Today's Birthdays

Francesco Durante (1684-1755)
Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Serge Diaghliev (1872-1929)
Clemens Krauss (1893-1954)
John Mitchinson (1932-2021)
Herb Alpert (1935)
Nelly Miricioiu (1952)
Robert Gambill (1955)
Jake Heggie (1961)

and

René Descartes (1596-1650)
Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)
Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852)
Octavio Paz (1914-1998)
Cesar Chavez (1927-1993)
Marge Piercy (1936)

Today's Birthdays

Tommaso Traetta (1727-1779)
Ted Heath (1900-1969)
Sandor Szokolay (1931-2013)
John Eaton (1935-2015)
Gordon Mumma (1935)
Eric Clapton (1945)
Maggie Cole (1952)
Margaret Fingerhut (1955)
Sabine Meyer (1959)

and

Francisco Jose de Goya (1746-1828)
Anna Sewell (1820-1878)
Paul Verlaine (1844-1896)
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Sean O'Casey (1880-1964)

Today's Birthdays

Henri Lutz (1864-1928)
Rosina Lhévinne (1880-1976)
Sir William Walton (1902-1983)
E Power Biggs (1906-1977)
Sir Richard Rodney Bennett (1936-2012)
Guher Pekinel (1953)
Suher Pekinel (1953)

and

Ronald Stuart Thomas (1913-2000)
Eugene McCarthy (1916-2005)
Judith Guest (1936)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1871, Royal Albert Hall is formally opened in London by Queen Victoria.

Today's Birthdays

Joseph Weigl (1766-1846)
Willem Mengelberg (1871-1951)
Paul Whiteman (1890-1967)
Rudolf Serkin (1903-1991)
Jacob Avshalomov (1919-2013)
Robert Ashley (1930-2014)
Martin Neary (1940)
Samuel Ramey (1942)
Richard Stilgoe (1942)

and

Raphael (1483-1520)
Nelson Algren (1909-1981)
Mario Vargas Llosa (1936)
Russell Banks (1940-2023)
Iris Chang (1968-2004)
Lauren Weisberger (1977)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1842, the Vienna Philharmonic plays its first concert (as the "Vienna Court Orchestra") in the Redoutensaale under the director of composer Otto Nicolai, the director of the Vienna Court Opera. The program included Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, his concert aria "Ah, Perfido," and the "Leonore" No. 3 and "Consercration of the House" Overtures, along with other vocal selections by Mozart and Cherubini.

Review: Music of the Birds

 Guest Review by Charles Rose

On March 15, flute wonder Amelia Lukas and pianist Yoko Greeney performed at the Japanese Garden. The program, Music of the Birds, included six pieces about our avian neighbors, four by Portland-based composers and two by Japanese composers. 

Music from both sides of the Pacific have an aesthetic kinship as well. West coast composers like John Cage, Henry Cowell and Lou Harrison took inspiration from gagaku and gamelan music, for instance. Composers here and there both take much inspiration from the natural world. And outside the realm of classical music, musicians in Japan have developed their own unique spins on rock, punk, hip-hop and jazz. 

The concert was a celebration of Portland’s long-standing sister city relationship with Sapporo, Japan. 2024 was the 65th anniversary of this relationship. Sapporo is located on the northern island of Hokkaido, and is home to an annual snow festival and the Sapporo brewery. 

The celebration of the sister city relationship extended into the choice of pieces, representing some of Portland’s great local composers and some of Japan’s bright voices as well. The Portland-based composers should be familiar to the audience: Kenji Bunch, Deena Grossman, Lisa Marsh and Kirsten Volness. Dai Fukijara is the more internationally-known of the two Japanese composers, and has an international presence. The other, Kazuko Sugiyama, is a young composer based in Sapporo, who doesn’t seem to have much attention internationally – Greeney had to reach out to the composer directly for a scan of the hand-written score. The Lukas-Greeney duo is planning to take this concert program on a tour of Japan in the fall, and I hope Sugiyama has an opportunity to hear the two’s fantastic rendition of Grey Heron. 

The concert came just in time for the gradual turning towards spring to begin. Small flowers were blooming, though the cherry blossoms had not bloomed quite yet. Walking through the Japanese Garden, one can see bamboo, Japanese maples and tea trees intermingling with mosses, ferns and Douglas Firs native to Oregon. The rock garden outside the pavilion forms a sense of calm, as the rocks were carefully arranged to provide ample positive and negative space. The Sapporo Pagoda Lantern outside the Garden’s strolling pond was a gift from our sister city. 

Birds have inspired musicians for as long as there have been musicians. Composers have used bird song in their music, from the cuckoo calls in Beethoven’s 6th to Messaien’s massive piano cycle, Catalogue d'oiseaux. There’s much to take inspiration from, not just their songs: their movement in flight acts as a potent symbol for independence and freedom. 

The concert opened with Vesper Flights by Kenji Bunch. The title comes from the best-selling book by Helen Macdonald – and this performance inspired me to finally pick up the book from the library after eyeing it at Powell’s for a long time. In the pre-performance discussion of the piece, Lukas declared the swift “Portland’s bird.” The music opened with impressionistic, steady lydian harmonies in the piano while the flute glided above loosely tethered to the beat. These sections were concentrated with faster, more steady passages, but the flute part remained effusive. There were elements of imitation bouncing back and forth between the instruments, which was a nice touch. Vesper Flights may be one of the best chamber pieces I’ve heard from Bunch. 

