Today's Birthdays

Henry Holden Huss (1862-1953)
Hilding Rosenberg (1892-1985)
Harry Newstone (1921-2006)
Lou Ottens (1926-2021)
Lalo Schifrin (1932)
Diego Masson (1935)
Philippe Hersant (1948)
Judith Bingham (1952)
Jennifer Larmore (1958)

and

Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1972)
Donald Peattie (1898-1964)
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)
Mary McCarthy (1912-1989)
Ian McEwan (1948)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1890. Richard Strauss's tone-poem "Death and Transfiguration" and "Burleske" for Piano and Orchestra were given their premieres in Eisenach, at a convention of the General German Music Association, with the composer conducting and Eugen d'Albert as the piano soloist in the "Burleske".

Today's Birthdays

Joseph Martin Kraus (1756-1792)
Jacques Offenbach (1819-1880)
Wilfred Pelletier (1896-1982)
Chet Atkins (1924-2001)
Ingrid Haebler (1926)
Eric Dolphy (1928-1964)
Arne Nordheim (1931-2010)
Mickie Most (1938-2003)
Brian Wilson (1942)
Anne Murray (1945)
André Watts (1946)
Lionel Richie (1949)

and

Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948)
Lillian Hellman (1905-1984)
Josephine Winslow Johnson (1910-1990)
Vikram Seth (1952)

Report on singing at the 2024 Bachfest in Leipzig

Well, the headline sums up the terrific experience that I and my colleagues in the Bach Cantata Choir had at the 2024 Bachfest in Leipzig. I hope that you enjoy reading my account and the brief reviews of other concerts I heard there. Here's the link to the article in Classical Voice North America.

Today's Birthdays

François Rebel (1701-1775)
Johann Wenzel Stamitz (1717-1757)
Carl Zeller (1842-1898)
Alfredo Catalani (1854-1893)
Sergei Taneyev (1856-1915)
Guy Lombardo (1902-1977)
Edwin Gerschefski (1909-1988)
Anneliese Rothenberger (1926-2010)
Elmar Oliveira (1950)
Philippe Manoury 1952)

and

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
Pauline Kael (1919-2001)
Tobias Wolff (1945)
Salman Rushdie (1947)

Today's Birthdays

Antonio Maria Bononcini (1677-1726)
Ignaz Pleyel (1757-1831)
David Popper (1843-1913)
Sir George Thalben-Ball (1896-1987)
Edward Steuermann (1892-1964)
Manuel Rosenthal (1904-2003)
Eduard Tubin (1905-1982)
Paul McCartney (1942)
Hans Vonk (1942-2004)
Anthony Halstead (1945)
Diana Ambache (1948)
Eva Marton (1948)
Peter Donohoe (1953)

and

Geoffrey Hill (1932-2016)
Gail Godwin (1937)
Jean McGarry (1948)
Chris Van Allsburg (1949)
Amy Bloom (1953)
Richard Powers (1957)

Today's Birthdays

John Wesley (1703-1791)
Charles Gounod (1818-1893)
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
Hermann Reutter (1900-1985)
Einar Englund (1916-1999)
Galina Ustvolskaya (1919-2006)
Sir Edward Downes (1924-2009)
Christian Ferras (1933-1982)
Gérard Grisey (1946-1998)
Derek Lee Ragin (1958)

and

M. C. Escher (1898-1972)
John Hersey (1914-1993)
Ron Padgett (1942)

Today's Birthdays

Niccolò Vito Piccinni (1728-1800)
Helen Traubel (1899-1972)
Willi Boskovsky (1909-1990)
Sergiu Comissiona (1928-2005)
Lucia Dlugoszewski (1931-2000)
Jerry Hadley (1952-2007)
David Owen Norris (1953)

and

Geronimo (1829-1909)
Joyce Carol Oates (1938)

Today's Birthday

Franz Danzi (1763-1826)
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)
Ernestine Schumann‑Heink (1861-1936)
Guy Ropartz (1864-1955)
Robert Russell Bennett (1894-1981)
Sir Thomas Armstrong (1898-1994)
Otto Luening (1900-1996)
Geoffrey Parsons (1929-1995)
Waylon Jennings (1937-2002)
Harry Nilsson (1941-1994)
Paul Patterson (1947)
Rafael Wallfisch (1953)
Robert Cohen (1959)

and

Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827)
Saul Steinberg (1914-1999)
Dava Sobel (1947)

Today's Birthdays

Antonio Sacchini (1730-1786)
Simon Mayr (1763-1845)
Nicolai Rubinstein (1835-1881)
John McCormack (1884-1945)
Heddle Nash (1894-1961)
Rudolf Kempe (1910-1976)
Stanley Black (1913-2002)
Theodore Bloomfield (1923-1998)
Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004)
Natalia Gutman (1942)
Lang Lang (1982)

and

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896)
Ralph Barnes (1899-1940)
John Bartlett (1820-1905)
Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971)
Ernesto (Che) Guevara de la Serna (1928-1967)
Jonathan Raban (1942)
Mona Simpson (1971)

Today's Birthdays

Anton (Antonín) Wranitzky (1761-1820)
Anton Eberl (1766-1807)
Elisabeth Schumann (1888-1952)
Carlos Chavez (1899-1978)
Alan Civil (1929-1989)
Gwynne Howell (1938)
Sarah Connolly (1963)
Alain Trudel (1966)

and

Frances Burney (1752-1840)
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
Mary Antin (1881-1949)
Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957)
William S. Burroughs (1914-1997)
Artem Chekh (1985)

In Leipzig, Germany, singing with the Bach Cantata Choir at the 2024 Bachfest

I am in Leipzig with the Bach Cantata Choir of Portland. We sang our hearts out at our concert yesterday at the Nikolaikirche (St. Nicholas Church) with our soloists: soprano Vakare Petroliūnaité, alto Hannah Penn, tenor Leslie Green, and bass Jacob Herbert along with the Leipzig Camerata Orchestra and wowed the audience. In attendance were the Bachfest Artistic Director Michael Maul and Ton Koopman. They and the audience of around 1,000 gave us a stomping standing ovation. So we responded with an encore Alice Parker's arrangement of "Hark I Hear the Harps Eternal," and that drew huge cheers of approval. So we did Portland proud... a great experience!

Now, I'm working on an article about the experience and the concerts that I've heard (including an opera) for Classical Voice North America. More on that later...

Today Birthdays

Vanni Marcoux (1877-1962)
Werner Josten (1895-1963)
Alexandre Tansman (1897-1986)
Leon Goossens (1897-1988)
Maurice Ohana (1913-1992)
Ian Partridge (1938)
Chick Corea (1941)
Oliver Knussen (1952)

and

Harriet Martineau (1802-1876)
Charles Kingsley (1819-1875)
Egon Schiele (1890-1918)
Djuna Barnes (1892-1982)
Anne Frank (1929-1945)

Today's Birthdays

Francesco Antonio Bonporti (1672-1749)
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
George Frederick McKay (1899-1970)
Hazel Scott (1920-1981)
Shelly Manne (1920-1984)
Carlisle Floyd (1926-2021)
Antony Rooley (1944)
Douglas Bostock (1955)
Conrad Tao (1994)

and

Ben Jonson (1572-1637)
William Styron (1925-2006)
Athol Fugard (1932)

Today's Birthdays

Heinrich von Herzogenberg (1843-1900)
Hariclea Darclée (1860-1939)
Frederick Loewe (1904-1988)
Ralph Kirkpatrick (1911-1984)
Tikhon Khrennikov (1913-2007)
Bruno Bartoletti (1925-2013)
Mark-Anthony Turnage (1960)

and

Gustave Courbet (1819-1877)
Terence Rattigan (1911-1977)
James Salter (1925-2015)
Maurice Sendak (1928-2012)

Review: Oregon Symphony and violinist Simone Porter tango into Buenos Aires

Cancelations by guest soloists has been an off-and-on-again thing for the Oregon Symphony’s 2023-2024 season. This time around double-bass extraordinaire Xavier Foley could was unable to make his scheduled appearance to perform Gerardo Moreira’s arrangement of Astor Piazzolla’s “Cuatros Estaciones Porteñas” (“The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires”). Ergo, behind the scenes, Clement So, Vice President for Programming at the Oregon Symphony, sprang into action and found up-and-coming violinist Simone Porter, who gave a gorgeous performance of the same piece in an arrangement by Leonid Desyatnikov at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on June 3rd.

