Superb near-all-Russian program played by Oregon Symphony with violinist Jackiw

The Oregon Symphony performed a near-all-Russian program last weekend with works by Prokofiev, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky providing the main meal and the young American composer Sean Shepherd adding a Russian-inspired appetizer. I heard the concert on Saturday (January 28) at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall with violinist Stefan Jackiw, making a return appearance as the featured soloist. He and the orchestra, led by music director Carlos Kalmar, sounded as good as ever, and each piece received a radiant interpretation.

Jackiw gave an impeccable performance of Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto. His playing transcended the numerous technical challenges of the piece, especially when he had to transition between lightening quick and slow-moving passages. He impressively elicited a lovely very high melodic line against the tic toc the orchestra in the second movement and followed that with a wonderfully loosey-goosey slightly-off kilter delivery in the third. His short duet with the double basses right before winding up the piece on a high note an extra delight.

I never thought that Stravinsky would write sentimental music, but he did just that with the “Divertimento” that he created from his ballet “Le baiser de la fée” (“The Fairy’s Kiss”). The performance by the orchestra contained an intoxicating intermingling of Stravinsky takes on Tchaikovsky like themes. As soon as a Tchaikovsky-inspired riff appeared, it would take on a Stravinsky-ish quality, such as a quirky rhythmic pulse or an odd flight of fancy.

The orchestra created many finely etched and lushly lyrical moments, and there were many highlights that showed off the principals. Flutist Martha Long and clarinetist James Shields delivered lovely plaintive solos. John Cox whipped through one of the squirreliest passages for French horn that I’ve ever heard. Trombonist Daniel Cloutier’s solos were strong yet never strident. Concertmaster Sarah Kwak and her first desk colleagues Chien Tan, Joël Belgique, and Nancy Ives played a delightfully brief quartet excursion. Ives teamed up with harpist Jennifer Craig to create a tender and affectionate mood, and Ives extended that sentiment later when the orchestra re-entered to stagger off the beat into a punchy finale.

The Stravinsky was followed by Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet” Fantasy Overture, which the orchestra played with élan. The opening measures, graced by Craig’s harp, sounded like a flower opening through the mist. Crisp attacks and the slashing sounds from the violins evoked the fight between the Montagues and the Capulets. The hushed melody of the love theme was superbly played. Kudos to bassoonist Carin Miller Packwood and Kyle Mustain on English horn for their keenly expressive contributions.

Shepherd wrote “Magiya” (“Magic”) in 2013 for the National Youth Orchestra of the United States. It’s a one-movement work that lasts around seven minutes, but in those seven minutes a lot happens. The music takes off quickly and the pace never slows down. Brilliant and spikey sounds emerge from all corners of the orchestra. Chattering violins, near-bell-like sounds flashed, creating an auditory illusion and misdirection. Somehow the piece ended in a delightful cacophony, and before I knew it, I wanted to hear it again. Fortunately the orchestra recorded the piece for a future CD.

In his prefatory remarks for the concert, Kalmar included a rare personal note about his parents becoming refugees after fleeing the Nazis and the unifying power of music. His statement was an eloquent rebuttal to the travel ban on Muslims that was issued by the Trump administration, and it received thunderous applause and cheers.

Today's Birthdays

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

and

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

and from the Composers Datebook:

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

Today's Birthdays

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

Also

James Joyce (1882-1941)
James Dickey (1923-1997)

Today's Birthdays

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

and

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

Today's Birthdays

François Devienne (1759-1803)
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Caroline Miolan‑Carvalho (1827-1895)
Ernest John Moeran (1894-1950)
Silvestre Revueltas (1899-1940)
Nathan Milstein (1904-1992)
Benjamin Frankel (1906-1973)
Alan Lomax (1915-2002)
Jaap Schröder (1925)
Odetta (1930-2008)
Philip Glass (1937)
Stephen Cleobury (1948)
Donna Summer (1948-2012)
George Benjamin (1960)
Jennifer Higdon (1962)

and

Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Zane Grey (1872-1939)
John O'Hara (1905-1970)
Thomas Merton (1915-1968)

Chinese Orchestra's visas to the US denied - concert in Seattle canceled

According to this report in the Seattle Times newspaper, the Beijing Chinese Orchestra had to cancel its concert in Benaroya Hall on February 16, because all of the visas for its members were denied. No explanation has been issued as to why, but the denials occurred on January 20th, which was the day that Donald Trump was inaugurated as President.

Today's Birthdays

Johann Joachim Quantz (1697-1773)
Charles Martin Loeffler (1861-1935)
Mitch Leigh (1928-2014)
Walter Damrosch (1862-1950)
Lynn Harrell (1944)
Silvia Marcovici (1952)
Gerald Finley (1960)

and

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945)
Barbara Tuchman (1912-1989)
Shirley Hazzard (1931-2016)
Richard Brautigan (1935-1984)

Today's Birthdays

Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715-1777)
Daniel-François-Esprit Auber(1782-1871)
Frederic Hymen Cowen (1852-1935)
Frederick Delius (1862-1934)
Havergal Brian (1876-1972)
Blanche Selva (1884-1942
Luigi Nono (1924-1990)
Myer Fredman (1932-2014)
Malcolm Binns (1936)
Cho-Liang Lin (1960)

and

W. C. Fields (1880-1946)
Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)
Edward Abbey (1927-1989)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1826 was the premiere of Schubert's String Quartet in D minor, "Death and the Maiden," as a unrehearsed reading at the Vienna home of Karl and Franz Hacker, two amateur musicians. Schubert, who usually played viola on such occasions, could not perform since he was busy copying out the parts and making last-minute corrections.

Today's Birthdays

Antonio Bartolomeo Bruni (1757-1821)
Ferdinand Herold (1791-1833)
Alexander Mackenzie (1822-1892)
Arthur Rubinstein (1887-1982)
Vittorio Rieti (1898-1994)
Michael Head (1900-1976)
Ronnie Scott (1927-1996)
Acker Bilk (1929-2014)
Sir John Tavener (1944-2013)
Richard Danielpour (1956)

and

Colette (1873-1954)
Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)
Claes Oldenburg (1929)
David Lodge (1935)

and from the Composers Almanac:

On this day in 1971, William Bolcom completes his "Poltergeist" Rag (dedicated to Teresa Sterne, a one-time concert pianist who was then a producer for Nonesuch Records). According to the composer's notes, the "Poltergeist" Rag was written "in a converted garage next to a graveyard in Newburgh, N.Y."

Today's Birthdays

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Juan Crisostomo Arriage (1806-1826)
Edouard Lalo (1823-1892)
Jerome Kern (1885-1945)
Jack Brymer (1915-2003)
Skitch Henderson (1918-2005)
Helmut Zacharias (1920-2002)
Fritz Spiegl (1926-2003)
John Ogdon (1937-1989)
Jean-Philippe Collard (1948)
Emanuel Pahud (1970)
James Ehnes (1976)

and

Dmitry Mandeleyev (1834-1907)
Mikhail Baryshnikov (1948)
Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)

Today's Birthdays

Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (1732-1795)
Maria Augusta von Trapp (1905-1987)
Stéphane Grappelli (1908-1997)
Jimmy Van Heusen (1913-1990)
Warren Benson (1924-2005)
Jacqueline du Pré (1945-1987)
Frédéric Lodéon (1952)
Mikel Rouse (1957)
Gustavo Dudamel (1981)

and

Mary Mapes Dodge (1831-1905)
Seán MacBride (1904-1988)
Jules Feiffer (1929)
Christopher Hampton (1946)
Ellen DeGeneres (1958)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1790, Mozart's opera, "Così fan tutte," was premiered in Vienna at the Burgtheater.

Today's Birthdays

Jan Blockx (1851-1912)
Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886-1954)
Julia Smith (1905-1989)
Witold Lutoslawski (1913-1994)
Alfred Reed (1921-2005)
Etta James (1938-2012)
Russell Peck (1945-2009)

and

Robert Burns (1759-1796)
W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1909, Richard Strauss's opera "Elektra" was given its premiere in Dresden at the Hofoper, conducted by Ernst von Schuch, with soprano Annie Krull in the title role.

Brahms Second Piano Concerto made glorious with Shaham and Vancouver Symphony

Orli Shaham and the Vancouver Symphony teamed up for a spirited performance of Brahms Second Piano Concerto on Saturday (January 21) at Skyview Concert Hall. Their playing was the highlight of a program that featured some staples of the repertoire: Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony and Bach’s Suite No. 3 in D Major. All of the pieces were led by guest conductor Marcello Lehninger, the music director of the Grand Rapids Symphony.

The concert marked Shaham’s second appearance with the orchestra. In May of 2014, she performed the Mozart concerto for two pianos with Igal Kesselman. This time around, she tackled the Brahms Second, considered one of the greatest and most challenging piano concertos ever written. Using an electronic tablet placed just inside the piano, Shaham played impressively with intensity and verve. That didn’t mean that she was flawless. There were a few missed notes, but they did not affect the overall outcome, which was glorious.

Shaham’s cadenzas were especially appealing. Throughout the piece, she marvelously created moods that were majestic, dreamy, and playful. Her duets with the French horn in the first movement and with principal cellist Dieter Ratzlaf in the third were soulful and lovely. The orchestra, under the direction of Lehninger, supported Shahm well although the strings had some occasional intonation issues.

Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony received a solid performance with some nicely honed dynamic shifts in terms of volume and tempo changes. Aside from some bobbled notes in the French horns, the ensemble as a whole played with distinction. Yet to make the music more engaging, there needed to be more articulation, more nuanced phrasing, and a faster, wilder finish. I’m not tying to harp needlessly or be nit-picky for the heck of it.I just want more.

