Today's Birthdays

Benedetto Marcello (1686-1739)
Robert Planquette (1848-1903)
Norman Del Mar (1919-1994)
Steuart Bedford (1939)
Reinhard Goebel (1952)
Randall Davidson (1953)

and

Mary Harris Jones, or "Mother Jones" (1837-1930)
Primo Levi (1919-1987)
Kim Addonizio (1954)
J. K. Rowling (1965)

Today's Birthdays

Gerald Moore (1899-1987)
Meredith Davies (1922-2005)
Moshe Atzmon (1931)
Buddy Guy (1936)
Paul Anka (1941)
Teresa Cahill (1944)
Alexina Louie (1949)
Christopher Warren-Green (1955)

and

Emily Brontë (1818-1848)
Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929)
Henry Moore (1898-1986)
William Gass (1924)

Today's Birthdays

Sigmund Romberg (1887-1951)
Frank Loesser (1910-1969)
Charles Farncombe (1919-2006)
Avet Terterian (1929-1994)
Mikis Theodorakis (1925)
Peter Schreier (1935)
Bernd Weikl (1942)
Olga Borodina (1963)

and

Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)
Don Marquis (1878-1937)
Stanley Kunitz (1905-2006)
Paul Taylor (1930)
T.J. Stiles (1964)

Today's Birthdays

Rued Langgaard (1893-)
Rudy Vallée (1901-1986)
Kenneth Alwyn (1925)
Riccardo Muti (1941)

and

Ludwig A Feuerbach (1804-1872)
Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)
Beatrix Potter (1866-1843)
Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968)
Malcolm Lowry (1909-1957)
John Ashbery (1927)

Oregon Symphony reports its most successful finanacial season ever

From the press release:

(PORTLAND, OR) – President Scott Showalter announced today the results of the 2016/17 Season, his third as Oregon Symphony President. Titled “Like Never Before” for its groundbreaking SoundSights series, the season set all-time records in virtually every category, including number of concerts, audience attendance, subscription revenue, single ticket sales, the number of sold-out concerts, percentage of first-time ticket buyers, the amount raised at the annual Gala, total number of donors, total number of new donors, and the amount of overall contributions. These high-water marks resulted in the Symphony’s eighth consecutive balanced budget.

These numbers were propelled by a season that saw a 20% increase in the number of classical performances, three trailblazing SoundSights concerts (Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle with glass sets by Dale Chihuly; Messaien’s Turangalîla with animation by Rose Bond; and Stravinsky’s Persephone with puppetry and staging by Michael Curry), and the broadest-ever range of Special Concerts, from Boyz II Men and DeVotchKa to Renée Fleming and Raiders of the Lost Ark. The season additionally reached 1.3 million radio broadcast listeners via All Classical Portland as well as American Public Media’s SymphonyCast and Performance Today, and included two commissioned world premieres.

Artistic highlights included:

· The release of Haydn Symphonies, the fourth CD under Music Director Carlos Kalmar on the Pentatone label.

· The second year of percussionist Colin Currie’s three-year appointment as the Oregon Symphony’s Artist-in-Residence.

· Commissioned works – and their world premieres – from Kenji Bunch and Chris Rogerson.

·  A 20% increase in the number of classical performances.

The season drew historic attendance and ticket revenue:

· Total seats sold: 182,242 (up 18% over previous year and 38% over last five seasons).

· Total ticket revenue: $9,228,060 (up 21% over previous year and 59% over last five seasons).

· Total subscription revenue up 4% over previous year and 15% over last five seasons.

· Total single ticket revenue up 29% over 15/16 and 91% over last five years. 

· Classical attendance up 14% over previous year.

· Classical ticket revenue up 13% over previous year and 24% over last five seasons.

· 28 sold-out concerts, 30% of the season’s concerts.

· 26% of all tickets sold were to first-time buyers, a 12% increase over the previous year.

It also saw multiple records for contributed revenue:

  

· Highest-ever contributed revenue of $8,504,799.

