Today's Birthdays

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

and

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

Review: Oregon Symphony and Danzmayr deliver the goods with Shostakovich 5, Prokofiev's Violin Concerto - with Gluzman - and Shekhar

The Oregon Symphony under its Music Director, David Danzmayr, delivered a trenchantly powerful performance of Shostakovich’s “Symphony No. 5 in D Minor” on November 25th at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. It was the highlight of an evening that included a superb rendition of Prokofiev’s “Violin Concerto No. 2 in G Minor” with guest artist Vadim Gluzman and a brilliant, relatively new piece by Indian American composer Nina Shekhar.

With the Presidential election behind us and an authoritarian leader in front of us, Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony has emotional content that has a prescient quality. That’s because Shostakovich wrote the piece in 1937 as a way to appease the Soviet authorities and Stalin, who had attacked the composer in official Communist Party newspaper, “Pravda” for writing music that was considered decadent and didn’t express the party’s artistic views. Shostakovich was so fearful that he would be arrested that he slept in the stairwell of his apartment building so that his family would be spared from seeing him led away.

But Shostakovich didn’t buckle all the way, and his Fifth Symphony contains defiance in spite of the situation. That’s what the Oregon Symphony expressed to the nth degree. You could practically feel the drama, for example in the first movement, when the horns created low, sinister tones followed by a trumpeted march – reinforced by the timpani – yet later contradicted by a lovely melody from the flute (Principal Alicia DiDonato Paulsen). The bassoon duet and the ensuing waltz in the second movement provide a bit of calm before the tension returns in the third (Largo), which built a sense of tragedy and despairing cries from various sections of the orchestra. At one point, Danzmayr and company created such a triple pianissimo that anyone in the audience could have coughed and shattered the moment, but no one did – everyone was listening so intently. The pace quickened in the final movement, and with all forces insistently wailing – the strings playing the same note for 250 bars and Principal Sergio Carreno crushing the timpani – the symphony came to an incredibly dynamic ending, which caused an eruption of vociferous applause from the audience, bringing Danzmayr back to the podium three times.

Israelí virtuoso Vadim Gluzman, a frequent guest soloist with the Oregon Symphony – his last appearance with the orchestra was in January of 2023 – gave a stellar interpretation of Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto. Displaying flawless technique, including numerous runs that were absolutely immaculate and golden, Gluzman elicited silken melodies with rhapsodic elan. The piece ended with a slightly rustic style that also had a bit of fire.

In response to thunderous ovations from the audience, Gluzman offered a lovely encore, the Gavotte en rondeau from Bach's E major partita.

The concert opened with Nina Shekhar’s “Lumina,” a one-movement piece (10 minutes in length) that began quietly with a violin bow stroking the xylophone. That note was mimicked by Concertmaster Sarah Kwak except that she would make the tone dip. The orchestra gradually joined, make a collage of tones that coalesced and bloomed and shimmered before subsiding. The piece used a lot of microtones, and that created an intoxicating, sonic blur. The meditative atmosphere was very appealing, and it make me intrigued about Shekhar’s works. Perhaps we will hear another piece in the near future.

Gluzman, by the way, has a done a recording of the Prokofiev with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra under Neeme Järvi. He has also made a recording of works by Richard Rodney Bennett with OSO’s former MD James DePriest and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo on the Koch label.

Today's Birthdays

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

and

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

Review of Dover Quartet concert - Chamber Music Northwest - in Oregon ArtsWatch

The Dover Quartet rolled into town for a long-awaited return engagement sponsored by Chamber Music Northwest. You can read all about it in Oregon ArtsWatch here.

Today's Birthdays

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

and

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

Today's Birthdays

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

and

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

Today's Birthdays

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

and

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

Today's Birthdays

Franz Gruber (1785-1863)
Wilhelm Kempff (1895-1991)
Virgil Thomson (1896-1989)
Paul Desmond (1924-1977)
Sir John Drummond (1934-2006)
Jean-Claude Malgoire (1940-2018)
Håkan Hagegård (1945)
Yvonne Kenny (1950)
Gilles Cachemaille (1951)

and

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

and from the Composers Datebook:

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

Today's Birthays

Scott Joplin (1868-1917)
Willie ("The Lion") Smith (1897-1973)
Norman Walker (1907-1963)
Erik Bergman (1911-2006)
Alfredo Kraus (1927-1999)
Emma Lou Diemer (1927-2024)
Alfred Schnittke (1934-1998)
Maria Chiara (1939)
Chinary Ung (1942)
Tod Machover (1953)
Jouni Kaipainen (1956)
Samuel Zygmuntowicz (1956)
Edgar Meyer (1960)
Angelika Kirchschlager (1965)

and

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

Today's Birthdays

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

and

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

and from the Writer's Almanac:

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

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

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

Today's Birthdays

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

and

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

And from The Writer's Almanac:

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

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

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

Today's Birthdays

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

and

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

Today's Birthdays

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

and

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

and from the Composers Datebook:

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

Review of Portland Opera's "The Juliet Letters" posted on Classical Voice North America

My review of this unique operatic production - blending pop and classical styles - is now published in Classical Voice North America here.