Porter grew up in Seattle where she made her professional debut as a 10-year-old with the Seattle Symphony. The 28-year-old phenom now maintains an international schedule; ergo, the Oregon Symphony was lucky that she had an opening and knew the Piazzola like the back of her hand.

Piazzolla expressed the flavors of his hometown with a tango-esqe spin and – courtesy of Desyatnikov – occasional allusions to Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.” Porter fashioned numerous slinky-sounding zings and downward glissandos with elan. The piece offered lively contrasts between dissonant passages and more harmonious ones. Now and then, scratchy sounds gnawed at the texture of the music, adding to the colorful atmospheric collage that Porter and the orchestra created under the energetic baton of Music Director David Danzmayr.

Keeping the first half of the concert in South America, the orchestra presented the world premiere of “De mi tierra” (“Of my land”) by Giancarlo Castro D’Addona. D’Addona, who is from Venezuela where he was a start trumpeter in the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra. Now living in Portland, D’Addona has been making a name for himself as a composer, and one of his most recent compositions was performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel.

In his introductory remarks, Danzmayr said that one might imagine a city park in Venezuela where lots of people are engaged in daily activities. “De me tierra” certainly reflected a very active soundscape right from the get-go with congas, guiro/guira, and timpani leading the way. Boisterous waves of sound emanated from all parts of the orchestra with some tricky high notes for Principal Trumpet Jeffry Work. It was easy to imagine kids at play, people selling goods, and a festive air. Though the piece briefly quieted down a bit, it had a toe-tapping optimism that was infectious.

Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 (“Unfinished”) only has two movements, but they were played with exceptional passion in which every note, every phrase had an extra special significance. The double basses expressed a throbbing urgency. The horns and brass choirs glowed. The strings spun pure lyric beauty and the woodwinds cast a plaintive spell.

The orchestra under Danzmayr pulled out all of the stops for Richard Strauss’s Suite from “Der Rosenkavlier” in an arrangement by Artur Rodzinski. The opening bloomed with the horns leading the way into a robust romantic dalliance that might not have much difference to listeners who didn’t know the story of the opera. The lovely waltzes evoked a bygone era, and there was much passion in the music making except that one point an unexpected noise erupted when – I think, a clarinet reed – didn’t cooperate during a stirring forte passage. No matter, the orchestra, including evocative solos by Concertmaster Sarah Kwak and the principals created an enticing sonic-scape that made this reviewer want to see the opera.

Today's Birthdays

Anton Weidinger (1766-1852)
Otto Nicolai (1810-1849)
Alberic Magnard (1865-1914)
Carl Nielsen (1865-1931)
Cole Porter (1891-1964)
Dame Gracie Fields (1898-1979)
Ingolf Dahl (1912-1970)
Les Paul (1915-2009)
Franco Donatoni (1927-2000)
Charles Wuorinen (1938-2020)
Ileana Cotrubas (1939)

and

Baroness Bertha von Suttner (1843-1914)
George Axelrod (1922-2003)
Patricia Cornwell (1956)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1840, Franz Liszt gives a solo performance at the Hanover Square Rooms in London billed as "Recitals." This was the first time the term "recital" was used to describe a public musical performance, and it caused much discussion and debate at the time. Liszt is credited with both inventing and naming the now-common solo piano "recital."

Today's Birthdays

Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1750)
Nicolas Dalayrac (1753-1809)
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942)
Reginald Kell (1906-1981)
Emanuel Ax (1949)
Harold Meltzer (1966-2024)

and

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959)
John W Campbell (1910-1970)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1912, Ravel's ballet, "Daphnis et Chloé" was premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, by Diaghilev and the Ballet Russe, Pierre Monteux conducting.

Today's Birthdays

Leopold Auer (1845-1930)
George Szell (1897-1970)
Ilse Wolf (1921-1999)
Philippe Entremont (1934)
Neeme Järvi (1937)
Sir Tom Jones (1940)
Jaime Laredo (1941)
Prince (Prince Rogers Nelson) (1958-2015)
Roberto Alagna (1963)
Olli Mustonen (1967)

and

Paul Gaugin (1848-1903)
Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973)
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000)
Nikki Giovanni (1943)
Orham Pamuk (1952)
Louise Erdrich (1954)

Interview with John Malkovich and Alekesy Igudesman about The Music Critic at the Symphony - now in Oregon ArtsWatch

 I had a blast interviewing John Malkovich and Aleksey Igudesman about their upcoming show with the Oregon Symphony at the Schnitz. If I were not on tour with the Bach Cantata Choir in Europe, I would definitely attend this event and review it. You can check out my preview in Oregon ArtsWatch here. 

Today's Birthdays

Sir John Stainer (1840-1901)
Siegfried Wagner (1869-1930)
Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978)
Vincent Persichetti (1915-1987)
Iain Hamilton (1922-2000)
Serge Nigg (1924-2008)
Klaus Tennstedt (1926-1998)
Louis Andriessen (1939-2021)
Paul Esswood (1942)

and

Pierre Corneille (1606-1684)
Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837)
Thomas Mann (1875-1955)
Maxine Kumin (1925-2014)
Julian Mayfield (1928-1984)
Robert Pirsig (1928-2017)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1931, Henry Cowell's "Synchrony" received its premiere in Paris, at the first of two concerts of modern American music with the Orchestre Straram conducted by Nicholas Slonimsky and funded anonymously by Charles Ives. On the same program, Slonimsky also conducted the Orchestre Straram in the European premieres of works by Adolph Weiss ("American Life"), Ives ("Three Places in England"), Carl Ruggles ("Men and Mountains"), and the Cuban composer Amadeo Roldan ("La Rehambatamba").

Today's Birthdays

Arthur Somervell (1863-1937)
Robert Mayer (1879-1985)
Eduard Tubin (1905-1982)
Daniel Pinkham (1923-2006)
Peter Schat (1935-2003)
James Dick (1940)
Martha Argerich (1941)
Bill Hopkins (1943-1981)

and

John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946)
Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936)
Alfred Kazin (1915-1998)
David Wagoner (1926-2021)
Margaret Drabble (1939)
David Hare (1947)

Profile of Oregon Symphony Principal Bassoonist Carin Miller in Oregon ArtsWatch

 

A few weeks ago, I was able to meet with Carin Miller to discuss her upcoming performance with the Oregon Symphony. I wrote up a profile of her and her passion for the bassoon. It is now published for your reading pleasure in Oregon ArtsWatch here.

Review: Vancouver Symphony closes out the season with exciting Beethoven's 9th

iPhone photo by yours truly

It was great to see a full house at Skyview Concert Hall (June 1) for the Vancouver Symphony season finale. The parking lot was completely stuffed before concert time, and many drivers had frantic expressions on their faces as they realized that they would have to park in a nearby neighborhood.

Fortunately, a few introductory remarks allowed latecomers to find the few remaining seats before the downbeat of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. This was the first time in twenty years that the VSO had played the iconic work. This time around, the orchestra collaborated with the Portland Symphonic Choir and soloists: soprano Megan Belov, mezzo-soprano Grace Skinner, tenor Katherine Goforth and baritone Anton Belov. Music Director Salvador Brotons led the musical forces, impressively directing from memory.

The first movement of the Beethoven was played extremely well with the strings fashioning an exceptionally unified sound. When the brass section made its entry, it didn’t overpower the strings. Principal timpanist Florian Conzetti pummeled the kettle drums vigorously to create thunderous eruptions.

The intertwined themes in the second movement motored along smoothly, although it would have been more interesting if the phrases could have had more shape – like sometimes tapering off a bit at the end. Sometimes the orchestral balance got a little off centered, but the intricacies of each line came through very well.

The slow and elegant third movement received lovely playing – with the spotlight falling on the very exposed passage for the four horn, which he delivered in fine style. The refined and gentle mood came to an abrupt end with the dramatic blast at the beginning of the fourth movement. That took the music in a new direction and the voices of the singers leapt into action. That led to the grand, barn-burning finale with everyone going full tilt.

