private secretaries, and the other three versions were re-written by the president some time after he made the speech. The Bliss Copy, named for Colonel Alexander Bliss, is the only copy that was signed and dated by Lincoln, and it's generally accepted as the official version for that reason.

Today's Birthdays

Jean‑Baptiste Loeillet (1680-1730)
Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836-1911)
Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941)
Amelita Galli‑Curci (1882-1963)
Eugene Ormandy (1899-1985)
Lillian Fuchs (1901-1995)
Compay Segundo (1907-2003)
Johnny Mercer (1909-1976)
Don Cherry (1936-1995)
Heinrich Schiff (1951)
Bernard d'Ascoli (1958)

and

Louis Daguerre (1787-1851)
Asa Gray (1810-1888)
George Gallup (1901-1984)
Margaret Atwood (1939)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1741, Handel arrives in Dublin for an extended stay, involving a number of concerts in the Irish capital, including the premiere of his latest oratorio "Messiah" the following Spring (Gregorian date: Nov. 29).

On this day in 1928, Mickey Mouse debuts in "Steamboat Willie," in New York. This was the first animated cartoon with synchronized pre-recorded sound effects and music -- the latter provided by organist and composer Carl Stalling of Kansas City. Stalling would later provide memorable music for many classic Warner Brothers cartoons.

Today's Birthdays

Ernest Lough (1911-2000)
Hershy Kay (1919-1981)
Leonid Kogan (1924-1982)
Sir Charles Mackerras (1925-2010)
David Amram (1930)
Gene Clark (1941-1991)
Philip Picket (1950)
Philip Grange (1956)

and

Shelby Foote (1916-2006)

Today's Birthdays

Rodolphe Kreutzer (1766-1831)
Alfred Hill (1869-1960)
W. C. Handy (1873-1958)
Paul Hindemith (1895-1963)
Burnet Tuthill (1888-1982)
Lawrence Tibbett (1896-1960)
David Wilson-Johnson (1950)
Donald Runnicles (1954)
John Butt (1960)

and

George S. Kaufman (1889-1961)
José Saramago (1922-2010)
Chinua Achebe (1930-2013)
Andrea Barrett (1954)

Review: Malkovich, Igudesman, and Joo in "The Music Critic"

John Malkovich and Hyung-ki Joo | Photo by Julia Wesely

Snarky, cranky, haughty, and full of himself, these are words that you might use to describe your reclusive uncle, but instead aptly described the music critic that John Malkovich embodied in a unique musical comedy show with composer-violinist Aleksey Igudesman and pianist Hyung-ki Joo at Benaroya Hall (October 17). The innovative show, written by Igudesma, embraced classical music, acerbic commentary, and comedy wholeheartedly, although if you are a person who writes about classical music like yours truly, you might have taken the evening as a slap on the… ears.

Malkovich, the famous Hollywood movie star who is noted for some off-beat films, such as “Being John Malkovich,” nearly sold out Benaroya Hall with nary and empty seat to be seen. A spotlight fell on Malkovich when he walked onstage with Igudesman and Joo. Sitting down at a café table, Malkovich stayed completely in character with a taciturn appearance as Joo and a string quartet began to play the third movement of Dvorak’s “Piano Quintet in A major.”

After they finished, applause erupted from all corners of the house, but Malkovich dryly cautioned everyone, declaring that notwithstanding the appeal of Dvorak’s music, “I cannot remain silent regarding the dangers of its latest tendencies” and went on to caution listeners again the passionate, and “ghastly” qualities that have entered his music.

And so the evening went, the audience would be treated to fine performances of pieces by Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Kancheli, Debussy, Schumann, and a couple of numbers by Igudesman, and following each piece, Malkovich would deliver a scathing remark.

After listening to the third movement of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 4 in A minor, Malkovich commented that Beethoven’s style was bizarre and Baroque, and even though he can build passages of “sweet melancholy,” he shatters it with a “mass of barbarous chords.” […] “He seems to harbor together doves and crocodiles.”