Although Bach’s Suite No. 3 in D Major is a staple of period instrument orchestras, it’s good to hear a modern ensemble play it as well. The Vancouver Symphony, chiseled down to a chamber ensemble, gave it a fairly crisp performance. The fugato section in the Overture needed a little more definition so that it would contrast better with the stately theme. The Air was elegant and pleasantly soothing. It was followed by two sprightly and energetic Gavottes. The Bourée seemed to sag a bit, but the final Gigue bounced along well enough to wrap it all up.

Lehninger’s debut with the orchestra went very well. He communicated with clear stickwork throughout. His Bach beat was sharply defined yet expressive. He urged the orchestra effectively in the Beethoven, and he kept everyone together in the Brahms. It would be great to see him return to the podium with the orchestra some day in the near future.

Today's Birthdays

Farinelli (Carlo Maria Broschi) (1705-1782)
Frederick II the Great (1712-1786)
Muzio Clementi (1752-1832)
E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776-1822)
Evelyn Barbirolli (1911-2008)
Norman Dello Joio (1913-2008)
Gottfried von Einem (1918-1996)
Leon Kirchner (1919-2009)
Neil Diamond (1941)
Yuri Bashmet (1953)
Warren Zevon (1947-2003)

and

William Congreve (1670-1729)
Edith Wharton (1862-1937)
Desmond Morris (1928)

Eugene Opera cancels remainder of season

The Eugene Register-Guard has reported that the remaining shows of Eugene Opera's season have been suspended because of a financial crunch. The opera company was in the middle of its 40th season. The Eugene Opera's web site confirms that the company has financial problems that must be resolved.

Today's Birthdays

Muzio Clementi (1752-1832)
Rutland Boughton (1878-1960)
Django Reinhardt (1910-1953)
Milton Adolphus (1913-1988)
Eli Goren (1923-2000)
Cécile Ousset (1936)
Teresa Zylis-Gara (1936)
John Luther Adams (1953)
Mason Bates (1977)

and

Stendhal (1783-1842)
Edouard Manet (1832-1883)
Derek Walcott (1930)

Oregon Symphony and cellist Gerhardt create intimate, yet faraway soundscape with Dutilleux

The Oregon Symphony most recent concert series contained a wonderful mix of music, ranging from the Classical to Modern, including three pieces that received their first-ever performances with the orchestra. The enticing program consisted of works by Joseph Haydn, César Franck, Ottorino Respighi, and Henri Dutilleux with cellist Alban Gerhardt as the soloist. As you might suspect, Dutilleux’s “A Whole Distant World” was a first for the orchestra, but Franck’s “The Breezes” and Haydn’s Symphony No. 80 were also newbies. The wide variety of sound, styles, and musical techniques required by these pieces as well as Respighi’s “The Pines of Rome,” which concluded the concert spoke well of the orchestra’s abilities and the artistic vision of it music director Carlos Kalmar, especially in light of the fact that all of the works were played extremely well at the concert I attended on Monday evening (January 16) at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Due to the weather conditions – below freezing with streets that consisted of rutted, icy lanes – the hall was a little over half-filled, but that didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the musicians who played with élan.

Gerhardt, a frequent soloist with the orchestra during the Kalmar era, impressively played the Dutilleux from memory. The piece, inspired by Baudelaire’s poem “La Chevelure” (“Hair”), has five movements entitled “Enigma,” “Gaze,” “Surges,” “Mirrors,”, and “Hymn.” Even though the music had a pointillist, percussive bent, Gerhardt played with a poetic touch that bought out its introspective qualities. Pizzicatos and brief glissandos darted in and out – sometimes with Gerhardt leading the way and the orchestra echoing. Some of the high, lyric lines seemed to be at a faster pace than the lower and slower passages from the ensemble. Agitated and highly articulated section had a superb lightness. Brief crescendos dissolved into quiet passages that evoked an otherworldliness. Towards the end of the piece, Gerhardt played a series of notes that skipped about like a kid in a playground. Perhaps it was a distant world after all.

Franck’s “The Breezes” was also inspired by poetry. In this case, it was Leconte de Lisle’s poem that describes the winds (daughters of Aeolius) caressing the landscape. The lovely melody swept along pleasantly with little surges that culminated in a crescendo before subsiding again. It had elements that reminded me of the composer's famous Symphony in D minor.

After intermission the orchestra returned to a more familiar sonority with Haydn. The stormy beginning gave way to a leisurely dance-like theme and an exchange between the two followed in a teasing sort of way. In the second movement, the orchestra conveyed a soothing refinement with its playing of the lyrical melody. The third contrasted a crisp march with another delightful dance-like tune. The fourth featured fleet stings and lots of syncopation that made some of the passages seem slightly lop-sided. It was all brilliantly played by the orchestra.

To conclude the concert, the orchestra gave a resplendent performance of Respighi’s “The Pines of Rome.” It kicked off with sparkling colors that expressed the delight of kids playing in the Villa Borghese gardens. The second movement conjured the somber reverence of the catacombs (kudos to the off-stage trumpeting of Jeffrey Work) and a grand procession. The third suggested a lovely hillside scene in the evening with the full moon glowing through the clouds (kudos to the slowly penetrating clarinet of James Shields. Kyle Mustain on English horn called the forces of his orchestral colleagues (with four extra trumpets and two trombones in the balcony) to create the majesty of a Roman legion marching along the Via Appia for a glorious finale.

Joining the orchestra for the Respighi was Gerhardt. That’s one of the many superb qualities of this exception musician. He just quietly came on stage and plays with the cellists as if he has been a member of the orchestra forever. I have seen him do this in every other concert that he has played with the orchestra. That speaks so well of his commitment as a musician and as a human being. The world needs more people like him.

Today's Birthdays

Claude-Bénigne Balbastre (1727-1799)
Charles Tournemire (1870-1939)
Hans Erich Apostel (1901-1972)
Robin Milford (1903-1959)
Rosa Ponselle (1897-1981)
Henri Dutilleux (1916-2013)
William Warfield (1920-2002)
Leslie Bassett (1923-2016)
James Louis ("J.J.") Johnson (1924-2001) Aurèle Nicolet (1926-2016))
Uto Ughi (1944)
Myung-whun Chung (1953)

and

Francis Bacon (1561–1626)
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781)
Lord Byron (1788-1824)
August Strindberg (1849-1912)
Howard Moss (1922-1987)
Joseph Wambaugh (1937)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day, in 1907, the Metropolitan Opera production of R. Strauss' opera "Salome," with soprano Olive Fremstad in the title role, creates a scandal. The opera is dropped after a single performance, and not staged at the Met again until the 1930s.

Preview of Orli Shaham concert with the Vancouver Symphony in The Columbian

My preview of the Vancouver Symphony's concerts this weekend with pianist Orli Shaham and guest conductor Marcello Lehninger appeared in the Friday issue of The Columbian newspaper.

Seattle Opera presents a spare yet winning La Traviata

Corinne Winters and Joshua Dennis
Photo by Philip Newton

Seattle Opera's January 14 opening night of Verdi's La Traviata at McCaw Hall provided an interesting new way of looking at one of the old favorites of the repertoire. One of the most-performed operas worldwide, La Traviata is often associated with luscious set designs and grand costuming. However, SO's production of Peter Konwitschny yielded a new and fascinating perspective.

Beginning with a deeply pensive overture, the production was more concerned with looking at the underlying emotional content than any visual spectacle. The principals were without exception marvelous, insightful and deft singers. Especially impressive was Joshua Dennis as Alfredo in his SO debut. He had a warmth and gentility of tone coupled with agile ornamentation. Corinne Winters' Violetta was equally praiseworthy--in this production everything was exposed, musically and emotionally, and she was able to stand up to the challenges. Her Amami, Alfredo was exquisite while yet a bit subdued, and this seemed somehow appropriate. Weston Hurt as Giorgio Germont had an emotional and profound baritone, giving one the ability to feel for him despite the despicable techniques he uses to manipulate Violetta.

There were really no sets, per se. A few props: a chair here, drinking glasses there, a welter of playing cards tossed about, but no sets. And lighting was very important: a glaring whiteness during Brindisi  seemed to shine a light on the callous hedonism of the socialites. Even so the humor in the music was not excised, even if rendered somehow unsettling despite the joyous theme.  Several times the singers appeared in the aisles amongst the audience, making the scene seem more immediate and real even if it is hard to hear someone singing with their back to you.

Though it seems Violetta has an excruciating time dying given that she had nought but a chair in her room, the sparseness of the sets really put the onus on the singers (even moreso than usual) to bring out the emotional import of their parts. Winters' acting chops were fine, and the entire production seemed to suck some of the sap out of an opera that is often over-the-top romantically speaking. It also allowed viewers to focus more completely on the meaning of the music, and interpret for themselves events such as the entire group of socialites falling to the floor in a Jonestownian collapse amongst the detritus of playing cards in the second act.

The production proceeds with two casts through January 27.

Today's Birthdays

Henri Duparc (1848-1933)
Alexander Tcherepnin (1899-1977)
Webster Booth (1902-1984)
Placido Domingo (1941)
Richie Havens (1941-2013)
Edwin Starr (1942-2003)
Suzanne Mentzer (1957)
Frank Ticheli (1958)

and

Louis Menand (1952)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1904, Janacek's opera "Jenufa" was premiered in Brno at the National Theater.