· The annual gala broke the “glass ceiling” of $1 million, a 15% increase over last year’s record.

· More than $2 million in contributions from the Oregon Symphony Association and Foundation Boards.

· Support from more than 38 foundations and 30 corporations, including the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation, Brookby Foundation, Meyer Memorial Trust, Oregon Community Foundation, Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation, Collins Foundation, M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, Umpqua Bank, FamilyCare Health, Globe Foundation, Jay and Diane Zidell Charitable Foundation, Irwin & Renee Holzman Foundation, Richard & Janet Geary Foundation, and Wells Fargo Foundation.

The Oregon Symphony expanded its education and community engagement efforts, increasing the number of programs staged throughout the year by 4% and reaching 19% more people throughout the community:

·         The annual free Waterfront Concert drew 15,000 attendees, and featured more than a dozen performing ensembles, including BRAVO Youth Orchestras, Metropolitan Youth Symphony, Portland Youth Philharmonic, and Portland Taiko. The Oregon Symphony’s performance reached additional listeners worldwide via broadcast by All Classical Portland.

·         An expanded musicNOW program – which sees Symphony musicians and therapists from Earthtones Music Therapy team up to bring music-making and movement to those living with age-related cognitive loss – engaged 240 residents, family members, and caregivers at two senior residences.

·         Artist-in-Residence Colin Currie reached 1,400 community members through nine free events, which included master classes with Metropolitan Youth Symphony and Portland Youth Philharmonic, and concerts at St. Mary’s Home for Boys, Newberg’s Chehalem Cultural Center, and Nordia House. The performance at Nordia House, featuring Symphony percussionists, highlighted innovative wearable technology developed by Intel.

·         As part of the SoundSights series, explorative discussion panels with artists and arts leaders reached an in-person audience of more than 500, with 7,200 additional viewers participating via Facebook Live.

·         14 Symphony Storytimes, 36 Kinderkonzerts, and 6 Young People’s Concerts reached a combined 18,200 K-8 students and family members.

·         The annual Gala included a free community concert for an audience of 2,500.

·         The Oregon Symphony’s brass ensemble returned to Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, where the CCCF choir joined them in a holiday performance for 235 inmates and staff.

·         Soloists Wynton Marsalis, Alban Gerhardt, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, and Harriet Krijgh coached three area youth orchestras, as did Music Director Carlos Kalmar and Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik.

·         An expanded Link Up program saw 5,400 elementary students – double the participation over last season – making music alongside the Oregon Symphony, using curriculum provided by Carnegie Hall.

Additionally, 22,000 of the K-12 students reached throughout the season – about 60% of the total – participated for free, based on enrollment in the federal free and reduced lunch program. The Symphony also provided free bus transportation to the concert hall for Title I schools. 

Today's Birthdays

Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829)
Enrique Granados (1867-1916)
Ernő Dohnanyi (1877-1960)
Harl McDonald (1899-1955)
Igor Markevitch (1912-1983)
Mario del Monaco (1915-1982)
Leonard Rose (1918-1984)
Carol Vaness (1952)

and

Joseph Mitchell (1908-1996)
Elizabeth Hardwick (1916-2007)
Bharati Mukherjee (1940)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1966, Alfred Hitchcock's thriller "Torn Curtain" opens in New York — without the film score that Bernard Herrmann had composed for it. The famous director fired Herrmann during the score's first recording sessions when Hitchcock discovered Herrmann had composed a "symphonic" score and not the "pop" score that Hitchcock had specifically requested.

Today's Birthdays

John Field (1782-1837)
Franz Xaver Mozart (1791-1844)
Francesco Cilea (1866-1950)
Serge Koussevitsky (1874-1951)
Ernest Schelling (1876-1939)
Georges Favre (1905-1993)
Tadeusz Baird (1928-1981)
Alexis Weissenberg (1929-2012)
Anthony Gilbert (1934)
Roger Smalley (1943-2015)
Mick Jagger (1943)
Kevin Volans (1949)
Angela Hewitt (1958)

and

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
Carl Jung (1875-1961)
Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973)
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)
Jean Shepherd (1921-1999)
Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999)

CMNW presents Mozart and a surprising Surprise by Haydn

Tuesday July 18th saw the Chamber Music Northwest Summer Festival present performances by the Brentano and Calidore String Quartets, and guest musicians as well. The concert at the performance space in Portland State's Lincoln Hall consisted of works by Mozart and Haydn.