The choir was stuck about as far back as possible on the stage. The acoustical shell didn’t quite close the gap on the right side. That meant that the singers had to work a bit extra to project the sound over the orchestra. No problem. They were expertly prepared by Alissa Deeter and rose to the fierce demands of the piece, which requires the sopranos to make the double-forte crest of endless high Gs and As sound easy peasy. They did that and topped it off with a beautiful, centered tone. The alto, tenors, and basses matched them with gusto. The rolled r in Bruder from the men was absolutely stunning.

The soloists soared over the heights and depths of the piece. Megan Belov excelled, but shot a little out of bounds before landing nicely on the high B at the very end of the final quartet. Both Skinner and Goforth sculpted forceful passages. Anton Belov started with a racing vibrato, but smoothed it out. The soloists were place on a small platform in front of the stage, which meant that they had to rely on the big screen behind the audience to follow the conductor. That worked well except for one moment when Brotons suddenly decided to up the tempo. Being professions, the soloists quickly adjusted, and sailed on the rest of the way.

Even though Beethoven’s Ninth is well-known, projected titles of the German text with translation would have improved the concert experience. Of course, that would have been an added expense to an already pricey production. Otherwise, a sheet with the text would have been nice, but that would mean that the lights would have been turned up. Oh well, maybe next time.

Concertgoers really paid rapt attention to the entire piece. There was applause after each movement and an enthusiastic standing ovation at the end. People didn’t just applaud for a minute and leave. They stayed and generated a cascade of cheers for an outstanding job.

Now, let’s hope that the financial outlook for the orchestra continues onward and upward so that we don’t have to wait twenty more years for the next Beethoven Ninth.

Today's Birthdays

James Hewitt (1770-1827)
Evgeny Mravinsky (1903-1988)
Alan Shulman (1915-2002)
Robert Merrill (1917-2004)
Irwin Bazelon (1922-1995)
Oliver Nelson (1932-1975)
Anthony Braxton (1945)
Cecilia Bartoli (1966)

and

Josef Sittard (1846-1903)
Karl Valentin (1882-1948)
Robert Anderson (1917-2009)

Today's Birthdays

František Jan Škroup (1801-1862)
Charles Lecocq (1832-1918)
Jan Peerce (1904-1984)
Valerie Masterson (1937)
Curtis Mayfield (1942-1999)
Greg Sandow (1943)
Lynne Dawson (1956)

and

Josephine Baker (1906-1975)
Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997)
Larry Jeff McMurtry (1936-2021)

Today's Birthdays

James Cutler Dunn Parker (1828-1916)
Felix Weingartner (1863-1942)
Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
Jozef Cleber (1916-1999)
Samuel Jones (1935)
Marvin Hamlisch (1944-2012)
Mark Elder (1947)
Neil Shicoff (1949)
Michel Dalberto (1955)

and

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

and from The New Music Box:

On June 2, 1938, Amy Beach began work on her Piano Trio while in residence at the MacDowell Colony. She finished the composition fifteen days later (June 18th) and published it as her Op. 150. It was to be her last major work.

Today's Birthdays

Georg Muffat (1653-1704)
Ferdinando Paër (1771-1839)
Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857)
Werner Janssen (1899-1990)
Percy Whitlock (1903-1946)
Nelson Riddle (1921-1985)
Yehudi Wyner (1929)
Edo de Waart (1941)
Richard Goode (1943)
Frederica von Stade (1945)
Arlene Sierra (1970)

and

John Masefield (1878-1967)
Charles Kay Ogden (1889–1957)
Albert Starr (1926)
Naguib Surur (1932-1978)
Colleen McCullough (1937-2015)
Sheri Holman (1966)
Amy Schumer (1981)

Preview of Vancouver Symphony season finale in The Columbian

 

My preview of the Beethoven's Ninth season finale with the Vancouver Symphony and the Portland Symphonic Choir is available in The Columbian newspaper hereThe Columbian newspaper here.

Today's Birthdays

Marin Marais (1656-1728)
Louise Farrenc (1804-1875)
Billy Mayerl (1902-1959)
Alfred Deller (1912-1979)
Akira Ifukube (1914-2006)
Shirley Verrett (1931-2010)
Peter Yarrow (1938)
Bruce Adolphe (1955)
Marty Ehrlich (1955)

and

Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853)
Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
Clint Eastwood (1930)

Today's Birthdays

Riccardo Zandonai (1883-1944)
Jelly Aranyi de Hunyadvár (1893-1966)
Benny Goodman (1909-1986)
George London (1920-1985)
Gustav Leonhardt (1928-2012)
Pauline Oliveros (1932-2016)
Zoltán Kocsis (1952)
Anne LeBaron (1953)

and

Howard Hawks (1896-1977)
Colm Toibin (1955)

and from the New Music Box:

On May 30, 1923, 26-year-old composer and conductor Howard Hanson, who would later be one of the founders of the American Music Center, led the world premiere performance of his Nordic Symphony, the first of his seven symphonies and still one of his best-known works, in Rome during his residence as first holder of the American Rome Prize.

Today's Birthdays

Francesco Fanciulli (1853-1915)
Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909)
Rudolf Tobias (1873-1918)
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957)
Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001)
Helmuth Rilling (1933)
Michael Berkley (1948)
Linda Esther Gray (1948)
Melissa Etheridge (1961)

and

G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936)
Oswald Spengler (1880-1936)
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)
Steven Levitt (1967)

and

from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1913, Stravinsky's "Le Sacre du printemps" (The Rite of Spring) received its premiere performance in Paris, by Diaghilev's Ballet Russe, Pierre Monteux conducting.

Today's Birthdays

Thomas Arne (1710-1788)
Josiah Flagg (1737-1795)
Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
Giovanni Sgambati (1841-1914)
Sir George Dyson(1883-1964)
T-Bone Walker (1910-1975)
Nicola Rescigno (1916-2008)
György Ligeti (1923-2006)
John Culshaw (1924-1980)
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (1925-2012)
Richard Van Allan (1935-2008
Maki Ishii (1936-2003)
Elena Souliotis (1943-2004)
Levon Chilingirian (1948)

and

Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
Oswald Spengler (1880-1936)
Ian Flemming (1908-1964
May Swenson (1913-1989)
Walker Percy (1916-1990)

Review of Cascadia Composers concert in Oregon ArtWatch

This is more of a report than a review. It is now up and available for your reading pleasure on OAW here.

Today's Birthdays

Jacques Halévy (1799-1862)
Joseph Joachim Raff (1822-1882)
Louis Durey (1888-1979)
Claude Champagne (1891-1965)
Ernst Wallfisch (1920-1979)
Margaret Buechner (1922-1998)
(1928)
Donald Keats (1929-2018)
Elizabeth Harwood (1938-1990)
James Wood (1953)

and

Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910)
Wild Bill Hickok (1837-1876)
Isadora Duncan (1877-1927)
Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961)
Rachel Carson (1907-1964)
John Cheever (1912-1982)
John Barth (1930-2024)
Linda Pastan (1932-2023)

Today's Birthdays

Al Jolson (1886-1950)
Eugene Goossens (1893-1962)
Ernst Bacon (1898-1990)
Vlado Perlemuter (1904-2002)
Moondog (Louis Thomas Hardin) (1916-1999)
François‑Louis Deschamps (1919-2004)
Peggy Lee (1920-2002)
Joseph Horovitz (1926-2022)
Miles Davis (1926-1991)
Teresa Stratas (1938)
William Bolcom (1938)
Howard Goodall (1958)
Armando Bayolo (1973)

and

Aleksandr Pushkin (1799-1837)
Dorothea Lange (1895-1965)
Frankie Manning (1914-2009)
Alan Hollinghurst (1954)

and from the New Music Box:

On May 26, 1953, Aaron Copland appeared before the Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Review: Märkl and the Oregon Symphony explore the dreamworld in the French reportoire

Principal Guest Conductor Jun Märkl marvelously explored the world of dreams via several gems from the French repertoire in the most recent series of Oregon Symphony concerts. If only we could have had a couch on stage with Debussy, Chausson, or Berlioz reclining on it while their music was performed. Oh, and Tōru Takemitsu too. As Märkl explained in his introductory remarks (May 18) at the Arelene Schnitzer Concert Hall, perhaps our dreams allow us to get in touch with real emotions, which sometimes come out of a quiet place. That was especially the case in the first half of the show with Debussy and violinist Carolin Widmann’s playing of Takemitsu and Chausson. Sometimes the emotions don’t come out a of a quiet space, which was evident in the second half with Berlioz’s “Symphonie fantastique,” one of the greatest dream-to-scream rollercoaster rides ever written.