Today's Birthdays

Johann Hermann Schein (1586-1630)
Ernest Chausson (1855-1899)
Julius Conus (1869-1942)
Józef Hofmann (1876-1957)
Huddie William Ledbetter (Lead Belly) (1889-1949)
Walter Piston (1894-1976)
Eva Jessye (1895-1992)
Yvonne Loriod (1924-2010)
David Tudor (1926-1996)
Antonio de Almeida (1928-1997)
Iván Fischer (1951)

and

George Burns (1896-1996)
Alexandra Danilova (1903-1997)
Federico Fellini (1920-1993)
Edward Hirsch (1950)
Tami Hoag (1959)

Today's Birthdays

Fritz Reiner (1885-1963)
Erwin Nyíregyházi (1903-1987)
Boris Blacher (1903-1975)
Edith Piaf (1915-1963)
Dalton Baldwin (1931)
Elliott Schwartz (1936)
Phil Ochs (1940-1976)
William Christie (1944)
Dolly Parton (1946)
Olaf Bär (1957)

and

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)
Italo Svevo (1861-1928)
Alexander Woollcott (1887-1943)
Patricia Highsmith (1921-1995)
Julian Barnes (1946)
Edwidge Danticat (1969)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1973, Leonard Bernstein leads a performance of Haydn's "Mass in Time of War" at a "Concert for Peace" at Washington DC's National Cathedral, with members of National Symphony, in protest against President Nixon, on the eve of Nixon's second term in office. The concert was timed to coincide with Nixon's official inaugural concert, which concluded with Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture"

Today's Birthdays

César Cui (1835-1918)
Emmanuel Chabrier (1841-1894)
John Laurence Seymour (1893-1986)
Berthold Goldschmidt (1903-1996)
Anthony Galla-Rini (1904-2006)
John O'Conor (1947)
Anthony Pople (1955-2003)
Christoph Prégardien (1956)

and

Peter Mark Roget (1779-1869)
Rubén Darío (1867-1916)
A. A. Milne (1882-1956)
Oliver Hardy (1892-1957)

FYI: Roget's "Thesaurus" has never been out of print since it was first published in  1852.

and from the Composers Datebook:

1958 "What Does Music Mean?", broadcast, the first of a series of televised New York Philharmonic "Young People's Concerts" on CBS-TV hosted by Leonard Bernstein. The series continued until 1972, with 53 different programs hosted by Bernstein.

Today's Birthdays

Johann Gottfried Müthel (1728-1788)
François‑Joseph Gossec (1734-1829)
Henk Badings (1907- 1987)
Oscar Morawetz (1917-2007)
Annie Delorie (1925-2009)
Donald Erb (1927- 2008)
Jean Barraqué (1928-1973)
Sydney Hodkinson (1934)
Dame Gillian Weir (1941)
Anne Queffélec (1948)
Augustin Dumay (1949)
Nancy Argenta (1957)
Gérard Pesson (1958)

and

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
Anne Brontë 1820-1849)
William Stafford (1914-1993)
Luis López Nieves (1950)
Sebastian Junger (1962)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1919, Polish composer and pianist Ignaz Jan Paderewski becomes premiere of Poland.

Today's Birthdays

Niccoló Piccinni (1728-1800)
Daisy Kennedy (1893-1981)
Ernesto Halffter (1905-1989)
Roger Wagner (1914-1992)
Ernesto Bonino (1922-2008)
Pilar Lorengar (1928-1996)
Marilyn Horne (1934)
Richard Wernick (1934)
Gavin Bryars (1943)
Brian Ferneyhough (1943)
Katia Ricciarelli (1946)

and

Robert Service (1874-1958)
Anthony Hecht (1923-2004)
William Kennedy (1928)
Susan Sontag (1933-2004)
Mary Karr (1955)
Lin-Manuel Miranda (1980)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1942, Britten's "Diversions on a Theme" for Piano Left Hand, was premiered by pianist Paul Wittgenstein, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting.

Today's Birthdays

Ivor Novello (1883-1951)
Elie Siegmeister (1909-1991)
Malcolm Frager (1935-1991)
Don "Captain Beefheart" Van Vliet (1941-2010)
Aaron Jay Kernis (1960)

and

Molière (1622-1673)
Franz Grillparzer (1791-1872)
Andreas William Heinesen (1900-1991)
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1941 Messiaen's "Quartet for the End of Time" was premiered at Stalag VIII-A, a German prisoner of war camp in Görlitz (Silesia), with the composer at the piano and fellow-prisoners Jean Le Boulaure (violin), Henri Akoka (clarinet) and Etienne Pasquier (cello).

Vintage Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg inspires Oregon Symphony in spirited Vivaldi

The icy weather forced Saturday evening’s concert to be rescheduled for Monday (January 9th) at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, but it did not dampen the spirits of violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, who led the Oregon Symphony in a vivid performance of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.” Standing in the center of the all-string ensemble, Salerno-Sonnenberg took on the role of soloist and conductor- chief-inspirer, firing up her colleagues with intensity and immaculate playing that was focused, highly nuanced, and filled with brilliant articulation even on the fastest passages. The attention to detail and dramatic scope also applied to the treatment that Salerno-Sonnenberg and forces gave to Rodion Shchedrin’s “Carmen Suite” (after Georges Bizet’s opera “Carmen) , which rounded out the second-half of the program.

Salerno-Sonnenberg has a big following in Portland. She has appeared with the orchestra many times, and her many fans showered her with cheers right from the first moment that she stepped onto the stage. That she rearranged her schedule to accommodate the delayed performance spoke volumes about her generous character.

repertoire, you would think that the musicians might have shrugged and turned in a ho-hum performance, but Monday night’s concert was anything but that. You could hear flowers blooming, winds blowing, birds singing as if it were happening right in the concert hall – and that was just for the “Spring” movement. The other movements were equally evocative with the sun blazing, slashing rain, insects buzzing about, farmers dancing, hunters and their hounds, and frigid snow.

Salerno-Sonnenberg employed an amazing array of movements to convey the tempos and sudden attacks, motioning with her head and shoulders, turning to the violins or to the violas and cellos as needed. She achieved a mind meld of sorts with the orchestra and that made the music so tangible . Several duets and trios involved Salerno-Sonnenberg and violinists Sarah Kwak and Inés Voglar Belgique, violist Joël Belgique, and cellist Nancy Ives. Ives wonderfully anticipated her subtle changes in tempo in many extended passages that featured just the two of them.

After intermission, a chamber ensemble consisting of the orchestral strings and percussion gave a splendidly sensitive interpretation of the “Carmen Suite.” This time, Salerno-Sonnenbergj led from the concertmaster chair (with Kwak next to her). She would indicate starting tempos with her hand and used body language (or an occasional free hand) to signal important cutoffs to the percussionists. The battery (including Niel DePonte, Michael Roberts, Sergio Carreno, and Jonathan Greeney) played a vast array of instruments with immaculate precision. The famous melodies from the opera were delivered in unusual ways (for example, the low strings used pizzicatos to play the toreador song) that tickled the ears.

It was a good thing that the orchestra’s president and CEO, Scott Showalter, mentioned in his introduction that the next day was her birthday. So, the after her final bow, the orchestra and crowd serenaded her with a rousing and heartfelt Happy Birthday. That was a great way to cap off the evening.

Today's Birthdays

Ludwig von Köchel (1800-1877)
Jean de Reszke (1850-1925)
Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)
Louis Quilico (1925-2000)
Zuzana Ruzickova (1927)
Siegmund Nimsgern (1940)
Mariss Jansons (1943)
Kees Bakels (1945)
Nicholas McGegan (1950)
Ben Heppner (1956)
Andrew Manze (1965)

and

John Dos Passos (1896-1970
Emily Hahn (1905-1997)
Maureen Dowd (1952)

and from the Composers Datebook:

Today in 1900, Puccini's "Tosca," was given its premiere in Rome at the Teatro Constanzi.

Today's Birthdays

Christoph Graupner (1683-1760)
Gottfried Heinrich Stölze (1690-1749)
Vassili Kalinnikov (1866-1901)
Richard Addinsell (1904-1977)
Daniil Shafran (1923-1997)
Renato Bruson (1936)
Paavo Heininen (1938)
William Duckworth (1943-2012)
Richard Blackford (1954)
Wayne Marshall (1961)
Juan Diego Flórez (1973)

and

Horatio Alger (1832-1899)
Lorrie Moore (1957)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1945, Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5 was premiered by the Moscow State Philharmonic, with the composer conducting.

Today's Birthdays

Reinhard Keiser (1674-1739)
Jacques Duphly (1715-1789)
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (1876-1948)
Pierre Bernac (1899-1979)
William Pleeth (1916-1999)
Leo Smit (1921-1999)
Morton Feldman (1926-1987)
Salvatore Martirano (1927-1995)
Anne Howells (1941)
Viktoria Postnikova (1944)
Lori Laitman (1955)

and

Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
John Singer Sargent (1856-1925)
Jack London (1876-1916) 
Haruki Murakami (1949)

Alban Gerhardt to play at All Classical's Thursdays @ Three

Provided that he can get to the radio station, the great cellist Alban Gerhardt will play at All Classical's Thursdays @ Three. This should be a tremendous treat that listeners will enjoy immensely. I think that I saw on his blog that he is a skier. So he might get some cross-country skies and some bungee chords for his cello and make his way over the snow-laden streets and over the river to 89.9. He is scheduled to play Dutilleux's Cello Concert (entitled "A Whole Distant World") in this weekend's concerts with the Oregon Symphony.

Today's Birthdays

Christian Sinding (1856-1941)
Reihold Glière (1875-1956)
Maurice Duruflé(1902-1986)
Mark DeVoto (1940)
York Höller (1944)
Drew Minter (1955)
Alex Shapiro (1962)

and

William James (1842-1910)
Aldo Leopold (1887-1948)
Alan Paton (1903-1988)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1925, Copland's Symphony for Organ and Orchestra was premiered at Aeolian Hall in New York City by the New York Symphony conducted by Walter Damrosch, with Nadia Boulanger the soloist.

