Today's Birthdays

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

and

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

Today's Birthdays

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

and

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

Principal wind players show their stuff in Oregon Symphony concert with guest conductor Hans Graf

Seven principal wind players from the Oregon Symphony delivered an impressive performance of Frank Martin’s “Concerto for Seven winds and Orchestra on Monday evening (November 7) at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. They were the main attraction in a concert that also featured Hans Graf, the Conductor Laureate of the Houston Symphony, in his debut with the orchestra. Martin’s quirky piece, which some scholars have described as a blend of Stravinsky and Ravel, was placed between two Romantic constructs: Schumann’s “Overture, Scherzo, and Finale” and Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony (“Pastoral”). All three pieces were played with keen sensibility by the orchestra, but fine performances by the soloists in the Martin deserved highest praise.

The soloists in the “Concerto for Seven Winds and Orchestra” were Martha Long, flute, Martin Hébert, oboe, James Shields, clarinet, Carin Miller Packwood, bassoon, John Cox, French horn, Jeffrey Work, trumpet, and Daniel Cloutier, trombone. They conveyed the fragmentary and percussive musings of the piece with élan. In a way, it was an elegant series of mutterings, stutterings, and sporadic utterings that came across as a conversation with the orchestra. There were no lyrical phrases to hang your hat on. The soloists expressed brief statements in pairs (for example, flute and clarinet or oboe and bassoon), trios, and other groupings. Most of the soloists deftly played at least one series of treacherously high notes that were way out of the normal range. Shields executed several ultra-smooth and soft entries. Cloutier wonderfully created the mellow and almost sad trombone line at the end of the second movement. Work delivered a lick that reminded me of a circus number. To top it all off at the end of the piece, Jonathan Greeney expertly handled a wicked timpani part.

The concert began with Schumann’s “Overture, Scherzo, and Finale” which he didn’t classify as a symphony because it doesn’t have a slow movement. The orchestra deftly conveyed the ponderous opening before breaking free into lovely melody followed by a series of sweeping phrases that are dotted with rising glissandos. The third alternated smartly between a stuttering march and a gentle bucolic melody. The third was vigorously playful and ended with a strong, joyful finale. Throughout the piece, the orchestra seamlessly transitioned from smooth, elongated phrases to sudden, punchy ones that jabbed left and right, giving Schumann’s music a polished and glowing interpretation.

Graf showed a somewhat restrained style as he guided the musicians through Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony. He didn’t use big round-house gestures during the famous thunderstorm movement, but one of his most overt gestures was to the bass violins to play louder towards the end of the final movement.

The orchestra responded to Graf with great depth and feeling. Some audience members might have noticed that the principals who had played in the Martin got the night off… well, everyone except Shields who filled in at second clarinet. Lovely lyrical playing by the entire ensemble created the brook-side setting, including some impeccable bird songs by the woodwinds. The rustic barn dance had a good-nature stomp to it, topped off by sections with lighter footwork. The thunderstorm was bracing and expertly set up the tables for the smooth ride into the final movement.

Today's Birthdays

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

and

Roland Barthes (1915-1980)
Michael Ende (1929-1995)
Tracy Kidder (1945)

From the New Music Box:

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

Today's Birthdays

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

and

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

Today's Birthdays

Martin Luther (1483-1546)
François Couperin (1668-1733)
Graham Clark (1941)
Sir Tim Rice (1944)
Andreas Scholl (1967)

and

Oliver Goldsmith (1730 - 1774)
Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805)
Vachel Lindsey (1879-1931)

Today's Birthdays

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

and

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

Today's Birthdays

Sir Arnold Bax (1883-19530
Lamberto Gardelli (1915-1938)
Jerome Hines (1921-2003)
Richard Stoker (1938)
Simon Standage (1941)
Judith Zaimont (1945)
Tadaaki Otaka (1947)
Elizabeth Gale (1948)
Bonnie Raitt (1949)
Ana Vidović (1980)

and

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

Ethereal harp concertos elevate Vancouver Symphony's all-French program

Valerie Muzzolini Gordon, Principal Harpist of the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera, delivered sublime performances of concertos by Gabriel Pierné and Claude Debussy with the Vancouver Symphony on Saturday afternoon (November 5) at Skyview Concert Hall. Her playing highlighted an all-French program that featured Debussy’s “Nocturnes” with the women of the Vancouver USA Singers and the Suite No. 2 from Maurice Ravel’s ballet “Daphnis and Chloé.” All of the works were led by the orchestra’s Music Director, Salvador Brotons.