Today's Birthdays

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

and

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

and from The Writer's Almanac:

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

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

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

Today's Birthdays

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

and

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

and from the Composers Datebook:

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

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

Today's Birthdays

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

and

Shelby Foote (1916-2006)

Today's Birthdays

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

and

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

Today's Birthdays

Sir William Herschel (1738-1822)
Annunzio Paolo Mantovani (1905-1980)
Petula Clark (1932)
Peter Dickinson (1934)
Daniel Barenboim (1942-2023)
Pierre Jalbert (1967)

and

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

and from the Composers Datebook:

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

Review of Metropolitan Youth Symphony season opener

 

My review of the MYS concert on Sunday night has been published in Oregon ArtsWatch here.

Today's Birthdays

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

and

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

Review of Portland Youth Philharmonic season opener

 My review of PYP's season opening concert is now available in Oregon ArtsWatch here.

Today's Birthdays

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

and

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

and from the Composers Datebook:

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

Eighty Years Of Music with violinist Leslie Hirsch and composer John Vergin

Leslie Hirsch, Portland-based string player, is celebrating her 80th birthday with a concert of music composed by John Vergin. Over the course of many years, Hirsch has commissioned works from John Vergin. They will be performed, along with other pieces by Vergin. Several of the pieces will receive their first performance.

Hirsch is a violist and violinist, performer and teacher, and currently plays in Portland's Bach Cantata Choir orchestra.

Vergin has been active for many years in the Portland-metro-area as a singer, pianist and organist, composer, actor, and teacher. He teaches voice at Reed College.

Time/Location - Sunday, Nov. 17, 7:30 P.M. in the Reed College chapel in Eliot Hall.

Admission - By donation, proceeds going to Reed's scholarship fund for music students.

Today's Birthdays

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

and

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

From the New Music Box:

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

Today's Birthdays

Bernhard Romberg (1767-1841)
Frederick Stock (1872-1942)
Ernest Ansermet (1883-1969)
Jan Simons (1925-2006)
Arthur Cunningham (1928-1997)
Vernon Handley (1930-2008)
Harry Bramma (1936)
Jennifer Bate (1944-2020)
Fang Man (1977)

and

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

and from the Composers Datebook:

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

Today's Birthdays

Martin Luther (1483-1546)
François Couperin (1668-1733)
John Phillips Marquand (1873-1949)
Carl Stalling (1891-1972)
Ennio Morricone (1928-2020)
Graham Clark (1941-2023)
Sir Tim Rice (1944)
Andreas Scholl (1967)

and

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

and from the Composers Datebook:

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

Review: Oregon Symphony with Glover and Pratt polish Bach and Montgomery to perfection

From OSO's Facebook page

The Oregon Symphony dialed it back a couple hundred years and a few score more to deliver outstanding performances of works by Bach, Handel, and Haydn at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall (November 4). Baroque specialist Dame Jane Glover, in her debut with the orchestra, made sure that the sound was fresh and gem-like. Guest soloist Awadagin Pratt excelled at the keyboard with the Bach and then topped that with an entrancing rendition of Jessie Montgomery’s “Rounds,” a contemporary number that perfectly complemented the old masters.

It was a genuine rarity to hear the local band play Bach’s “Concerto No. 4 in A Major for Clavier and Strings.” According to the program notes, the last time that the orchestra touched that piece was in January of 1997 under James DePreist with – guess who – Awadagin Pratt. I can’t even recall the last time I heard any Bach played by the orchestra. So I combed through my reviews and found that in October of 2015, Matthew Halls conducted the “Ricercare” from Bach’s “Musical Offering” in Webern’s arrangement.

Perhaps part of the reason that there has been so little Bach programmed at OSO concerts was due to the acoustics of the hall. Fortunately, OSO’s installation of the Meyer Sound System in 2021 has really improved the sonic qualities. At Monday night’s concert, Pratt, Glover, and the orchestra – in a cozy string chamber formation – fashioned an elegant statement with Bach’s “Concerto No. 4 in A Major for Clavier and Strings” (not to be confused with the Brandenburg Concerto No 4). The opening movement danced with bright colors and a joyful ambiance. The second movement offered delicate exchanges of phrases between Pratt and members of the orchestra – especially Principal Bassoon Carin Miller. The third movement capped things off with wonderful dynamic contrasts, including one that swelled up to double forte and subsided to a double pianissimo.