Today's Birthdays

Jean Martinon (1910-1976)
Sidney Griller (1911-1993)
Dean Dixon (1915-1976)
Milton Babbitt (1916-2011)
Max Roach (1924-2007)
Sherrill Milnes (1935)
Rod Stewart (1945)
James Morris (1947)
Mischa Maisky (1948)
Rockwell Blake (1951)
Charles Norman Mason (1955)
Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg (1961)

and


Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962)
Philip Levine (1928-2015)
Stephen E. Ambrose (1936-2002)

Today's Birthdays

John Knowles Paine (1839-1906))
Rudolf Bing (1902-1997)
Herva Nelli (1909-1994)
Henriette Puig‑Roget (1910-1992)
Pierre Pierlot (1921-2007)
Joan Baez (1941)
Scott Walker (1944)
Jimmy Page (1944)
Waltraud Meier (1956)
Hillevi Martinpelto (1958)
Nicholas Daniel (1962)

and

Karel Čapek (1890-1938)
Kurt Tucholsky (1890-1935)
Richard Halliburton (1901-1939)
Brian Friel (1929) 
Michiko Kakutani (1955)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1909, Ravel: "Gaspard de la Nuit," was given its premiere performance by Spanish pianist Ricardo Viñes, in Paris.

Today's Birthdays

Jean Gilles (1668-1705)
Lowell Mason (1792-1872)
Sigismond Thalberg (1812-1871)
Hans von Bülow (1830-1894)
Jaromir Weinberger (1896-1967)
Giacinto Scelsi (1905-1988)
Giorgio Tozzi (1923-2011)
Robert Starer (1924-2001)
Benjamin Lees (1924-2010)
Elvis Presley (1935-1977)
Zdeněk Mácal (1936)
Robert Moran (1937)
Evgeny Nesterenko (1938)
Elijah Moshinsky (1946)
Paul Dresher (1951)
Vladimir Feltsman (1952)

and

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913)
Bronislava Nijinska (1891-1972)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1923, the first broadcast in England of an opera direct from a concert hall took place, Mozart's "The Magic Flute" via the BBC from London.

Oregon Symphony concert with Salerno-Sonnenberg moved to Monday

It's starting to snow in Portland and freezing rain is expected. So the dicey weather has forced the folks at the Oregon Symphony to play it on the safe side and move tonight's concert with Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg to Monday evening at 7:30.

I just called Peter Frajola, the orchestra's associate concertmaster, and he said that they did play the concert to a full house in Salem last night.It will be interesting to see who attends the concert on Monday night. I'm sure that the Winter movement of the Vivaldi will have additional significance. Brrr!

Today's Birthdays

Clara Haskil (1895-1960)
Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
John Brownlee (1900-1969)
Nicanor Zabaleta (1907-1993)
Günter Wand (1912-2002)
Ulysses Kay (1917-1995)
John Lanigan (1921-1996)
Jean-Pierre Rampal (1922-2000)
Tommy Johnson (1935-2006)
Iona Brown (1941-2004)
Richard Armstrong (1943)

and

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960)
Hugh Kenner (1923-2003)
Nicholson Baker (1957)

And from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1955, Marian Anderson made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Ulrica in Verdi's "Un Ballo in Mascera" (A Masked Ball). She was the first African-American singer to perform as an opera soloist on the Met stage. Subsequent distinguished African-American singers who performed as members of the Met company included Robert McFerrin, Sr. (Bobby McFerrin Jr.’s father), Leontyne Price, Martina Arroyo, Kahtleen Battle and Jessye Norman.

Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg to lead conductor-less Oregon Symphony

Preface: This article was scheduled to appear in the Saturday (January 7th) edition of The Columbian newspaper, but the concert in Vancouver (scheduled for Sunday evening) has been cancelled due to weather worries. The Vancouver School District, which oversees the venue (Skyview High School Auditorium), has decided to cancel all events in school buildings over the weekend because of anticipated snow and freezing rain. Consequently, the article will not run in the paper. However, the same program will take place tomorrow night at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. So much of the text - especially the interview portions- are especially pertinent.
---
For the first time in its 120-year history, the Oregon Symphony will venture across the Columbia River to perform this Sunday evening in Vancouver. The historic concert will be extra special because it will feature Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, one of the most dynamic and exciting violinists on the planet. She will lead the Grammy-nominated orchestra in performances of Antonio Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons.” and Rodion Shchedrin’s “Carmen Suite,” which is based on Georges Bizet’s opera “Carmen.”

A lot of classical music lovers have seen Salerno-Sonnenberg with the Oregon Symphony over the years. She has also recorded widely with over twenty releases on the EMI and Nonesuch labels plus eleven on her record label, NSS Music. Her professional career was launched after she won the Walter W. Naumberg International Violin Competition in 1981. Since then she has received an Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Avery Fisher Prize, soloed with major orchestras around the world, and appeared TV shows, such as CBS’ 60 Minutes and The Tonight Show.

The really cool thing about the Oregon Symphony concert is that Salerno-Sonnenberg will lead the music-making from the concertmaster’s chair. She will not be waving a baton from the podium, and the orchestra’s Music Director, Carlos Kalmar won’t be doing it either. You might think that it’s really weird to lead an orchestra in this way, but it is all part of Salerno-Sonnenberg’s new path.

“I have been a soloist with the Oregon Symphony for many years and it has been a beautiful, wonderful relationship,” said Salerno-Sonnenberg. “But that’s what I did for decades, and I don’t wish to do that anymore. Now, this is a transition into a new world for me. I will be a soloist and lead the Vivaldi from the concertmaster’s chair, but there will be no conductor. For the Shchedrin in the second half, I will sit in the concertmaster chair and lead. This is what I’ve been doing for ten years with my orchestra, the New Century Chamber Orchestra and as a guest with other ensembles.”

By leading from within the orchestra, Salerno-Sonnenberg is upping the ante on her colleagues with the intent of delivering an intensely engaging concert.

“I’m not beating time,” explained Salerno-Sonnenberg. “This forces the musicians to play differently, to focus differently, and to be more involved, more committed to the performance. They have to be. This creates extraordinary vibrancy in a performance. And that is what I love doing now.”

Even though she has probably played “The Four Seasons” hundreds of times and recorded it on the EMI label, Salerno-Sonnenberg always becomes inspired by the music to make a new and fresh. She likes to draw inspiration from the descriptive sonnets that Vivaldi wrote to accompany the music.

“’The Four Seasons’ is a fascinating piece,” she remarked. “Vivaldi wrote the text, and the notes were written to justify the text. For birds, he writes trills for the violins that emulates the text. I have to take things to another level. I try to play more than what is written on the page. There’s the hunt so you have gunshots. Autumn is all about being drunk. There are insects, dogs barking, wind, and storms. I try to bring that out even more than what Vivaldi wrote.”

Shchedrin’s arrangement of “Carmen” takes things a little further, because it involves percussion and strings. He wrote the piece as ballet music for his wife Maya Plisetskaya, who was one of the great prima ballerinas at the Bolshoi.

“Shchedrin’s arrangement is mind-blowingly incredible,” exclaimed Salnero-Sonnenberg. It is almost better than the opera. The strings and percussion are the two polar regions of the orchestra. Almost like the yin and the yang. You will find this music powerful and exciting.”

One orchestra member who has played with Salerno-Sonnenberg in all of her appearances with the Oregon Symphony is its Associate Concertmaster Peter Frajola.

“Salnero-Sonnenberg is a bit of a paradox,” noted Frajola, “because she comes off as being intense, but she is relaxed and can do anything that she wants. She tosses off the most difficult parts of concertos with ease. You can’t do that without being relaxed. And she is very generous with what she does. It will be good for us to go back to chamber ensemble playing – listening, watching, and feeling the music together.“

Originally, she was scheduled for just one performance in Portland, but the opportunity to play in Vancouver came about when Scott Showalter, President and CEO of the Oregon Symphony, found out that her travel schedule would accommodate an additional concert.

“We reached out to Executive Director Igor Shakhman and the Vancouver Symphony,” said Showalter. “They have been fantastic, and we are really excited to bring this concert to Vancouver.”

Today's Birthdays

Max Bruch (1838-1920)
Georges Martin Witkowski (1867-1943)
Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915)
Karl Straube (1873-1950)
Earl Kim (1920-1998)
David Bernstein (1942)
Alexander Baillie (1956)

and

Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)
Khalil Gibran (1883-1931)
Wright Morris (1910-1998)
E. L. Doctorow (1931-1915)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1733, this notice appears in the Leipzig newspaper Nachtricht auch Frag u. Anzeiger: "Tonight at 8 o'clock there will be a Bach Concert at the Zimmermann Coffeehouse on Catharine Street". This presumably featured secular vocal works, chamber music and concertos performed by the Leipzig Collegium, an ensemble directed by J.S. Bach.

Today's Birthdays

Johann Georg Pisendel (1687-1755)
Constanza Mozart (1762-1842)
Peter Wolle (1792-1871)
Frederick Converse (1871-1940)
Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951)
Nicolai Roslavets (1881-1944)
Reginald Smith-Brindle (1917-2003)
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920-1995)
Laszlo Heltay (1930)
Alfred Brendel (1931)
Maurizio Pollini (1942)

and

Stella Gibbons(1902-1989)
Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921-1990)
W. D. Snodgrass (1926-2009)
Umberto Eco (1932-2016)
Ngugi wa Thiong'o (1938)
Charlie Rose (1942)

Felder leads sing-along throng through American Songbook with panache

There’s probably no better way to sing some of the favorites from the Great American Songbook than to do it with Hershey Felder. Felder is the one-man actor, singer, comedian, historian, pianist, and showman who just concluded his acclaimed Irving Berlin show at Portland Center Stage. After the end of each Irving Berlin show, he would invite the audience to come to an extra show that would feature songs from musicals and the opportunity to sing along with him. My wife and I decided to take him up on his offer and we joined the full house on New Year’s Eve.

The evening was a love-fest of sorts – with the audience in a buoyant, festive mood that gave Felder a long, and appreciative ovation when he walked onto the stage, which had the same piano, Christmas tree, and back wall as the set that he used for the Irving Berlin show – except he was flanked on stage by twenty people sitting on either side of him. Because there was no printed program of what numbers would be offered, everyone just had to go with the flow. So Felder sat down at the piano and began playing Berlin’s “Always,” inviting the audience of 640 to join him. We were immediately teased by Felder, who conducted the ends of each phrase with his free hand. Of course, lots of participants didn’t follow him exactly, and they were lightly admonished and cajoled by Felder. That got everyone laughing, and it enhanced the mood of the evening.