Making her debut with the Oregon Symphony, Widmann cast a spell with an evocative performance of Takemitsu’s “Far Calls. Coming, Far!” The award-winning German alternated smoothly between straight, glassy tones and tones that had some vibrato. Sometimes her lines arced high about the sustained, low drone from the orchestra, and she executed a terrific cadenza that seemed to fly hither and yon. The piece seemed to emerge at times out of nothing and then acquire a shimmering quality that was almost mystical.

Chausson’s “Poème” received a lovely, meditative performance by Widmann and the orchestra. She conveyed lovely melodic themes that transitioned seamlessly from introspective passages to those that were more extrovertedly rhapsodic. The piece ended with Widmann extending an elegant and fairly wide vibrato, which gracefully suggested an expanding vastness before it vanished.

Märkl’s graceful podium style worked effortless wonders in Debussy’s “Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un faunet” (“Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun”). Conducting from memory, Märkl deftly elicited the colors and sensations of a legendary half-man-half-beast creature and his midday musings. The wandering lines from the flute (Martha Long) amidst tinkling bells marvelously conveyed the idyllic ambiance.

Led by Märkl, the orchestra superbly expressed the extreme emotional ups and downs of unrequited love in the “Symphony fantastique.” Wonderfully shaped phrases from the strings in first movement, ‘Reveries and Passions’ with tempestuous interruptions – followed at one point by the double basses descending into the basement of the soul but finishing with the orchestra going full blast – revealed the tumultuous state of the main character who has fallen in love. In the second movement, ‘A Ball,’ the orchestra created a beguiling waltz that concluded in a swirl of hope. The third movement, ‘In the Country’ was perfectly played with Assistant Principal Oboe Karen Wagner sitting somewhere in the far reaches of the upper balcony, exchanging phrases with English Horn Benjamin Brogadir. The entire orchestra swung into action – two sets of timpani, two big bass drums, four bassoonists, full brass section – with gusto (Principal Tuba JáTtik Clark exuding the raspiest of low notes) in the third movement, ‘March to the Scaffold.’ The musicians expertly created the jeering, mocking, and scary sounds in the fourth, ‘Dream of the Witches’ Sabbath’ with Principal Percussion Michael Roberts tapping the two huge bells – rented from the Dallas Symphony – positioned in the loft above the orchestra. The sound of the bells was a bit too piercing, but perhaps that would be sort of how you would hear it if you were on a drug-induced trip (reflective of the circumstances of the main character in the music’s storyline).

Märkl, directing the hour-long work from memory, was in his element. He was at the helm that last time that the orchestra performed this masterpiece. Märkl’s website shows his complete discography, but it does not include the “Symphony fantastique.” Hmm, a recording with the Oregon Symphony would be just the thing…

Today's Birthdays

Thomas "Blind Tom" Wiggins (1849-1908)
Miles Davis (1926-1991)
Beverly Sills (1929-2007)
Franco Bonisolli (1937-2003)

and

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
Theodore Roethke (1908-1963)
Raymond Carver (1938-1988)
Jamaica Kincaid (1949)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1944, Arturo Toscanini conducts the combined NBC Symphony and New York Philharmonic in a benefit concert of music by Wagner, Verdi, and Sousa at the old Madison Square Garden. The concert raised $100,000 for the Red Cross. During an intermission auction, New York mayor Fiorello LaGuardia auctioned off Toscanini's baton for $10,000.
I wonder where that baton is today...

Today's Birthdays

Paul Paray (1886-1979)
Joan Hammond (1912-1986)
Hans‑Martin Linde (1930)
Maurice André (1933-2012)
Harold Budd (1936-2020)
Bob Dylan (1941)
Konrad Boehmer (1941-2014)
Fiona Kimm (1952)
Paul McCreesh (1960)

and

William Trevor (1928-2016)
Joseph Brodsky (1940-1996)
Declan Kiberd (1951)
Michael Chabon (1963)

Today's Birthdays

Andrea Luchesi (1741-1801)
Ignaz Moscheles (1794-1870)
Louis Glass (1864-1936)
Edmund Rubbra (1901-1986)
Artie Shaw (1910-2004)
Jean Françaix (1912-1997)
Alicia de Larrocha (1923-2009)
Robert Moog (1934-2005)
Joel Feigin (1951)

and

Margaret Fuller (1810-1850)
Margaret Wise Brown (1910-1952)
Jane Kenyon (1947-1995)

Today's Birthdays

Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
Johann Schrammel (1850-1893)
Minna Keal (1909-1999)
Sun Ra (1914-1993)
George Tintner (1917-1999
Humphrey Lyttelton (1921-2008)
Claude Ballif (1924-2004)
John Browning (1933-2003)
Peter Nero (1934-2023)

and

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930)
Laurence Olivier (1907-1989)
Peter Matthiessen (1927-2014)

and from the New Music Box:

On May 21, 1893, in an lengthy article published in the New York Herald titled "Real Value of Negro Melodies," Bohemian composer Antonin Dvorak, during his three-year sojourn in the United States, prognosticated that the future of American music should be based on "negro melodies" and announced that the National Conservatory of Music, where he was serving as Director at the time, would be "thrown open free of charge to the negro race." It was to be the first of a total of seven articles in the Herald in which Dvorak expounded these ideas which provoked comments ranging from incredulity to denunciation by composers and performers around the world including Anton Bruckner, Anton Rubinstein and John Knowles

Review of PYP concert with four world premieres published in Oregon ArtsWatch

 

The adventurous PYP organization recently performed a concert of new works. You'll find my review of it in OAW here.

Review: Lazarova and Trpčeski create spellbinding music with the Oregon Symphony

I’ve heard enthusiastic applause, cheers, and piercing whistles from the audience after a great performance by the Oregon Symphony, but the electrifying concert by the orchestra of Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony under guest conductor Delyana Lazarova at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall (May 13) elicited a huge roar! The Bulgarian basically blew everyone away with her mesmerizing talent on the podium. I have to admit that even this jaded critic was bowled over by Lazarova’s communication with musicians and the concertgoers. She unleashed an articulate and dynamic style that elicited a superb and memorable interpretation of the Dvořák. It was felt by the orchestra as well, because they were practically stomping on the floor when she came out to take a bow a third time, and Concertmaster Sarah Kwak didn’t get up from her chair so that Lazarova could enjoy the vociferous acclaim from all corners of the hall.

What Lazarova accomplished with the orchestra was not easy, because the Dvořák followed an outstanding performance by Simon Trpčeski of Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini,” which also generated a big, boisterous response from the audience. Trpčeski, who is a native of Macedonia, played the piece flawlessly and with a wonderful polish. Streams of notes flew by effortlessly, leaving a beautiful sheen that lingered briefly. Trpčeski was in a zone of perfection. Even when a cell phone went off during the climatic pause of the lovely and famous cadenza in the 18th variation didn’t bother him a bit.

Trpčeski followed the Rachmaninoff with two encores. The first was “Piperkovo Oro” (“Paprika Dance”), a perky improvisational excerpt from the project Makedonissimo. The second, an arrangement of Rachmaninoff’s “Vocalise,” was exquisitely performed as a duet with Kwak.

The concert began with Bulgarian-British composer Dobrinka Tabakova’s “Timber & Steel,” which was written in 2019 an homage to conductor Henry Wood, who founded the Proms, the very popular summer music series at Royal Albert Hall. “Timber & Steel” opened with ripping runs an octave apart on two marimbas. Vigorous, propulsive passages for the entire orchestra joined in, forming an exciting sonic collage that was punctuated now and then by the timpani. Sustained tones from the basses provided an anchor, and all the forces quieted down to pizzicato-ing strings and an oddly beguiling tune from the woodwinds. Then the motor machine-like sound started up again, returning to the two marimbas and a morse code of high notes from the trumpets that led to a grand finale.