Next came Snowy Egret by Deena Grossman. In this bass flute rendition of the piece, Lukas got a chance to revel in the shakuhachi-like character of the instrument. Her performance emphasized the bends, slow, pulsating vibrato and breathy tone characteristic of the shakuhachi. Grossman’s husband plays the shakuhachi and studied the instrument in Japan for a time – which served as the inspiration for the piece. The tone was hefty but never lumbering, and the music was characteristically in line with much of Grossman’s output.

Kazuko Sugiyama’s Gray Heron (Airone nel ghiaccio) opens with high, fragile harmonics. Lukas rapidly shifted between extended techniques, and Greeney’s piano performance held things together. In contrast with what we heard before, Gray Heron was a lot faster, suffused with busier textures and inquisitive non-tonal harmonies – a nice contrast to the more modal harmonies of the first two pieces. The music was colorful and elusive, and reminded me of the evocative textures and harmonies of Messaien or Henri Dutilleux. 

Albatross by Lisa Marsh was a short piece that acted as an interlude of sorts. The music featured fast scale runs all across the range of the flute, and a minor-key melody slinking up and down that danced around a more steady sixteenth-note pulse. Unlike the other pieces that were more rubato and rhythmically free, Albatross had a more assertive rhythmic flow, in line with the titular bird’s exceptional internal compass that helps it always find a way home. 

Spring and Asura by Dai Fujikura is one of the composer’s more recent works, debuting in 2018. Weightless, busy textures built up with melodies in between phrases. There were ample augmented chords, and Greeney let the dissonant resonances of these chords hang in the air. The ending saw Greeney playing so firmly on the piano’s highest keys that the pitch was completely lost, subsumed by the percussive thud of the hammer striking the strings.

One of the highlights was the premiere of Kirsten Volness’ Shima Enaga. The namesake and avian inspiration comes from a species of long tailed tit native to Hokkaido. Volness also drew upon the birds she saw growing up in the snowy Midwest. She described the birds as “agile and flitty.” The two instruments shared sonic space with an electronic tape part featuring bass drums, bells and shakers, clicky wood blocks, organ clusters and synth arpeggios. All three parts traded the spotlight between them, and fit together really well. The overall impression was icy. It felt like Shima Enaga was not an evocation of the birds in flight, but rather the world the birds inhabit. Each quasi-movement flowed well together and moved along at a pleasant pace.

After the concert, members of the Japanese Garden staff and the Bird Alliance of Oregon (formerly Portland Audubon) joined us for a brief discussion of their work and the importance of birds to our ecosystems. I’m happy to see musicians collaborating with local non-profits. These concerts can doubly act as entertainment and information sessions for the good work being done by the organizations. If these concerts stir up donor and volunteer interest for these groups, that would be another step forward in helping music serve our community. 

---

Charles Rose is a  composer, writer, teacher, and audio engineer

 

Review: Oregon Symphony celebrates the return of Carlos Kalmar

Almost two years have gone by since Carlos Kalmar last led the Oregon Symphony. The former music director (now Music Director Emeritus) honchoed the orchestra for 18 years (2003 to 2021) and was praised for raising the musical quality of the orchestra to a level that was admired throughout the nation.

So it was high time for Kalmar to return to the podium at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall over last weekend. I caught his appearance on the podium on March 17th, and he was heartily greeted by the audience – some of whom gave him a standing ovation.

That initial reception must have cheered up Kalmar, who has had some tough going since leaving Portland to become the director of orchestral studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He was hit by a Title IX investigation in 2023 and subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing. But then orchestral students refused to play for him, and he has sued the Institute.

During his time with the OSO, Kalmar was noted for leading programs with an engaging mix of old and new repertoire. He stayed true to form in his return engagement with the orchestra in a program that offered familiar works by Mozart, Schumann, and Liszt, plus a new work by Uzbek-born Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin.

Guest artist Jeffrey Kahane delivered a superb performance of Mozart’s Concerto No. 22. Kahane created a sound that was crystalline and florid yet evoked an emotive intimacy. During his cadenza in the first movement, his cadenza feature, at one point, a delicate balance with the kettle drums. The second movement was exquisite, and included a sensitive duet with bassoonist Vicent Igusa. The final movement had a cheerful, playfulness that had an easy flow that sounded complexly natural and unforced.

Kahane’s performance elicited a continuous stream of enthusiastic applause, which brought him to back to centerstage three times. He responded with a wonderful improvisation of Samuel Ward’s “America the Beautiful” that included a tinge of darkness in the midst of its lovely, melodic lines.

Schumann’s Fourth Symphony received an incisive interpretation by the orchestra under Kalmar. The orchestra expressed the many dynamic contrasts in the work with precision and vigor. Highlights of the performance included outstanding playing by principal oboist Martin Hébert, principal cellist Nancy Ives, and concertmaster Sarah Kwak. The fugue in the fourth movement featured robust horns, gripping orchestral crescendos, exciting cutoffs, and a furious ending that generated thunderous applause.

