Skride excels with Tchaikovsky and the Oregon Symphony puts a wallop into Walton

The young Latvian sensation Baiba Skride performed an achingly beautiful interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with the Oregon Symphony on Saturday evening at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, causing some members of the audience to leave after intermission. But they left with their ears half full because the orchestra followed Skride by playing the heck out of Walton’s Symphony No. 1, giving a tempestuous and thrilling performance of this seldom heard masterpiece.

Since winning first prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2001, Skride has released five acclaimed recordings and, at the ripe age of 26, is a budding superstar. On stage at the Schnitz, she played the Tchaikovsky with conviction. Each note from her 1725 Stradivarius was impeccably clear and gracefully articulated. Her style seemed unsentimental yet it contained plenty of drama and lyricism. Her playing was full of nuances like slowing down and speeding up with a phrase and varying the pianissimo and fortissimos. Whether she evokes a smooth singing voice or delivered gypsy-like attacks, Skride’s artistry came to the fore. Applause broke out at the end of the first movement and erupted again after the finale. Skride, backed up by outstanding accompaniment from the orchestra, deserved the enthusiastic response, because she gave us Tchaikovsky’s music at its highest level.

It is generally agreed that Walton wrote his First Symphony as a reaction to his failed love affair with a widowed baroness after they had lived together for two years in Switzerland. According to Jim Svedja, “Walton once confessed that in one way or another, all of his major works were ‘about girls.’ So, it may very well be that the anger, resentfulness, and general turmoil of the first two movements of his First Symphony expressed his frustration at being jilted by the baroness. In any case, the Oregon Symphony, led by the incisive conducting of its music director Carlos Kalmar, played all four movements of Walton’s work with unrelenting passion.

Highlights from the first movement included energetic, sweeping sounds from the violins and bright, stirring tone clusters from the brass. Everything somehow dissolved into a forlorn atmosphere that wonderfully paired the woodwinds with principal cellist Nancy Ives before everything turned topsy turvy. Before the end of the movement the orchestra created two huge, loud climaxes and the like a car careening out of control suddenly crashed and burned.

The second movement, marked “Presto, con malizia” (Quickly, with malice), opened with crisp agitation that was followed by sudden bursts of aggressive sounds and dramatic pauses. The third movement contained a long melancholy passage, played with great expression by principal flutist David Buck, which was followed by more plaintive passages from the clarinet and oboe. At some point, the most of the orchestra seemed to gather itself out of the deep part of a canyon of grief, while the violins floated high above. After a soothing, mellow theme from the violas the movement ended quietly but with discontent.

The fourth movement changed the emotional context completely with its dance-like theme. I loved the fugue and the big surges of sound before the vibrant finale in which all of the orchestra members were glued on Kalmar as he dramatically paused before each final chord. As the last sound faded away, an incredibly loud “Bravo” rang out from the balcony and that led the audience to unleash thunderous applause and cheering.

The concert began with Sibelius’ “Scene With Cranes,” a tranquil gem that the orchestra played with great sensitivity. Though it lasts only about five minutes, this short piece, originally composed as part of the incidental music for a play, quickly paints, in hushed tones from the strings, a soft, contemplative soundscape. Exceptional playing by the clarinets created the fleeting impression of cranes. The brief exposed passages, played by concertmaster Jun Iwasaki and principal cellist Nancy Ives, beautifully complemented the strings, which left me with the impression of solitude and wonder.

The Oregon Symphony repeats this program on Monday evening at 8 pm. Don’t miss it.

Third time's a charm for the B-9

Tonight at the Schnitz, music director Kalmar and the orchestra got in sync and gave a fine performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony. This is not an easy feat, considering that this was the third performance of the piece, and it's easy to slack off. But tonight the artistry and professionalism of the musicians and their leader was at a much higher level. The strings played sublimely and really together. I was especially impressed with the way the violins and violas played with utmost commitment. From my perch in the choir stalls, I can see them the best. But there was plenty sparkling playing by their colleagues: the woodwinds, the brass, and especially timpanist Paul Salvatore, who plays all of the correct notes at the right time without any cues from Kalmar. It made me think that Salvatore can play this thing blindfolded.

Also, the playing of assistant principal bassoonist Evan Kuhlmann and bassoonist Robert Naglee was almost impeccable at every single performance.

Fortunately, Kalmar kept improving his communication with the soloists. He allowed soprano Kelley Nassief to hold onto the notes a little longer. Each night all three soloists sounded terrific. It should be noted that tenor Brendan Tuohy and mezzo soprano Hannah Penn came directly from the Portland Opera production of "La Traviata" to sing marvelously on Sunday evening (as did Sharin Apostolou in the Vaughan William's number). Baritone Philip Cutlip was splendid at each performance, but tonight he nearly tweaked the high F in his declamatory opening statement. That's a very minor nit, but heck, I've got to find something to complain about.

The Vaughan Williams piece, "Serenade to Music," was perhaps a little less perfect tonight than during previous evenings. Someone in the double basses came in to early at one point, but that was about all to notice.

I think that Portland Symphonic Choir sang very well for all of the concerts, but it's hard for me to judge since I'm too influenced by my own singing and what's happening around me.

The house was almost sold out tonight. Saturday and Sunday evening were pretty standing room only. That bodes well for the OSO, which will play again this Friday in a concert with the sensational Chinese pianist Lang Lang. That concert is sold out and should be a big splash. It would be great if a TV crew would come by to take a snapshot of this pianist. Lang Lang was the featured artist of the Summer Olympics and has inspired thousands of kids to study piano and Western Music. I'm really looking forward to hearing him.