Felder then offered stories and insights into the selections that he would play and take the audience on a journey through some of his favorite tunes from various musicals. He would play the song in a key favorable to most voices and mouth the words clearly so that anyone could sing along. He launched into “It Aint Necessarily So” and “Summertime” from Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” and followed it with “Our Love is Here to Stay.” From Jerome Kern’s “Showboat,” he led us through “Old Man River,” “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man,” and “Along came Bill.”

We grazed on “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma,” and dipped into “South Pacific” with “Bali Ha’I,” “There Is Nothin’ Like a Dame,” “Some Enchanted Evening” that was done with hilarious choreography, pairing a high-school drama student with a married lady. We finished up with “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s “Carousel.”

Felder used his ear to pick out and invite on stage an audience member who knew all of the words to “The Sound of Music” (Rodgers and Hammerstein again) and had had opera training to boot. We also sang “My Favorite Things” and “So Long, Farewell” with women-only doing a couple of the verses.

We found out that Felder, as a teenager, was the music director and stage director of the first-ever Yiddish production of “Fiddler on the Roof,” (Bock and Harnick) and had to use his incredible falsetto to play the role of Golde on opening night because the actress for that role was in the hospital. To celebrate that great musical, we did “Sunrise, Sunset” and admired Felder as he sang “Do you Love Me?”

The evening concluded with a touching reminiscence by Felder. From an early age, he had trained to be a serious classical pianist, but his mother fell ill and when he was a teenager he missed school for a year to be with her. They watched musicals on VHS over and over. Before she died of cancer at the age of 35, the last song she sang to him was “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” She asked him to sing that song with others and whenever he did that she would be there. So that’s what we did.

Today's Birthdays

Giovanni Pergolesi (1710-1736)
Johann Friedrich Agricola (1720-1774)
Josef Suk (1874-1935)
Frank Wess (1922-2013)
Grace Bumbry (1937)
Joseph Turrin (1947)
Margaret Marshall (1949)
Ronald Corp (1951)
Peter Seiffert (1954)
Boris Berezovsky (1969)

and

Sir Issac Newton (1642-1727)
Jacob Grimm (1785-1863)
Louis Braille (1809-1852)
Augustus John (1878-1961)
Doris Kearns Goodwin (1943)

Portland classical music recommendations in The Oregonian

My article on upcoming classical music concerts through March will appear this weekend in The Oregonian. However, you can read it online in Oregonlive here.

Today's Birthdays

Victor Borge (1909-2000)
Ronald Smith (1922-2004)
Sir George Martin (1926-2016)
HK Gruber (1943)
David Atherton (1944)

and

J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973)

and from the Composers Datebook:

The comic opera “Don Pasquale” by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti had its first performance in Paris on this date in the year 1843.

also:

On this day in 1925, German conductor and composer Wilhelm Furtwängler made his American debut, conducting the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall.

Choir soprano refuses to sing for Trump

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir will sing a the inauguration of Donald Trump on January 20th, but the famed chorus will be without one of its sopranos, Jan Chamberlin, who resigned from the group. As reported in this Washington Post article, Chamberlin wrote in a Facebook post that by “singing for this man” the choir would appear to be “endorsing” tyranny and fascism, and its image would be “severely damaged.”  That's a gutsy statement and one that I applaud wholeheartedly. I sing with the Bach Cantata Choir, and if it had been invited to sing for the inauguration, I am pretty sure that the entire choir would have refused. As Chamberlin stated, “I only know I could never ‘throw roses to Hitler.’ ”“And I certainly could never sing for him.”

Today's Birthdays

Mily Balakirev (1837-1910)
Michael Tippett (1905-1998)
Barbara Pentland (1912-2000)
Gardner Read (1913-2005)
Irina Arkhipova (1925-2010)
Alberto Zedda (1928)
Peter Eötvös (1944)
Janet Hilton (1945)
Vladimir Ovchinnikov (1958)
Tzimon Barto (1963)
Robert Fertitta (1970)
Eric Whitacre (1970)

and

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992)
Christopher Durang (1949)
Lynda Barry (1956)

and from the Composer's Datebook:

On today’s date in 1843, Richard Wagner’s opera “The Flying Dutchman” had its premiere performance in Dresden.

New visit milepost for Northwest Reverb

According to Google Analytics, Northwest Reverb had 20,754 pageviews in December.That's an all-time high for the blog. Thank you all for visiting.

Today's Birthdays

Charles Racquet (1598 - 1664)
Frederick William Gaisberg (1873-1951)
Edwin Franko Goldman (1878-1956)
Artur Rodzinski (1892-1958)
Erich Schmid (1907-2001)
Trude Rittmann (1908-2005)
Milt Jackson (1923-1999)
Richard Verreau (1926-2005)
Maurice Béjart (1927-2007)
Bernard Greenhouse (1916-2011)
Alberto Portugheis (1941)

and

E. M. Forster (1879-1970)
J. D. Salinger (1919-2010)

From the Composer's Datebook:

On this day in 1908, Gustav Mahler made his conducting debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, leading a performance of Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde."

Today's Birthdays

Caroline Miolan‑Carvalho (1827-1895)
Ernest John Moeran (1894-1950)
Silvestre Revueltas (1899-1940)
Nathan Milstein (1904-1992)
Jule Styne (1925-1994)
Jaap Schröder (1925)
Odetta (1930-2008)
Stephen Cleobury (1948)
Donna Summer (1948)
Jennifer Higdon (1962)

and

Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Nicholas Sparks (1965)
Junot Díaz (1968)

Today's Birthdays

William Croft (1678-1727)
André Messager (1853-1929)
Alfred Einstein (1880-1952)
Dmitri Kabalevsky (1904-1987)
Paul Bowles (1910-1999)
Sir David Willcocks (1919-2015)
Bo Diddley (1928-2008)
Bruno Canino (1935)
June Anderson (1950)
Stephen Jaffe (1954)
Antonio Pappano (1959)

and

Theodor Fontane (1819-1898)
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
Sara Lidman (1923-2004)

Today's Birthdays

Pablo Casals (1876-1973)
Lionel Tertis (1876-1975)
Yves Nat (1890-1956)
Peggy Glanville-Hicks (1912-1990)
Billy Tipton (1914-1989)

and

William Gaddis (1922-1998)

Today's Birthdays

Christian Cannabich (1731-1798)
Francesco Tamagno (1850-1905)
Roger Sessions (1896-1985)
Earl "Fatha" Hines (1905-1983)
Johnny Otis (1921-2012)
Nigel Kennedy (1956)

and

Charles Portis (1933)

Today's Birthdays

Sir John Goss (1800-1880)
Tito Schipa (1888-1965)
Marlene Dietrich (1904-1992)
Oscar Levant (1906-1972)

and

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
Charles Olson (1910-1970)
Wilfrid Sheed (1930-2011)
Chris Abani (1966)
Sarah Vowell (1969)

Today's Birthdays

Leopold Mannes (1899-1964)
Maurice Gendron (1920-1990)
Thea King (1925-2007)
Earle Brown (1926-2002)
Phil Specter (1940)
Wayland Rogers (1941)
Harry Christophers (1953)
Andre-Michel Schub (1953)

and

Thomas Gray (1716-1771)
Henry Miller (1891-1980)
Jean Toomer (1894-1867)
Juan Felipe Herrera (1948)
David Sedaris (1958)

Today's Birthdays

Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625)
Jean‑Joseph de Mondonville (1711-1772)
Chevalier de Saint‑George (1745-1799)
Cosima Wagner (1837-1930)
Lina Cavalieri (1874-1944)
Giuseppe de Luca (1876-1950)
Gladys Swarthout (1900-1969)
Cab Calloway (1907-1994)
Noël Lee (1924-2013)
Noel Redding (1945-2003)
Jon Kimura Parker (1959)
Ian Bostridge (1964)

and

Dorothy Wordsworth (1771-1855)
Clara Barton (1821-1912)
Rod Serling (1924-1975)

Today's Birthdays

Peter Cornelius (1824-1874)
Nikolai Roslavets (1881-1944)
Lucrezia Bori (1887-1960)
Charles Wakefield Cadman (1881-1946)
Sir Vivian Dunn (1908-1995)
Teresa Stich-Randall (1927-2007)
Mauricio Kagel (1931-2008)
Arnold Östman (1939)
Libby Larsen (1950)
Hans-Jürgen von Bose (1953)

and

Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)
Dana Gioia (1950)

and from The Writer'sAlmanac

Today is Christmas Eve. One of the best modern Christmas Eve stories is a true one, and it happened in 1914, in the trenches of World War I. The “war to end all wars” was raging, but German and British soldiers had been engaging in unofficial ceasefires since mid-December. The British High Command was alarmed, and warned officers that fraternization across enemy lines might result in a decreased desire to fight. On the German side, Christmas trees were trucked in and candles lit, and on that Christmas Eve in 1914, strains of Stille Nacht — “Silent Night” — reached the ears of British soldiers. They joined in, and both sides raised candles and lanterns up above their parapets. When the song was done, a German soldier called out, “Tomorrow is Christmas; if you don’t fight, we won’t.”

The next day dawned without the sound of gunfire. The Germans sent over some beer, and the Brits sent plum pudding. Enemies met in no man’s land, exchanging handshakes and small gifts. Someone kicked in a soccer ball, and a chaotic match ensued. Details about this legendary football match vary, and no one knows for sure exactly where it took place, but everyone agrees that the Germans won by a score of three to two.

At 8:30 a.m. on December 26, after one last Christmas greeting, hostilities resumed. But the story is still told, in a thousand different versions from up and down the Western Front, more than a century later.