Mozart's Quartet for Flute and Strings in C Major, K 285b, opened the first half. Tara Helen O'Connor was the flutist, playing together with Mark Steinberg, violin, Misha Amory, viola, and Nina Lee, cello, all members of the Brentano Quartet. O'Connor played in a classic, dulcet Mozartian timbre, varying her sound and bringing out a husky aspiration in the lower register.  Crisp and spritely, O'Connor navigated her way through tricky sections with amazingly agile octave jumps. As an ensemble the group played with an incredibly light and airy blend, yet always with respect for the integrity of the composition. Lee took front and center in the Andantino with soaring bass lines, and Amory played the marvelous solo lines for the viola with a delicate poco saltando.

The String Quartet No 16 in E-flat Major, K 428 was next, and Serena Canin joined on violin. There were interaction issues on the more sparse, thinner passages; the playing felt almost too polite at times. The phrasing and dynamic shifts were somewhat predictable, and pitchiness kept cropping up as an issue. During the final allegro vivace the group rallied for a powerful, exuberant attack, and the phrasing became more engaging.

The second half saw the Calidore Quartet (Jeffrey Myers and Ryan Meehan violin, Jeremy Berry, viola, and Estelle Choi, cello) joined by O'Connor and Andrea Lam on piano, to present a scaled-down version by Johann Peter Salomon of Haydn's Symphony in G Major, Hob I:94 'Surprise.' 

There was clear and concise execution from the first violin in the Andante, and a mellifluous cantabile.  In the Allegro Molto the violins balanced perfectly during the counterpoint, and throughout O'Connor continued to impress by balancing numerous roles--whether as soloist, accentuator, or stand-in for the entire wind band, she was always in control, keenly aware of the tricky place she occupied however rapidly the roles shifted. 

It was fascinating to hear this chestnut stripped down to such a spare ensemble. The group did not make the mistake of trying to convince the audience that they were a full-sized orchestra for this work--rather the impression they imparted was that just maybe this work was composed for a small chamber ensemble, and a fine and accurate impression it was. 

Today's Birthdays

Alfredo Casella (1883-1947)
Maureen Forrester (1930-2010)

and

Eric Hoffer (1898-1983)
Elias Canetti (1905-1994)

and from The Writer's Almanac:

It was on this day in 1788 that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart entered into his catalog the completion of one of his most beloved works, Symphony Number 40 in G Minor (sometimes called “The Great G Minor Symphony”). It was written in the final years of Mozart’s life, when things were not going well. An infant daughter had died a few weeks earlier, he had moved into a cheaper apartment, and he was begging friends and acquaintances for loans. But in the summer of 1788, he wrote his last three symphonies: Symphony Number 39 in E-Flat, Symphony in G Minor, and the Jupiter symphony. It is not known for sure whether Mozart ever heard any of these symphonies performed

Article in The Oregonian about Portland Opera double bill

The Oregonian printed my article online about the upcoming David Lang one-act works that will be presented by Portland Opera this weekend. The printed version will appear later this week.