That trenchant critique generated a lot of laughter – as it should! I found that quote in Nicolas Slonimsky’s “Lexicon of Musical Invective,” a veritable treasure trove of negative and often outrageous statements by various critics of works by Bartok Beethoven, Berg, Berlioz, Bizet, Block, Brahms, Bruckner, Chopin, Copland, Cowell, Debussy, Franck, Gershwin, Gounod, Harris, I’Indy, Krenek, Liszt, Mahler, Milhaud, etc. Anyone who has the temerity to slam these composers deserves to be lampooned themselves. Well, that’s exactly what happened later in the Malkovich show, and I’ll get to that in just a bit.

In the meantime, Malkovich let loose with more vituperations. Citing a diary entry from Tchaikovsky, we heard him calling Brahms a “scoundrel” and a “giftless bastard.” Nietzsche scathingly stated that Brahms “has the melancholy of impotence.” It turns out that Hugo Wolf also didn’t like Brahms and his music, calling him “the greatest bluffer of this century and of all future millennia.”

Sometimes a music excerpt was played fairly loudly during one of Malkovich’s rantings, making it difficult to hear exactly what he said. But that notwithstanding, Malkovich trashed Chopin, Kancheli, Debussy (described as having “the attractiveness of a pretty tubercular maiden”), Schumann, and a couple of the pieces by Igudesman, including “The Malkovich Torment for Piano Quintet.” At one point, Malkovich took the bow away from Igudesman and gave him a tiny bow. Igudesman took that bow and still played the heck out of a wildly difficult piece.

Igudesman gave Malkovich his comeuppance with this picturesque statement, “I am sitting in the smallest room of my house. I have your review in front of me. Soon it will be behind me.”

The tables were completely turned on Malkovich when it was revealed that he (well, his music critic character) had panned a recording and then praised the same recording when it was claimed to have been done by Joyce Hatto, the British pianist who had actually stolen it and passed it off as her own.

So, if you dish it out on others, expect to be dished on yourself. In that vein, I was not impressed with the one printed sheet, detailing the concert program, that was inserted in a Seattle Symphony program. That sheet listed the Beethoven piece as No. 4 in A minor instead of Piano Sonata No 4 in A minor. It also didn’t provide the members of the string quartet. It would not have taken very much effort to make those corrections. I hereby give the program sheet a D minus.

All the same, it was a fun program, even though music critics got the short end. There aren’t all that many critics left these days. The ones I know don’t write in the over-the-top style that Malkovich spouted. But maybe we should put some venom into our scribblings. People remember nasty reviews. But they also remember how stupid you are for writing that kind of vitriol in the first place.

Postscript: The Music Critic at the Symphony will receive its West Coast premiere on June 12, 2024, at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall with the Oregon Symphony.

John Malkovich and Aleksey Igudesman | Photo by Julia Wesely

Today's Birthdays

Sir William Herschel (1738-1822)
Annunzio Paolo Mantovani (1905-1980)
Petula Clark (1932)
Peter Dickinson (1934)
Daniel Barenboim (1942)
Pierre Jalbert (1967)

and

Gerhart Hauptmann (1862-1946)
Franklin Pierce Adams (1881-1960)
Georgia O'Keefe (1887-1986)
Marianne Moore (1887-1972)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1926, the first broadcast of a music program took place on the NBC radio network, featuring the New York Symphony conducted by Walter Damrosch, the New York Oratorio Society, and the Goldman Band, with vocal soloists Mary Garden and Tito Ruffo, and pianist Harold Bauer.

Today's Birthdays

Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837)
Fanny Hensel (1805-1847)
Rev. John Curwen (1816-1880)
Aaron Copland (1900-1990)
Leonie Rysanek (1926-1998)
Jorge Bolet (1914-1990)
Narciso Yepes (1927-1997)
Robert Lurtsema (1931-2000)
Peter Katin (1930-2015)
Ellis Marsalis (1934-2020)
William Averitt (1948)

and

Claude Monet (1840-1926)
Astrid Lindgren (1907-2002)
William Steig (1907-2003)

Preview of upcoming Portland Chamber Orchestra concert in The Oregonian

 

The upcoming PCO concert puts the ensemble in a new chapter. My preview is available in Oregonlive here and will be the print edition on Friday.