Muzzolini Gordon’s interpretation of Pierné’s “Concert Piece for Harp and Orchestra” was a pure delight. Her impeccable playing elicited lovely melodies and a lush, translucent quality that was heavenly. The brief cadenzas and the softest sections of the piece added to the enchantment. The simultaneous video projection of her hands onto the large screens on either side of the stage combined marvelously with the beautiful music to entrance the audience. No one coughed while she played.

After intermission, Muzzolini Gordon delivered a magical performance of Debussy’s “Sacred and Profane Dances.” The radiant chords of the sacred portion of the music evoked a divine timelessness. The profane or secular portion had the feathery lightness of a waltz. Superb accompaniment by the orchestral strings allowed Muzzolini Gordon to bring out many dynamic nuances, which made the music immensely enjoyable. Again, the listeners were totally mesmerized by her facile technique, and she drew sustained, enthusiastic applause after the piece ended.

In the orchestra’s performance of the Second Suite from Ravel’s “Daphnis and Chloé,” it was easy to imagine the rising of the sun over a pastoral landscape. The fluttering flutes created babbling brooks and birds flying about. The orchestra suggested the outline of a story that depicted the love between the young shepherd Daphnis and the beautiful shepherdess Chloé. The wildness of the general dance that celebrates their love went a bit awry with the oboes, but it did get off the ground and the orchestra succeeded in generating an enchanting swirl.

Brotons rearranged the program order, starting the concert with Debussy’s “Nocturnes,” an atmospheric piece with contrasting orchestral colors. In the first movement, “Clouds,” the orchestra created impressions of light and dark shadows that slowly changed. Mysterious rising tones from the English horn, and the expert playing of Principal Flutist Rachel Rencher helped to evoke the changing sky. The second movement, “Festivals,” was peppered with perky woodwinds and a brash brass section. The third, “Sirens” meshed the wafting sonorities of the women of the Vancouver USA Singers with the sounds that ebbed and flowed from the orchestra. Some slippage in the intonation of the violins and cellos in the first movement interfered with the sonic texture, but the spirit of the music still managed to shine.

Today's Birthdays

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

and

Marie Curie (1867-1934)
Albert Camus (1913-1960)
Stephen Greenblatt (1943)

Review of Portland Symphonic Choir's performance of Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil

Guest review by Phillip Ayers

On a somewhat rainy Sunday afternoon (October 30), a sell-out crowd entered the rather obscure premises of the Adrianna Hill Grand Ballroom in downtown Portland. This hall, never mentioned in the printed program, proved to be, if not the best place for this performance, then certainly an interesting one, causing some whom this reviewer spoke with to remark "Well, it's a 'first'!" The Portland Symphonic Choir has performed Sergei Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil both at St. Mary's Cathedral and St. Mary's Church in Mount Angel, each church with far better acoustics than we experienced this weekend.

As of last season, the choir is performing in various venues around town, where before St. Mary's Cathedral provided space for most of the choir's concerts. Still, it was a grand performance in that small, tight, non-airy space (windows were opened before Sunday's performance, probably to avoid what had happened the night before when a singer fainted). This reviewer sat in the balcony, dimly lighted and draped with some sort of netting, next to a bar. Surrounding me were concert-goers sipping glasses of wine. Whether or not this is conducive to attentive and active listening to such an important, profoundly moving work of music is up for grabs. One could wax cynical here, but I digress ….

