Zach Carstensen (who writes for the excellent NW music blog collective The Gathering Note) posted the following comment to my first post on Shostakovich’s Viola Sonata: I suppose it is well known that Shostakovich’s failing health made the sonata one of the composers sparsest works of music. Yet, I have always thought the piece reminds
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I’m playing the Shostakovich Viola Sonata Op. 147 on Sunday afternoon, and I’ve been searching various printed volumes and the internet for more information about its genesis and about Shostakovich’s life in general. I stumbled upon the following, a letter written by the then president of the Soviet Composers’ Union, Boris Tischenko. It was found
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I opened my in box yesterday to find the following response to my post about the 2007-2008 season from OSO music director Carlos Kalmar. He has allowed me to print it in it’s entirety. I think it’s a thoughtful response, and one that might prove informative and illuminating. I’ve included my response to his email
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Third Angle may soon need a Fourth Angle to supplement all of their recent activities, especially in the recording studio – read all about it here.
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This should be a great concert, featuring some of Portland’s best classical musicians – I’ll actually be there for this one! An Evening of Majestic and Transformative Chamber Music Thursday, May 29 @ 8 PM The Old Church 1422 SW 11th Ave., Portland, OR Program: Shostakovich: Quintet for Piano & Strings Gerald Cohen: Trio for
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OK, the holiday weekend is over, a (slight) chance to relax was had, and now it’s time to take a retrospective look back at the 2007-2008 season from the point of view of an on stage musician. Overall, my major impression from the season is that I had to learn quite a bit of unfamiliar
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There was no denying it, Saturday was the perfect day to go for a ride. My quandary was that I also needed to have energy to practice, so an ‘epic’ ride was not in order. So, I decided to tackle a route that has long fascinated and scared me: Terwilliger Blvd.
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I thought I’d start off next Monday by taking a retrospective at the 2007-2008 OSO season, both on stage and off. But for now, a list of the works we performed this season on the Classical Subscription and Inside the Score series. I’m always somewhat dumbfounded when I look through a list like this after
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David Stabler has a gripping blog entry about trumpeter Jay Chen, whose brother and his family live in the city of Chengdu, about 50 miles from the epicenter of the recent magnitude 7.8 earthquake. I cannot imagine the hell of having to wait for three days to know if my brother and his family were
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Ride of Silence – Portland-4.jpg | Originally uploaded by BikePortland.org click photo to enlarge Thursday evening a Ride of Silence was held in Portland to remember fallen cyclists from the past year. A worthy endeavor in which I wish I’d been able to take part. For more coverage and info see bikeportland.org.
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Columnist Joel Stein of the Los Angeles Times has written a great column on how to become an annoying, insufferable, classical music snob. It’s quite a funny read, and oh so true. My favorite bit is his concert experience with Mahler’s Sixth Symphony: I downloaded Leonard Bernstein’s version of Mahler’s Sixth and read the Wikipedia
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a far cry, a conductorless string orchestra from Boston, will be making a Portland stop on their West Coast tour tonight, May 23 at the First Unitarian Church downtown at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 and $20. You can order tickets online at Brown Paper Tickets. My friend LC recommended this group to me, as
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…must come to an end, and so, today is the last day of work for us at the Oregon Symphony until the 2008-2009 season begins in late August. Fittingly, tonight’s concert is a thank you to all of our hard working donors and volunteers who have helped to keep the OSO in business for yet
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This is a bit on the late side, I know, but I promised that I’d give myself a small breather after the last set of classical series concerts before I wrote about them. First, Olivier Messiaen’s L’Ascension for orchestra. It’s not a work that I was familiar with before the rehearsals began, and it was
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(AP Photo/Herbert Knosowski) This afternoon the Berlin Philharmonie, the renowned (both acoustically and visually) concert home of the Berlin Philharmonic, had its roof catch fire due to (purportedly) a welding mishap. The full extent of the damage is not yet known, but according to the Times, the Berlin fire service reports that the main auditorium
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