Today's Birthdays

Jan Zach (1699-1773)
Louis Lefébure-Wély (1817-1870)
Brinley Richards (1817-1885)
George Whitefield Chadwick (1854-1931)
Marguerite Long (1874-1966)
Joonas Kokkoken (1921-1996)
Lothar Zagrosek (1942)
Martin Bresnick (1946)

and

St. Augustine (354-430)
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)
George V. Higgins (1939-1999)
Eamon Grennan (1941)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1937, the first "official" radio broadcast by the NBC Symphony Orchestra took place with Pierre Monteux conducting. Arthur Rodzinski had conducted a "dress rehearsal" broadcast on Nov. 2, 1937. Arturo Toscanini's debut broadcast with the NBC Symphony would occur on Christmas Day, 1937.

Ioannides and Vancouver Symphony make the most of surround sound in Respighi’s “Pines of Rome”

Philippe Quint and Sarah Ioannides | Photo by Paul Quackenbush

In sports, there are rivalries between cities and all sorts of groups of people, but the music world is more of a collaborative affair, and in that spirit, the Vancouver Symphony made the most of its concert (November 4) with conductor Sarah Ioannides, who is the Music Director of Symphony Tacoma and guest artist, violinist Philippe Quint. They teamed up with the local band at Skyview Concert Hall to deliver excellent performances works by Corigliano, Ravel, Debussy, Vaughn Williams, and Respighi, but it was the latter’s “The Pines of Rome” that really stood out with a memorable surround sound effect.

The concert marked a return engagement for Ioannides, who made a terrific impression when she debuted with the orchestra in January of 2021, even though that was an online-only performance. This time, she got to strut her stuff in front of a live audience, and the results were spectacular, especially for Respighi’s “The Pines of Rome” where Ioannides and company painted colorful scenes with their sonic palette. The first movement, Pines of the Villa Borghese, set things in motion with children’s gleeful teasing and songs. The Pines near a Catacomb evoked a musty, dark, and solemn site with lots with the bass clarinet rumbling in the basement. The Pines of the Janiculum elicited birds with trilling violins and an ultra-smooth sound from principal clarinetist Igor Shakhman. The Pines of the Appian Way created the impression of a Roman legion trudging towards the listeners, but it was the positioning of trumpets behind the audience and Ioannides precise gestures as she turned to signal them to create a glowing, electrifying finale in surround sound that brought the house down.

John Corigilano’s “Chaconne for Violin and Orchestra” from his score for “The Red Violin” movie, received an outstanding rendition by Quint and the VSO. Quint coaxed beautiful high tones from his Stradivarius that contributed to the wonderfully mysterious atmosphere at the beginning of the piece. Later Quint summoned whispery high tones that were just gorgeous, and at the end of the piece he created a sequence of rising tones that could be heard above the emotional fray from the orchestra.

The piece brought back pleasant memories of the story in which the violin, over several centuries, journeyed over continents and cultures, surviving lots of turbulent moments. The orchestra, under Ioannides did a marvelous job of stirring up turbulent passages. The haunting solos by principal flutist Rachel Rencher and principal oboist Alan Juza contributed to the dramatic nature of the music.

I was not convinced of Quint’s playing of Ravel’s “Tizgane.” He skipped some of the high notes during the first part of the piece, which involves very tricky gypsy-inspired passages. Then after the orchestra joined in, he ran rough-shod over a lot his part, especially when high notes were involved. They were not cleanly played. He displayed a very emotional, physically involved style, but the results should have been more eloquently stated and polished. Instead, they sounded very uneven and unsteady.

Debussy’s Prelude to “The Afternoon of a Faun” provided a lovely respite for concertgoers in the second half of the program. The orchestra, with Rencher and the horns leading the way, conveyed the languid and lush mood of the piece outstandingly. That balance of sound between the orchestral sections also enhanced the impressionistic quality of the music.

The concert opened with the Overture to Vaugh Williams “Wasps,” which began with a vigorous buzz like the insects before breaking into a festive British tune and then a hymn-like melody. The two were meshed together and made a snappy, upbeat statement that aptly set up the rest of the concert.

