Today's Birthdays

Gioachino Antonio Rossini (1792-1868)
Jimmy Dorsey (1904-1957)
Reri Grist (1932)

and

Howard Nemerov (1920-1991)

Philadelphia Orchestra's hall to become the Marian Anderson Hall

A huge gift to the tune of $25 million from Richard Worley and wife Leslie Miller to the Philadelphia Orchestra and Kimmel Center will enable a name change. Ergo, Verizon Hall will now be Marian Anderson Hall. Marian Anderson, the famous opera contralto, was the aunt of former Oregon Symphony Music Director James DePriest. You can read all about this wonderful gift and tribute to Anderson here. This piece has a great quote from Ginette DePreist, who still resides in the Rose City: "Knowing Marian, she would be humble," said her niece, Ginette DePriest, the wife of late conductor James DePreist. "She always used to say: 'Don't make any fuss about this,' but I think that the fact that it's her hometown that she adores — I think she would be obviously honored but mostly humbled by this gesture."

Review: Vancouver Symphony has a blast with Mahler's 5th and Alwyn's too

The Vancouver Symphony delivered a knockout punch with Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, taking the audience at Skyview Concert Hall (February 24) on an emotional, rollercoaster journey. The dramatic quality of the 70-minute piece was fully elicited by the orchestra under its Music Director, Salvador Brotons. It was set up nicely by another passionate work, Willaim Alwyn’s Fifth Symphony (aka “Hydriotaphia”), which is much shorter than the Mahler, clocking in at around 15 minutes. Taken together, the two Fifth Symphonies fit together like a glove, with the Alwyn ending with a quiet rumination and the Mahler almost exploding at the finale.

Urged onward by the emotive conducting of Brotons, the orchestra wasted no time launching into the turbulence of the first movement, a funeral march that began with the insistent trumpet calls of Principal Trumpeter Bruce Dunn. The solemn melodic line was interrupted by emphatic blasts as if to pull listeners in a different direction. The orchestra conveyed the storminess at the beginning of the next section before settling into a sorrowful theme from the cellos. Sweeping lines from the violins, tutti crescendos, little accented outbursts, big, triumphant chorales, and quiet passages created a colorful yet serious sonic mixture.

At the beginning of the next section, Principal Hornist Dan Partridge moved to a position off to the side next to the brass and boldly played his solo passages with a glowing verve. The waltz-like laendler had a country-dance feel, and the orchestra concluded the section with a wild finish. The strings treated the Adagietto tenderly, and the harp lingering above it all was heavenly. The orchestra showed off some fleet fingerwork in the final movement, delving into the tricky fugue and wrapping it all up with a robust, triumphant end that almost got Brotons spinning completely around on the very last beat.

There were some intonation problems here and there, but they didn’t dampen the overwhelmingly enthusiastic response from the large audience, which included a lot of youth. With six horns and a brass section that launched some terrifically loud volleys, the performance would have benefited from some additional strings, but it seemed that the real estate on the stage was maxed out. That’s another good reason for Vancouver to have a dedicated performing arts venue.

William Alwyn’s Symphony No. 5 has the unusual name of “Hydriotaphia” (Greek for “urn burial”), because it was inspired by a 17th-century essay by Sir Thomas Browne on funeral practices and the subject of death. That might seem like a non-starter for most of us, but Alwyn created a marvelously concise four-movement work that offered a lot of engaging colors and dynamic contrasts.

Using the 12-tone technique of Arnold Schoenberg (who knew Mahler), you would think that Alwyn’s Fifth would be an atonal hodgepodge, but it had a loosely narrative style (at least to me) and was an absolute delight to hear. Out of the gate, it opened vigorously, transitioned seamlessly from one movement to another without pausing. I made note of pulsating passages with low, rumbling cellos, basses, and bassoons. At times, the sound reached an excellent pianissimo so that you could hear the bells. Concertmaster Eva Richey evoked a silky solo, and the brass choir got a moment in the sun. It all finished up with a meditative mood that was mysterious and angelic.

It was mentioned at the beginning of the concert that Brotons worked with several school orchestras during the week. That may have accounted for the youth in the audience, including some very young families. You would think that some very young people might have left midway through the Mahler, but they didn’t. That bodes well for the future of classical music. Just like adults, kids can feel the genuine enthusiasm that Brotons has for music. He has that electrifying presence. Hopefully he will be able to connect with young students again in the near future. Fingers crossed.

Today's Birthdays

John Alden Carpenter (1876-1951)
Sergueï Bortkiewicz (1877-1952
Guiomar Novaes (1895-1979)
Geraldine Farrar (1882-1967)
Roman Maciejewski (1910-1998)
George Malcolm (1917-1997)
Joseph Rouleau (1929-2019)
Osmo Vänskä (1953)
Markus Stenz (1965)

and

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
Linus Pauling (1901-1994)
Stephen Spender (1909-1995)
Zero Mostel (1915-1977)
Frank Gehry (1929)
John Fahey (1939-2001)
Stephen Chatman (1950)
Colum McCann (1965)
Daniel Handler (1970)

and from the Composers Datebook

On this date in 1882, the Royal College of Music is founded in London.

