Today's Birthdays

Amicare Ponchielli (1834-1886)
Alma Mahler (1879-1964)
Ifor James (1931-2004)
Wieland Kuijken (1938)
Itzak Perlman (1945)
Daniel Harding (1975)

and

Maria Montessori (1870-1952)
William Shawn (1907-1992)
William Saroyan (1908-1981)
Alan Jay Lerner (1918-1986)

Memorable quote from William Shawn: "Falling short of perfection is a process that just never stops."

Today's Birthdays

Ernesto Cavallini (1807-1874)
George Frederick Root (1820-1895)
Buddy Rich (1917-1987)
Regina Resnik (1922-2013)
David Maslanka (1943-1917)
David Schiff (1945)
Simon Bainbridge (1952)
Dimitris Sgouros (1969)

and

Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825)
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851)
Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937)
R Crumb (1943)
Molly Ivins (1944-2007)

List of recommended concerts for the fall season in Oregonlive-Oregonian

Oregonlive published a list of concerts that I've recommended for your fall listening pleasure. You can access the list here. It will appear in the print edition this weekend.

Today's Birthdays

Helge Rosvaenge (1897-1972)
Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706)
Charlie Parker (1920-1955)
Norman Platt (1920-2004)
Gilbert Amy (1936)
Anne Collins (1943-2009)
Lucia Valentini Terrani (1946-1998)
Michael Jackson (1958-2009)
Kevin Walczyk (1964)

and

John Locke (1632-1704)
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809-1894)
Karen Hesse (1952)

Today's Birthdays

Umberto Giordano (1867-1948)
Alfred Baldwin Sloane (1872-1925)
Ivor Burney (1890-1937)
Karl Böhm (1894-1981)
Paul Henry Lang (1901-1991)
Richard Tucker (1913-1975)
John Shirley-Quirk (1931-2014)
Imogen Cooper (1949)

and

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
John Betjeman (1906-1984) 
Rita Dove (1952)

Today's Birthdays

Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979)
Eric Coates (1886-1957)
Lester Young (1909-1959)
Barry Conyngham (1944)
Ann Murray (1949)
Sian Edwards (1959)

and

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)
Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945)
C. S. Forester (1899-1966)
Ira Levin (1929-2007)
William Least Heat-Moon (1939)

Vineyard’s cellar resonates with chamber music

Ensemble getting ready to play "String Cycle"

 Surrounded by oak vats and wafted with the smell of wine, the audience at the Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival was in a good mood for a concert last Saturday (August 18th). They had tasted one of the exceptional vintages at J. Christopher Wines, located in the hillside just north of Newberg, and were ready for an afternoon of music by Sergei Prokofiev, Kenji Bunch, and Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel. Based on what I heard, the barrel room, which seats at least 50, has an excellent, lively acoustic and is a wonderful venue for chamber music. The acoustic also means that you can hear when someone places a wineglass on the concrete floor and other similar disturbances.

The concert began with Prokofiev’s “Sonata for Two Violins,” which received incisive playing by Megumi Stohs Lewis and Sasha Callahan. They deftly kept a tonal balance while exchanging the leading melodic line between each other. The music seemed more intellectual than emotional at times, because of the crisscrossing lines, but sweet third movement (“Commodo”) and the fourth (“Allegro con brio”) really sang.

As an introduction to Kenji Bunch’s “String Circle,” Sasha Callahan interviewed Bunch before the playing commenced. With an unassuming air, he described how his piece is sort of a fiddlers’ jam that taps into Appalachian folk, Texas Swing, a setting of A Wayfaring Stranger, and the sound of a fax machine. The ensemble (violinists Greg Ewer and Callahan, violists Charles Noble and Bunch, and cellist Leo Eguchi) set it all into motion, starting with the slip-slidy “Lowdown.” A lighthearted “Shuffle Step” offered brief solos for the violas and the cello. “Ballad” was poignant tribute to a song made famous by Johnny Cash. The pizzicati-ensemble playing in “Porch Picking” lifted the mood and set the table for the motoric “Overdrive,” which featured a rhythmically gnawing sound.

Quartet receiving applause after the Quartet in E Flat

As first violinist for Mendelssohn-Hensel’s Quartet in E Flat, Ewer served up a mesmerizing performance, expressing the slow sections soulfully and nimbly conquering the fast passages with élan, and putting an artistic statement on top of it. His expert playing was matched by violinist Callahan, violist Noble, and cellist Eguchi, who wonderfully whipped his way through some wickedly treacherous sections. The ensemble dug into the depths of the music from somber beginning, then took the listeners on a fantastic journey that ended with a breathtaking, racing finale to the mountaintop.