Today's Birthdays

Alexander Borodin (1833-1887)
Jean Papineau-Couture (1916-2000)
Michael Langdon (1920-1991)
Lucia Popp (1939-1993)
Neil Young (1945)

and

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
Roland Barthes (1915-1980)
Michael Ende (1929-1995)
Tracy Kidder (1945)
Katherine Weber (1955)

From the New Music Box:

On November 12, 1925, cornetist Louis Armstrong made the first recordings with a group under his own name for Okeh Records in Chicago, Illinois. The group, called Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five, recorded his original compositions, "Gut Bucket Blues" and "Yes! I'm In The Barrel" (Okeh 8261) as well as "My Heart" composed by his wife Lil Hardin who was the pianist in the band. (The flipside of the 78 rpm record on which the latter was issued, Okeh 8320, was "Armstrong's composition "Cornet Chop Suey" recorded three months later on February 26, 1926.) Armstrong's Hot Five and subsequent Hot Seven recordings are widely considered to be the earliest masterpieces of recorded jazz.

Today's Birthdays

Bernhard Romberg (1767-1841)
Frederick Stock (1872-1942)
Ernest Ansermet (1883-1969)
Jan Simons (1925-2006)
Arthur Cunningham (1928-1997)
Vernon Handley (1930-2008)
Harry Bramma (1936)
Jennifer Bate (1944)
Fang Man (1977)

and

Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881)
Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007)
Carlos Fuentes (1928-2012)
Mary Gaitskill (1955)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1898, shortly after it was finished, the painting “Nevermore” by Gaugin is purchased by the English composer Frederick Delius. The painting was inspired by Poe’s famous poem and is now in the collection of London’s Cortland Gallery.

Review of Oregon Symphony concert with Andy Akiho's "Sculptures" on OAW

 

My review of the Oregon Symphony concert that featured Andy Akiho's "Sculptures" plus works by Tchaikovsky and Dvorak has been posted on Oregon ArtsWatch here.

Today's Birthdays

Martin Luther (1483-1546)
François Couperin (1668-1733)
John Phillips Marquand (1873-1949)
Carl Stalling (1891-1972)
Ennio Morricone (1928-2020)
Graham Clark (1941)
Sir Tim Rice (1944)
Andreas Scholl (1967)

and

Oliver Goldsmith (1730-1774)
Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805)
Vachel Lindsey (1879-1931)
John Phillips Marquand (1893-1960)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1900, Russian pianist Ossip Gabrilowitsch makes his Carnegie Hall debut in New York City during his first American tour. In 1909 he married contralto Clara Clemens, the daughter of the American writer Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain.

Today's Birthdays

Burrill Phillips (1907-1988)
Pierrette Alarie (1921-2011)
Piero Cappuccilli (1929-2005)
Ivan Moravec (1930-2015)
William Thomas McKinley (1938-2015)
Thomas Quasthoff (1959)
Bryn Terfel (1965)

and

Ivan Turgenev (1818-1883)
Hugh Leonard (1926-2009)
Anne Sexton (1928-1974)
Carl Sagan (1934-1996)

Today's Birthdays

Friedrich Witt (1770-1836)
Sir Arnold Bax (1883-1953
Lamberto Gardelli (1915-1938)
Jerome Hines (1921-2003)
Richard Stoker (1938)
Simon Standage (1941)
Judith Zaimont (1945)
Tadaaki Otaka (1947)
Elizabeth Gale (1948)
Bonnie Raitt (1949)
Ana Vidović (1980)

and

Dorothy Day (1897-1980)
Margaret Mitchell (1900-1949)
Raja Rao (1908-2006)
Kazuo Ishiguro (1954)

Today's Birthdays

Ferenc (Franz) Erkel (1810-1893)
Efrem Kurtz (1900-1995)
William Alwyn (1905-1985)
Al Hirt (1922-1999)
Dame Joan Sutherland (1926-2010)
Dame Gwyneth Jones (1937)
Joni Mitchell (1943)
Judith Forst (1943)
Christina Viola Oorebeek (1944)

and

Marie Curie (1867-1934)
Lise Meitner (1878-1968)
Albert Camus (1913-1960)
Benny Andersen (1929-2018)
Stephen Greenblatt (1943)

Preview of Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra concert in The Oregonian

 

My preview of the upcoming PCSO concert is now available in Oregonlive here. It will be in the print edition this Friday.