Today's Birthdays

Adolphe Charles Adam (1803-1856)
Ernest Bloch (1880-1959)
Robert Farnon (1917-2005)
Ruggiero Ricci (1918-2012)
Guiseppe de Stefano (1921-2008)
Wilfred Josephs (1927-1997)
Peter Serkin (1947)
Philippe Hurel (1955)

and

Jonathan Newton (1725-1807)
Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870)
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?)
Frank Wedekind (1864-1918)
Robert Graves (1895-1985)
John D. McDonald (1916-1986)

Today's birthdays

Franz Berwald (1796-1868)
Johann Vesque von Püttlingen (1803-1883)
Edouard Colonne (1838-1910)
Francesco Cilea (1866-1950)
Leon Fleisher (1928)
Bernard Roberts (1933-2013)
Maria João Pires (1944)
Susan Graham (1960)

and

Raymond Chandler (1888-1959)
Vikram Chandra (1961)

and from the Writer's Almanac:

It was on this day in 1829 that William Burt received a patent for the "typographer." It was a typewriter that looked more like a record player. It had a swinging arm that picked up ink and then printed a letter, and then the paper was manually adjusted to make space for the next letter.

Today's Birthdays

Luigi Arditti (1822-1903)
Hans Rosbaud (1895-1962)
Licia Albanese (1913-2014)
George Dreyfus (1928)
Ann Howard Jones (1936)
Nigel Hess (1953)
Eve Beglarian (1958)

and

Emma Lazarus (1849-1887)
Edward Hopper (1882-1967)
Raymond Chandler (1888-1959)
Alexander Calder (1898-1976)
Tom Robbins (1936)
S. E. Hinton (1948)

Today's Birthdays

Anton Kuerti (1938)
Isaac Stern (1920-2001)
Cat Stevens (1948)
Margaret Ahrens (1950)

and

Hart Crane (1899-1932)
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
Tess Gallagher (1943)
Garry Trudeau (1948)

Reporting from Santa Fe

I am in Santa Fe, New Mexico for the annual meeting of the Music Critics Association of North America (MCANA). Yesterday, we gave our inaugural Award for Best New Opera to Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek for "Breaking the Waves." Here is a photo that shows them with MCANA president Barbara Jepson and George Loomis:

Here's another photo of Mazzoli and Vavrek:

While in Santa Fe, the critics are attending concerts and operas. Last night, I saw an excellent production of Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Golden Cockerl" at Santa Fe Opera. This afternoon I heard a noontime concert presented by the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.

Tomorrow evening we will hear Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" and Friday night will be the world premier of "The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs" by Mason Bates.

This afternoon we heard a terrific panel discussion about "The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs" with some of the artistic staff and performers: stage director Kevin Newberry, scenic designer Victoria "Vita" Tzykun, conductor Michael Christie, librettist Mark Campbell and mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke.  Here is a photo of the panel, plus music critic John Fleming with the microphone.

Chamber Music Northwest presents terrific works by Tower, Zwilich, Shaw, and Smith

Calidore String Quartet and the Claremont Trio | Photo credit: Tom Emerson

Chamber Music Northwest topped off its weeklong celebration of music by women composers with a doozy of concert on Saturday evening (July 15) at Kaul Auditorium. The program presented impressive works by Joan Tower, Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Caroline Shaw, and Gabriella Smith for a variety of string ensembles. I was excited to hear works by the two veterans Tower and Zwilich, and rising star Shaw, but CMNW’s protégé composer Smith surprised me again (see New@Noon concert review) with another fascinating piece that was right up in the same league as her colleagues.

Even though Smith’s piece had the seemingly innocent title of “Carrot Revolution,” (2015) the music that she devised had tantalizingly complex rhythms and lots of brief melodic detours. Played by violinists Tomas Cotik and Rebecca Anderson, violist Nokuthula Ngwenyama, and cellist Nancy Ives, the music launched with Ives patting a pulsating beat before being joined by her colleagues in a series of slip-sliding sounds – some of which seemed scratchy. The cello led the way with a bluesy motif and another round of tapping that was followed by a herky-herky and folksy-fiddly section for the entire ensemble. Soulful melodic lines for the viola and cello, throbbing, vibrant passages for the foursome, and a hypnotic section that sounded as if the entire collective were melting down and changing keys along the way – was pretty awesome. The finale arrived on a zippy note that made me want to hear it all again… or at least ask the ushers for a glass of carrot juice.