Montgomery’s “Rounds,” which, by the way, won the 2024 Grammy for Best Contemporary Classical Composition, created a gentle, mystical soundscape that alternated between busy, constantly rolling patterns from the piano and chords that asymmetrically leapt about. At one point the piano part climbed higher and higher while the orchestra held things steady, which created another ethereal moment. An expansive cadenza allowed Pratt to show some amazing improvisational talent, and that became a highlight of the evening.

The music more than won over the audience, which erupted in rapturous applause. After returning to center stage a couple of times, Pratt played an encore, François Couperin’s “Les Barricades Mystérieuses” (The Mysterious Barricades), which extended the magical atmosphere of the Bach and Montgomery pieces.

The concert opened with a peppy and dance-like rendition the Suite No. 2 in D Major from Handel’s “Water Music.” Urged on by Glover, the chamber ensemble made the passages grow and glow. The ornamentation from the horns sparked, and it was wonderful to hear the harpsichord (another advantage of the acoustical enhancement of the hall). It was top notch Handel from beginning to end.

Haydn’s “Symphony No. 103 in E-flat Major (aka “Drumroll”} also receive a superb performance from Glover and forces. Listeners perked up right away, because Assistant Principal Timpani, Sergio Carreno, pounced on the kettle drums like a cat on bowl of tuna. The slow and stately passage from the low strings and bassoons that followed seemed to rise from the stage flow. It broke into a light-hearted dance from the entire ensemble that was just pure pleasure to hear. Concertmaster Sarah Kwak’s lovely solo and the bird-like sound of the flutes enhanced the second movement. The third (Minuet) delightfully kept the odd balance between graceful and heavy-handed dance steps. With horns blazing the final movement swept everyone into a spirted and grand finale. That caused concertgoers to erupt with applause, and after Glover returned to the podium a third time, Kwak and the orchestra delayed standing so that the conductor could enjoy the applause – a real tribute to Glover’s artistry.

Today's Birthdays

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

and

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

Today's Birthdays

Friedrich Witt (1770-1836)
Sir Arnold Bax (1883-1953
Lamberto Gardelli (1915-1938)
Jerome Hines (1921-2003)
Richard Stoker (1938-2021)
Simon Standage (1941)
Judith Zaimont (1945)
Tadaaki Otaka (1947)
Elizabeth Gale (1948)
Bonnie Raitt (1949)
Ana Vidović (1980)

and

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

Review: Rachel Barton Pine makes Mendelssohn shine - the VSO excels with Shostakovich 10

Opposites attract – or so the saying goes – and that concept – taken broadly – can even apply to music programming. Take, for example, last weekend’s Vancouver Symphony concert, which featured Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10. Guest soloist Rachel Barton Pine coaxed a delicious blend of sweet and soaring sounds from the Mendelssohn, and Music Director Salvador Brotons marshalled his forces to deliver the agitated and caustic sentiment of the Shostakovich. Put together, the two pieces made a satisfying musical sandwich for listeners on November 2nd at Skyview Concert Hall.

The concert marked a return engagement for Pine with the Vancouver Symphony. She last soloed with the local band in May of 2022, delivering an impressive performance of Korngold’s Violin Concerto. So, this time around, it was not surprising when she wheeled to center stage on a motorized scooter and transferred to a chair on a slightly raised platform.

The award-winning violinist wasted no time establishing a strong and rich tone in the opening statement of the Mendelssohn. Riveting high notes enhanced the lyrical melodic line, and her exchange of phrases with the orchestra sounded terrific. In the lovely second movement, Pine created a slight sense of melancholy that was supported as if by a gentle breeze. The third movement was all brightness and light – with a lightening quick final section in which Pine’s fingers seemed to dance.

Speaking of dance, Pine followed the immediate standing ovation with a medley of Scottish fiddling tunes. The flowed in a sequence of dances known as March-Strathspey-Reel or MSR. Each one had delightfully tricky rhythms, but the last one, the Reel, really showed off fleet fingerwork by Pine.

Shostakovich finished his Tenth Symphony right after the death of Josef Stalin in 1953. Since the Stalin and his party had heavily criticized Shostakovich’s music, including the censure, in 1948, of his Ninth Symphony, he had pretty much stopped composing symphonies. So with Stalin’s passing, the composer felt liberated, and unloaded a lot of thoughts and emotions into Symphony No. 10.