Review: Superb Mozart and Prokofiev delivered by the Oregon Symphony under Danzmayr

The Selections from Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet Suites No. 1, 2 and 3” received a tour-de-force performance by the Oregon Symphony (October 30) at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. In particular, the “Death of Tybalt” with its fifteen vicious whacks made a stunning impression that hugely and effectively contrasted with the lovely, conversational tone of Mozart’s “Sinfonia concertante” in the first half of the concert. The superb playing of those works gave the evening a memorable gravitas that will stay with me for a while.

Prokofiev arranged three suites with various scenes from his “Romeo and Juliet” ballet. Orchestras typically perform one of the suites on a given program, but for this concert, Danzmayr selected nine scenes from the suites. Right from the start, the orchestra made the ominous hostility of “The Montagues and the Capulets” from “Suite No. 2” almost palpable. Urged on by Danzmayr, the musicians created the beautiful, carefree nature of Juliet came to life in “Juliet – The Young Girl,” and the boisterous “Masks,” and the tender lushness of the “Balcony Scene,” but then came the helter-skelter gathering storm and the repetitive blows from Jonathan Greeney’s timpani in “the “Death of Tybalt” that became louder and more terrible and so unbelievably intense that I almost wanted it to stop. The release of all that tension in the “Morning Dance” segued marvelously into the yearning and hope and tragic ending of “Romeo and Juliet’s Grave” with serene sounds coming from the extreme high and low sections of the orchestral palate. It was a great way to wrap up an emotionally gripping evening.

For something completely different, the first half of the program featured the one of Mozart’s gemlike confections, the “Sinfonia concertante for Violin and Viola” (K. 364). Looking splendid in apricot and peach-colored gowns, concertmaster Sarah Kwak and principal violist Amanda Grimm played the Mozart number to perfection with wonderful sonic balance and a terrifically nuanced phrasing. The exchange of passages between them was flawless, and stylishness also had a wonderful verve. The high-spirited exposed dialogue between the two at the end of the first movement caused the audience to quickly respond with applause. The second movement exuded a delicious melancholy with wonderful back and forth between the soloists, accompanied by wafting tones from their colleagues. The third movement refreshed listeners’ ears with an uptempo, playful conversation between Kwak and Grimm. They swept into the finale with a dramatic flourish that resonated joyously with the concertgoers, who rewarded them with thunderous applause. It should be noted that Danzmayr expertly kept the piece from sagging, making it a real treat the everyone enjoyed from beginning to the end.

The concert opened with the “Dance of the Paper Umbrellas” by Elena Kats-Chernin, an Australian composer who was born in Uzbekistan. Her piece was just a few minutes in length, a lightweight number with a springy, propulsive melodic line that was easy to grasp. It featured soothing strings and a percolating tune and a bit of switching back and forth between the piano and celeste for Sequoia. Written to help reduce stress and anxiety for hospital patients and their families, “Dance of the Paper Umbrellas” seemed to suddenly stop in mid-sentence, which seemed odd. But it was an uplifting piece, and that fit well with the arc of the concert program, which concluded with Prokofiev’s depiction of one of Shakespeare’s great tragedies.

Postscript: Still, after hearing that amazing performance of excerpts from "Romeo and Juliet," I felt in need of a stiff drink.

Today's Birthdays

Adolphe Sax (1814-1894)>
John Philip Sousa (1854-1932)
Don Lusher (1923-2006)
James Bowman (1941)
Arturo Sandoval (1949)
Daniele Gatti (1961)

and

Robert Musil (1880-1942)
Harold Ross (1892-1951)
Ann Porter (1911-2011)
James Jones (1921-1977)
Michael Cunningham (1952)

From The Writer's Almanac:

It’s the birthday of the March King, John Philip Sousa, born in Washington, D.C. (1854). His father was a U.S. Marine Band trombonist, and he signed John up as an apprentice to the band after the boy tried to run away from home to join the circus. By the time he was 13 years old, Sousa could play violin, piano, flute, cornet, baritone, trombone, and was a pretty good singer too. At 26, he was leading the Marine Band and writing the first of his 136 marches, including “Semper Fidelis,” which became the official march of the Corps, and “The Washington Post March.” In addition to those marches, he wrote nearly a dozen light operas, and as many waltzes too; and he wrote three novels. But he’s best known for “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”

Review: Portland Opera's "Marriage of Figaro" spot on with singing and comic timing

Jesús Vincente Murillo as Figaro and Leela Subramaniam as Susanna | Photo by Philip Newton

Mozart’s timeless comic opera, “The Marriage of Figaro,” received a spot-on performance opening night (October 28), lifting the spirits of the audience in Keller Auditorium, which was fairly full although the upper balcony was not used. Given that a lot of operas nowadays are updated to reflect the modern era, it was actually refreshing to see traditional dress and scenery. Under stage director Fenlon Lamb, the entire enterprise ran seamlessly, spotlighted by the stellar singing of Leela Subramaniam in the role of Susanna.