To the music itself, then. No effort is spent to realize, as the person next to me did as she was hearing this for the very first time, that this is a choral work that can move one to tears if open to its power to enchant (and I'm not speaking only of the Znammenny, Kiev, or Greek chants!) and move one emotionally. Tears came right away, as I've sung this twice with the choir when I was a member in my previous life. This music simply "hits you squarely" right away with a wonderful "call to worship" (in Reformed parlance): Steven Zopfi, the choir's Artistic Director and author of the full and excellent program notes and analyses, wrote that each invocation of this "call" begins with the marmoreal sound of full, loud chorus. I had to look up marmoreal in a dictionary when I got home: it comes from the Latin for "marble." So, marble-like sound? Yes, and marble floors in the hall would have resounded with that rich sound far better than wood did.

This opening movement, as well as much of the whole work, requires the choir's "wall of sound," about which I have written in every review of the choir's performances that I've been privileged to hear and to review. Sadly, I did not perceive that "wall" Sunday afternoon, as much as before when in larger performance venues. Still, the tears came to my eyes and I settled in for the next hour and a half (including an intermission, which I found totally redundant and distracting. I suppose there had to be an interval to allow people have a respite and to guzzle more wine).

Guest mezzo-soprano, Ruth Ginell Heald, performed her solos in front of the choir, entering from the side. In the second movement, "Bless the Lord, O My Soul," she was a bit overpowered by the chorus. At times, the final syllable in the "Alleluiyas" was too much, and accuracy in pronunciation and attacks was lacking at times in this movement. Outside noise, through the open windows behind the choir, was distracting as well; but we weren't feeling stuffy either, which was probably a good thing.

In the fourth movement "Gladsome Light," the Phos Hilaron at Vespers or Evensong/ Evening Prayer in the Anglican tradition, was gloriously sung. Tenor Daniel Morrill, a member of the choir's tenor section, shone here, as well as his other work in the concert. It is surprising and delighting to read in his biography in the program that he had his first voice lesson six years ago and became a paid staff singer with the choir two years later. He possesses a fine instrument and presence. In this particular movement, he stayed at his place in the choir, moving to the front later on. This movement is one the oldest hymn-texts in Christian liturgy and it was sung to Kiev melody. Rachmaninoff indulged in a departure from "traditional" sounds here, as noted by Zopfi in his notes.

The following movement, with the text known to Western Christians as the Nunc Dimmitis, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace" - Simeon's song as the Savior was presented in the Temple. In Old Slavonic it works just as well as the Latin or the English, in fact more authentically, in the Kiev melody. The tenor soloist again provided a touching, lovely ambiance to this canticle. This part ends with the lowest note in the Vespers: a B-flat below low C; it was executed subtly and well by a few basses, not groaned out as is often the case in other performances. I told a bass friend after the performance that it was as though I was seated at the table of a lovely gourmet meal, tasting a subtle, rich morsel!

"Rejoice, O Virgin," as Zopfi notes is the quietest of the five numbers that form the Vespers portion of the vigil liturgy. It is a hymn to the Virgin Mary, named in Orthodoxy, Theotokos, or God-Bearer. And it could have been even more quietly than it was. Tenor and alto sectional "solos" were touching, again moving me to tears as they were so carefully and subtly executed.

"Six Psalms," the seventh movement, is the Western Gloria in excelsis, or song of the angels at the birth of Jesus. The pealing Slavas (or "Glories") from the choir are sung to harmonies which would have seemed suspiciously modern in 1915, the year of composition, as Zopfi notes in his commentary.

If tempted to sleep during the quieter movements, the eighth would awaken the deepest sleeper. Khvalite imya, gospodne. Alliluiya! it begins: "Praise[Laud] ye the name of the Lord, Alleluia!" This movement is part of Matins, a night Office of prayer, anticipating dawn. Here again was Znamenny chant in bold octaves, sung by basses and altos while tenors and sopranos accompany it. The driving rhythms are bold and hold attention, riveting the listener.

The Resurrection of Christ from the dead is central to Orthodox Christianity and it is obviously declaimed in the ninth movement, "Blessed Art Thou O Lord." It is a lively narration, using various forces of the full chorus and occasional tenor solo. The mood-change with Zelo rano mironositsy techakhu (Very early came the myrrh-bearing women) is striking and one can almost envision the angel at the tomb saying "The time of your mourning is past; do not lament any more, but go and tell the apostles that he is risen." The wonderful folk-like chant Svyat, syvat, syvat, yesi Gospodi. I nyne, I priso, I vo veki vekov, Amin' (Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Sabaoth …) is sung by the men, joyfully and strongly.