On Christmas Eve in 1906, the first radio program was broadcast. Canadian-born Professor Reginald Aubrey Fessenden sent his signals from the 420-foot radio tower of the National Electric Signaling Company, at Brant Rock on the Massachusetts seacoast. Fessenden opened the program by playing “O Holy Night” on the violin. Later he recited verses from the Gospel of St. Luke, then broadcast a gramophone version of Handel’s “Largo.” His signal was received up to five miles away.

Today's Birthdays

Joseph Boismortier (1689-1755)
Ross Lee Finney (1906-1997
Claudio Scimone (1934)
Ross Edwards (1943)
Edita Gruberová (1946)
Elise Kermani (1960)
Han-Na Chang (1982)

and

Harriet Monroe (1860-1936)
Norman Maclean (1902–1990)
Robert Bly (1926)
Carol Ann Duffy (1955)

Today's Birthdays

Carl Friedrich Abel (1723-1787)
Giovanni Bottesini (1821-1889)
Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
Franz Schmidt (1874-1939)
Edgard Varèse(1883-1965)
Joseph Deems Taylor (1885-1966)
Alan Bush (1900-1995)
Andre Kostelanetz (1901-1980)
David Leisner (1953)
Jean Rigby (1954)
Zhou Tian (1981)

and

Jean Racine (1639-1699)
Kenneth Rexroth (1905-1982)
Donald Harrington (1935-2009)

New comprehensive app for music lovers

From the press release:

 To celebrate the launch of its music history app for smartphones and iOS devices that’s taking the classical music world by storm, Informusic (http://www.informusic.org/) announces that it is pricing the app at just 99 cents through January 1, 2017.

Created by Drew Schweppe  and refined along with a select team of leading musicologists, performers, professors, and historians, Informusic is the all-in-one music history and composer resource that means that music students and classical music fans alike will now be able to access a wealth of detailed musical history facts and information with just the swipe of a finger. Now – even better – they can do so for just 99 cents (USD)! It’s the unbeatable holiday gift for classical musicians, teachers, students, and fans worldwide.

Informusic offers a huge array of detailed information on Western Art Music’s greatest composers and compositions, from the Medieval era, through the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic eras – and with more expansions yet to come. At the swipe of a screen, users can browse Informusic for such useful and fascinating information as composer biographies, quick facts, and complete works, along with program notes, sheet music, audio samples, and suggested further scholarship.

Informusic also features interactive timelines that enable users to scroll through the chronology of a composer’s life and greatest achievements, helping to contextualize musical events with other disciplines like art, literature, politics, and beyond. Users can also curate their searches with ease to filter by year, event type, or specific keywords. The app is constantly updated with ever-expanding content and composers as well.

The Perfect Holiday Gift for Music Fans & Music Students:

“With our special holiday pricing to celebrate Informusic’s launch, this means that anyone with a smartphone or iOS device can explore centuries of classical music history for less than a dollar, making it a fantastic gift or stocking-stuffer,” comments Informusic founder and director Drew Schweppe. “Informusic is an incredible resource for students and teachers, as it offers all of the tools a music student requires for their music history courses in a single app. But it also goes further – it’s a great gift for classical music fans, too. For instance, if you hear a particular piece by Beethoven at the symphony or on the radio, Informusic provides you with an incredible amount of instantly accessible information surrounding the piece, its composer, its influences and impacts, and more.”

Schweppe was inspired to create Informusic as a result of his intensive studies in music, while pursuing his Master’s degrees in Music and Music Industry Leadership from City University of London and Northeastern University (he also holds a Bachelor of Music in Composition degree from Ithaca College). As he became increasingly interested in music history, he quickly realized the advantages a comprehensive music history app for iOS devices might offer to performers, students and fans of classical music, and his quest to create Informusic began – a goal that would take more than five years of exhaustive research and development to achieve.

Purchase Info and Technical Requirements:

Informusic is compatible with the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, and requires iOS 8.0 or later. To celebrate its launch this holiday season, it’s currently available for a limited time through the New Year for just $.99 at the Apple iTunes Store, at https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/informusic/id1015896668?mt=8.

While Informusic currently features only Western Art Music, expansions for other genres such as Jazz are also in the works now.

About Informusic:

Informusic is the essential classical music history app for iOS that was created and founded by Drew Schweppe. Informusic provides a wealth of music history information that was specially created by experts in musicology, history, and performance. Its advisory board of PhD musicologists chaired by Dr. Mark A. Radice (Professor, Music Theory, History, and Composition at Ithaca College) ensures the app’s quality and accuracy as an invaluable learning tool for all. Learn more about Informusic at http://www.informusic.org/.

Today's Birthdays

Zdeněk Fibich (1850-1900)
André Turp (1925-1991)
Frank Zappa (1940-1993)
Roger Lasher Nortman (1941)
Michael Tilson Thomas (1944)
András Schiff (1953)
Kim Cascone (1955)
Thomas Randle (1958)
Jonathan Cole (1970)

and

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)
Maud Gonne (1866-1953)
Edward Hoagland (1932)

Today's Birthdays

Vagn Holmboe (1909-1996)
Gordon Getty (1933)
John Harbison (1938)
Roger Woodward (1942)
Mitsuko Uchida (1948)

and

Elizabeth Benedict (1954)
Sandra Cisneros (1954)
Nalo Hopkinson (1960)

Today's Birthdays

Louis‑Nicolas Clérambault (1676-1749)
Fritz Reiner (1885-1963)
Edith Piaf (1915-1963)
Dalton Baldwin (1931)
Phil Ochs (1940-1976)
William Christie (1944)
Marianne Faithfull (1946)
Olaf Bär (1957)
Steven Esserlis (1958)
Rebecca Saunders (1967)

and

Italo Svevo (1861-1928)
Constance Garnett (1861-1946)

and from The Writer's Almanac:

It’s the birthday of French chanteuse Édith Piaf (1915). Piaf was born Édith Giovanna Gassion in Belleville, on the outskirts of Paris. Her mother was a café singer and a drug addict, and her father was a street performer who specialized in acrobatics and contortionism. Neither of them particularly cared for Piaf, so she mostly grew up with her grandmother, who ran a brothel. Piaf was looked after by prostitutes and later claimed that she was blind from the ages of three to seven because of keratitis, or malnutrition, though this was never proved.

Her father reclaimed her when she was nine and Piaf began singing with him on street corners until he abandoned her again. She lived in shoddy hotel rooms in the red-light district of Paris and sang in a seedy café called Lulu’s, making friends with pimps, hookers, lowlifes, and gamblers, until she was discovered by an older man named Louis Leplée.

Leplée ran a nightclub off the Champs-Élysées. He renamed Piaf La Môme Piaf, “The Little Sparrow,” dressed her entirely in black, and set her loose on the stage. Piaf was a hit, and recorded two albums in one year, becoming one of the most popular performers in France during World War II.

Édith Piaf died on the French Riviera at the age of 47. More than 40,000 people came to her funeral procession. Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Karachkina named a small planet after Piaf; it’s called 3772 Piaf. Her songs have been covered by Madonna, Grace Jones, and even Donna Summer.

Édith Piaf’s last words were, “Every damn thing you do in this life, you have to pay for.”

Today's Birthdays

Charles Wesley (1707-1788)
Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826)
Edward MacDowell (1860-1908)
Fletcher Henderson (1897-1952)
Rita Streich (1920-1987)
William Boughton (1948)
David Liptak (1949)
Christopher Theofanidis (1967)

and

Saki - H. H. Munro (1870-1916)
Paul Klee (1879-1940)
Christopher Fry (1907-2005)
Abe Burrows (1910-1985)

Today's Birthdays

Domenico Cimarosa (1749-1801)
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Arthur Fiedler (1894-1979)
Ray Noble (1903-1975)
William Wordsworth (1908-1988)
Art Neville (1937)

and

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)
Ford Madox Ford (1873-1939)
William Safire (1929-2009)
John Kennedy Toole (1937-1969)

and from The Writer's Almanac:

It's the day that The Nutcracker ballet was performed for the first time in St. Petersburg, Russia (1892). Czar Alexander III, in the audience, loved the ballet, but the critics hated it. Tchaikovsky wrote that the opera that came before The Nutcracker "was evidently very well liked, the ballet not. ... The papers, as always, reviled me cruelly." Tchaikovsky died of cholera less than a year later, before The Nutcracker became an international success.

Today's Birthdays

François Adrien Boieldieu (1775-1834)
Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967)
Turk Murphy (1915-1987)
Steve Allen (1921-2000)
Dame Thea King (1925-2007)
Alice Parker (1925)
Kenneth Gilbert (1931)
Philip Langridge (1939-2010)
Trevor Pinnock (1946)
Isabelle van Keulen (1966)

and

Jane Austin (1775-1817)
George Santayana (1863-1952)
Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944)
Noël Coward (1899-1973)
V. S. Pritchett (1900- 1997)

Today's Birthdays

Michel‑Richard Delalande (1657-1726)
Lotte Schöne (1891-1981)
Stan Kenton (1911-1979)
Ida Haendel (1924)
Eddie Palmieri (1936)
Nigel Robson (1948)
Jan Latham-Koenig (1953)

and

Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof (1859-1917)
Maxwell Anderson (1888-1959)
Freeman Dyson (1923)
Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928-2000)
Edna O'Brien (1930)

Felder magical as Irving Berlin in one-man show

A grand piano, a Christmas tree, a fireplace, two big windows and snow falling outside… it made me want to reach for an eggnog, but I was at The Armory and settling into my seat when Hershey Felder walked out on the stage to begin his one-man show about the life and music of Irving Berlin, the great American songwriter. For the next hour and forty-five minutes, Felder held the SRO audience at Portland Center Stage spellbound as he retold Berlin’s remarkable life story, singing and playing the piano with such panache that you practically thought you were watching Berlin himself.