By pairing wine and chamber music at local wineries, the WVCMF has found a winning combination for its concert series. The festival, which is now in its third year, featured Joan Tower as composer-in-residence for the first week of concerts. It provides a great way to get out of town and enjoy the wine country with high-caliber performances. Prosit!

Northwest Reverb

Willem de Fesch (1687-1761)
Luis Delgadillio (1887-1961)
Arthur Loesser (1894-1969)
Humphrey Searle (1915-1981)
Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923-2013)
Nicholas Braithwaite (1939)
Sally Beamish (1956)
Branford Marsalis (1960)

and

Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918)
Lee de Forest (1873-1961)
Mother Teresa (1910-1997)
Julio Cortázar (1914-1984)

Today's Birthdays

Robert Stolz (1880-1975)
Stefan Wolpe (1902-1972)
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
José Van Dam (1940)
Keith Tippett (1947)
Elvis Costello (1954)

and

Brian Moore (1921-1999)
Charles Wright (1935)
Martin Amis (1949)

Today's Birthdays

Alessandro Marcello (1669-1747)
Théodore Dubois (1837-1924)
Bernhard Heiden (1910-2000)
Niels Viggo Bentzon (1919-2000)
Stephen Paulus (1949-2014)
Carlo Curley (1952)

and

Robert Herrick (1591-1674)
Max Beerbohm (1872-1956)
Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)
Oscar Hijuelos (1951-2013)
John Green (1977)

and from The Writer's Almanac:

It was on this day in 1456 that the first edition of the Gutenberg Bible was bound and completed in Mainz, Germany. The Gutenberg Bible was the first complete book printed with movable type. The press produced 180 copies of the Bible. Books had been printed on presses before, in China and Korea, with wood and bronze type; but Gutenberg used metal type, and made a press that could print many versions of the same text quickly. His contributions to printing were huge: he created an oil-based printing ink, he figured out how to cast individual pieces of type in metal so that they could be reused, and he designed a functioning printing press. But others before him had come up with similar ideas. Probably the most important thing that Gutenberg did was to develop the entire process of printing — he streamlined a system for assembling the type into a full book and then folding the pages into folios, which were then bound into an entire volume — and to do it all quickly. The techniques that Gutenberg refined were used for hundreds of years, and the publication of the Gutenberg Bible marked a turning point in the availability of knowledge to regular people.

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1968, Czech conductor and composer Rafael Kubelik launches an appeal to world musicians to boycott performances in the five nations which invaded Czechoslovakia on August 20-21 until their military forces evacuate the country. The appeal was joined by Igor Stravinsky, Arthur Rubinstein, Yehudi Menuhin, Otto Klemperer, Bernard Haitink, Claudio Arrau, and others.

Seattle Opera delivers heartfelt "Porgy and Bess"

Angel Blue (Bess) and Alfred Walker (Porgy). Philip Newton photo

With a large cast, full orchestra, and incredible jazz-inflected music, “Porgy and Bess” stands alone as the one American opera that is recognized around the world. Written by George Gershwin and premiered in 1935 on Broadway, it had to wait until mid-1980s to become a standard of the operatic repertoire. The jazz idiom that Gershwin used was surely one of the reasons that “Porgy and Bess” was adopted slowly by the operatic world. But another roadblock was the story, which told about the love between a crippled beggar, Porgy, and a drug-addicted woman, Bess, who live in an impoverished African-American community in the South. Seattle Opera’s presentation, heard on opening night, August 11th, at McCaw Hall, conveyed the drama compellingly with all-star performances by the principals and company.

Co-produced by Glimmerglass Festival, Seattle Opera’s production of “Porgy and Bess” was directed by Garnett Bruce after the original direction of Francesca Zambello. The direction fit each character like a glove except for the scene in which Bess carries Clara and Jake’s baby and places it in a large planter next to Porgy’s door. Surely she could have given it to someone who just happened to walk by, but instead, the bundle gets abandoned for a good while before Bess picks it up again.

Scenic designer Peter J. Davison set Catfish Row as an enclave of rundown tenements with metal frames that suggested prison cells. Costumes by Paul Tazewell were updated to reflect the 1950s.