Men and women alternate in verses of the tenth movement, a hymn in praise of the resurrection. Unison and harmonic singing alternate as well; it ends in a blast of sound with a coda that is to die for, Smertiyu smert' razrushi (Conquering death by death)! This is followed by what the Western Church calls Magnificat (My soul magnifies the Lord), with basses singing the melody while the scherzo-like refrains are sung by the sopranos, altos and tenors. Rachmaninoff carefully harmonized each refrain differently. There were some small intonation problems here, maybe caused by fatigue or over-concentration.

The longest and most complex movement in the liturgy followed, Slava v vyshnikh Bogu (Glory be to God on high), the Western Gloria in excelsis with added prayers at is end. There is a marvelous segue from the Gloria to the prayers that contain portions of what Western Christians know as portions of the Te Deum (We praise Thee, O God), "Let thy merciful kindness, O Lord, be upon us, as our trust is in Thee"). Fragments of Psalms 119 and 90 close this movement, followed by the familiar Trisagion (Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy and Immortal One, have mercy on us) with a Gloria Patri. Nothing but pure, unadulterated praise here!

Three hymns close out the work, the first two dealing with the resurrection and the last with hymning the Virgin. The fourteenth movement is so serene that the listener craves more of it, and the whole work closes with a jolly Greek chant melody, a hymn to the Theotokos, the God-Bearer, "Heaven-elected chieftain of triumphant hosts … thou who bearest God!" This movement really belonged to the sopranos, who shone like stars, drawing this heavenly work to its close.

Even with a few "wobbly" intonations, quickly righted, the general discomfort in that setting, the wine-swilling, and the not-so-present-as-before Wall of Sound, I gladly stood with the rest of the audience in applause and bravi, in joyful acclamation and thanksgiving for the choir's performance. Much goes into performing this work: careful pronunciation of the Old Slavonic liturgical language - not pronounced like modern Russian; attention to so many nuances in vocal technique; and the peculiar exposure of a non-accompanied lengthy piece of music. Gleefully greeting some dear and old friends who persevere in the choir directed by one of the best choral directors, Steven Zopfi, my afternoon drew to a brilliant close. What a joy it is to listen to PSC! And you can, over and over, by purchasing the CD that the choir produced in 2008!

Today's Birthdays

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

and

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

From The Writer's Almanac:

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

Oregon Symphony tricks and treats with eclectic program

Photo by Jack Dine

On Saturday evening (October 29th) at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, the Oregon Symphony offered an eclectic program with music that ranged from the sensitive pastoral to the edgy and boisterous. In a way, program matched up very well with Halloween weekend , because it had a trick or treat flavor to it, as the orchestra’s Music Director Carlos Kalmar pointed out in his introductory remarks to the audience. The first half of the program delivered the trick with some in-your-face music from Leoš Janáček and Sergei Prokofiev. The second offered sweetness with Joseph Swensen playing Barber’s Violin Concerto and the tart-yet-sugary expanse of Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D minor” in an arrangement for orchestra by Leopold Stokowski.

The sublimely lyrical playing of Swensen held the audience in rapt attention during the first two-thirds of the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra. Impeccable phrasing by Swensen was matched perfectly by the orchestra, transporting listeners to a restful and sumptuous place in their imagination. Swensen often had a blissful smile on his face as he listened to the orchestra during the sections where he didn’t have to play. That atmosphere was jolted aside in the final movement, when Swensen turned into a perpetual motion machine, displaying an immaculate facile technique as he whipped his way through a seemingly endless blizzard of notes.

Based on Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s semi-autobiographical novel, Janáček’s opera “From the House of the Dead” takes place in a prison where his main characters are in chains. The Overture to the opera, which the Oregon Symphony played as the first piece on its concert program, contains some thematic material from the opera, but it’s a terrific freestanding piece, and the orchestra nailed its heavy and dramatic emotion with pinpoint playing. The jagged, surging lines, the brief flights of fancy from Concertmaster Sarah Kwak, the billowing chords, and the tragic finality as expressed by the brass at the closing measures were among the highlights of the piece.

Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 3 also has operatic underpinnings, because it was derived from “The Fiery Angel,” an opera that is a “study of neurotic female sexuality set in Reformation Germany,” according to the “New Penguin Opera Guide.” The story follows the obsession that a girl has with an angel, hysterical visions, a transfer of the angel’s spirit to a human, a duel that goes badly, heavy doses of guilt, a convent, nuns, and finally condemnation, torture, and death. Although the opera was never performed in Prokofiev’s lifetime, he distilled much of his music into his Third Symphony, which the Oregon Symphony played with gusto.

After a bombastic opening statement, the first movement of the Third Symphony featured an ultra-smooth clarinet passage, gusty and solemn waves of sound from the lower strings, leading phrases from the bass trombone ( Charles Reneau), and a wonderful melody (perhaps the angel) from the woodwinds that gradually faded into the distance. In the second movement, the orchestra created impressions of climbing and falling with the strings executing clipped glissandos and a sliding sound that finished with a zing. The third offered a piccolo (Zachariah Galatis) entry that crept in from nowhere, a seeming tug-of-war between the strings and the brass, and loud, rising phrases from the brass and French horns. The fourth had an incredibly dissonant, big whacks by Niel DePonte on the big bass drum, ominous colors from the woodwinds and low strings, and a demonic frenzy of a finale. The piece left everyone scorched in their seats.

Stokowski’s imaginative arrangement of Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D minor” received a terrific performance from the Oregon Symphony with basses rumbling, flutes bubbling, the contra-bassoon (Evan Kuhlmann) cranking, the violins, violas, and cellos in fleet harmony, the brass registering a grand expansiveness, the percussion adding a dollop on top. The many exchanges of phrases from one section to another were seamlessly smooth and included marvelous flexes in tempo. Under Kalmar’s baton the orchestra pulled out all the stops to make the piece a superior-grade crowd-pleaser.

Today's Birthdays

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

and

Ida M. Tarbell (1867-1944)
Raymond Duchamp-Villon (1876-1918)
Thomas Flanagan (1923-2002)
Sam Shephard (1943)
Vandana Shiva (1952)
Diana Abu-Jabar (1960)

Today's Birthdays

Arnold Cooke (1906-2005)
Elgar Howarth (1935)
Joan Rodgers (1956)
Elena Kats-Chernin (1957)
Daron Hagen (1961)

and

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

From the New Music Box:

On November 4, 1964, Terry Riley's In C was first performed at the San Francisco Tape Music Center by an ensemble including Steve Reich, Pauline Oliveros, Ramon Sender, Morton Subotnick and Jon Gibson. In a review published in the San Francisco Chronicle four days later which was the first published acknowledgement of minimalist music, Alfred Frankenstein hailed "On C" [sic] as a masterpiece, writing: "At times you feel you have never done anything all your life long but listen to this music and as if that is all there is or ever will be but it is altogether absorbing, exciting, and moving, too."

Arnaldo Cohen to serve on finals jury of Van Cliburn International Piano Competition

Portland Piano International's Artistic Director, Arnaldo Cohen, will be serving on the Finals Jury of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The application deadline for participating pianists has passed. There are 290 pianists who are trying to make it to the next round of 140 on December 13th. A series of live screenings will narrow the field down to the few who make it to the competition in Fort Worth (May 25- June 10, 2017) where they will have to play before the Finals Jury, which consists of:

Leonard Slatkin (chairman, United States)
Arnaldo Cohen (Brazil)
Jean-Phillipe Collard (France)
Christopher Elton (United Kingdom)
Marc-André Hamelin (Canada)
Joseph Kalichstein (Israel/United States)
Mari Kodama (Japan)
Anne-Marie McDermott (United States)
Alexander Toradze (Georgia/United States)

Today's Birthdays

Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654)
Vincenzio Bellini (1801-1835)

and

Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571)
William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878)
Walker Evans (1903-1975)
Terrence McNally (1939)
Martin Cruz Smith (1942)
Joe Queenan (1950)

Astoria Music Festival presents special concert this Friday

From the Press Release:

Internationally acclaimed cellist Sergey Antonov

GOLD MEDAL WINNER International Tchaikovsky Competition (Moscow)

Internationally acclaimed pianist Ilya Kazantseva

GOLD MEDAL WINNER Nikolai Rubinstein International Competition (Paris)

Together at the intimate Liberty Theater for an evening of classical music with a dash of cool!