Starting with Berlin’s humble beginnings as a refugee from Russia where his family’s home was burnt to the ground because of rampant anti-Semitism, Felder embarked on a tour of Berlin’s life that was truly astonishing. Berlin rose out of the poverty-stricken tenements in New York City, parlaying his street-corner busking into a singing waiter job that helped him to sell his first song, “Marie From Sunny Italy.” That led to his first smash hit, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” and the rest was history. But actually it wasn’t, because Berlin, like everyone, had his ups and downs. Of course, he had more ups than downs, but still the downs that Felder recounted were major, such as the death of his first wife, Dorothy. She contracted typhoid fever during their honeymoon in Havana and died five months later. Berlin took her death very hard. His melancholy ballad, “When I Lost You” was dedicated to her, and he did not marry again for twelve years. That was when he fell in love with the heiress Ellin Mackay, whose father disowned her after she married Berlin. They had four children, but their only son died on Christmas Day in 1928.

The show included Berlin’s hits during the First World War, the Second World War, his work in musicals and films. Felder performed several of them, including “My Wife’s Gone to the Country,” “Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning,” “What’ll I Do?,” “Blue Skies,” “Supper Time,” and “There’s No Business Like Showbusiness,” and made sure to include the audience in “God Bless America” and “White Christmas.” He showed an impeccable ear and talent for mimicry when he spoke or sang in the style of others such as Ethel Merman, but his parrot voice for the last verse of “My Wife’s Gone to the Country” was the most surprising and funniest of all.

Felder related fun facts about Berlin, such as how he wrote all of his pieces in the key of F sharp and relied on his staff to transcribe them to other keys. He loved to work at night and into the early morning, thriving under pressure to find just the right words and create a new song. But his genius was not the center-point of the show, rather it was the wonderful embrace of humanity that embodied Berlin. He took care of his family, his friends, and others (for example, since 1940, all royalty payments from “God Bless America” have been directed to the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America.” He was not arrogant or disdainful of others, and he supported civil rights, giving Ethel Waters star billing in 1933 for his musical revue “As Thousands Cheer.” She became to first black woman to star in a white show on Broadway.

In his final years, Berlin became a recluse. He had been such a part of the nation’s life and breath that it was difficult for him to fathom the popularity of rock and roll. Felder had an excellent quip that summed it up: “I lived beyond my expiration date.” Well, Felder’s superb performances as Irving Berlin at The Armory are due to expire at the end of the month. Be sure to see this amazing show. It is life-enhancing.

---

PS: Felder directed “The Pianist of Willesden Lane,” which will return to Portland Center Stage in June. For more information on that show, click here.

Today's Birthdays

Maria Agata Szymanowska (1789-1831)
Georges Thill (1897-1984)
Spike Jones (1911-1965)
Rosalyn Tureck (1914-2003)
Dame Ruth Railton (1915-2001)
Ron Nelson (1929)
Christopher Parkening (1947)
Thomas Albert (1948)
John Rawnsley (1949)

and

Shirley Jackson (1919-1965)
Amy Hempel (1951)

Today's Birthdays

Alexis de Castillon (1838-1873)
Josef Lhévinne (1874-1944)
Eleanor Robson Belmont (1879-1979)
Samuel Dushkin (1891-1976)
Victor Babin (1908-1972)
Alvin Curran (1938)

and

Mary Todd Lincoln (1818-1882)
Kenneth Patchen (1911-1972)
James Wright (1927-1980)
Lester Bangs (1948-1982)

Oregon Symphony creates superb "Turangalîla"

For the second of its SoundSights concerts, the Oregon Symphony uncorked an intense performance of Olivier Messiaen’s “Turangalîla-Symphonie” on Monday (December 5) at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. One could hardly expect anything less after seeing the stage packed with musicians, a vast array of percussion instruments along the back left wall, a grand piano and an ondes martenot arranged in the front. The concert probably marked the premiere Portland appearance of the ondes martenot, a piano-like electronic instrument that can make sliding glissandos and other unusual sounds that are rarely heard live. Yet as part of its SoundSights presentation, the concert also featured special video animation created by Rose Bond and the Pacific Northwest College of Art to accompany the music. The undertaking of such a task was admirable, but in the imagery was mostly a distraction from the music which had plenty going on to engage the senses.

Inspired by the legend of Tristan and Isolde, Messiaen wrote “Turangalîla” as expression of various aspects of love – carnal, passionate, idealistic, tender, romantic, you-name-it – and death. Its ten movements take almost 80 minutes, and the Oregon Symphony with pianist Steven Osborne and ondes martenot specialist Cynthia Millar collaborated marvelously under the baton of Music Director Carlos Kalmar to deliver the myriad of sonic textures with integrity. But the softest passages were covered unfortunately by the sound of the video projector, which was positioned at the lip of the balcony.

Osborne’s fearless and impeccable playing of knuckle-crunching notes that often cascaded down the keyboard was one of the many highlights of the performance. Millar deftly added tones from the ondes martenot, but it was indeed strange to hear the high-pitched whistling sounds. The trombones and tuba created an imposing presence with the “Statue” theme. The trumpets hit dizzying high notes spot on. Oddly enticing woodwind combinations drifted in and out. The strings created a lush background when they were not zigging and zagging across the musical landscape (Nancy Ives even broke a string on her cello). The percussion battery made the most of gongs, cymbals, drums, chimes, woodblocks, xylophones, triangles, and other beatable items.

The video animation tried to match the tempo of the music. When things got faster, the imagery increased. When the tempo slowed down, so did the pace of images. The colors scheme started with white and gradually moved to vibrant colors at the end of the piece. The images of nuts, bolts, and screws seemed way out of context, but the plant-tendril silhouettes were appealing, and at the end of the piece there was a riot of colors. I found myself closing my eyes at times so that I could hear the music more closely. For me, the visual aspect didn’t enhance the music, but it seemed that the audience, in general, enjoyed the two together. The grandest impression I was left with at the end of the piece was the shimmering sound of the cymbals during the fire-alarm-level of forte in the final measures. That was one of the loudest finales I have ever heard anywhere.

Because “Turangalîla” draws on the legend of Tistan and Isolde, it was highly appropriate for the concert to open with the “Prelude and Liebestod” from Richard Wagner’s opera “Tristan und Isolde.” The unhurried pace and slowly building tension was just delicious to the ears. The woodwinds excelled with their contributions (special kudos to Todd Kuhns, bass clarinet) as did the horns. Now if Kalmar and company could only have more strings to add to the rich and beautiful sound!

Today's Birthdays

Andrey Schulz‑Evler (1852-1905)
Frank Sinatra (1915-1998)
Philip Ledger (1937-2012)
Donald Maxwell (1948)
Margaret Tan (1953)
Jaap van Zweden (1960)
David Horne (1970)
Evren Genis (1978)

and

Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880)
Edvard Munch (1863-1944)
John Osborne (1929-1994)

Today's Birthdays

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)
Joseph Jongen (1873-1953)
Leo Ornstein (1893-2002)(br> Elliott Carter (1908-2012)
David Ashley White (1944)
Neil Mackie (1946)

and

Grace Paley (1922-2007
Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006)
Grace Paley (1922-2007)
Jim Harrison (1937-2016)
Thomas McGuane (1939)

Today's Birthdays

César Franck (1822-1890)
Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992)
Morton Gould (1913-1996)
Sesto Bruscantini (1919-2003)
Nicholas Kynaston (1941)
Julianne Baird (1952)
Kathryn Stott (1958)
Sarah Chang (1980)

and

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Melvil Dewey (1851-1931)
Adolf Loos (1870-1933)

Today's Birthdays

Joaquin Turina (1882-1949)
Conchita Supervia (1895-1936)
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (1915-2006)
Dennis Eberhard (1943-2005)
Christopher Robson (1953)
Donny Osmond (1957)
Joshua Bell (1967)

and

John Milton (1608-1674)
Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908)
Léonie Adams (1899 - 1988)
Ödön von Horváth (1901-1938)

From the Writer's Almanac:

Milton coined more than 600 words, including the adjectives dreary, flowery, jubilant, satanic, saintly, terrific, ethereal, sublime, impassive, unprincipled, dismissive, and feverish; as well as the nouns fragrance, adventurer, anarchy, and many more.

Vancouver Symphony goes to the movies with gusto

Young audience member with the Star Wars tribe in the lobby before the VSO concert

On Sunday (December 4) Skyview Concert Hall was packed with kids, young adults, and folks who were geared up for an evening of movie music delivered by the Vancouver Symphony. Many of them had already posed in the lobby with characters from the Star Wars movies, including Chewbacca, Darth Vader, Princess Leia, and several Imperial Stormtroopers. It was the perfect prelude for Salvador Brotons and his forces who presented a program of movie music classics, marking the first time that the VSO has given a pops concert during its regular season.

The orchestra opened the concert with the extremely brief fanfare that always precedes a 20th Century Fox movie and followed it with “Star Trek through the Years” by Alexander Courage and Jerry Goldsmith in an arrangement by Calvin Custer. Besides the impeccable contributions of pianist Michael Liu, the brass and percussion distinguished themselves with their responsive and enthusiastic playing.

The “Tribute to Henry Mancini” (also in an arrangement by Custer) that juxtaposed the loosey goosey “Baby Elephant Walk” from “Hatari,” the snappy theme from the “The Pink Panther,” and wah-wahing brashness from “Peter Gun” with expansive and lush theme music of “Charade” and “The Days of Wine and Roses.” Monty Norman’s “James Bond Theme” in an arrangement by John Barry included familiar strains from “Dr. No” and “Live and Let Die.” Next came James Horner’s “Titanic Suite” in an arrangement by John Moss that featured a lovely solo for principal flutist Rachel Rencher that invoked the Scottish Highlands.

Music that John Williams wrote for “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” in an arrangement by Jerry Brubaker was highlighted by woven textures from the violins and foreboding French horns. Hans Zimmer’s music from “The Gladiator” in an arrangement by John Wasson contrasted a relentlessly driving theme with a lovely melody for cellos and violas as well highlighted passages for Rencher and Dunn.