Today's Birthdays

Sir Hubert Parry (1848-1918)
Lotte Lehmann (1888-1976)
Marian Anderson (1897-1993)
Elizabeth Welch (1904-2003)
Viktor Kalabis (1923-2006)
Mirella Freni (1935-2020)
Morten Lauridsen (1943)
Gidon Kremer (1947)
Frank-Peter Zimmermann (1956)

and

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
John Steinbeck (1902-1968)
Lawrence Durrell (1912-1990)
Ralph Nadar (1934)
N. Scott Momaday (1934)

Today's Birthdays

Anton (Antoine) Reicha (1770-1836)
Alfred Bachelet (1864-1944)
Emmy Destinn (1878-1930)
Frank Bridge (1879-1941)
Witold Rowicki (1914-1989)
Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino (1928-2017)
Lazar Berman (1930-2005)
Johnny Cash (1932-2005)
David Thomas (1943)
Guy Klucevsek (1947)
Emma Kirkby (1949)
Richard Wargo (1957)
Carlos Kalmar (1958)

and

Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)
Victor Hugo (1802-1885)
John George Nicolay (1832-1901)
Elisabeth George (1949)

Today's Birthdays

Armand-Louis Couperin (1727-1789)
Antoine Reicha (1770-1836)
Enrico Caruso (1873-1921)
Dame Myra Hess (1890-1965)
Victor Silvester (1900-1978)
Davide Wilde (1935)
Jesús López-Cobos (1940)
George Harrison (1943-2001)
Lucy Shelton (1944)
Denis O'Neill (1948)
Melinda Wagner (1957)

and

Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919)
Karl Friedrich May (1842–1874)
Anthony Burgess (1917-1993)
John C. Farrar (1896-1974)

And from the New Music Box:

On February 25, 1924, the first issue of the League of Composers Review was published. Under the editorial leadership of Minna Lederman, this publication—which soon thereafter changed its name to Modern Music (in April 1925)—was the leading journalistic voice for contemporary music in America for over 20 years and featured frequent contributions from important composers of the day including Aaron Copland, Elliott Carter, John Cage, Marc Blitzstein, Henry Cowell, Lehman Engel, and Marion Bauer. Its final issue appeared in the Fall of 1946.

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1682, Italian composer Alessandro Stradella, age 37, is murdered in Genoa, apparently in retaliation for running off with a Venetian nobleman's mistress.

Today's Birthdays

Antoine Boësset (1587-1643)
Samuel Wesley (1766-1837)
Johann Baptist Cramer (1771-1858)
Arrigo Boito (1842-1918)
Luigi Denza (1846-1922)
Arnold Dolmetsch (1858-1940)
Michel Legrand (1932)
Renato Scotto (1934)
Jiří Bělohlávek (1946

and

Wilhelm (Carl) Grimm (1786-1859)
Winslow Homer (1836-1910)
George Augustus Moore (1852-1933)
Mary Ellen Chase (1887-1973)
Weldon Kees (1914-1955)
Jane Hirshfield (1953)
Judith Butler (1956)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1955, Carlisle Floyd's opera "Susannah" received its premiere at Florida State University in Tallahassee. According to Opera America, this is one of the most frequently-produced American operas during the past decade.

Preview of Vancouver Symphony's Maher concert in The Columbian

 

My preview of upcoming concerts by the Vancouver Symphony (Mahler Fifth) and the Vancouver Master Chorale has been published in The Columbian newspaper here.

Today's Birthdays

John Blow (1649-1708)
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Sir Hugh Roberton (1874-1952)
Albert Sammons (1886-1957)
Dave Apollon (1897-1972)
Elinor Remick Warren (1905-1991)
Martindale Sidwell (1916-1998)
Hall Overton (1920-1972)
Régine Crespin (1927-2007)

and

Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) - blogger of the 17th Century
W. E B. Du Bois (1868-1963)
Karl Jaspers (1883-1969)
William L. Shirer (1904-1993)
John Camp (1944

Tidbit from the New York Times obit: In the early 1930s, William Shirer and his wife shared a house with the guitarist Andres Segovia.

From The Writer's Almanac:

It was on this day in 1940 that Woody Guthrie wrote the lyrics to “This Land Is Your Land."

The melody is to an old Baptist hymn. Guthrie wrote the song in response to the grandiose “God Bless America,” written by Irving Berlin and sung by Kate Smith. Guthrie didn’t think that the anthem represented his own or many other Americans’ experience with America. So he wrote a folk song as a response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America,” a song that was often accompanied by an orchestra. At first, Guthrie titled his own song “God Blessed America” — past tense. Later, he changed the title to “This Land Is Your Land,” which is the first line of the song.