The orchestra is playing at the top of its game, and it is benefitting from outstanding guest conductors like Lazarova and Poska, who led the orchestra in its previous concert series, and amazing soloists like Trpčeski and violinist Kerson Leong (also from the previous series). During intermission, I ran into Alan Pierce, who played trombone with the orchestra for many years. Unsolicited, he mentioned the very high quality of the music making here and misses it (he now lives in Reno, Nevada).

Today's Birthdays

Joseph Parry (1841-1903)
Thomas "Fats" Waller (1904-1943)
Gina Bachauer (1913-1976)
Maurice André (1933-2012)
Heinz Holliger (1939)
Rosalind Plowright (1949)
Linda Bouchard (1957)

and

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)
Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
Henri Rousseau (1844-1910)
Andrei Sakharov (1921-1989)
Robert Creeley (1926-2005)

Review: Fear No Music's Monologues and Dialogues concert

Fear No Music closed out its 32nd season at The Old Church (May 6) with another on-the-edge-of-the-precipice concert entitled Monologues and Dialogues. It featured five recent works by women composers - which by the way means that FNM presented 26 women composers this past season. Kudos to FNM’s artistic leaders, Kenji Bunch and Monica Ohuchi, who have a terrific knack for finding fresh and engaging works!

The first piece on the concert program was the most unusual and daring. If featured soprano Maddy Ross and flutist Amelia Lukas performing “Only The Words Themselves Mean What They Say” which is the second movement of a longer work by Kate Soper called “Ipsa Dixit” (“she, herself, said it”) (2016). Soper’s piece expresses text from the poetry of Lydia Davis by having the singer switch back and forth from a sprechstimme to singing, with no particular melodic line. The flutist also alternates between playing the bass flute and speaking parts of the text, and sometimes singing into the flute.

Ross’s uncanny ability to jump from a spoken line to stratospheric notes – coupled with Lukas’ wizardry with extended techniques on the flute to create unusual sounds – made “Only The Words Themselves Mean What They Say” a mesmerizing number. I didn’t get all of the words, but it seemed that some of it had to do with a breakup in which a man told a woman to “go away” and “You should not come back ever!” Ross and Lukas filled the air with anger and panic and other transitory emotions. It was almost overwhelming to hear but very powerful.

Returning the audience to a much calmer space, violist Kenji Bunch played Reena Esmail’s “Take What You Need.” This brief piece, written in 2016 by the Indian-American composer, has lyrics that are kind of like meditative words to help you focus on your breathing. But the lyrics weren’t needed while Bunch wove a gentle melody occasionally slipping in eloquent glassy tones with no vibrato then changing to a lower, throaty sound.

Lukas played Gemma Peacocke’s “Fear of Flying” for flute and fixed electronics. A native of New Zealand, Peacocke wrote the piece on commission from Bang on a Can during the pandemic in 2020. It was inspired by an eponymous poem by Teresia Teaiwa in Gilbertese, which is an Oceanic language spoken in the islands of Kiribati in the South Pacific. The electronics provided a background of rhythmic beats while Lukas executed brief, lyrical flights up an down the flute, eliciting an ephemeral yet pleasant atmosphere.

Ross and pianist Jeff Payne, performed Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s “Hvolf” (“Dome”) (2009), a setting of a poem of the same title by Sigurbjörg Prastardottir. A single note on the piano was followed by a single tone from the singer with words that may or may not have mattered. According to the program notes, the piece was meant to evoke the Norther Lights on a cold night. The slow-moving style of the piece and the zero-vibrato of the singer’s voice made me think of an ice floe drifting slowly across an inland sea. The music generated feelings of isolation and introspection, but I especially enjoyed the blurry, fog-bound chord from the piano towards the end of the piece. That was mystical.

The atmosphere lightened up considerably when pianist Monica Ohuchi and violist Bunch launched into “Suite in Jazz Style” by Bulgarian-British composer Dobrinka Tabakova (2009). In the first movement, the bouncy syncopations from the piano interacted well with the viola, which transitioned from pizzicatos to a slinky sound. The second fashioned a lazy, relaxed mood that was underscored by a gnawing sound from the viola. The third started with quick, rhythmic rapping on the side of the keyboard. The uptempo barreled ahead with Ohuchi and Bunch travelling along paths that seemed to crisscross and diverge before arriving at a big, virtuosic cadenza that Bunch tossed off with elan. The duo then swept into the finale with gusto.

So now that FNM has given us Monologues and Dialogues, what’s next? Ah... Soliloquies

Today's Birthdays

Hephzibah Menuhin (1920-1981)
George Hurst (1926-2012)
Karl Anton Rikenbacher (1940-2014)
Tison Street (1943)
Joe Cocker (1944-2014)
Cher - Cherilyn Sarkisian (1946)
Sue Knussen (1949-2003)
Jane Parker-Smith (1950)
Emma Johnson (1966)

and

Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

Today's Birthdays

Johann Jacob Froberger (1616-1667)
Nellie Melba (1859-1931)
Kerstin Thorborg (1896-1970)
Sandy Wilson (1924-2014)
Pete Townshend (1945)
Stephen Varcoe (1949)

and

Malcom X (1925-1965)
Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965)
Nora Ephron (1941-2012)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1886, the American premiere of J.S. Bach's Mass in B minor (11 selections) was given during the May Festival in Cincinnati, conducted by Theodore Thomas. The next documented performance (12 sections) was given in Boston on February 27, 1887, by the Handel and Haydn Society, with Carl Zerrahn conducting a chorus of 432 and an orchestra of 50. In both the 1886 Cincinnati and 1887 Boston performances, the famous 19-century German soprano Lilli Lehmann appeared as one of the soprano soloists. The first complete performance of the work was apparently given either at the Moravian Church in Bethlehem on Mar 17, 1900, by the Bach Choir under J. Fred Wolf, or at Carnegie Hall in new York on April 5, 1900, by the Oratorio Society, Frank Damrosch conducting.

Today's Birthdays

Johann Jakob Froberger (1616-1667)
Francesco Maria Piave (1810-1876)
Karl Goldmark (1830-1915)
Ezio Pinza (1892-1947)
Henri Sauguet (1901-1989)
Meredith Willson (1902-1984)
Sir Clifford Curzon (1907-1982)
Perry Como (1912-2001)
Boris Christoff (1914-1993)
Mikko Heiniö (1948)

and

Omar Khayyam (1048-1131)
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
Walter Gropius (1883-1969)
Frank Capra (1897-1991)
Margot Fonteyn (1919-1991)
Tina Fey (1970)

Pianist Orli Shaham to perform chamber music concert with members of the Vancouver Symphony (WA)

 

Orli Shaham, the Vancouver Symphony’s first-ever artist in residence, will collaborate with the orchestra in a special chamber music concert on Sunday afternoon. Shaham, who teaches at The Julliard School of Music, is an acclaimed pianist with many CD recordings, including upcoming releases of the final two volumes of the complete piano sonatas by Mozart.

This Sunday afternoon (May 19) at the First Presbyterian Church in Vancouver, Shaham will collaborate with members of the Vancouver Symphony to perform Mozart's “Divertimento in D major”, Haydn’s “Piano Concerto in D major”, and Mozart’s “Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor.”

I spoke with Shaham via Zoom to find out more about the concert. Here’s transcription of our conversation, which has been lightly edited.

James Bash: So tell us about the programming of this concert. Why did you pick these pieces?

Orli Shaham: These pieces center around D major and D minor. The Mozart “Divertimento” sets up a delightful character for the strings. It’s quite lyrical and fun. Mozart’s toys with the listeners’ emotions, leading you a certain way and then pulling a surprise.

The Haydn concerto is much in the same way, and he wrote it in the happy key of D major. The Haydn is deeply beautiful and sparingly written in places, but it also gives you a rollicking good time with its Hungarian, folksy flavor. It was just a little subversive and risqué for his patrons and other listeners that he was writing for. Haydn wrote for an audience of wealthy people that he knew very well. He has no qualms when he pokes fun at them.

The Mozart concerto is the polar opposite. It’s filled with great emotional energy and pathos. It has feeling of angst and is unsettled – very intense. It is one greatest concertos in the repertoire and is one of my desert island pieces. When the piano first comes in, it comes in not at all with any of the material that we’ve heard from the orchestra. And that piano opening was one of the reasons I want to become a pianist when I was a little kid. When I heard my older brother, Shai, learning it, I thought that it was the piece that I wanted to play some day. I had to play that instrument and that piece!

