Today's Birthdays

Francesco Durante (1684-1755)
Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Joseph Küffner (1776-1856) 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)
Makoto Ozone (1961)

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)
John Kander (1927)
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)