Mary Elizabeth Williams (Serena). Philip Newton photo

Alfred Walker embodied Porgy with a full-throated earnestness that had depth and compassion. Angel Blue embraced the conflicted and vulnerable character of Bess with passion. Lester Lynch struck fear into the hearts of everyone as the menacing Crown. Mary Elizabeth Williams as Serena summoned the most soulful wail that I’ve ever heard when she sang “My Man’s Gone Now,” after the death of her husband.

Angel Blue (Bess) and Jermaine Smith (Sportin' Life). Philip Newton photo

Jermaine Smith snaked and slid around with a grin and impeccable timing as the drug-dealin’ Sportin’ Life. He impressively executed a cheerleading jump toe-touch (mid-air jump) that probably no other male opera singer could do. He sang “It Ain’t Necessarily So” with panache and made it all look effortless.

Brandie Sutton expressed Clara with a lovely soprano while Derrick Parker filled Jake’s shoes with a bass-baritone was deep as a well. Edwin Graves distinguished himself as Robbins and Martin Barkari as Peter the Honeyman. Judith Skinner’s Maria scorched Sportin’ Life with her eyes and verbal delivery. Ashley Faatoalia’s Crab Man, Ibidunni Ojikutu’s Strawberry Woman, and Bernard Holcomb’s Mingo and the chorus added wonderfully to the atmosphere of the community.

In terms of balance with the voices on stage, the orchestra was flawless, but the music could have had a little more swing and pizazz. That was a little surprising, because John DeMain, who has an acclaimed history with this opera, was on the podium. Still, the production was genuinely rewarding right down to the final uplifting number, “I’m On My Way,” in which Porgy announces his quest to find Bess against all odds.

Cast members of Seattle Opera's Porgy and Bess. Philip Newton photo

Today's Birthdays

Moritz Moszkowski (1854-1925)
Ernst Krenek (1900-1991)
William Primrose (1903-1982)
Constant Lambert (1905-1951)
Carl Dolmetsch (1911-1977)
Mark Russell (1932)
Brad Mehldau (1970)

and

William Ernest Henley (1849-1903)
Edgar Lee Masters (1869-1950)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1934, the Berkshire Symphonic Festival in was founded in Stockbridge, Mass., by American composer and conductor Henry Hadley, with the participation of the New York Philharmonic. The Festival later became associated with the Boston Symphony under Serge Koussevitzky.

Today's Birthdays

Josef Strauss (1827-1870)
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
John Lee Hooker (1917-2001)
Ivry Gitlis (1922)
Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007)
Tori Amos (1963)

and

Dorothy Parker (1893-1967)
Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004)
Ray Bradbury (1920-2012)
Annie Proulx (1935)

Today's Birthdays

Lili Boulanger (1893-1918)
Count (William) Basie (1904-1984)
Tommy Reilly (1919-2000)
Willhelm Killmayer (1927-2017)
Gregg Smith (1931-2016)
Dame Janet Baker (1933)

and

X. J. Kennedy (1929)
Robert Stone (1937-2015)
Ellen Hinsey (1960)

Today's Birthdays

Jacopo Peri (1561-1633)
Mario Bernardi (1930-2013)
Dame Anne Evans (1941)
Maxim Vengerov (1974)

and

Eliel Saarinen (1873-1950)
Paul Tillich (1886-1965)
H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937)
Eero Saarinen (1910-1961)
Jacqueline Susann(1918-1974)
Heather McHugh (1948)

Today's Birthdays

William Henry Fry (1881-1864)
Georges Enescu (1881-1955)
Allan Monk (1942)
Gerard Schwarz (1947)
Rebecca Evans (1963)

and

Samuel Richardson (1689-1761)
Ogden Nash (1902-1971)
Frank McCourt (1930-2009)

Today's Birthdays

Antonio Salieri (1750-1825)
Benjamin Godard (1849-1895)
Basil Cameron (1884-1975)
Ernest MacMillan (1893-1973)
Dame Moura Lympany (1916-2005)
Goff Richards (1944)
Tan Dun (1957)

and

Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809)
Margaret Murie (1902 -2003)
Alain Robbe-Grillet (1922-2008)

and from The Writer's Almanac:

Today is the birthday of Italian-born Viennese composer Antonio Salieri, born in Legnago, in the Republic of Venice (1750). Although he was quite popular in the 18th century, he probably wouldn't be well known today were it not for the movie Amadeus (1984). The movie was based on Peter Shaffer's play by the same name (1979), which was in turn based on a short play by Aleksandr Pushkin, which was called Mozart and Salieri (1830). These stories all present Salieri as a mediocre and uninspired composer who was jealous of Mozart's musical genius; Salieri tried to discredit Mozart at every turn, and some versions of the story even accuse him of poisoning his rival.