With traditional dress designed by Christine A Richardson this production of The Marriage of Figaro offered colorful period costumes, replete with bustles and buttons. The scenery designed by Cameron Porteous and built by Pacific Opera Victoria complimented the fashions imaginatively with huge mirrors in gilded frames that extended from floor to ceiling, mimicking the real deal in old European palaces. Connie Yun made sure that everything was enhanced with superior lighting.

Subramanian sparkled throughout the evening with her vibrant soprano perfectly matching Susanna’s dialogue and mood at every twist and turn. Her “Signore!” number when she emerged from the closet, quelling the enraged Count Almaviva (Richard Ollarsaba), was just one of many highlights. Jesús Vicente Murillo’s Figaro exhibited energy and style with a robust baritone and singing with a broom for a guitar. But his voice sometimes became lost in the big hall, especially when he had to descend into the lower register.

Richard Ollarsaba as Count Almaviva, Deepa Johnny as Cherubino, Roland Hawkins II as Basilio, and Leela Subramaniam as Susanna | Photo by Philip Newton

Ollarsaba created an assured and highly suspicious Count Almaviva with a resonant bass-baritone, racking up the laughs when the Count fumed over his teenage page, Cherubino (Deepa Johnny) and could not figure out what kind of trickery was being played on him. Mezzo-soprano Johnny, in the pants role, had a field day, evoking Cherubino’s infatuation for women in “Voi che sapete” with elan. After Susanna and The Countess Rosina (Laquita Mitchell) dress up Cherubino as a woman to escape the notice of the Count, it was absolutely hilarious to watch Johnny play a boy who then has to awkwardly walk like a woman. (One wonders if any opera with pants roles can be done in Florida, given its anti-drag laws.)

Conveying the sadness of The Countess over the loss of love with her husband, soprano Mitchell delivered a lovely and heartfelt “Dove sono,” which made the scene of forgiveness at the end of the opera genuinely striking. Bass-baritone Matthew Burns was an agile Dr. Bartolo, skillfully tripping and falling off of couches while singing. As Bartolo’s housekeeper, Marcellina, mezzo-soprano Tesia Kwarteng elicited much laughter when she got into a catty spat with Susanna in the first act and when it was revealed that she was Figaro’s mother in the second (with Bartolo as the father).

Tesia Kwarteng as Marcellina, Matthew Burns as Bartolo, Leela Subramaniam as Susanna, and Jesús Vincente Murillo as Figaro | Photo by Philip Hampton

Portland Opera resident artist Sankara Harouna stirred up the comic brew with an outstanding Antonio, The Gardner, who saw Cherubino jump from the balcony and scamper away. Harouna’s resident colleagues excelled in their roles, Roland Hawkins II as Basilio, The Music Master, and Judy Yannini as an Barbarina.

The Portland Opera Chorus, prepared by Nicholas Fox, added to the fun with a superb ensemble sound. Conductor Elizabeth Askren paced the orchestra and singers extremely well so that the story flowed like a stream. Now and then it seemed that the orchestral volume was too loud, but the large size of the Keller is always a head-scratching challenge for musical forces.

There has been a lot of talk in the media recently about retrofitting the Keller for earthquakes. Someday Portland will bite the bullet and spend the money to prevent a catastrophe, but at the same time it should also consider re-sculpting the inside of the hall to reduce the seating and bring the audience in the balcony closer to the stage. Seattle had the same problem when it tackled McCaw Hall, and that resulted in an excellent space for Seattle Opera. Finding enough money, of course, is the issue. Somehow, like Figaro and Susanna, we’ve got to use our wits and ingenuity to figure out how to get there – and end up smiling.

Laquita Mitchell as Countess Almaviva and Richard Ollarsaba as Count Almaviva | Photo by Philip Hampton