Beethoven's 9th and VW's Serenade to Music with the OSO - one singer's perspective

I'm singing in the tenor section of the Portland Symphonic Choir in the opening classical series for the Oregon Symphony. We just completed the concerts for Saturday and Sunday evenings. Monday evening is our third and final time to scale the heights of Beethoven's 9th symphony and experience the lush landscape of Vaughan Williams "Serenade to Music."

Both performances of the Beethoven 9 have flown by with exuberance, and judging by the response of the nearly standing-room-only audiences, we connected with bases-loaded home runs in the bottom of the ninth on both performances, Saturday and Sunday nights. Okay, it's probably pretty difficult for the audience to respond in any other way, but both performances caused a spontaneous combustion from the listeners, and that's always a wonderful thing to experience.

But each performance has been quite different from the perspective of the performers. I think that Carlos Kalmar, the artistic director of the Oregon Symphony, must have put in a long day on Saturday. We had rehearsals in the morning and a performance that evening.

At the performance on Saturday evening, Kalmar did well with the Vaughan Williams' lush "Serenade to Music." But he must have been tired when we did the Beethoven, because he seemed to forget the pacing in some key transitions and he was flipping back and forth in his score. He still didn't have the soloists lined up with his beat and gave the appearance of rushing them when they sang as a quartet. Still, he got he together for the fourth movement when we and the soloists came into play and delivered a knockout punch that sent the listeners into ecstasy.

Incidentally, on Saturday, I talked briefly with Nancy Ives, principal cellist, during the intermission. She noted that the Vaughan Williams piece has to sound smooth and flowing but it requires an ultra slow bow movement and that's pretty tough.

Concertmaster Jun Iwasaki played the violin solos for the Vaughan Williams piece with clarity and sensitivity. Well, it was just brilliant. In the choir ranks, Sharin Apostolou, sang the brief yet demand soprano solos superbly. Her voice ascending to the high A with clarity and beauty. Both Iwasaki and Apostolou were outstanding on both evenings in the "Serenade to Music."

It seemed that the orchestra players had a tougher time on Sunday evening. Iwasaki played so hard in the first two movements that horsehair came off his bow and then he broke a string in the second movement. Assistant concertmaster, Peter Frajola, traded violins with Iwasaki and swiftly repaired Iwasaki's violin, and Iwasaki was back to playing on his own instrument within a few minutes. (Give Frajola a medal for that - bravo!) Also, there were some problems with the horns and with intonation between the basses and cellos. The quartet of vocal soloists were closer to the quick tempo that Carlos wanted, but he seemed to relax the beat for them as well.

Kalmar seemed more rested and freed up in his interpretation of both pieces. He showed a lot more sweeping gestures and was crisper at the same time - except for the slight hand gesture that he made at the beginning of the poco Allegro (measure 843) of the fourth movement. That gesture meant that the violins didn't start together. (Actually, it is quite impressive that an very slight movement of two fingers can cause someone or ones to jump the gun.) No matter, the finale was emphatically triumphant and caused the audience to jump out of their collective seats in a burst of applause.

On the way the concert hall, Mark Petersen, basso and general manager of the Portland Symphonic Choir, noticed some prominent folks in attendance at the Sunday evening concert: David Hattner, new music director of the Portland Youth Philharmonic, Yaacov Bergman, music director of the Portland Chamber Orchestra, and Jack Allen, the new president and CEO of KBPS (which helped to sponsor the Sunday performance).

Few Carmina Burana tickets are left!

If you are thinking about attending the Oregon Symphony's "Carmina Burana" concerts (May 17, 18, and 19), you'd better act quickly, because all of the concerts are almost sold out. This piece features three soloists, the Pacific Youth Choir, and the Portland Symphonic Choir (I'll be singing with them). Also on the program is the orchestra's first performances of Messiaen's "L’Ascension" (The Ascension). For more information and tickets, see the Oregon Symphony web site.

Otherwise, take a look at this article about an arena-sized presentation of Carmina Burana in England.

Symphony musicians give free concert at the Old Church

At noontime tomorrow (Wednesday), you can catch two ensembles from the Oregon Symphony that will present the following program gratis!

Beethoven: String Quartet Op.59-1, F major
Shin Kwon, Fumino Ando (Violns), Masayo Higuchi (Viola), Adam Esbensen (Cello) --

Brahms: Piano Quintet in F minor
Shin Kwon, Sarah Roth (Violins), Chales Noble (Viola), Heather Blackburn (Cello), Cary Lewis (Piano)

BTW: Esbensen is the fellow who just won a position with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Sharing artists and audiences

This weekend Ralph Kirshbaum will be performing for the first time with the Oregon Symphony. Kirshbaum has been a regular at Chamber Music Northwest for a number of years, and I would think that a number of Chamber Music Northwest subscribers might want to hear the Oregon Symphony this weekend because of Kirshbaum.

It's terrific to see major-league artists appearing in concerts that are sponsored by different organizations. Once in a while I've seen this happen with pianists who play on the series with Portland Piano International and also with the Oregon Symphony. Usually, this doesn't happen during the same season.

Of course, I don't want the same people to circulate among these organizations all the time, but some crossover or sharing among the groups is a good way to get stimulate audiences.

I have also enjoyed how Portland Opera has promoted hometown talents. Christine Meadows, who graduated from Portland State University was a regular at NY City opera and at Portland Opera for many years. We've also seen PSU grads like Kelly Nassief and Angela Niederloh star in recent productions. I just took a look at Clayton Brainerd's web site (he also graduated from PSU) and noticed that he will be appearing next year in Portland Opera's production of Fidelio. A great move by Portland Opera.