Kalmar and company followed up with Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody No 1,” which got the audience into a toe-tapping mood. The orchestra painted the hall with lots of sonic colors, highlighted by the evocative playing of principal flutist Alecia DiDonato Paulsen, assistant principal clarinetist Todd Kuhns, and principal harpist Matthew Tutsky. The orchestra polished off the finale in a brilliant, swirling dance.

The concert open in the rhapsodic mode with Elena Kats-Chernin’s “Big Rhap.” It roared out of the gate with a fanfare-like statement that was accented by big slaps from the percussion section. The strings launched into a propulsive and rhythmic passage that climaxed with principal clarinetist Mark Dubac zinging a very high note. Next came a cinematic section that transitioned into a bombastic statement with horns and brass going full tilt. After pause, the orchestra galloped into an ecstatic ending – which made “Big Rhap” a perfect pairing with the Liszt.

Today's Birthdays

Vincent d'Indy (1851-1931)
Patty Smith Hill (1868-1946)
Ferde Grofé (1892-1972)
Anne Ziegler (1910-2003)
Sarah Vaughn (1924-1990)
Mstislav Rostropovich (1927-2007)
Poul Ruders (1949)
Maria Ewing (1950-2022)
Bernard Labadie (1963)

and

Henri Murger (1822-1861)
Heinrich Mann (1871-1950)
Edward Steichen (1879-1973)
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969)
Budd Schulberg (1914-2009)
Louis Simpson (1923-2012)
Julia Alvarez (1950)
John O'Farrell (1962)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this date in 1808, Franz Joseph Haydn makes his last public appearance at a performance of his oratorio "The Creation" in Vienna in honor of the composer's approaching 76th birthday. Beethoven and Salieri attend the performance and greet Haydn.

Preview of Silkroad Ensemble concert in The Oregonian

The Silkroad Ensemble will stop in Portland for a performance at the Schnitz next week. My preview of the concert has been published in Oregonlive here and will be in the print edition of The Oregonian on Sunday.

Today's Birthdays

Josef Slavík (1806-1833)
Wilhelm Backhaus (1884-1969)
André Cluytens (1905-1967)
Harry Rabinowitz (1916-2016)
Pierre Boulez (1925-2016)
Kyung Wha Chung (1948)

and

Edward Bellamy (1850-1898)
A. E. Housman (1859-1936)
Robert Frost (1874-1963)
Joseph Campbell (1904–1987)
Tennessee Williams (1911-1983)
Gregory Corso (1930-2001)

Today's Birthdays

Johann Adolph Hasse (1699-1783)
Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957)
Béla Bartók (1881-1945)
Haydn Wood (1882-1959)
Magda Olivero (1910-2014)
Julia Perry (1924-1979)
Cecil Taylor (1929-2018)
Sir Elton John (1947)

and

Flannery O'Connor (1925-1964)
Gloria Steinem (1934)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1949, Shostakovich (accompanied by KGB "handlers") arrives in New York for his first visit to America, for the Cultural and Scientific Conference for World Peace, held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. His anti-Western statements and criticism of Igor Stravinsky embarrassed his American sponsors, including Aaron Copland, and later provided political fodder for the notorious Red-hunter, Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Interview with Isaac Thompson, President and CEO of the Oregon Symphony

 I interviewed Isaac Thompson about the new changes for the Oregon Symphony's upcoming 2025-2026 season. You can read all about it in Oregon ArtsWatch here.

Today's Birthdays

John Antes (1740-1811)
Maria Malibran (1808-1836)
Fanny Crosby (1820-1915)
Byron Janis (1928-2024)
Christiane Eda-Pierre (1932-2020)
Benjamin Luxon (1937-2024)

and

Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990)
Dwight Macdonald (1906-1982)
Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021)
Dario Fo (1926-2016)
Ian Hamilton (1938-2001)
Martin Walser (1927-2024)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1721, J.S. Bach dedicates his six "Brandenburg" Concertos to Margrave Christian Ludwig of Brandenburg, whose orchestra apparently never performed them.

Today's Birthdays

Léon Minkus (1826-1917)
Eugène Gigout (1844-1925)
Franz Schreker (1878-1934)
Josef Locke (1917-1999)
Norman Bailey (1933-2021)
Boris Tishchenko (1939-2010)
Michael Nyman (1944)
David Grisman (1945)

and

Roger Martin du Gard (1881-1958)
Louis Adamic (1898-1951)
Erich Fromm (1900-1980)
Kim Stanley Robinson (1952)
Gary Joseph Whitehead (1965)

Today's Birthdays

Carl Rosa (1842-1889)
Hamisch MacCunn (1868-1916)
Joseph Samson (1888-1957)
Martha Mödl (1912-2001)
Fanny Waterman (1920-2020)
Arthur Grumiaux (1921-1986)
Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021)
Joseph Schwantner (1943)
George Benson (1943)
Alan Opie (1945)
Rivka Golani (1946)
Andrew Lloyd Webber (1948
Edmund Barham (1950-2008)

and

Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641)
Louis L'Amour (1908-1988)
Edith Grossman (1936-2023)
James Patterson (1940)
Billy Collins (1941)
James McManus (1951)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1687, Italian-born French composer Jean Baptiste Lully, age 54, in Paris, following an inadvertent self-inflicted injury to his foot (by a staff with which he would beat time for his musicians) which developed gangrene.