But Salieri was a talented and successful composer, writing the scores for several popular operas. He had a happy home life with his wife and eight children. And because he had received free voice and composition lessons from a generous mentor as a young man, he also gave most of his students the benefit of free instruction. Some of his pupils included Beethoven, Franz Liszt, and Franz Schubert. He was the Kapellmeister — the person in charge of music — for the Austrian emperor for 36 years. He and Mozart were competitors, but their rivalry was usually a friendly one; Salieri visited Mozart when he was dying, and was one of the few people to attend his funeral.

After the turn of the 19th century, Salieri's music began to fall out of fashion. "I realized that musical taste was gradually changing in a manner completely contrary to that of my own times," he wrote. "Eccentricity and confusion of genres replaced reasoned and masterful simplicity." He stopped composing operas and began to produce more and more religious pieces. He suffered from dementia late in his life and died in 1825. He had composed his own requiem 20 years earlier, and it was performed for the first time at his funeral.

Today's Birthdays

Henri Tomasi (1901-1971)
Abram Chasins (1903-1987)
George Melly (1926-2007)
T.J. (Thomas Jefferson) Anderson (1928)
Edward Cowie (1943)
Jean-Bernard Pommier (1944)
Heiner Goebbels (1952)
Artur Pizarro (1968)

and

Oliver St. John Gogarty (1878-1957)
Mae West (1893-1980)
Ted Hughes (1930-1998)
V. S. Naipaul (1932-2018)
Ted Hughes (1930-1998)
Jonathan Franzen (1959)


and from the Writer's Almanac:

On this date in 1982, the first compact discs for commercial release were manufactured in Germany. CDs were originally designed to store and play back sound recordings, but later were modified to store data. The first test disc, which was pressed near Hannover, Germany, contained a recording of Richard Strauss's An Alpine Symphony, played by the Berlin Philharmonic. The first CD commercially produced at the new factory and sold on this date was ABBA's 1981 album The Visitors; the first new album to be released on CD was Billy Joel's 52nd Street, which hit the stores in Japan — alongside the new Sony CD player — on October 1. The event is known as the "Big Bang of digital audio."

Today's Birthdays

Heinrich Marschner (1795-1861)
Gabriel Pierné (1863-1937)
Jacinto Guerrero (1895-1951)
Ralph Downes (1904-1993)
Bill Evans (1929-1980)
Sarah Brightman (1959)
Franz Welser-Möst (1960)

and

Catharine Trotter Cockburn (1679-1749)
William Maxwell (1908-2000)
Charles Bukowski (1920-1994)

Today's Birthdays

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912)
Albert Spalding (1888-1953)
Jaques Ibert (1890-1952)
Leon Theremin (1896-1993)
Lukas Foss (1922-2009)
Aldo Ciccolini (1925-2015)
Oscar Peterson (1925-2007)
Rita Hunter (1933-2001)
Anne Marie Owens (1955)
James O'Donnell (1961)

The Woodstock music festival began on this day in 1969.

and

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)
Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859)
Edna Ferber (1885-1968)
T. E. Lawrence (1888-1935)
Julia Child (1912-2004)
Benedict Kiely (1919-2007)
Denise Chávez (1948)
Stieg Larsson (1954)

and from the Composers Datebook:

Today Johannes Nepomuk Maelzel (1772-1848), German inventor credited with the creation of the metronome, was born in Regensburg. For a time he was the friend of Beethoven and collaborated with him on various projects.