I feel that Haydn was in many ways more experimental than Mozart. Haydn really knew his audience and dares them and takes his music a little out of bounds. Mozart can take you to the same places, but he stays within the lines, But what he is able to do with that is emotionally so colorful and vivid and so varied! Mozart was writing for the aristocrats just as Haydn did, but Mozart also for the newly formed public that was coming into existence and learning things and buying concert tickets.

JB: Have you performed the Haydn and Mozart concertos a lot?

OS: I’ve played the Haydn since I was nine years old, and I’ve played the Mozart more than any other concerto.

JB: Will you be conducting from the keyboard?

OS: Yes, but only for the concerti. I’ll conduct the "Divertimento" like a normal conductor.

JB: When was the first time that you conducted a professional orchestra from the keyboard?

OS: That was in 2002 with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall.

JB: Conducting must run in the family, since you are also married to David Robertson.

OS: Now our two teenage sons want to become conductors!

JB: Wonderful! We wish you well with the concerts!

OS: Thank you! It will be a lot of fun to make music with the Vancouver Symphony!

Today's Birthdays

Erik Satie (1866-1925)
Werner Egk (1901-1983)
Sandor Vegh (1905-1997)
Birgit Nilsson (1918-2005)
Dennis Brain (1921-1957)
Peter Mennin (1932-1983)
Taj Mahal (Henry St. Claire Fredericks Jr.) (1942)
Paul Crossley (1944)
Brian Rayner Cook (1945)
Bill Bruford (1949)
Ivor Bolton (1958)

and

Dorothy Richardson (1873-1957)
Alfonso Reyes (1889-1959)
Gary Paulsen (1939-2021)

and from the New Music Box:

On May 17, 1846, Belgian-born instrument builder and clarinetist Adolphe Sax patents the saxophone, an instrument that would have a profound impact on American jazz. Over a century later, on May 17, 1957, a computer was used to make music for the first time.

Review of Oregon Rep Singers and Choral Arts Ensemble concerts in Oregon ArtsWatch

Oregon ArtsWatch just published a double review of recent Oregon Repertory Singers and Choral Arts Ensemble concerts. You can access it on OAW here.

Today's Birthdays

Richard Tauber (1891-1948)
Ivan Vishnegradsy (1893-1979)
Jan Kiepura (1902-1966)
Woody Herman (1913-1987)
Liberace (1919-1987)
Friedrich Gulda (1930-2000)
Betty Carter (1930-1998)
Donald Martino (1931-2005)
Robert Fripp (1946)
Monica Huggett (1953)
Andrew Litton (1959)

and

Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718-1799)
Friedrich Rückert (1788-1866)
Louis "Studs" Terkel (1912-2008)
Adrienne Rich (1929-2012)

and from the New Music Box:

On May 16, 1907, Miller Reese Hutchison filed an application at the U.S. Patent Office for his invention, the motor-driven Diaphragm Actuated Horn and Resonator, for use in automobiles. The patent was granted on May 3, 1910. The carhorn would later be used as a musical instrument by numerous composers ranging from George Gershwin in An American in Paris (1928) to Wendy Mae Chambers who developed a Car Horn Organ in 1983.

Today's Birthdays

Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
Michael William Balfe (1808-1870)
Lars-Erik Larsson (1908-1986)
Arthur Berger (1912-2003)
John Lanchbery (1923-2003)
Ted Perry (1931-2003)
Richard Wilson (1941)
Brian Eno (1948)

and

L. Frank Baum (1856-1919)
Arthur Schnitzler (1862-1931)
Katherine Anne Porter (1890-1980
Peter Shaffer (1926-2016)
Jasper Johns (1930)
Laura Hillenbrand (1967)

and from The New Music Box:

On May 15, 1972, the Concord Quartet premiered George Rochberg's String Quartet No. 3 at Alice Tully Hall in New York City. Rochberg, an established serialist composer, shocked the compositional scene by returning to tonality in this composition. Many cite this premiere as the birth of neo-romanticism.

Review(s) of Classical Up Close concerts posted on Oregon ArtsWatch

 This article for Oregon ArtsWatch has four reviews of Classical Up Close concerts. I was not able to get to the final two CUC concerts, but I think you will get the gist of this fantastic musical extravaganza.

Today's Birthdays

Otto Klemperer (1885-1973)
Sidney Bechet (1897-1959)
Lou Harrison (1917-2003)
Aloys Kontarsky (1931-2017)
Peter Skellern (1947-2017)
Maria de La Pau (1950)
Helen Field (1951)
David Byrne (1952)

and

Hal Borland (1900-1978)
Mary Morris (1947)

Preview of Bach Cantata Choir's season ending concerts - in preparation for Leipzig Bach Festival

 

My latest preview piece - this time for the Bach Cantata Choir - is now available one at oregonlive.com here. It will be in the print edition of The Oregonian this Friday.

Today's Birthdays

Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900)
Constantin Silverstri (1913-1969)
William Schwann (1913-1998)
Gareth Morris (1920-2007)
Ritchie Valens (1941-1959)
Jane Glover (1949)
Stevie Wonder (1950)
David Hill (1957)
Tasmin Little (1965)

and

Daphne du Maurier (1907-1989)
Bruce Chatwin (1940-1989)
Kathleen Jamie (1962)

and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1875, the American premiere of J.S. Bach's "Magnificat" took place during the May Festival in Cincinnati, conducted by Theodore Thomas. The Cincinnati Commercial review of May 14 was not favorable: "The work is difficult in the extreme and most of the chorus abounds with rambling sub-divisions. We considering the ‘Magnifcat' the weakest thing the chorus has undertaken . . . possessing no dramatic character and incapable of conveying the magnitude of the labor that has been expended upon its inconsequential intricacies. If mediocrity is a mistake, the ‘Magnifcat' is the one error of the Festival". Thomas also conducted the next documented performance in Boston on Mar. 1, 1876 (for which composer John Knowles Paine performed as organ accompanist to a chorus of 300).

Today's Birthdays

Johann Baptist Wanha (Vanhal) (1739-1813)
Franz Anton Hoffmeister (1754-1812)
Giovanni Viotti (1755-1824)
Jules Massenet (1842-1912)
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
Sir Lennox Berkeley (1903-1989)
Burt Bacharach (1928-2023)
Lajos Balogh (1931)
Anthony Newman (1941)
Dalmacio Gonzalez (1945)
Doris Soffel (1948)
Jory Vinikour (1963)

and

Edward Lear (1812-1888)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882)
Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)
Rosellen Brown (1939)

Today's Birthdays

Jan Václav (1791-1825)
Anatoly Liadov (1855-1914)
Alma Gluck (1884-1938)
Irving Berlin (1888-1989)
William Grant Still (1895-1978)
Robert Johnson (1911-1938)
Ross Pople (1945)
Judith Weir (1954)
Cecile Licad (1961)

and

Martha Graham (1894-1991)
Mari Sandoz (1896-1966)
Salvador Dali (1904-1989)
Francisco "Paco" Umbral (1932-2007)

Today's Birthdays

Jean‑Marie Leclair (1697-1764)
Max Steiner (1888-1971)
Dmitri Tiomkin (1894-1979)
Maybelle Carter (1909-1978)
Artie Shaw (1910-2004)
Richard Lewis (1914-1990)
Milton Babbitt (1916-2011)
Maxim Shostakovich (1938)
Lori Dobbins (1958)

and

Karl Barth (1886-1968)
Fred Astaire (1899-1987)
Barbara Taylor Bradford (1933)

and from The New Music Box:

On May 10, 1987, David Lang, Michael Gordon and Julia Wolfe produced the first-ever Bang on a Can Marathon, a twelve-hour concert at the SoHo gallery Exit Art combining music by Milton Babbitt, Steve Reich, John Cage, George Crumb, Lois V Vierk, Lee Hyla, Aaron Kernis, Phill Niblock and others.