Today's Birthdays

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Modeste Moussorgsky (1839-1881)
Eddie James "Son" House (1902-1988)
Nikos Skalkottas (1904-1949)
Paul Tortelier (1914-1990)
Nigel Rogers (1935-2022)
Owain Arwel Hughes (1942)
Elena Firsova (1950)
Ann MacKay (1956)

and

Phyllis McGinley (1905-1978)
Nizar Qabbani (1923-1998)
Ved Mehta (1934-2021)

From the New Music Box:

On March 21, 1771, the Massachusetts Gazette published an announcement for a musical program including "select pieces on the forte piano and guitar." It is the earliest known reference to the piano in America.

Today's Birthdays

Beniamino Gigli (1890-1957)
Lauritz Melchoir (1890-1973)
Sviatoslav Richter (1915-1997)
Dame Vera Lynn (1917-2020)
Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1918-1970)
Marian McPartland (1918-2013)
Henry Mollicone (1946-2022)

and

Ovid (43 BC - AD 17)
Ned Buntline (1823-1886)
Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906)
Peter Schjeldahl (1942-2022)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1928, the New York Symphony and the New York Philharmonic Society united to form the Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra of New York - now known as simply "The New York Philharmonic."

Today's Birthdays

Francesco Gasparini (1661-1727)
Max Reger (1873-1916)
Elizabeth Maconchy (1907-1994)
Nancy Evans (1915-2000)
Dinu Lipatti (1917-1950)
Robert Muczynski (1929-2010)
Ornette Coleman (1930-2015)
Myung-Wha Chung (1944)
Carolyn Watkinson (1949)
Mathew Rosenblum (1954)

and

Tobias Smollett (1721-1771)
Nikolay Gogol (1809-1852)
Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890)
Philip Roth (1933-2018)

Review of Portland Opera's production of "The Shining"

 My review of The Shining (yes, Stephen King's novel set to music) has been published in Classical Voice North America here.

Today's Birthdays

Johann Christoph Vogel (1756-1788)
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)
Paul Le Flem (1881-1984)
Gian Francesco Malipiero (1882-1973)
Willem van Hoogstraten (1884-1965)
John Kirkpatrick (1905-1991)
Nobuko Imai (1943)
James Conlon (1950)
Jan-Hendrik Rootering (1950)
Courtney Pine (1964)

and

Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-1898)
Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)
Manly Hall (1901-1990)
George Plimpton (1927-2003)
Christa Wolf (1929-2011)
John Updike (1932-2009)

Today's Birthdays

Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre (1665-1729)
Manuel García II (1805-1906)
Joseph Rheinberger (1839-1901)
Giuseppe Borgatti (1871-1950)
Brian Boydell (1917-2000)
Nat "King" Cole (1917-1965)
John LaMontaine (1920-2013)
Stephen Dodgson (1924-2013)
Betty Allen (1927-2009)
Rudolf Nureyev (1938-1993)
John Lill (1944)
Michael Finnissy (1946)
Patrick Burgan (1960)

and

Edmund Kean (1787-1833)
Frank B. Gilbreth (1911-2001)
Penelope Lively (1933)

Today's Birthdays

Enrico Tamberlik (1820-1889)
Henny Youngman (1906-1998)
Christa Ludwig (1928-2021)
Sir Roger Norrington (1934)
Teresa Berganza (1935-2022)
David Del Tredici (1937-2023)
Claus Peter Flor (1953)

and

James Madison (1751-1836)
Maxim Gorky (1868-1936)
César Vallejo (1892-1938)
Sid Fleischman (1920-2010)
Alice Hoffman (1952)

Review: Oregon Symphony under Lintu springs forward with Copland, Barber, Sibelius

Concertgoers got an early start on Springtime at the recent Oregon Symphony, which played a program of works by Copland, Barber, and Sibelius, suggesting that seed time is around the corner. The concert (March 8) at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, marked a return visit for conductor Hannu Lintu and the debut of up-and-coming violinist Stephen Waarts with the orchestra.

A tall and lanky fellow, Waarts has studied at the Kronberg Academy (Kronberg in Taunus, Germany) and at the Curtis Institute of Music (Philadelphia). In 2015, he was one a prize-winning finalist at the Queen Elizabeth Competition and in 2017 received an Avery Fisher Career Grant. He has recorded the music of Mendelssohn, Bartok, Schumann, Mozart, and Hindemith for several different labels.

Samuel Barber’s “Violin Concerto” received an elegant interpretation by Waarts. His sound shimmered and conveyed warmth and a generous spirt. He evoked wistfulness and tenderness in the second movement. The fast, motoric third movement sped by with elan, and he made it look effortless.

The orchestra, guided by Lintu, supported him eloquently, especially principal oboist Maritn Hébert, whose expressive playing elevated the plaintive mood in the second movement.