The Calidore String Quartet (violinists Jeffrey Myers and Ryan Meehan, violist Jeremy Berry, and cellist Estelle Choir) performed Shaw’s “Entr’acte" (2011) with terrific finesse. The dance-like opening contained some deliciously thin pauses and a delicate whispery section in which no real tone could be distinguished. A steady tic-toc passage gave way to an extended pizzicato section that moved into a series of sighs After returning to the first theme, the piece concluded with a strumming cello. I liked the piece, but it seemed to rely on experimentation for experimentation’s sake.

In introducing “White Water” (String Quartet No. 5) (2011), Tower said that she wanted to explore speed and weight. As played by the Calidore String Quartet, the music definitely conveyed that feeling. In the first few minutes, there seemed to be the sound of a spring bubbling upwards followed by splashes that erupted out of a mountainside. Edgy rivulets of sound sprang up and flowed down quick tempo. Wild glissandi seemed to underscore the untamed nature of the piece. High violins whined against a slower current from the viola and cello and after a while the piece rested calmly in harmonically-resolved waters.

One of the cool things about Zwilich’s “Septet for Piano Trio and String Quartet” (2008) was the arrangement of the Claremont Trio (violinist Emily Bruskin, cellist Julia Bruskin, and pianist Andrea Lam) on the inside and the Calidore String Quartet on the outer corners. The music for the two ensembles took off with the Claremonters racing and the Calidorians playing the role of the Steady Eddies. That all got changed around with pianist Lam being an instigator-agitator. One of the themes in the second movement was slightly sinister, and it was countered in the third by a sprightly melodic line. One of the highlights of the fourth movement (“Au revoir”) was how the instruments passed the same note from one to the next all the way across the collective ensemble. That was a real treat. It seemed like some of the ends of phrases in this piece needed a little more tightening up. But overall, it was a delight to hear the two ensembles play this challenging piece.

Today's Birthdays

Gaston Carraud (1864-1920)
Déodat de Séverac (1872-1921)
Gunnar de Frumerie (1908-1987)
Vilém Tauský (1910-2004)
Michael Gielen (1927)
Nam June Paik (1932-2006)
Hukwe Zawose (1938-2003)
Carlos Santana (1947)
Bob Priest (1951)

and

Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374)
Pavel Kohout (1928)
Cormac McCarthy (1933)

Today's Birthdays

Boyd Neel (1905-1981)
Louis Kentner (1905-1987)
Klaus Egge (1906-1979)
Peggy Stuart-Coolidge (1913-1981)
Robert Mann (1920)
Gerd Albrecht (1935-2014)
Nicholas Danby (1935-1937)
Dominic Muldowney (1952)
David Robertson (1958)
Carlo Rizzi (1960)
Mark Wigglesworth (1964)
Evelyn Glennie (1965)
Russell Braun (1965)

and

Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930)

and from the Composers Datebook

On this day in 1942, Arturo Toscanini conducts the American premiere of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 ("Leningrad") on a NBC Symphony broadcast. The world premiere performance by the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra had occurred on March 1, 1942, in Kuybishe, the wartime seat of the Soviet government.

Today's Birthdays

Giovanni Bononcini (1670-1747)
Pauline Viardot (1821-1910)
Julius Fučík (1872-1916)
Kurt Masur (1927-2015)
Screamin' Jay Hawkins (1929-2000)
R. Murray Schafer (1933)
Ricky Skaggs (1954)
Tobias Picker (1954)

and

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863)
Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979)
Harry Levin (1912-1994)
Yevgeny Yevtushenko (1933)
Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005)
Elizabeth Gilbert (1969)

Portland Opera’s production of "Così fan tutte" updated with Keep Portland Weird vibe

Photo credit: Cory Weaver

Sasquatches, virtual reality goggles, bean-bag chairs, dreadlocks, jumbotron, and REI chic were all part of the mix on opening night (July 14th) in Portland Opera’s production of Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte,” giving it a “Keep Portland Weird” vibe that was fun but also distracting. Opera purists were certainly shaking their heads at this concoction, but the mashup of styles that was unleashed by director Roy Rallo fell mostly into the silly storyline of the opera. The only problem with the onslaught of visual imagery was that it sometimes took the attention away from the music, which was some of the best Mozart ever wrote.