Today's Birthdays

Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816)
Adolph von Henselt (1814-1889)
Jacques Singer (1910-1980)
Carlo Maria Giulini (1914-2005)
Nigel Douglas (1929-2023)
Billy Joel (1949)
Michel Beroff (1950)
Joy Harjo (1951)
Linda Finnie (1952)
Anne Sofie von Otter (1955)
Alison Hagley (1961)

and

James Matthew Barrie (1860-1937)
Alan Bennett (1934)
Charles Simic (1938-2023)

PSU Steinway Piano Series: Pianist Tom Hicks to replace Oxana Yablonskaya in May 2024 Residency

From the Press Release:

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the PSU Steinway Piano Series has reconfigured its Spring 2024 Residency. The Series will no longer be hosting Oxana Yablonskaya this May, but instead, will proceed with events by featuring the “brilliantly evocative” (International Piano) pianist Tom Hicks. The Series’ founder and director, Susan Chan writes, "We will greatly miss our experiences this spring with the legendary pianist Oxana Yablonskaya, but hope to reschedule a visit with her soon. In the meantime, we look forward to welcoming the incredibly impressive Tom Hicks to PSU for what promise to be beautiful and impactful performances and masterclasses.”

Tickets already purchased for the May 10th PSU Steinway Piano Series recital remain valid. Should anyone who has already purchased tickets to the recital wish to relinquish their ticket and receive reimbursement due to this program change, they may make this request by contacting the Box Office at 503-725-3305 or tickets@pdx.edu.

Spring 2024 Residency: Friday - Sunday, May 10 - 12

CONCERT:

Music at Night starring Tom Hicks

This program, inspired by the night, shares works for the piano that are dreamy and atmospheric, and also includes nightmares and fantasies. The concert begins with several of Chopin’s most celebrated nocturnes, before exploring other beloved works of the genre by Scriabin, Debussy, Fanny Mendelssohn, and Clara Schumann. Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata concludes what promises to be a popular program with finger-twisting fireworks.

Friday, May 10 at 7pm - PSU Lincoln Recital Hall, Room 75
$25 General Admission; $10 Students, Seniors, PSU Faculty/Staff, OMTA teachers

GUEST ARTIST MASTER CLASS:

With guest pianist Tom Hicks and featuring current and former PSU students

Saturday, May 11, 7 pm - PSU Lincoln Recital Hall, Room 75
FREE and open to the public

FACULTY MASTER CLASS:

With PSU piano faculty Susan Chan and featuring students from the community

Sunday, May 12, 2 pm - PSU Lincoln Recital Hall, Room 75
FREE and open to the public

TICKETS: Available at pdx.edu/music-theater/steinway-piano-series

Today's Birthdays

Carl Philipp Stamitz (1745-1801)
Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869)
Mary Lou Williams (1910-1981)
Heather Harper (1930-2019)
Carlo Cossutta (1932-2000)
Keith Jarrett (1945)
Felicity Lott (1947)

and

Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784)
Edmund Wilson (1895-1972)
Gary Snyder (1930)
Thomas Pynchon (1937)
Roddy Doyle (1958)

All Classical Radio's Recording Inclusivity Initiative to release second album, ELEVATE

 

From the Press Release:

PORTLAND, OR - All Classical Radio announces the release of ELEVATE, the second installment from its award-winning Recording Inclusivity Initiative, GRAMMY® award-winning Navona Records, and PARMA Recordings. ELEVATE will be released digitally on all streaming platforms on May 10. CDs will also be available later in the year.

ELEVATE is a testament to the power of composers and musicians uplifting each other. The recording brings to life the sonatas of Japanese composers Yuko Uébayashi and Nobu Kōda, and a string quartet by Damien Geter, with performances by leading classical performers: pianist María García, All Classical Radio's 2022-2023 Artist in Residence; Yoko Greeney, piano; Jennifer Arnold, viola; Martha Long, flute; Nancy Ives, cello; Emily Cole, violin; Inés Voglar Belgique, violin; and Ruby Chen, violin. All the tracks were recorded in Portland, OR.

To address the inequities in the classical music recording industry, the Recording Inclusivity Initiative is highlighting music from underrepresented communities to build a more diverse and inclusive soundscape around the world. The album follows AMPLIFY, released in 2022.

About the Composers and their Music 
Yuko Uébayashi (b. 1958) – Sonata for Flute and Piano
The music of Japanese-born composer Yuko Uébayashi is described as impressionistic, while also evoking Japanese film music. When creating her pieces, Uébayashi often starts with someone specific in mind, drawing inspiration from the artistry of fellow prominent musicians. She only accepts commissions from people with whom she feels a distinct connection.

Written between 2002-2003, Uébayashi’s Sonata for Flute and Piano, in four movements, is dedicated to flutist Jean Ferrandis and pianist Emile Naoumoff. A highly personalized piece, the sonata offers a challenging, albeit rewarding, opportunity to explore the composer's evocative musical language.

Nobu Kōda (1870-1946) – Sonata in E-Flat Major; Sonata in d minor
Nobu Kōda (1870-1946) is historically significant for composing some of the first works ever written by a Japanese composer in the Western style. After graduating from the Tokyo Music School, Kōda became the first student to receive a government grant to study abroad, first in Boston, then in Vienna. In 1895, she returned home and joined the staff at the Tokyo Music School.

Several of Kōda's known works were written during her tenure there, including her Sonata in E-Flat Major (1895), in three movements, and the single-movement Sonata in d minor (1897) for violin and piano. After nearly 15 years of teaching at the institution, Kōda resigned because of rejection and criticism from her male colleagues. She spent the rest of her career instructing female members of the royal court. Kōda's legacy lies in her role as a musical forerunner.

Damien Geter – String Quartet No. 1, Neo-Soul
Damien Geter is a composer, actor, and bass-baritone. In his compositions, he focuses on social justice, uplifting and also challenging his audiences.  He thoughtfully infuses classical music with styles from the Black diaspora, such as jazz, gospel, and rhythm and blues.

Commissioned by All Classical Radio in 2020, Neo-Soul was the precursor of the Recording Inclusivity Initiative, driven by the need to build a more diverse and inclusive soundscape in America. The quartet is an ode to the genre of music that became popular in the 1990s and put a spin on the classic sound of soul. The piece consists of three movements: I. "Bop"; II. "Feelin' Some Type of Wayz"; and III. "Please Don't Kill My Vibe."

About the Recording Inclusivity Initiative
All Classical Radio’s Recording Inclusivity Initiative is a response to the classical music industry’s longtime need for greater diversity, with the purpose of increasing awareness and opportunities for previously marginalized artistic communities. The Recording Inclusivity Initiative was made possible in part by the generous support of the Oregon Cultural Trust, The Sorel Organization, the Regional Arts and Culture Council, and IBEW Local 48. Learn more at recordinginclusivity.allclassical.org.

About All Classical Radio
All Classical Radio is an independent, community-funded radio station and multimedia platform with international reach. It is consistently ranked in the United States' top three classical radio stations. The network is recognized for its bold collaborations and outreach, and for broadcasting 98% locally-produced programming, including innovative music playlists, interviews, and live broadcasts. Home to the award-winning Recording Inclusivity Initiative and the International Children's Arts Network, All Classical Radio is one of the first classical stations in the nation to name artists in residence and to develop robust youth journalism mentorships. Learn more at www.allclassical.org.

Martha Long and María García recording Yuko Uébayashi: Sonata for Flute and Piano

Today's Birthdays

Carl Heinrich Graun (1704-1759)
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Piotr Ilych Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Anton Seidl (1850-1898)
Edmond Appia (1894-1961)
Elisabeth Soderstrom (1927-2009)
Cornelius Cardew (1936-1981)
Philip Lane (1950)
Robert Spano (1961)

and

Olympe de Gouge (1748-1793)
Robert Browning (1812-1889)
Archibald MacLeish (1892-1962)
Angela Carter (1940-1992)
Peter Carey (1943)

and from The New Music Box:

On May 7, 1946, Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering is founded with about 20 employees. The company, later renamed Sony, would eventually invent the home video tape recorder, the Walkman and the Discman, as well as take-over Columbia Records, later CBS Records, which under the leadership of composer Goodard Lieberson (1956-1973) released numerous recordings of music by American composers.
and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1824, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 ("Choral") was premiered at the Kärntnertor Theater in Vienna, with the deaf composer on stage beating time, but with the performers instructed to follow the cues of Beethoven's assistant conductor, Michael Umlauf.