Waarts elicited a light touch with the Barber. When the orchestra grew to its loudest point, it was difficult to hear him. I talked with a retired string player after the concert, and he thought that Waarts’ violin, which is not a Strad, might have been the culprit. Strads are very expensive. The 1715 Baron Knoop Stradivari violin sold for $23 million a few weeks ago. Waarts is 28 years old, and might one day receive a Strad via a loan from an extremely wealthy person.

Waarts gave an encore, Eugène Ysaÿe's “Sonata No. 5.” Using a minimum of vibrato, Waarts created an ethereal and exotic soundscape and deftly transitioned to the stirring and heroic ending. It was a real tour-de-force of a piece, that took the audience on a memorable, five-minute journey.

Lintu, who hails from Finland and boasts an extensive international resume, conveyed the American flavor of the Suite from Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” extremely well – as if he had internalized the music. Some instrumental combinations sounded better than ever from the stage of the Schitz. For example, the piano (Sequia) and harp (Matthew Tutsky) had a wonderful crispness that signaled the sunrise. Also, the horn (Jeff Garza) and bassoon (Carin Miller) blended perfectly. The fluttering the flute (Alecia DiDonato Paulsen), the woodsy clarinet (Mark Dubac) and perky oboe (Karen Wagner) enhanced the bucolic quality of the piece. When the orchestra finally settled into sunset at the end, the only thing that marred the lovely atmosphere was a cellphone that went off.

Another cellphone interrupted the beginning of Sibelius’ “Symphony No. 5,” which, otherwise, received a superb performance by the orchestra under Lintu. The extended tremolo of the strings and the fog of sound created by the bassoons, horns, and double basses suggested an emerging landscape of lakes and wildlife. Passages built tension that was released with dramatic intensity. The finale, sweeping melodic line bobbed up and down like a swan on the water and then taking off, becoming more and more majestic until it all ended with a sequence of suspenseful chords – which has got to be one of the most nerve-wracking things for the conductor and musicians to line up. It all sounded terrifically taught with Lintu and the orchestra.

Today's Birthdays

Charles Dibdin (1745-1814)
Eduard Strauss (1835-1916)
Johan Halvorsen (1864-1935)
Colin McPhee (1900-1964)
Lightnin' Hopkins (1912-1982)
Ben Johnston (1926-2019)
Nicolas Flagello (1928-1994)
Jean Rudolphe Kars (1947)
Isabel Buchanan (1954)

and

Richard Ellmann (1918-1987)
Ben Okri (1959)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1985, Italian tenor Enrico Caruso, age 22, makes his operatic debut at the Teatro Nuovo in Naples, singing the lead tenor role in Domenico Morelli's comic opera "L'Amico Francesco."

Today's Birthdays

Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
Johann Gottlieb Goldberg (1727-1756)
Pierre-Louis Couperin (1755-1789)
JohaPedro Elías Gutiérrez (1870–1954)
Johann Strauss Sr. (1804-1849)
Lawrance Collingwood (1887-1982)
Witold Rudziński (1913-2004)
Quincy Jones (1933-2024)
Phillip Joll (1954)
Britta Byström (1977)
and

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
Sylvia Beach (1887-1962)
Max Shulman (1919-1988)
Diane Arbus (1923-1971)

Today's Birthdays

Hugo Wolf (1860-1903)
Alec Rowley (1892-1958)
Irène Joachim (1913-2001)
Jane Rhodes (1929-2011)
Alberto Ponce (1935-2019)
Lionel Friend (1945)
Julia Migenes (1949)
Wolfgang Rihm (1952-2024)
Anthony Powers (1953)
Moses Hogan (1957-2003)
Terence Blanchard (1962)

and

Janet Flanner (1892-1978)
George Seferis (1900-1971)

Today's Birthdays

Thomas Arne (1710-1778)
Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911)
Hans Knappertsbusch (1888-1965)
Ralph Shapey (1921-2002)
Norbert Brainin (1923-2005)
Philip Jones (1928-2000)
Helga Pilarczyk (1935-2011)
Liza Minnelli (1946)
James Taylor (1948)

and

George Berkeley (1685-1753)
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830-1916)
Vaslav Nijinsky (1889-1950)
Jack Kerouac (1922-1969)
Edward Albee (1928-2016)
Virginia Hamilton (1934-2002)
Naomi Shihab Nye (1952)
Carl Hiaasen (1953)
David Eggers (1970)

Review of Hamilton in Oregon ArtsWatch

The touring production of Hamilton wowed sellout audiences at the Keller Auditorium during its first week in Portland. Here's a link to my review in Oregon ArtsWatch.

Review of Cappella Romana's gospel-orthodox concert in OAW

My review of this most unusual concert is new available in Oregon ArtsWatch here.

Today's Birthdays

Carl Ruggles (1876-1971)
Henry Cowell (1897-1965)
Xavier Montsalvage (1912-2002)
Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992)
Sarah Walker (1943)
Tristan Murail (1947)
Bobby McFerrin (1950)
Katia Labèque (1950)

and

Torquato Tasso (1544-1495)
Ezra Jack Keats (1916-1983)
Douglas Adams (1952-2001)

Preview of Portland Opera's production of "The Shining"

The Oregonian has published my preview of the upcoming Portland Opera production of "The Shining." It is available online in Oregonlive here and will be in the print edition this Friday.