After intermission, the trumpets led the way in John Williams’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” which was followed by the soaring “Star Wars Suite,” which had separate movements for Leia’s Theme, T e Imperial March, Yoda’s Theme, and the Throne Room. The audience got swept away by the shear wash of sound and erupted in a standing ovation after the very grand finale. This was followed by a delightful encore, Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride” with Dunn creating the neighing horse sound at the end.

Many European conductors are rather stilted when it comes to conducting pops or music that is jazzy, such as Gershwin, but Broton handled all of the piece with panache and let the orchestra play out. The orchestra members seemed to have as much fun as the audience and got into the photo action with the Star Wars characters during intermission. It was a smooth ride for all and, because of the large crowd, it looks like another pops concert might be on the horizon for next season.

Today's Birthdays

Claude Balbastre (1724-1799)
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
Manuel Ponce (1882-1948)
Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959)
Gérard Souzay (1918-2004)
James Galway (1939)

and

Horace (65-8 B.C.)
Diego Rivera (1886-1957)
James Thurber (1894-1961)
James Tate (1948)
Mary Gordon (1949)
Bill Bryson (1951)

Live music at Club Mod a real hit

Club Mod uncorked a special live show at the studios of All Classical Portland on Saturday evening (December 3) that was delightful, informative, and extremely well played. The show was part of the Messiaen Mélange Musique festival that celebrated music created by or connected with Olivier Messiaen. Composer/impresario Bob Priest, who studied with Messiaen in Paris, created the MMM festival. Priest was a special guest of the Club Mod show, which was emceed by Club Mod host Robert McBride. McBride, who has one of the smoothest radio voices that you’ll ever hear, interviewed Priest before each set of pieces were played, which added tremendously to the context of the program. To top that off, Ronnie Lacroute read poems in French and English that related to theme of the music.

Amelia Lukas started the concert portion with a lyrical and blithe performance of Debussy’s “Syrinx” for the alto flute. Also lovely were a series of descending notes that she played with a pillowy softness. Next came “Le Merle Noir” (“The Black Bird”), Messiaen’s first piece based on bird song. This time, Lukas played the typical C flute and created all sorts of sounds that reminded me of fluttering birds that pecked about now and then. Pianist Monica Ohuchi supported Lukas with a forest of notes and the piece had a wonderful, improvised feel.

Kaija Saariaho is one of today’s preeminent composers, and her “Cendres” (“Cinders”) for piano, flute, and cello received its Portland premiere with Ohuchi, Lukas, and cellist Valdine Mishkin. The music in this piece ranged far and wide. The players used several extended techniques: Ohuchi reached inside the piano to fashion a harpsichord-like sound. Lukas and Mishkin produced a shimmer of half-tones. One passage for cello sounded like a squeaky door. It had lyrical and crystalline moments as well, and it ended quietly – just as ashes usually do.

Because Messiaen’s father was a scholar of Shakespeare’s work, Priest commissioned five pieces – each lasting one minute – inspired by Ariel’s song from “The Tempest.” Entitled the “Full Fathom Five”project, each piece was written by a different composer, beginning with Nancy Ives chant-like “Sea Change” for cello. That was followed by Linda Woody’s somber “The Bells Are Rich and Strange” for flute and cello. Next came Ken Selden’s questioning “Full Fathom 5.5” for flute, cello, and piano, which was followed by Antonio Celaya’s enigmatically lyrical “Something Rich and Strange” for flute and piano, and finally a wild and demonstrative “Sea-Changed” for piano by Jeff Winslow.

Bob Priest’s arrangement of Messiaen’s “Le Sourire” (“The Smile”) for flute, cello, and piano was delicate and lovely. I wish that it could have been extended somehow. Messiaen’s “Louange a l’eternite de Jesus” from his “Quartet for the End of Time,” received a wonderfully evocative performance by Mishkin and Ohuchi. Ohuchi played Messiaen’s “Ile de Feu I” (“Island of Fire”) with passion and élan. It was an excellent segue to a fine recording of “Turangalîla-Symphony” that closed out the evening.

McBride mentioned that Club Mod was in its ninth year. So it was high time to present a live concert, and this one was exceptional. Maybe we could hear more compositions from Northwest composers in the near future done in this kind of live format.

Today's Birthdays

Bernardo Pasquini (1637 - 1710)
Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945)
Ernst Toch (1887-1964)
Rudolf Friml (1879-1972)
Daniel Jones (1912-1993)
Helen Watts (1927-2009)
Harry Chapin (1942-1981)
Daniel Chorzempa (1944)
Tom Waits (1949)
Kathleen Kuhlmann (1950)
Krystian Zimerman (1956)

and

Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680)
Willa Cather (1873-1947)
Joyce Cary (1888-1957)
Noam Chomsky (1928)
Susan Isaacs (1943)

Today's Birthdays

Johann Christoph Bach (1642-1703)
Ira Gershwin (1896-1983)
Dave Brubeck (1920-2012)
Nikolaus Harnoncourt (1929-2016)
Henryk Górecki (1933-2010)
Tomas Svoboda (1939)
John Nelson (1941)
Daniel Adni (1951)
Bright Sheng (1955)
Matthew Taylor (1964)

and

Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529)
The Encyclopedia Brittanica (1768)
Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898-1995)

University research shows the listening to classical music successful again dementia

Research at Colorado State University has shown that classical music listening has actually reversed cognitive decline in people with dementia. Click here to read about this study.

Today's Birthdays

Francesco Geminiani (1687-1762)
"Little" Richard Wayne Penniman (1935)
José Carreras (1946)
Krystian Zimerman (1956)
Osvaldo Golijov (1960)

and

Christina (Georgina) Rossetti (1830-1894)
Joan Didion (1934)
John Berendt (1939)
Calvin Trillin (1935)
Lydia Millet (1968)

Today's Birthdays

André Campra (1660-1744)
Sir Hamilton Harty (1879-1949)
Alex North (1910-1991)
Yvonne Minton (1938)
Lillian Watson (1947)
Andrew Penny (1952)

and

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1891)
Samuel Butler (1835-1902)
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)
Cornell Woolrich (1903-1968)

Today's Birthdays

Nicolo Amati (1596-1684)
André Campra (1660-1744)
Antonio Soler (1729-1783)
Émile Waldteufel (1837-1915)
Anton Webern (1883-1945)
Halsey Stevens (1908-1989)
Nino Rota (1911-1979)
Irving Fine (1914-1962)
Charles Craig (1919-1997)
Paul Turok (1929-2012)
José Serebrier (1938)
Matt Haimovitz (1970)

and

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)
Anna Freud (1895-1982)
Zlata Filipović (1980)

Cabaret songs survive the din of the Waypost

It was still Happy Hour when I stepped up to the bar at the Waypost to order a draft IPA. Besides libations, the Waypost, located on North Williams Avenue, has an intimate concert space with seating that is barely separated from the bar area. It’s definitely a non-traditional venue for musicians who don’t plan to use amplification. That was the intent of the cofounders of Northwest Art Song – soprano Arwen Myers, mezzo Laura Beckel Thoreson, and pianist Susan McDaniel – who bravely tested the cozy confines of the Waypost with baritone Deac Guidi on Sunday (November 27) for an evening of cabaret songs.

The professionalism of the performers was of the highest order, because they gave an outstanding performance in spite of the constant din of noise from the patrons near the bar. Anyone who sat in the first four rows probably heard most of the words, but it was difficult beyond that arc – especially when the music was mezzo piano or quieter.

Still there was much to be enjoyed, starting with Thoreson’s singing of four William Bolcom numbers, including a sultry “At the Last Lousy Moments of Love” and an enticing “Amor.” Myers didn’t miss a beat in her set of Britten tunes, excelling with the witty “Tell me the Truth about Love” and the pell-mell “Calypso.” Guidi brought down the house with his terrific singing of Cole Porter’s “The Tale of the Oyster.” All three collaborated in singing Bolcom’s “Minicabs,” with its delightful non-sequiturs.

The second half of the show began with several arrangements of popular numbers by Bob Kingston, who served as Portland Opera’s historian and lecturer for many years. Thoreson delivered the bitter sweet vibe of “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most.” Guidi put a light touch on “The Way You Look Tonight.” Myers sang “Somewhere over the Rainbow” with heartfelt poignancy that actually got the people in the bar to stop talking and listen. Rounding out Kingston’s offerings – all premieres – were lovely arrangements of “I’ll be Around,” “A Foggy Day,” and “Lush Life.”

To conclude the concert were three numbers from Bernstein’s “Candide.” Myers positively bubbled with “Glitter and Be Gay,” touching all of the high notes with a delightful élan. She teamed up with Thoreson to give a wonderfully funny “We are Women,” and Thoreson and included some sly gestures. With Guidi and an unnamed tenor, Thoreson and the ensemble did a smashing job with “I Am Easily Assimilated.” That got the crowd off their feet, so Myers and Thoreson topped it off with the “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” with a hilarious alternative text that riffed on music like “You say staccato and I say legato.” It was a great way to end the evening with ovations for all, including McDaniel, who provided masterful accompaniment for each piece.

Today's Birthdays

Harry T. Burleigh (1866-1949)
Harriet Cohen (1895-1967)
Sir John Barbirolli (1899-1970)
Robert Moevs (1920-2007)
Maria Callas (1923-1977)
Jörg Demus (1928)

and

Georges-Pierre Seurat (1859-1891)
T. Coraghessan Boyle (1948)
George Saunders (1958)
Ann Patchett (1963)

Today's Birthdays

François‑Xavier Richter (1709-1789)
Agathe Grøndahl (1847-1907)
Gordon Crosse (1932)
Lou Rawls (1933-2006)
Bette Midler (1945)
Rudolf Buchbinder (1946)
Leontina Vaduva (1960)

and

Alicia Markova (1910-2004)