Review: Thrilling Tchaikovsky with Gil Shaham and Oregon Symphony then bold Bruckner Fourth

 

OSO violins celebrating with Shaham after Brucker Fourth

Two powerful warhorses and one of the world’s greatest violinists combined for a terrifically robust experience with the Oregon Symphony (February 17), drawing one of the largest audiences that I have seen at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall for a regular classical music concert. No wonder; with Gil Shaham in town to play Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, you can count on getting one of the most thrilling performances of that beloved piece you’ll ever hear, and for those of us who love big and bold symphonic works, Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony will do the trick.

Of top-tier violinists in the world, Shaham is one of the most animated, moving about while playing impeccably, combining mind-boggling precision with a mesmerizingly beautiful tone that sounds absolutely refreshing. Nowadays, it never fails that audiences, swept into virtuosity and melodic uplift of the first movement of the Tchaikovsky, burst into applause. Only this time, the applause was accompanied by cheering and some concertgoers rising from their seats for a standing ovation. The enthusiastic reaction to Shaham’s performance was wonderful to witness, but it reduced a bit the audience’s response at the end of the concerto despite the fact that Shaham and the orchestra delivered all of the Tchaikovsky with elan. As a side note, Shaham didn’t play an encore on Saturday, but I heard that he added Scott Wheeler's delightful "Isolation Rag" on Monday evening.

And from the photo above (posted on Facebook), it looks like he joined the violin section for the Bruckner Fourth on Monday as well. What a treat! At Saturday’s show, the violins sans Shaham more than held their own in an inspired performance that featured, multiple times, the brass and the horns. Talk about a glorious sound! I felt a little sorry for the woodwinds because they were positioned right in front of the brass choir and had to endure several sonic volleys that were at sustained double-plus fortes. The musicians wisely used ear plugs as needed, thank goodness.

In his introductory remarks, Danzmayr described the Fourth Symphony in this way: the first movement offers a sunrise over the countryside, the second is a Minnesang (lyric-and-song from the Germanic medieval period) featuring the viola section, the third presents a group of knights going hunting, and the fourth is an apocalyptic climax. I liked that explanation, although sometimes I just imagine majestic mountain ranges and a big cathedral with a magnificent, honking organ.

Like a magician, Danzmayr guided his forces through a number of hills and valleys in which big crescendos were often followed by astonishingly quiet diminuendos. Sometimes the sound decayed down to just a few strings and one woodwind – like Principal Flutist Martha Long – who would fashion a brief, lovely melodic line. In other quiet moments the double basses (eight of them) would create a low yawn or moan before the music would shift to another gear. Principal Timpanist Jonathan Greeney had lots of forte pummeling, but he also delivered soft murmurs during some of the quiet sections. Principal Hornist Jeff Garza and Principal Trumpeter Jeffrey Work excelled with their numerous solos. The violas created a strong cantabile sound in the second movement, and the strings, conquering line after line of unrelenting tremolos, pizzicatos, and runs were outstanding.

I love it when a world-famous soloist becomes part of the orchestra. Cellist Alban Gerhardt often did that whenever he came to town. Portland is very fortunate to have such outstanding musicians who can attract such high caliber talent into their midst. And it is a tribute to Danzmayr as well, because his conducting must also have inspired Shaham to join in the music-making.

P.S. I will be in Amsterdam for a few days in June and will hear the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra under Christian Thielemann playing Bruckner’s Eighth. I will write a review of it, for sure, maybe after a couple martinis.

Today's Birthdays

Niels Wilhelm Gade (1817-1890)
York Bowen (1884-1961)
Benno Moiseiwitsch (1890-1963)
Joseph Kerman (1924-2014)
George Zukerman (1927-2023)
Steven Lubin (1942)
Lowell Liebermann (1961)
Rolando Villazón (1972)

and

George Washington (1732-1799)
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950)
Edward Gorey (1925-2000)
Gerald Stern (1925-2022)
Ishmael Reed (1938)
Terry Eagleton (1943)

Today's Birthdays

Carl Czerny (1791-1857)
Leo Delibes (1836-1891)
Charles Marie Widor (1844-1945)
Kenneth Alford (1881-1945)
Andres Segovia (1893-1987)
Nina Simone (1933-2003)
Elena Duran (1949)
Simon Holt (1948)

and

Anaïs Nin (1903-1977)
W. H. Auden (1907-1973)
Erma Bombeck (1927-1996)
Ha Jin (1956)
Chuck Palahniuk (1962)
David Foster Wallace (1962-2008)

Today's Birthdays

Johann Peter Salomon (1749-1815)
Charles‑Auguste de Bériot (1802-187)
Mary Garden (1874-1967)
Vasyl Oleksandrovych Barvinsky (1888-1963
Robert McBride (1911-2007)
Ruth Gipps (1921-1999)
Toshiro Mayuzumi (1929-1997)
Christoph Eschenbach (1940)
Barry Wordsworth (1948)
Cindy McTee (1953)
Riccardo Chailly (1953)
Chris Thile (1981)

and

Russel Crouse (1893-1966)
Louis Kahn (1901-1974)
Ansel Adams (1902-1984)
Robert Altman (1925-2006)
Richard Matheson (1926-2013)