The Astoria Music Festival will present two internationally acclaimed artists in a special concert on Friday, November 4, 2016 at 7:30 pm in Astoria’s Liberty Theater. A gala Artists Reception for patron ticket holders follows the concert at Carruthers, Astoria’s newest gourmet restaurant immediately adjacent the theater.

The concert will feature Sergey Antonov, youngest cellist to win Moscowʼs prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition and an Astoria Music Festival audience favorite, and pianist Ilya Kazantsev, First Prize Winner at the Nikolai Rubinstein International Competition in Paris, the International Chopin Competition in Moscow and two-time winner of the World Piano Competition in Cincinnati.

This performance provides North Coast audiences an opportunity to hear a celebrated international musical team in the intimate surroundings of the Liberty Theater. The pair regularly appear together in the worldʼs finest concert halls and have become popular members of the Astoria Music Festival roster each summer. Sergey Antonov is a longtime favorite of Festival audiences; where his accomplishments have included concertos, chamber music, solo recitals, children’s concerts, and summiting Mt. Hood with Astoriaʼs music-loving radiologist Dr. William Armington and Israel Nebeker, leader of Astoria-based popular recording group Blind Pilot.

The program features sonatas by Saint-Saens and Benjamin Britten, as well as shorter showpieces for cello and piano.

PROGRAM

Camille Saint-Saëns Cello Sonata No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 32
The turbulent Cello Sonata No. 1, which makes full use of the lower registers of both cello and piano, reflects the composer’s sadness at the loss of a beloved family member and at the state of France following Napoleon III’s crushing defeat by Prussia at Sedan in 1870. 

Benjamin Britten Cello Sonata, Op. 65
This sonata is Britten's first of five major works written for Sergey Antonov’s celebrated teacher Mstislav Rostropovich. In the timbre and counterpoint of Scherzo-Pizzicato movement, one can immediately detect indebtedness to the Indonesian Balinese gamelan tradition. The virtuosic Moto Perpetuo final movement uses the “DSCH” motif (D-E flat-C-B natural) as a coded tribute to the name Dmitri Shostakovich, the composer who inspired Britten to write for cello.

TICKETS

Ticket Prices: $40 Patron Reserved Seats and Post-Concert Reception at Carruthers. $25 General Admission. $5 Student.

Ticket are available from the Liberty Theater Box Office, 1203 Commercial Street, Astoria, 97103, Wednesday through Saturday from 2:00PM to 5:30PM, by phone at (503) 325-5922 EXT. 55, or online at http://www.liberty-theater.org

Tickets are also available from TICKETS WEST at (503) 224-8499 or (800) 922-8499. Tickets purchased through Tickets West are subject to a convenience charge and may be held at Will-Call on the night of performance to avoid shipping charge.

For additional information, phone the Astoria Music Festival office at (503) 325-9896 or online at www.astoriamusicfestival.org.

Today's Birthdays

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

and

Thomas Mallon (1951)

Today's Birthdays

Carl Loewe (1796-1869)
Charles Valentin Alkan (1813-1888)
Ray Henderson (1896-1970)
Klaus Huber (1924)
Gunther Herbig (1931)
Walter Weller (1939-2015)
Radu Lupu (1945)
Semyon Bychkov (1952)

and

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
Mark Twain (1835-1910)
L(ucy) M(aud) Montgomery (1874-1942)
Naomi Mitchison (1897-1999)
Jacques Barzun (1907-2012)
A. R. Gurney (1930)
David Mamet (1947)