The piece has been characterized by some as “pessimistic optimism,” and the orchestra, guided by Brotons, expressed that transition extremely well, starting cellos and double basses delving into the moody, dark, and haunting passage at the very beginning of the first movement (Moderato). Other sections of the orchestra jointly built a quiet tension that just erupted into a tremendous crescendo before dying away to a lone piccolo. The violent slashes of sound in the second movement (Allegro), did suggest – as Brotons noted in his introductory remarks – Stalin punching about. The third (Allegretto) contained an awkward waltz – as if people were trying to loosen up and remember how to have fun. The fourth (Andante – Allegro) carried Shostakovich’s musical monogram, DSCH, in an insistently repetitive pattern – Brotons likened it to the words “this is myself” – that transitioned into the fast, triumphant, and joyful finale.

The orchestra rose to the many challenging elements of the Tenth Symphony to successfully convey its emotional weight. Among the many highlights were the glowing sound of the horns, led by principal Dan Partridge, the evocative playing of bassoonist Kahayla Rapolla and assistant principal oboist Nicholas Thompson, the subtle sound of principal clarinetist Igor Shakhman, the flutists – principal Rachel Rencher, Corrie Cook, and Darren Cook (also on piccolo), and the unified sound of the strings, led by concertmaster Eva Richey, with extra kudos for excelling in the fast passages. Outstanding conducting by Brotons brought out the best.

Before the concert began, Hal Abrams, Director of Development, told the audience that in just a few weeks (from the time of the previous concert in late September) more than enough money had been raised to match a $200,000 challenge from a small group of donors. That kind of fundraising really boosts the outreach programs of the orchestra. I did see more young people in the audience, which is an excellent sign that the orchestra’s efforts to work with schools is having a positive effect. So things are looking positive in many ways for the VSO.

Today's Birthdays

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

and

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

Review: Exemplar recital by Roderick Williams for Chamber Music Northwest

Wow! Roderick Williams and Myra Huang delivered a super duper recital of Schubert's art songs last week. My review of the concert is published here in Oregon ArtsWatch. I hope that you enjoy reading it.

Today's Birthdays

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

and

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

From The Writer's Almanac:

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

Today's Birthdays

Hans Sachs (1494-1576)
Paul Wittgenstein (1887-1961)
Walter Gieselking (1895-1956)
Claus Adam (1917-1983)
György Cziffra (1921-1994)
Nicholas Maw (1935-2009)
Anthony Rolfe Johnson (1940-2010)
Art Garfunkel (1941)
Gram Parsons (1946-1973)
Orli Shaham (1975)

and

Ida M. Tarbell (1867-1944)
Raymond Duchamp-Villon (1876-1918)
Thomas Flanagan (1923-2002)

Sam Shephard (1943-2017)
Vandana Shiva (1952)
Diana Abu-Jabar (1960)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1955, Karl Böhm conducts a performance of Beethoven's "Fidelio" at the gala re-opening of Vienna Opera House (damaged by Allied bombs on March 12, 1945). During the rebuilding of the Opera House, performances had continued in two nearby Viennese halls: the Theatre and der Wien and the Volksoper.

Today's Birthdays

Carl Tausig (1841-1871)
Arnold Cooke (1906-2005)
Miriam Solovieff (1921-2004)
Elgar Howarth (1935)
Joan Rodgers (1956)
Elena Kats-Chernin (1957)
Daron Hagen (1961)

and

Will Rogers (1879-1935)
C. K. Williams (1936-2015)
Charles Frazier (1950)

Today's Birthdays

Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654)
Vincenzio Bellini (1801-1835)
Vladimir Ussachevsky (1911-1990)

and

Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571)
William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878)
Ignatius Donnelly (1831-1901)
Vilhjalmur Stefansson (1879-1962)
Walker Evans (1903-1975)
Terrence McNally (1939-2020)
Martin Cruz Smith (1942)
Joe Queenan (1950)

Today's Birthdays

Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer (1692-1766)
Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (1739-1799)
Count Andrey Razumovsky (1752-1836)
John Foulds (1880-1939)
Luchino Visconti (1906-1976)
Douglas Lilburn (1915-2001)
Harold Farberman (1929-2018)
Guiseppe Sinopoli (1946-2001)
Jeremy Menuhin (1951)
Marie McLaughlin (1954)
Paul Moravec (1957)

and

George Boole (1815-1864)
C.K. Williams (1936-2015)
Thomas Mallon (1951)

Today's Birthdays

Roger Quilter (1877-1953)
Eugen Jochum (1902-1987
Bruno Bjelinski (1909-1992)
Victoria de Los Angeles (1923-2005)
William Mathias (1934-1992)
Lyle Lovett (1957)

and

Stephen Crane (1871-1900)
Grantland Rice (1880-1954)
A. R. Gurney (1930-2017)
Edward Said (1935-2003)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1830, Chopin’s friends in Warsaw throw a festival “bon voyage” dinner for the composer-pianist on the eve of his departure for Paris. As it turned out, he would never return to his native land.