Today's Birthdays

Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810-1876)
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji (1892-1988)
Pierre Schaeffer (1910-1955)
Jan Koetsier (1911-2006)
Ferruccio Tagliavini (1913-1995)
Georges Prêtre (1924-2017)
Yuri Kholopov (1932-2003)
Cecilia Gasdia (1960)
Beta Moon (1969)

and

Ernest Thayer (1863-1940)
John Galsworthy (1867-1933)
Russell Baker (1925)
Danielle Steel (1947)
Gary Larson (1950)

Today's Birthdays

Sir George Grove (1820-1900)
John Ireland (1879-1962)
Luis Mariano (1914-1970)
George Shearing (1919-2011)
Louis Frémaux (1921-2017)
Don Ho (1930-2007)
Sheila Armstrong (1942)
Kathleen Battle (1948)
Gregory Vajda (1973)

and

Nikolaus Lenau (1802-1850)
Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980)

Today's Birthdays

Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-1690)
Heinrich Biber (1644-1704)
Katherine Lee Bates (1859-1929)
Porter Wagoner (1927-2007)
Buck Owens (1929-2006)
Huguette Tourangeau (1940)
David Munrow (1942-1976)
Pat Metheny (1954)
Stuart MacRae (1976)

and

Robert Southey (1773-1843)
Edith Hamilton (1867-1963)
Cecil B. DeMille (1881-1959)
Donald Justice (1925-2004)
William Goldman (1931)
Anthony Swofford (1970)

Today's Birthdays

J. Rosamond Johnson (1873-1954)
Ginette Neveu (1919-1949)
Raymond Leppard (1927)
Alun Hoddinott (1929-2008)
Tamás Vásáry (1933) 

and

Louise Brogan (1897-1970) 
Alex Haley (1921-1992)
Andre Dubus (1936-1999)

Portland Opera unearths "Orfeo ed Euridice" at the cemetery

Photo by Cory Weaver/ Portland Opera.

The legend of Orpheus braving the Underworld to retrieve his wife Eurydice has been such a compelling one that it has been retold in almost every art form. Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice has been the most popular retelling in the operatic form, and Portland Opera performed it for the first time in the company’s 54 year history, presenting Gluck’s 1762 version with stylish grace on Sunday, July 29th at the Newmark Theatre.

Using scenery from Des Moines Metro Opera, this production, directed by Chas Rader-Shieber, updated the sets to the 18th Century of Gluck, placing the opening act in a cemetery with an imposing gate that suggested Vienna’s Central Cemetery, the place where Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, and other famous composers are buried. Because the Orfeo’s legendary musical skills – he could tame wild beasts and pert near anything else by merely singing and playing his lyre – that location was particularly fitting.

Photo by Cory Weaver/ Portland Opera.

Gluck wrote the role of Orfeo for a castrato, but that assignment has fortunately been taken over by contraltos in modern times. In Portland Opera’s production, Sandra Piques Eddy conveyed the distraught emotional state of Orfeo with conviction, smearing dirt from Euridice’s grave all over his white outfit and melting the audience with heartfelt cries of “Euridice!” Piques Eddy sang the many filigree passages with ease, shaping each line with finesse.

Lindsay Ohse was equally persuasive as Euridice, pouring out her demands with hastening urgency that Orfeo look at her. She scored some gasps from the audience when she sat up from underneath a pile of rose petals to rejoin Orfeo in the last scene.

Photo by Cory Weaver/ Portland Opera.

Helen Huang, sporting a gold outfit with wings and two pillowy ears, provided a touch of lightness as the charming and charismatic Amore, sending Orfeo on his quest to Hades to retrieve his beloved. The chorus, expertly prepared by Nicholas Fox, augmented the scenes with outstanding blend, adding depth to the somber opening scene and joy to the triumphant finale. Fox also conducted the chamber-sized orchestra, which sounded excellent even from my perch in the second balcony.

The Furies made a striking presence with hands and arms stretching out of the grave until finally emerging and capturing a bystander, stripping him of all of his clothing down to his underpants, and dragging him down with them. Orfeo didn’t suffer the same fate, because of his musical prowess. Holding his lyre high, he tamed the Furies and was lowered into the tomb untouched.

The setting of the Underworld was the most disappointing thing in this production. I wanted to be taken to a place that was different, but all we got a removal of the cemetery gates, which revealed a set of steps covered in red carpet. The residents of the underworld wore the same black, morning garb that they had in the scene above ground, but they were at least crowned with a garland of red flowers and gold antlers.

The dance of the blessed spirits, choreographed by Jillian Foley, was a refined and tame affair, endearing themselves to the audience by wearing animal-masks. For the final scene, the cemetery gates were lowered into place amidst a snowfall of red petals, a thick pile of which covered Euridice’s grave. After Armore told Orfeo that he had suffered enough, Euridice emerged from the grave, and the final scene, with the joyful reunion of the two lovers, was resplendent with principals, chorus, and orchestra at full volume.