Today's Birthdays

Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805)
Louis Aubert (1877-1968)
Arthur Shepherd (1880-1958)
Grace Williams (1906-1977)
Stan Kenton (1912-1979
Timothy Moore (1922-2003)
George Guest (1924-2002)
György Kurtág (1926)
Michael Kennedy (1926-2014)
Jean-Pierre Ponnelle (1932-1988)
Smokey Robinson (1940)
Penelope Walmsley-Clark (1949)
Darryl Kubian (1966)

and

André Breton (1896-1966)
Carson McCullers (1917-1967)
Amy Tan (1952)
Siri Hustvedt (1955)
Jonathan Lethem (1964)

Review: Oregon Symphony and Danzmayr deliver intense Beethoven and Andres

 

Beethoven’s “Fifth Symphony” is such a well-known, iconic work – one of the few classical works that pervades even popular culture – that it seems impossible to make it fresh and appealing – especially to a jaded music critic. But the Oregon Symphony under David Danzmayr did just that at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall (February 12). Those famous first four notes were played with stirring intensity and focus – as if almost to grab listeners by the throat or at least the ears and say “listen to this!” The music that followed in the first movement had an insistent, incessant drive, bordering almost on the neurotic.

Then came the second movement with its grand majestic phrases. They decayed and decayed into delicate pianissimos that allowed listeners to hear the bassoons. It was truly magical. The third movement offered glowing horns and murky, mysterious lower strings, the blitzing fugal passage – it all surged and then dwindled down to almost nothing before gathering steam and tension and finally bursting into the gloriously triumphant fourth movement – with fireworks coming from all corners of the orchestra.

The taut orchestral sound resonated throughout entire piece. Every musician seemed to be on fire. Danzmayr, referring occasionally to a tiny score that was placed on his music stand at such a low position you would think that he would need binoculars to see the notes, urged the orchestra with spot-on gestures, and he got all sorts of stunning results – some lines, for example, had enticing crescendos and decrescendos built into them. The overall effect of the Fifth was awesome, and the audience rewarded the performance with thunderous acclamation and cheers – during which Danzmayr recognized the outstanding contributions from each section.

The main work on the first half of the concert was “The Blind Banister,” by Brooklyn-based composer Timo Andres. This piano concerto, which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2016, featured Andres as the soloist, and it will be released as a CD with Andres and the Metropolis Ensemble on Nonesuch Records later this year. The piece was inspired by a poem, ‘Schubertiana,” by Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2011.

Consisting of three movements that flow as one, “The Blind Banister” started out with a tremolo-like passage for the right-hand at the keyboard. Then with his left-hand, Andres created a series of notes that cascaded down the scale. A forceful entry by the orchestra seemed to offer emotional support to the pianist who continued to explore the downward trend in various guises. After a while, both pianist and orchestra created the feeling of someone who is trying to find his/her/their way through a lot of murkiness. Slashing sounds from the orchestra, gnawing sounds, in particular, from the violins – the piece seemed to slow down and break down into a cacophony, then the piano emerges from it all, and in a refreshing upswing, dashes off with the orchestra accompanying with a fanfare of hope.

Like a lot of new works, the piece appeared to be very tricky, but the orchestra made it look easy peasy and Andres made a strong statement with his solo. Danzmayr singled out Concertmaster Sarah Kwak, Principal Trumpeter Jeffrey Work, Assistant Principal Timpanist Sergio Carreno, and the percussion section for their stellar contributions.

The concert program began with Beethoven’s “Egmont” Overture. Led decisively by Danzmayr, it received a totally committed performance by the orchestra – very dynamic with penetrating blasts that contrasted wonderfully with the plaintive passages. The horns also excelled with brilliant staccatos, driving the piece to its heroic end.

Another overture or sorts, “Fate Now Conquers” by Carlos Simon, began the second half of the concert. This brief piece packed a punch with a two-note opening statement. Busy strings and a pulsating rhythm topped off by trumpet calls gave the music a lot of energy. A short melodic line from Principal Cellist Nancy Ives dissolved into the busy maelstrom of the strings, plus interjections from the trumpets. The piece concluded with a fanfare-ish ending. Given the title, I wonder if it could follow Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, because it has been associated with the idea of fate knocking at the door. So “Fate Now Conquers” would be the follow-up. Right?

In any case, readers should know that Simon has been appointed to the inaugural composer chair with the Boston Symphony. According to the press release, it is the first time that such a position has been created for the orchestra in its 143-year history.

Today's Birthdays

Giovanni Battista Vitali (1632-1692)
Pietro Giovanni Guarneri (1655-1720)
Gustave Schirmer, Jr. (1864-1907)
Marchel Landowski (1915-1999)
Rolande Falcinelli (1920-2006)
Rita Gorr (1926-2012)
Yoko Ono (1933)
Marek Janowski (1939)
Marlos Nobre (1939)
Donald Crockett (1951)

and

Sholem Aleichem (1859-1916)
Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957)
Wallace Stegner (1909-1993)
Jack Gilbert (1925-2012)
Len Deighton (1929)
Toni Morrison (1931-2019)
George Pelecanos (1957)

Review of PBO's Dinner with Handel in Oregon ArtsWatch

 

My review of Portland Baroque production of the witty and uplifting pasticcio opera has been published in Oregon ArtsWatch here.