Today's Birthdays

Lorenzo Da Ponte (1749-1838)
Dudley Buck (1839-1909)
Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908)
Arthur Honnegger (1892-1955)
Dame Eva Turner (1892-1990)
Bix Biederbecke (1903-1931)
Sir Charles Groves (1915-1992)
William Blezard (1921-2003)
Andrew Parrott (1947)
Stephen Oliver (1950-1992)

and

Henry Watson Fowler (1858-1933)
Zelda Fitzgerald (1900-1948)
Heywood Hale Broun (1918-2001)
David Rabe (1940)

Today's Birthdays

Josef Mysliveczek (1737-1781)
Archie Camden (1888-1979)
Dame Isobel Baillie (1895-1983)
Samuel Barber (1910-1981)
Thomas Schippers (1930-1977)
Ornette Coleman (1930-2015)
David Matthews (1943)
Kalevi Aho (1949)
Howard Shelley (1950)
Anna Clyne (1980)

and

Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512)
Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962)
Mickey Spillane (1918-2006)
David Pogue (1963)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1831, Italian violin virtuoso Nicolo Paganini makes his Parisian debut a the Opéra. Composers in the audience include Meyerbeer, Cherubini, Halvéy. and Franz Liszt (who transcribes Pagnini's showpiece "La Campanella" for piano). Also in attendance are the many famous novelists and poets, including George Sand, Victor Hugo, Alfred de Mussset and Heinrich Heine.

Review: Hagen Quartet just a tad off in performances of Haydn and Schumann

Photo by Tom Emerson

Although its legacy as one of the world’s premiere string quartets will remain firmly intact, the Hagen Quartet didn’t shine as brightly as it could when it recently performed (February 27) at the First Baptist Church. Sponsored by Chamber Music Northwest, that concert was part of a farewell tour that the eminent ensemble is undertaking before it retires at the end of next season.

Based in Salzburg, the Hagen Quartet was founded in 1981 by four siblings and since 1987 has continued with three siblings: violist Lukas Hagen, violist Veronika Hagen, and cellist Clemens Hagen, plus violinist Rainer Schmidt. The ensemble has played in concert halls throughout the world, won prizes, made numerous recordings, including many on the Deutsche Grammophon label, and teach at the Salzburg Mozarteum and the Hochschule für Musik Basel.

On tap for the Hagen Quartet’s performance in Portland, was Haydn’s String Quartet in A Major and his String Quartet No. 4 in E Minor, and Schumann’s String Quartet No. 3 in A Major. Each piece sounded terrific except for a few of the wickedly highest notes that Lukas Hagen didn’t quite play cleanly, causing the tone to be slightly off-balanced. That happened in the first movements of both Haydn numbers, and in the third movement of the Schumann.

That problem didn’t derail the fine interpretations that the ensemble offered, but it did reduce the sheen. The Allegro opening of Haydn’s String Quartet in A Major danced brightly, and in the adagio cantabile Lukas’s violin sang above the hymnlike passages. The Minuet offered playful exchanges that tapered off gently, and the Finale: vivace robustly wrapped up passages that were layered on each other like a delicious cake.

The ensemble elicited a wonderful, mysterious statement at the beginning of the first movement of Haydn’s String Quartet No. 4. The second movement was elegant and restrained with terrifically nuanced phrasing. The beautiful expressions from Clemens Hagen’s cello and the ease in which he caressed each note was a highlight of the third movement. The group excelled with the quicksilver demands of the fourth and brought out its lighthearted humor.

In Schumann’s String Quartet No.3, the Hagen Quartet incisively contrasted the poignant and contemplative sections with the agitated and uptempo ones. The final movement had a delightful, rustic brashness that closed the program with verve.

The audience rewarded the musicians with thunderous applause and a standing ovation. They responded with an encore, Mozart’s Quartet in G major.

Today's Birthdays

Carlo Gesualdo (1566-1613)
Carl Philip Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)
Avril Coleridge-Taylor (1903-1998)
Alan Hovhaness (1911-2000)
Dick Hyman (1927)
Christian Wolff (1934)
Robert Tear (1939-2011)
Barthold Kuijken (1949)
Simon Halsey (1958)

and

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935)
Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932)
Leslie Fiedler (1917-2003)
Neil Postman (1931-2003)
John McPhee (1933)
Leslie A. Fiedler (1948)
Jeffrey Eugenides (1960)

Today's Birthdays

John Wilbye (1574-1638)
Tomaso Antonio Vitali (1663-1745)
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Heino Eller (1887-1970)
Christopher Seaman (1942)
Uri Segal (1944)
Townes Van Zandt (1944-1997)
Nicholas Kraemer (1945)
Clive Gillinson (1946)
Okko Kamu (1946)
Montserrat Figueras (1948-2011)
Michael Chance (1955)

and

William York Tindall (1903-1981)
William Boyd (1952)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1897, Johannes Brahms attends his last concerts and hears his Symphony No. 4 conducted by Hans Richter.