Photo by Cory Weaver/ Portland Opera.

Today's Birthdays

Alexander Glazunov (1865-1936)
Douglas Moore (1893-1969)
Leo Fender (1909-1991)
Marie-Claire Alain (1926-2013)
Edwin Carr (1926-2003)
John Aldis (1929-2010)
Alexander Goehr (1932)
Giya Kancheli (1935)
Bobby Hatfield (1940-2003)
Dmitri Alexeev (1947)
Eliot Fisk (1958)

and

Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)
Joyce Sutphen (1949)
Mark Doty (1953)
Suzanne Collins (1962)

Today's Birthdays

Michael Umlauff (1781-1842)
Reynaldo Hahn (1874-1947)
Albert William Ketèlbey (1875-1959)
Solomon Cutner (1902-1988)

and

Izaak Walton (1593-1683)
John Dryden (1631-1700)
P. L. Travers (1899-1966)
Philip Larkin (1922-1985)

and from The Composers Datebook

On this day in 1928, Australian-born American composer Percy Grainger marries Swedish poet and painter Ella Viola Strom at the Hollywood Bowl in front of an audience of 22,000 concert-goers. Grainger conducted the LA Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance of his "To a Nordic Princess," dedicated to his bride.

Today's Birthdays

Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944)
Adolf Busch (1891-1952)
André Jolivet (1905-1974)
Benny Carter (1907-2003)
Josef Suk (1929-2011)
Jacques Hétu (1938-2010)

and

Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1896-1953)
Valerie Sayers (1952)
Elizabeth Tallent (1954)

Today's Birthdays

Henry Litolff (1818-1891)
Sir Granville Bantock (1868-1946)
Karel Husa (1921-1916)
Felice Bryant (1925-2003)
Rahsaan Roland Kirk (1936-1977)
Garrison Keillor (1942)
Ian Hobson (1952)
Christian Altenburger (1957)

Today's Birthdays

Barbara Strozzi (1619-1677)
Mary Carr Moore (1873-1957)
Karl Ulrich Schnabel (1909-2001)
Udo Reinemann (1942-2013)

and

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)

CMNW's All-Dvořák Festival Finale a mixed bag

The last concert of this year's Chamber Music Northwest Summer Festival at the Lincoln Performance Hall at PSU on Sunday, July 29, was an interesting mix of the sublime and the subpar. An all-string affair as well (sure, I'll throw the piano in as a stringed instrument here), it featured one of two of the Dvořák string quartets known as the 'American,' a Sonatina for piano and violin and a Serenade for strings.

The opening work was delightful, featuring the great Jon Kimura Parker on piano and Martin Beaver, violin.  The Allegro of the Sonatina in G Major, Op 100, was beautifully cantabile, an exercise in restrained nobility. Kimura Parker's left hand is fantastic--one could listen to it alone and have a feast for the ears. He played with great deftness on the staccato themes and the lively, tinkling arpeggios were a treat. 

Next the Miró Quartet played the String Quartet in F Major, Op 96.  The main theme was deliciously raspy coming from the viola, and while displaying an incredible blend and balance, the group did not lapse into overt sentimentality, but rather chose a more straightforward, concise interpretation. There was a bold sautillé from all stings on the solo parts, and masterful tension-building vis-a-vis the dynamic contrasts. There were no 'bridges to nowhere' here--the dynamic motion was laid out with a single-mindedness of purpose from the whole group.

The sentimentality that was wisely held in reserve from the first movement was spared for the Lento, where it was most warranted. Alternating between simpering tenderness and soaring passion, the rest of the strings formed a trembling music box for the mysterious cello solo. The final movement was a fine example of the thousand little things that have to go right for a great performance like this--it's not the big long moments for any one instrument that made this so memorable; it was rather like the whole group was a sort of self-accompanying concerto grosso for four strings--as though they were somehow the ripieno and concertino at the same time. That said, the anthemic theme that sang forth from Daniel Ching's violin was incredible to hear.