Today's Birthdays

Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713)
Henri Vieuxtemps (1820-1881)
Sr. Edward German (1862-1936)
Leevi Madetoja (1887-1947)
Paul Fetler (1920-2018)
Ron Goodwin (1925-2003)
Fredrich Cerha (1926-2023)
Lee Hoiby (1926-2011)
Anner Bylsma (1944)
Karl Jenkins (1944)

and

Isabelle Eberhardt (1877-1904)
Ronald Knox (1888-1957)
Jack Gilbert (1925-2012)
Chaim Potok (1929-2002)
Ruth Rendell (1930-2015)
Mo Yan (1955)

From the New Music Box:

On February 17, 1927, a sold-out audience attends the world premiere of The King's Henchman. an opera with music by composer, music critic and future radio commentator Deems Taylor and libretto by poet Edna St. Villay Millay, at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. The New York Times review by Olin Downes on the front page the next morning hailed it as the "best American opera." The opera closed with a profit of $45,000 and ran for three consecutive seasons. It has not been revived since and has yet to be recorded commercially.

Today's Birthdays

Charles Avison (1709-1770)
Willem Kes (1856-1934)
Selim Palmgren (1878-1951)
Maria Korchinska (1895-1979)
Alec Wilder (1907-1980)
Sir Geraint Evans (1922-1992)
Eliahu Inbal (1936)
John Corigliano (1938)
Sigiswald Kuiljken (1944)

and

Nikolai Leskov (1831-1895)
Henry Brooks Adams (1838-1918)
Van Wyck Brooks (1886-1963)
Richard Ford (1944)

Today's Birthdays

Michael Praetorius (1571-1621)
Jean‑François Lesueur (1760-1837)
Friedrich Ernst Fesca (1789-1826)
Heinrich Engelhard Steinway (1797-1871)
Robert Fuchs (1847-1927)
Marcella Sembrich (1858-1935)
Walter Donaldson (1893-1947)
Georges Auric (1899-1983)
Harold Arlen (1905-1986)
Jean Langlais (1907-1991)
Norma Procter (1928-2017)
John Adams (1947)
Christopher Rouse (1949)
Kathryn Harries (1951)
Christian Lindberg (1958)

and

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906)
Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947)
Art Spiegelman (1948)
Matt Groening (1954)

Today's Birthdays

Pietro Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676)
Alexander Dargomizhsky (1813-1869)
Ignaz Friedman (1882-1948)
Jack Benny (1894-1974)
Wyn Morris (1929-2010)
Steven Mackey (1956)
Renée Fleming (1959)

and

Frederick Douglass (1814-1895)
Carl Bernstein (1944)

and

On this day in 1895, Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest opened in London. He wrote the first draft in just 21 days, the fastest he’d ever written anything.

Today's Birthdays

Fernando Sor (1778-1839)
Leopold Godowsky (1870-1938)
Feodor Chaliapin (1873-1938)
Tennessee Ernie Ford (1919-1991)
Eileen Farrell (1920-2002)
Yfrah Neaman (1923-2003)
Colin Matthews (1946)
Peter Gabriel (1950)
Raymond Wojcik (1957-2014)
Philippe Jaroussky (1978)

and

William Roughead (1870–1952)
Ricardo Güiraldes (1886-1927)
Grant Wood (1891-1942)
Georges Simenon (1903-1989)
Elaine Pagels (1943

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1914, ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) is formally organized in New York City, with composer Victor Herbert as its first director.

Today's Birthdays

Thomas Campion (1567-1620)
Jan Ladislav Dussek (1760-1812)
Roy Harris (1898-1979)
Franco Zeffirelli (1923-2019)
Mel Powell (1923-1998)
Paata Burchuladze (1951)

and

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
Max Beckmann (1884-1950)
Judy Bloom (1938)

And courtesy of the New Music Box:

On February 12, 1924 at New York's Aeolian Hall, self-named 'King of Jazz' Paul Whiteman presented An Experiment in Modern Music, a concert combining "high art" and "hot jazz." The concert featured newly commissioned works from Victor Herbert, Jerome Kern, Edward MacDowell, Irving Berlin, Ferde Grofé, and Rudolf Friml, but the highlight of the program was the world premiere performance of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.

Today's Birthdays

Rudolf Firkušný (1912-1994)
Sir Alexander Gibson (1926-1995)
Michel Sénéchal (1927-2018)
Cristopher Dearnley (1930-2000)
Jerome Lowenthal (1932)
Gene Vincent (1935-1971)
Edith Mathis (1938)
Alberto Lysy (1935-2009)
Christine Cairns (1959)

and

Thomas Edison (1847-1931)
Philip Dunne (1908-1992)
Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1909-1993)
Pico Iyer (1957)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1841, was given the first documented American performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 at the New York's Broadway Tabernacle, by the German Society of New York, Uri Corelli Hill conducting.