Today's Birthdays

Oscar Straus (1870-1954)
Julius Rudel (1921-2014)
Sarah Caldwell (1924-2006)
Wes Montgomery (1923-1968)
Ronald Stevenson (1928-2015)
Lorin Maazel (1930-2014)
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa (1944)
Stephen Schwartz (1948)
Marielle Labèque (1952)
Mark Gresham (1956)
Yannick Nézet-Séguin (1975)

and

Michelangelo (1475-1564)
Cyrano de Bergerac (1619-1655)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)
Ring Lardner (1885-1933)
Gabriel García Márquez (1928-2014)
Willie Mays (1931-2024)
Dick Fosbury (1947-2023)

Today's Birthdays

Thomas Arne (1710-1778)
Alexandre Guilmant (1837-1911)
Hans Knappertsbusch (1888-1965)
Ralph Shapey (1921-2002)
Norbert Brainin (1923-2005)
Philip Jones (1928-2000)
Helga Pilarczyk (1935-2011)
Liza Minnelli (1946)
James Taylor (1948)

and

George Berkeley (1685-1753)
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830-1916)
Vaslav Nijinsky (1889-1950)
Jack Kerouac (1922-1969)
Edward Albee (1928-2016)
Virginia Hamilton (1934-2002)
Naomi Shihab Nye (1952)
Carl Hiaasen (1953)
David Eggers (1970)

Today's Birthdays

Alphonse Hasselmans (1845-1912)
Arthur Foote (1853-1937)
Pauline Donalda (1882-1970)
Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959)
Anthony Hedges (1931-2019)
Barry Tuckwell (1931-2020)
Sheila Nelson (1936-2020)
Richard Hickox (1948)

and

Gerardus Mercator (1512-1594)
Frank Norris (1870-1902)
Leslie Marmon Silko (1948)

From The Writer's Almanac:

It was on this day in 1750 that the first Shakespearean play was presented in America. Richard III was performed by the actors of Walter Murray and William Kean’s troupe from Philadelphia. Theater was still new in the colonies. And though it was popular in Philadelphia, that city still preferred to pride itself on its scientific and literary achievements, so Murray and Kean set out for New York City.

Through the 1700s, New York’s primary form of entertainment was drinking. By the time Murray and Kean arrived in February of 1750, there were 10,000 city residents and over 150 taverns. Murray and Kean set up shop in a two-story wooden structure on Nassau Street, slightly east of Broadway.

Today's Birthdays

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
Carlos Surinach (1915-1997)
Cecil Aronowitz (1916-1978)
Samuel Adler (1928)
Bernard Haitink (1929-2021)
Aribert Reimann (1936-2024)
Ralph Kirshbaum (1946)
Leanna Primiani (1968)

and

Khaled Hosseini (1965)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1801,the U.S. Marine Band performed for Thomas Jefferson's inaugural. Jefferson, an avid music lover and amateur violinist, gave the Marine Band the title "The President's Own." Since that time, the band has played for every presidential inaugural.

Today's Birthdays

Eugen d'Albert (1864-1932)
Henry Wood (1869-1944)
Federico Moreno Torroba (1891-1982)
Margaret Bonds (1913-1972)
Frank Wigglesworth (1918-1996)
Doc Watson (1923-2012)
Martin Lovett (1927-2020)
Florence Quivar (1944)
Roberta Alexander (1949)
Katia Labèque (1950)

and

James Merrill (1926-1995)
Ira Glass (1959)

From the Writer's Almanac:

Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata was published on this date in 1802. Its real name is the slightly less evocative “Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Sharp Minor, Opus 27, No. 2,” and its Italian subtitle is translated as “almost a fantasy.” In 1832, five years after Beethoven’s death, a German critic compared the sonata to the effect of moonlight shining on Lake Lucerne, and the interpretation became so popular that, by the end of the century, the piece was universally known as the “Moonlight Sonata.” Beethoven himself had attributed the emotion of the piece to sitting at the bedside of a friend who had suffered an untimely death.

It was on this day in 1875 that the opera Carmen appeared on stage for the first time at the Opéra-Comique in France. When it premiered, the audience was shocked by the characters of Carmen, a gypsy girl, and her lover, Don José. The opera ran for 37 performances even though it came out late in the season, and it came back the next season, too.

Nietzsche heard Carmen 20 different times, and thought of it as a musical masterpiece. Tchaikovsky first heard Carmen in 1880. Bizet died of a heart attack just three months after the opera's debut.

It was on this day in 1931 that "The Star-Spangled Banner" became the official national anthem of the United States.

The lyrics come from a poem written by Francis Scott Key more than a century before, "Defence of Fort McHenry." He'd spent a night toward the end of the War of 1812 hearing the British navy bombard Baltimore, Maryland. The bombardment lasted 25 hours — and in the dawn's early light, Francis Scott Key emerged to see the U.S. flag still waving over Fort McHenry. He jotted the poem "Defence of Fort McHenry" on the back of an envelope. Then he went to his hotel and made another copy, which was printed in the Baltimore American a week later.

The tune for the Star-Spangled Banner comes from an old British drinking song called "To Anacreon in Heaven," which was very popular at men's social clubs in London during the 1700s. Francis Scott Key himself did the pairing of the tune to his poem. It was a big hit.