Today's Birthdays

William Walker (1809-1875)
Jascha Horenstein (1898-1973)
George Perle (1915-2009)
Godfrey Ridout (1918-1984)
Murry Sidlin (1940)
Ghena Dimitrova (1941-2005)
Nathalie Stutzmann (1965)
Teddy Abrams (1987)

and

Robert Peary (1856-1920)
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
Gaston Leroux (1868-1927)
Randall Jarrell (1914-1965)
Orson Wells (1915-1985)

Today's Birthdays

Stanislaw Moniuszko (1819-1872)
Hans Pfizner (1869-1947)
Maria Caniglia (1905-1979)
Louis Kaufman (1905-1994)
Kurt Böhme (1908-1989)
Charles Rosen (1927-2012)
Mark Ermler (1932-2002)
Tammy Wynette (1942-1998)
Bunita Marcus (1952)
Cédric Tiberghien (1975)

and

Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
Nellie Bly (1864-1922)
Christopher Morley (1890-1957)
James Beard (1903-1985)
Kaye Gibbons (1960)

From the New Music Box:

On May 5, 1891, Walter Damrosch led the New York Philharmonic in the very first concert in the large auditorium at Carnegie Hall, now called Stern Auditorium. The program consisted entirely of European repertoire: Beethoven’s "Leonore Overture No. 3," Berlioz’s "Te Deum," Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky "Festival Coronation March" (with the composer making a guest appearance on the podium), the hymn "The Old One Hundred" and "My Country 'Tis of Thee" (then America's unofficial national anthem although the tune is that of the British anthem "God Save The Queen").

This was not actually the first concert in the building, however. On April 1, Liszt-pupil Franz Rummel had already given an all-European solo piano recital in the space that now holds Zankel Hall. The oldest known program for the third of Carnegie's stages, what is now called Weill Recital Hall, a chamber music concert produced by the Society for Ethical Culture, dates back to October 31, 1891 and included the song "At Twilight" by the American composer Ethelbert Nevin.

Review: Oregon Symphony elicits lovely Mendelssohn with Leong and shines with Poska

 

Photo credit: Jason Quigley

Canadian virtuoso Kerson Leong gave a superb performance of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with the Oregon Symphony (April 29) at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. So did guest conductor Kristiina Poska, who collaborated expertly with Leong and also inspired the orchestra with drive and precision in works by Britten and Beethoven.

Both Leong and Poska made their Oregon Symphony debuts int the concert series over the weekend despite busy schedules. Leong gave master classes in Rome, Italy just a few days before flying to Portland, replacing Baiba Skrida, who withdrew for personal reasons. Before coming to Portland, Poska spent the prior weekend conducting the Minnesota Orchestra.

The artistic resumes of Leong and Poska are impressive. Leong (age 27) won the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition in 2010 and has enjoyed an international career ever since. Estonian-born Poska (age 45) is the Chief Conductor of the Flanders Symphony Orchestra, the Principal Guest Conductor of the Latvian National Symphony, and in 2025 will become the Music Director of the Orchestre Français des Jeunes. She is the first female conductor to be named to those positions.

Leong delivered everything you could want in the Mendelssohn. He evoked the grandeur and beautify of each phrase, tailoring his sound down to silvery thread during the most delicate passages and expanding it with elan to the boldest ones. The entire piece was incredible well-shaped with impeccable articulation of quicksilver lines that required the utmost in technical virtuosity.

Listeners eagerly paid attention of all of the nuances of this beloved piece, and rewarded Leong with a standing ovation and many bravos, which brought him back to center stage several times. Leong responded with an encore, Francisco Tárrega’s “Recuerdos de la Alhambra” (‘Memories of the Alhambra”) in an arrangement for violin by Ruggiero Ricci. With the constant wistful tremolo against a countering tic-toc line, it seemed as if two people were playing instead of just one, and all was immaculately rendered by Leong. That caused another round of vociferous applause.

Under Poska, the orchestra created the hauntingly vivid moods of Britten’s “Four Sea Interludes” from his opera “Peter Grimes.” The sound of waves crashing into a rocky shoreline while seagulls circled and cried painted an isolated and beautiful, but tragic scene. Sometimes the music pulsated with anticipation, and stormy fourth movement, with its snarly brass and ascendent strings pitching everything into the heavens subsided into a quiet morass before getting whipped up into a tempestuous finale.

Poska also ardently commanded the orchestra, evoking an outstanding performance of Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony. Impressively conducting from memory, she deftly sculpted the piece from beginning to end, eliciting terrific dynamics that kept the music fresh – like hearing the double-basses in the first movement. Attacks were sharp, and pauses were precise. The lyrical lines had an wonderful ebb and flow, and the wicked solo that Principal Cellist Nancy Ives executed – with lovely horn accompaniment – in the third movement was a highlight.

One interesting point about Poska is that she is left-handed, but she enjoyed using her right hand very effectively, throwing jabs and punches to elicit crisp attacks from the musicians. She conveyed each piece with judicious tempos so that the Britten and Beethoven never dragged. Amidst loud applause from the audience, she graciously signaled recognition for contributions by individuals and sections of the orchestra.

I hope that we will see Leong and Poska on the stage at the Schnitz in a return engagement in the very near future.

Today's Birthdays

Marianne (Anna Katharina) von Martínez (1744-1812)
Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731)
Emil Nikolaus Von Reznicek (1860-1945)
Mátyás Seiber (1905-1960)
Tatiana Nikolayeva (1924-1993)
Roberta Peters (1930-2017)
Gennadi Rozhdestvensky (1931-2018)
Marisa Robles (1937)
Enrique Batiz (1942)
Peter Ware (1951)

and

Horace Mann (1796-1859)
Frederick Church (1826-1900)
Graham Swift (1949)
David Guterson (1956)

Today's Birthdays

Alessandro Stradella (1639-1682)
Richard D'Oyly Carte (1844-1901)
Marcel Dupré (1886-1971)
Bing Crosby (1903-1977)
Sir William Glock (1908-2000)
Léopold Simoneau (1916-2006)
Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
John Lewis (1920-2001)
James Brown (1933-2006)
Jonathan Harvey (1939-2012)

and

Niccol Machiavelli (1469-1527)
Jacob Riis (1849-1914)
May Sarton (1912-1995)
William Inge (1913-1973)
Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000)

From the New Music Box:

On May 3, 1943, William Schumann received the very first Pulitzer Prize for Music for his Secular Cantata No. 2 - A Free Song, a work published by G. Schirmer and premiered by the Harvard Glee Club, the Radcliffe Choral Society, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Serge Koussevitzky on March 26, 1943.
and from the Composers Datebook:

On this day in 1971, debut broadcast of National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" was made with an electronic theme by composer Don Voegeli of the University of Wisconsin (In 1974, Voegeli composed a new electronic ATC theme, the now-familiar signature tune of the program).

Preview of Portland Columbian Symphony's Latin American concert in OAW

 

My preview of this weekend's PSCO concert is now posted on Oregon ArtsWatch here. I hope that you enjoy reading it.

Today's Birthdays

Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)
Jean‑Baptiste Barrière (1707-1747)
Ludwig August Lebrun (1752-1790)
Hans Christian Lumbye (1810-1874)
Carl Michael Ziehrer (1843-1922)
Lorenz Hart (1894-1943)
Alan Rawstorne (1905-1971)
Jean‑Marie Auberson (1920-2004)
Arnold Black (1923-2000)
Horst Stein (1928-2008)
Philippe Herreweghe (1947)
Valery Gergiev (1953)
Elliot Goldenthal (1954)

and

Jerome K Jerome (1859-1927)
Dr. Benjamin Spock (1904-1998)

Today's Birthdays

Marco da Gagliano (1582-1643)
William Lawes (1602-1645)
Sophia Dussek (1775-1831)
Hugo Alfvén (1872-1960)
Leo Sowerby (1895-1968)
Jón Leifs (1899-1968)
Walter Susskind (1913-1980)
Gary Bertini (1927-2005)
Judy Collins (1939)

and

Joseph Addison (1672-1719)
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955)
Joseph Heller (1923-1999)
Bobbie Ann Mason (1940)