Galka gives spellbinding performance that sets Shakespeare in song

Soprano enchantress Katrina Galka cast a spell with her marvelous voice in Enchanted Woods, Portland Opera’s intimate evening of songs set to texts by Shakespeare. Accompanied by piano and a quintet of woodwinds, Galka commanded the stage at The Gregory K. and Mary Chomenko Hinckley Studio Theatre (February 3) with style and elan to deliver an impressive number of tunes by an array of composers that included John Dankworth, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Mark Blitzstein, Roger Quilter, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Arthur Sullivan, Betty Jackson King, Benjamen Britten, Lola Williams, and Cole Porter. All-in-all, the production, which was directed by Kristine McIntyre and included a handful of additional singers, constituted a veritable feast for literature and music lovers of the great English bard, but digesting thirty songs stuffed concertgoers’ ears to the hilt and then some.

Several years ago, while Galka was a resident artist at Portland Opera, she made a very strong impression with roles in “The Elixir of Love” (2015), “Carmen” (2015), and “The Italian Girl in Algiers” (2015), “The Magic Flute” (2016), and “Sweeney Todd” (2016). She returned for a magnificent performance as Gilda in “Rigoletto” (2018) and has built an international career.

Galka co-curated the Enchanted Woods program, stringing together a series of songs that made a loose-limbed narrative. Dankworth’s “All the World’s a Stage” was a delightful invitation sprinkled with a hint of sultriness. She enticed the audience, which was seated at cabaret tables, with a lovely interpretation of Korngold’s “Under the Greenwood Tree.” The rhapsodic mood continued with pieces by Quilter, Blitzstein, and Castelnuovo-Tedesco. For those who are familiar “When Birds do Sing” as a pleasant madrigal, it was great to hear that text in a much more robust, sparkly, and impetuous style by Korngold.

Five songs by Sullivan with words from “Twelfth Night” offered an interplay of characters who arrived in the forest – much like many settings in Shakespeare’s plays – and mixing up flirting, jealousy, and other emotions connected to the theme of love. Portland resident artists Judy Yanninii, Roland Hawkins II, and Antonio Domino collaborated with Anna Jablonski to create a diversion that culminated with the wistful musings of Betty Jackson King’s “In the Springtime” from “As You Like It.”

Returning in a fanciful costume, Galka cast some magical sleep-inducing dust on her colleagues, followed by the feathery and “dewberry” light “Be Kind and Courteous” by Britten. She capped off the first half of the program with Britten’s lovely “Come, Now a Roundel” and Blitzstein’s gentle “Lullaby.”

After intermission came three pieces by Lola Williams, an obscure American composer who is only now being rediscovered. Her “Threnos (for Romeo and Juliet),” featuring Yannini and Jablonski, and “The Owl Sings (for Winter), sung by Yannini and Hawkins II, created a solemn mood. That transitioned to a lighter vein with “The Cuckoo Sings (for Spring) in which Galka, Yannini, and Jablonski interspersed some bird-like sounds.

Galka received enthusiastic applause after camping things up with glee in Cole Porter’s “I Hate Men!” and “Always True to You in My Fashion.” She juxtaposed these with the serious themes of Catelnuovo-Tedesco’s “Come to Dust,” Quilter’s “Come Away, Death,” and Korngold’s “Desdemona’s Song.” The evening closed out with Blitzstein’s “Court Song,” which evoked an Elizabethan style, Quilter’s “Hey, Ho, the Wind and the Rain,” and Dankworth’s “Our Revels Now Are Ended.”

It was a tour-de-force performance for Galka, who sang with intense commitment and always a beautiful tone. Almost all of the action took place on a raised platform that was clad in forest-green artificial turf and placed in the center of the room. Sensitive piano playing by Nicholas Fox accompanied almost all of the pieces while some were set to a wind quintet (flutist GeorgeAnne Ries, oboist Kelly Gronli, clarinetist Louis DeMartino, bassoonist Samuel Rhoton, and hornist Michael Hettwer). Fox also arranged several pieces for piano and the chamber ensemble.

It seems that Enchanted Woods would be an excellent piece to do at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. A few songs could be cut and actors from the festival could be the extra characters that Galka interacts with. To give her a chance to rest up between a set of songs, some of the actors could recite a few of Shakespeare’s sonnets or do an excerpt from a play. Enchanted Woods is a terrific vehicle or Galka or another singer of her caliber, and since the forces required for a performance are so small, it could easily be taken on the road.

Today's Birthdays

Johann Melchior Molter (1696-1765)
Adelina Patti (1843-1919)
Jean Coulthard (1908-2000)
Joyce Grenfell (1914-2001)
Cesare Siepi (1923-2010)
Leontyne Price (1927)
Jerry Goldsmith (1929-2004)
Roberta Flack (1937)
Barbara Kolb (1939)
Yuja Wang (1987)

and

Charles Lamb (1775-1834)
Boris Pasternak (1890-1960)
Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956)
Åsne Seierstad (1970)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1921, Charles Ives hears Igor Stravinsky's "The Firebird" Ballet Suite at an all-Russian program by the New York Symphony at Carnegie Hall. Also on the program were works of Glinka, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Rachmaninoff (with Rachmaninoff as piano soloist). Walter Damrosch conducted.