The problem lay in the second half of the concert, the Serenade for Strings in E major, Op 22. The overall timbre was almost fulsome, but coming from six violins, three violas, three cellos and a bass, this actually felt right. The problem was the pitch issues that plagued the first violins right from the start, and unfortunately did not let up for the entire work. If an instrument were out of tune, one would at least expect a tune-up between movements, but this never happened; the first violins just remained out of tune for the whole work.  This did nothing to help the overall effect--despite the fact that there were some lovely moments here and there, the performance was by and large emotionally flat and uninspiring. They kept giving it a valiant effort, but it never quite came together. Perhaps it was partly a question of programming--this piece was an intellectual lightweight following the mighty American quartet, but then how do you place the work for a small string symphony before a mere quartet? It honestly felt like the musicians were tired; it was the tail end of a long and I'm sure brutally difficult festival, so perhaps it was just a lapse in concentration. At any rate it's pointless to speculate as to why this was so underwhelming. I guess you can't win 'em all, and the wonderful quartet was what stuck in my head and heart long after the concert was over.

Today's Birthdays

Marc Antonio Cesti (1623-1669)
Leonardo Leo (1694-1744)
Ambroise Thomas (1811-1896)
Hans Gál (1890-1987)
Erich Kleiber (1890-1956)
Betsy Jolas (1926)
Stoika Milanova (1945)
Mark O'Connor (1961)

and

Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893)
Conrad Aiken (1889-1973)
Wendell Berry (1934)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1978, the citizens of Patowan, Utah, decided to name a local mountain Mr. Messiaen, in honor of the French composer, Olivier Messiaen, who spent a month in Utah in 1973 an composed a symphonic work, "Des canyons aux etoiles" (From the canyons to the stars), which glorified the natural beauty of the region

Today's Birthdays

Henry Berger (1844-1929)
Italo Montemezzi (1875-1952)
Albert W. Ketèlbey (1875-1959)
Louie "Satchmo" Armstrong (1901-1971)
William Schuman (1910-1992)
David Raksin (1912-2004)
Arthur Butterworth (1923-2014)
Jess Thomas (1927-1993)
David Bedford (1937-2011)
Simon Preston (1938)
Deborah Voigt (1960)
Olga Neuwirth (1968)

and

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
Raoul Wallenberg (1912-1947?)
Robert Hayden (1913-1980)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1705, in Arnstadt, J.S. Bach and a bassoonist named Johann Heinrich Geyersbach cross paths late a night and an argument ensues. Geyerbach threatens Bach with a stick and Bach draws his sword. Both are hauled up before the city magistrate and reprimanded for their behavio

Today's Birthdays

Louis Gruenberg (1884-1964)
Antonio Lauro (1917-1986)
Tony Bennett (1926)
James Tyler (1940-2010)
Simon Keenlyside (1959)

and

Juliana Horatia Ewing (1841-1885)
Ernie Pyle (1900-1944)
P. D. James (1920-2014)
Hayden Carruth (1921-2008)
Diane Wakoski (1937)
Marvin Bell (1937)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this date in 1668, German composer Dietrich Buxtehude marries the daughter of Franz Tunder, retiring organist at St. Mary's Church in Lübeck, as a condition to succeed Tunder in his position at St. Mary's. It is thought that both Handel and J.S. Bach were both interested in the position - but not in Tunder's daughter.

Today's Birthdays

Arthur Bliss (1891-1975)
Karl Amadeus Hartmann (1905-1963)
Marvin David Levy (1932-2015)
Anthony Payne (1936)
Gundula Janowitz (1937)
Richard Einhorn (1952)
Angel Lam (1978)

and

Irving Babbitt (1865-1933)
James Baldwin (1924-1987)
Isabel Allende (1942)

All-Dvořák program delivers the goods in Chamber Music Northwest concert

Guest review by Phillip Ayers

The audience who gathered in the blessed, air-conditioned space on the Reed campus Thursday evening (July 26) was treated to a feast of Antonin Dvořák’s chamber music that included an arrangement of a famous movement from one of his symphonies. I felt that a two-hour offering of Romantic music would put me to sleep after a long day of fighting the heat or wouldn't thrill me as much as something peppily Baroque. Maybe the Chinese opera offering earlier in the week would do better at keeping me alert and awake. But I was pleasantly surprised that not only did I stay awake, I found myself at times on the edge of my seat!

First on the program was Robert McBride’s arrangement of “Goin’ Home,” the so-called “spiritual” (not really, though) that Dvořák used in the Largo movement of his “Symphony from the New World.” In the symphonic rendition, the tune, original with the composer, is plaintively played by an English horn; McBride arranged it to be sung by a bass-baritone with a string quartet. The text was written by William Arms Fisher, a student of Dvořák. Russian-born Anton Belov sang it with a dark, almost tomb-like sound, more bass than baritone. Fortunately, the words were supplied in the program as the singer’s articulation of the words was at times unclear. He reached the higher notes with his fine vocal resonance and color intact.