For the next century, a few different anthems were used at official U.S. ceremonies, including "My Country Tis of Thee" and "Hail Columbia." The U.S. Navy adopted "The Star-Spangled Banner" for its officialdom in 1889, and the presidency did in 1916. But it wasn't until this day in 1931 — just 80 years ago — that Congress passed a resolution and Hoover signed into law the decree that "The Star-Spangled Banner" was the official national anthem of the United States of America.

Today's Birthdays

Hélène de Montgeroult (1764-1836)
Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884)
Tom Burke (1890-1969)
Kurt Weill (1900-1950)
Marc Blitzstein (1905-1965)
John Gardner (1917-2011)
Robert Simpson (1921-1997)
Bernard Rands (1934)
Simon Estes (1938)
Robert Lloyd (1940)
Lou Reed (1942)

and

Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) (1904-1991)
Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-2022)
Tom Wolfe (1931-2018)
John Irving (1942)

and from the Composers Datebook:

Starting on this day in 1967 and continuing over the next two weeks, Russian cellist Mstsilav Rostropovich performed 26 works for cello and orchestra at 8 concerts with the London Symphony at Carnegie Hall in New York City -- including some world premieres!

Review: Oregon Symphony expands from Bach to Mendelssohn with elan

Oregon Symphony latest concert expanded from small to large in a program that featured a chamber orchestra number by Bach and a large-scale work for choir, soloists, and orchestra by Mendelssohn. The program, given on February 24 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, was led by Music Director David Danzmayr, who elicited terrific dynamics and ensemble playing throughout the evening.

During the summer of 2021, the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall underwent a $5 million renovation that really improved its acoustics. The improved sound was a big factor in the orchestra’s superb performance of Bach’s Suite No. 3 in D Major for Orchestra (BWV 1068). Every note came across in a crystal-clear way, but also with warmth and a richness that enhanced the music. The harpsichord, which centered toward the back of the chamber orchestra, could be heard throughout – even when the orchestral tutti sections.

Tight ensemble playing by Concertmaster Sarah Kwak, Principal Second Violinist Chien Vivianne Tan, Principal Violist Amanda Grimm, and Principal Bassist Jason Schooler highlighted the first movement. The slow, restrained second movement – with the sound of the harpsichord stirring above the meditative strings – created an air of serenity that was heavenly. The third movement embodied stateliness with a rich sound – like a full-bodied red wine. The surging rumble of the kettle drums – played by Principal Sergio Carreno – accented the playful character of the fourth movement, which wrapped up the piece with a delightfully – and made listeners – like myself – want to hear even more Bach.

After intermission Mendelssohn’s “Symphony No. 2 in B-flat Major”, aka “Lobgesang” (Hymn of Praise) received it first-ever performance by the Oregon Symphony. The unusual demands of the piece might have been a major factor in delaying the piece. It requires a large choir, but the choir doesn’t sing in the first three movements and then must warble in the following ten movements. It also asks for three soloists with powerful voices because of the large orchestral forces, but one of the soloists doesn’t sing all that much. What a conundrum…

Sopranos Ellie Dehn and Deanna Breiwick and tenor John Matthew Myers teamed up with and the Oregon Repertory Singers and the Oregon Symphony to wrangle Mendelssohn’s hour-long extravaganza. One of the biggest problems in singing this work was the singer’s diction. Words were easily understood when accompanied by quieter passages or whenever a small contingent of the orchestra played. But when the musicians were at the mezzo level or louder, it was impossible to understand the text.

But in the quieter moments and when the orchestra played softly, I could easily understand what was being sung. That really paid off when the chorus sang “Nun danket alle Gott” (Now thank we all our God), which sounded ganz herrlich until the orchestra came in.

The same issues also applied to the soloists. They were enunciated the German, but a lot of it was just unintelligible. Just from pure sound, each soloist was gorgeous – with Dehn singing with a remarkable gold, vibrant tone. Breiwick had to make do with a lesser part, which was very unfortunate. For whatever reason Mendelssohn gave the second soprano short shrift.

Myers gave his passages plenty of verve, and his duet with Dehn in “Drum sing ich mit meinem Liede” (So I will ever sing my song) glowed brightly. The chorus, well-prepared by Ethan Sperry, conveyed the spirit of the piece, but the sopranos – with soaring power – won the day in the last movement, “Ihr Völker, bringet her dem Herrn Ehre and Macht” (Ye nations, offer to the Lord).

The orchestra sounded glorious in the first three movements of the piece – with the trombone choir fashioning a grand statement at the outset. Kudos also to clarinetist Todd Kuhns and Principal Bassoonist Carin Miller for their evocative contributions.

There must be a way for full-throttle numbers like Mendelssohn’s “Logesang” to shine with clear diction that doesn’t seem overblown. I know that it easier said than done, but to get to the highest levels of artistry, that’s what needs to happen.

Today's Birthdays

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
Dimitri Mitropoulos (1896-1960)
Glenn Miller (1904-1944)
Leo Brouwer (1939)
Moray Welsh (1947)
Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson (1954-2006)
Galina Gorchakova (1962)
Thomas Adès (1971)

and

Oskar Kokoschka (1866-1980)
Ralph Ellison (1913-1994)
Robert Lowell (1917-1977)
Richard Wilbur (1921-2017)