Profile of Oregon Symphony music librarian in Oregon Arts Watch

 

If you want to find out more about what goes one behind the scenes to make a symphonic orchestra run smoothly, you will enjoy reading this article of mine in Oregon ArtsWatch here.

Today's Birthdays

Ferdinando Carulli (1770-1841)
Franz Xaver Witt (1834-1888)
Alban Berg (1885-1935)
Harald Genzmer (1909-2007)
Hildegard Behrens (1937-2009)
Ryland Davies (1943)
Paul Hillier (1949)
Jay Reise (1950)
Marilyn Hill Smith (1952)
Amanda Roocroft (1966)

and

Amy Lowell (1874-1925)
James Stephens (1882-1950)
Brendan Behan (1923-1964)
J.M. (John Maxwell) Coetzee (1940)
Alice Walker (1944)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1893, Verdi's opera, "Falstaff," was first performed in Milan at the Teatro alla Scala. This was Verdi's last opera.

Today's Birthdays

Jacob Praetorius (1586-1651)
André Grétry (1741-1813)
Osian Ellis (1928-2021)
John Williams (1932)
Elly Ameling (1933)
Margaret Brouwer (1940)
Stephen Roberts (1948)
Irvine Arditti (1953)

and

Jules Verne (1828-1905)
Kate Chopin (1850-1904)
Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979)
Neal Cassady (1926-1968)
John Grisham (1955)

and from the Composers Datebook:

1880 - German opera composer Richard Wagner writes a letter to his American dentist, Dr. Newell Still Jenkins, stating "I do no regard it as impossible that I decide to emigrate forever to America with my latest work ["Parsifal"] and my entire family" if the Americans would subsidize him to the tune of one million dollars.

Interview with Timo Andres published in Oregon ArtsWatch

 

My interview with pianist-composer Timo Andres is ready for you to read in Oregon ArtsWatch here. 

Today's Birthdays

Wilhelm Stenhammar (1871-1927)
Ossip Gabrilovich (1878-1936)
Eubie Blake (1883-1983)
Claudia Muzio (1889-1936)
Quincy Porter (1897-1966)
Edmond De Luca (1909-2004)
Lord Harewood (1923-2011)
Maruis Constant (1925-2004)
Stuart Burrows (1933)
Wolfgang van Schweintz (1953)
Andy Akiho (1979)

and

Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957)
Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951)
Gay Talese (1932)

Today's Birthdays

Henry Litolff (1818-1891)
Karl Weigl (1881-1949)
Andre Marchal (1894-1980)
Claudio Arrau (1903-1991)
Stephen Albert (1941-1992)
Bob Marley (1945-1981)
Bruce J. Taub (1948)
Matthew Best (1957)
Sean Hickey (1970)

and

Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)
Eric Partridge (1894-1979)
George Herman "Babe" Ruth (1895-1948)
Mary Douglas Leakey (1913-1996)
Deborah Digges (1950-2009)
Michael Pollan (1955)

Today's Birthdays

Ole Bull (1810-1880)
Christian Gottlob Neefe (1748-1798)
Ricardo Viñes (1875-1943)
Grazyna Bacewicz (1909-1969)
Jussi Björling (1911-1960)
Sir John Pritchard (1921-1989)
Luc Ferrari (1929-2005)
John Poole (1934)
Ivan Tcherepnin (1943-1998)
Josef Protschka (1944)
Phylis Bryn-Julson (1945)

and

Henry Louis "Hank" Aaron (1934-2021)
John Guare (1938)
William S. Burroughs (1914-1997)
Christopher Guest (1948)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1887, Verd's: opera "Otello" premiered in Milan at the Teatro all Scala, with the composer conducting (and cellist Arturo Toscanini in the orchestra).

Today's Birthdays

Eustache du Caurroy (1549-1609)
Carl Michael Bellman (1740-1795)
Aristide Cavaillé‑Coll (1811-1899)
Yrjo Kilpinen (1892-1952)
Bernard Rogers (1893-1968)
Erich Leinsdorf (1912-1993)
Jutta Hipp (1925-2003)
Martti Talvela (1935-1989)
François Dumeaux (1978)

and also

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945)
Gavin Ewart (1916-1995)
Betty Friedan (1921-2006)
Robert Coover (1932)

Today's Birthdays

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594)
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847)
Sidney Lanier (1842-1881)
Priaulx Rainier (1903-1986)
Luigi Dallapiccola (1904-1975)
Blas Galindo Dimas (1910-1993)
Jehan Alain (1911-1940)
Helga Dernesch (1939)

and

Gertrude Stein (1874-1946)
Georg Trakl (1887-1914)
Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)
Alvar Aalto (1898-1978)
James Michener (1907-1997)
Simone Weil (1909-1943)
Richard Yates (1926-1992)
Paul Auster (1947)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1844, Berlioz's "Roman Carnival" Overture, in Paris was premiered at the Salle Herz, with the composer conducting.