The Miró Quartet accompanied Belov with great sensitively. The program notes explained the origin of the text and how the marriage of text and tune, laid out in ABA form, came to be. It is an interesting story, one of many associated with the composer’s “American Chapter.” As a Kansan, I can relate to Dvořák’s time that he spent in Iowa, loving the prairies. This tender music evokes plenty of childhood memories. I've found recordings by singers such as Bryn Terfel and Paul Robeson are worth a listen. The arranger, one of the most skillful classical music programmers at KQAC (All Classical), and now happily retired, acknowledged the applause following the piece with a “Namaste” sign to the singer and string quartet. McBride said to me afterward, when I remarked that “Goin’ Home” is often sung at funerals: “I want it sung at mine!"

The Miró Quartet was joined by violist Martin Beaver and cellist Clive Greensmith for the performance of Dvořák's String Sextet in A Major,, B. 80, Op. 48. Chamber music performances are as much visual as they are aural, to me at least; and this was a perfect example of that. Gestures, expressions of delight, joy, concentration on musical nuances, even pain, were evident.

The sextet is in four movements, each one with a distinct quality and flavor, often including folk melodies from the composer’s native country; as Dvořák’s biographer Otakar Sourek remarked, “In his Sextet, every theme is like a drop of Slavonic blood.” The two middle movements are based on folk dances: a dumka and furiant. The former is introspective and melancholic, the latter by contrast “explodes in a rhythmically boisterous whirlwind of sound,” as the program notes by Elizabeth Schwartz say. (Question: “Does furiant have the same root as furious?) A theme-and-variations final movement had a hard-to-get theme to it, but the contemplative silence between the variations was appreciated. Playing in the highest registers, at times the violins sounded a bit screechy, but it was offset by the richness of the violas and cellos

This is the first chamber work of Dvořák’s heard outside Bohemia, and it helped to boost his reputation in Europe and elsewhere, including New York City. It came from his “Slavonic” period (1878-1880), so called because his music featured Czech/Bohemian/Moravian elements with folk dances or melodies taking after folksongs. Dvořák's music is noted for musical surprises, and this sextet is full of them.

After intermission, the Montrose Trio, consisting of Jon Kimura Parker, pianist, Martin Beaver, violinist, and Clive Greensmith, cellist, were joined by Parker’s spouse, violist Aloysia Friedmann, for Dvořák’s Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, B. 162, Op. 87. This work, written some eleven years after the sextet, revealed a “new” Dvořák, who had become an internationally renowned composer and a champion of his native culture. No longer a backwater violist, at 48 he had become a self-confident composer and as Schwartz says in her notes, “Opus 87 is music written by a man who knew what he wanted to say and had mastered his craft.”

The many shifting moods in this music, especially in the first movement, are due to the harmonic inventiveness and well-developed musical complexity. The Lento movement features a cello solo which was well and sensitively played by Greensmith, alternating serene melody with turbulence in contrasting keys. The varied qualities of the third movement, Allegro moderato grazioso, with its waltz-like theme, is “juxtaposed with a highly rhythmic section that races through tonalities with the ease of a horse galloping over a meadow [Schwartz].” The final movement is bewildering, opening with a theme in, E-flat minor (rather than E-flat major). Dvořák is never at a loss for a melody and here was tunefulness that was singularly beautiful, his favorite instrument (viola) often introducing the new melodies. He wrote to a friend that, in composing this quartet, “…melodies are coming to me in droves.”

A melodic, excitingly engaging evening of chamber music played by experts in their field whose rapport with their audience is simply terrific and cannot be beat! I'm already looking forward to next season.

Today's Birthdays

Francis Scott Key (1779-1843)
Hans Rott (1858-1884)
Morris Stoloff (1898-1980)
William Steinberg (1899-1978)
Jerome Moross (1913-1983)
Lionel Bart (1930-1999)
Ramblin' Jack Elliott (1931)
Jordi Savall (1941)
André Gagnon (1942)
Jerry Garcia (1942-1995)

and

Maria Mitchell (1818-1889)
Herman Melville (1819-1891)
Ernst Jandl (1925-2000)
Madison Smartt Bell (1957)