Perhaps the visual diversions were seen as a way to keep audiences involved in the opera, which, with intermission, lasted about three and a half hours. The oddities started right away when a Sasquatch, wandered onstage during the Overture. After changing into the garb of a gentleman from Eighteenth Century, it turned out that the Sasquatch was Don Alfonso (Daniel Mobbs), the friend of Ferrando (Aaron Short) and Guiglielmo (Ryan Short). All of them initially wore traditional clothing as did their fiancés Fiordiligi (Antonia Tamer) and Dorabella (Kate Farrar). But after the wager between the men was made, Ferrando and Guiglielmo reappeared as dreadlocked dudes, sporting plaid suits and bearing Voodoo donuts. Fair enough, the men were supposed to be exotic Albanians. Okay, maybe exotic Portlandia-Albanians. After being rejected by the women, the men in despair drank poison and were then revived via virtual reality goggles, which the women wear also – with all of them collapsing onto big bean-bag chairs. Despina (Mary Dunleavy) controlled their VR world with a joystick before taking a drag on a vaping cigarette with Alfonso.

Photo credit: Cory Weaver

As the costumes became more modern – men in REI camo and women wearing modern hairdos with garish colors – they seemed to be removing the outer layers of custom and tradition while playing the game of seduction. The scenery, designed by Daniel Meeker and built by Oregon Ballet Theatre for Portland Opera, included a large back wall with spacious panels that magically framed the wonderful video projections of Paul Clay. The imagery of the projected videos augmented the text with terrific imagination for the most part. But the paintings of nude women apparently went too far for the lady sitting next to me because she had brought her young daughter and they left after intermission. The videos of lips, hands, feet, and humans were magically interwoven, and the best sequence was one that showed of paisley patterns melting into human forms.

Photo credit: Cory Weaver

The problem with all the ingenious imagery was that sometimes it didn’t compliment the music, but rather distracted everyone. The most obvious case occurred after intermission during the jumbotron segment when Ferrando brought out a video camera and directed it at the audience. Everyone got engrossed watching themselves on the big screen (the panels on the back wall) and totally forgot about the beautiful aria that Guiglielmo sang.

Did I mention singing? Oh yes, there was plenty of that and all was very well done by the cast, four of whom are members of the company’s resident artist program. Tenor Aaron Short, in particular, has excellent voice for Mozart’s music: smooth and gentle with no hard edges. Yet all of the young professionals – baritone Ryan Thorn, soprano Antonia Tamer, mezzo-soprano Kate Farrar – were excellent, and they expertly collaborated with the veterans Mary Dunleavy and Daniel Mobbs. The “Soave sia il vento” (“A Calm Sea and a Prosperous Voyage”) trio was gorgeous, and there were many heart-stopping arias that were sung with absolute conviction. Dunleavy captivated the audience with her persuasive arguments for the women to have a little fun, and Mobbs easily conveyed the cynical side of one who has seen it all

The orchestra pit at the Newmark seemed to have been enlarged to accommodate a twenty-seven piece orchestra. The musicians played well under the direction of Nicholas Fox, although there were a couple of exposed passages for the violins that were a tad rough. The chorus sang with gusto, but when they appeared in underwear, it seemed incongruous with the outdoor setting. Perhaps that is why they had to change to Sasquatches at the end. Another oddity was Ferrando kneeling in a skirt while trying to win over Fiordiligi. The final scene, in which the back wall was lifted into the fly space, revealed the tech crew and packing crates surrounded by a chorus of Sasquatches. That was pretty absurd. Yet it sort of went well with Portland, which is proud of its eclectic reputation – like the fellow who wears a skirt and a Darth Vader mask while peddling a unicycle and playing flaming bagpipes. Ah... "Così fan tutti frutti."