Review of Oregon Symphony concert - Abrahamsen, Schumann, and Farrenc

My preview of the Oregon Symphony's concert with guest conductor Markus Stenz and pianist Tamara Stefanovich is now available for you at Classical Voice North America here.

Fresh newsy items published in Oregon ArtsWatch

 

You can read a couple of news items that I've written for Oregon ArtsWatch here.

Today's Birthdays

Louis Marchand (1669-1732)
Leo Fall (1873-1925)
Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962)
Jascha Heifetz (1901-1987)
Stan Getz (1927-1991)
Skip Battin (1934-2003)
Martina Arroyo (1937)
Sir Andrew Davis (1944)
Ursula Oppens (1944)
Eliane Aberdam (1964)

And

James Joyce (1882-1941)
James Dickey (1923-1997)
Tom Smothers (1937-2023)

45th Parallel and Alex Ross collaborate on unique show with his words and great music

Talk about putting pressure on yourself and your colleagues! The musicians of 45th Parallel Universe invited America’s foremost music critic, Alex Ross, to do a program of his reading selections from his writings and paired that with members of the 45th Parallel collective playing for him. It all went impressively well in front of a very full house at The Patricia Reser Center for the Performing Arts on January 26th.

Ross is the classical music critic of the New Yorker, author of three acclaimed books, and recipient of a MacArthur genius awards. (He is also a member of the Music Critics Association of North America of which I am also a member.) His writings about music are eloquent and insightful, and they worked smoothly and effectively in the show, which was conceived and produced by violinist Ron Blessinger, who was the Executive Director of 45th Parallelers until recently when that role was handed off to Lisa Lipton

Sitting on the stage in a comfy-looking chair, Ross introduced each piece on the program a thoughtful selection from his writings. I got to the event late and missed his initial musings about György Ligeti from “The Rest is Noise.” That was followed by an ensemble (flutist Martha Long, oboist Karen Wagner, hornist Joseph Berger, bassoonist Steve Vacchi, and clarinetist James Shields) performing Ligeti’s quirky “Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet.”

Ross read a descriptive and slyly humorous fragment from “The Arctic Sound of John Luther Adams” in which Adams stated about his music that “it’s got something, or, at least, ‘It’s not nothing.” That was followed by the jagged and icy music from Luther’s “Maclaren Summit,” which is the second movement from his “Wind in High Places.” Played by violinists Blessinger and Greg Ewer, violist Charles Noble, and cellist Marilyn de Oliveira, the piece vividly conveyed a frozen and treacherous landscape.

A few years ago, Florence Price’s music was rediscovered in an abandoned house near Chicago, and that has led to a renewed interest in her music. In Ross’s essay from the New Yorker magazine, Ross captured the significance of finding one of America’s treasures that no one knew or cared much about. The mousai REMIX (violinists Shin-young Kwon and Emily Cole, violist Kayla Cabrera, and cellist Oliveira) delivered a soul-searching account of three movements from Price’s “Five Folksongs in Counterpoint.”

Touching on sophisticated popular music, Ross talked about the middle-class background of the members of the English band Radiohead and the group’s exploratory music. Percussionist Sergio Carreno created an arrangement of Radiohead’s “Pyramid song, Creep, and Treefinger” that generated lots of good vibes, featuring vocalist and keyboardist Bora Yoon, Oliveira on electric cello, percussionists Michael Roberts and Stephen Kehner, and Carreno on drums

In his book on the impact of Richard Wagner and his music, (“Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music”) Ross drew on the connections between characters in a Willa Cather novel and the Wagner’s Ring Cycle, focusing on the lament and scolding of Fricka that she leveled against Wotan for his crazy schemes, which broke a lot of rules. Mezzo soprano Hannah Penn, accompanied by pianist Maria Garcia, did Fricka proud, commanding the stage with an imperious demeanor while singing with conviction and stellar diction.

The show wrapped up with Ross’s insight into Aaron Copland’s music from “The Rest is Noise” and a totally committed performance by the 45th Parallel Chamber Orchestra of “Appalachian Spring” (suite for thirteen instruments). The ensemble delivered the piece with grace and a bit of elan, capping off a wonderful evening of great music to accompany words by the nation’s greatest writer on classical music.

Today's Birthdays

Francesco Stradivari (1671-1743)
Francesco Maria Veracini (1690-1768)
Johan Joachim Agrell (1701-1765)
Victor Herbert (1859-1924)
Julius Conus (1869-1942)
Clara Butt (1872-1936)
Sándor Veress (1907-1999)
Mozart Camargo Guarnieri (1907-1993)
Renata Tebaldi (1922-2004)
Ursula Mamlok (1928-2016)
Michael G. Shapiro (1951)

and

Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
S. J. Perelman (1904-1979)
Muriel Spark (1918- 2006)
Galway Kinnell (1927-2014)