This weekend brought the first of an onslaught of holiday-themed programming for the month of December. We’ve been enjoying the vocal stylings of the Von Trapp Family Singers (the actual great-grandchildren of the stars of the musical and movie) and the cool arrangements of our principal pops conductor Jeff Tyzik (the Little Bolero Drummer Boy
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Jennifer Koh – Photo © Janette Beckman It’s been amazing, watching violinist Jennifer Koh play the Brahms Violin Concerto with us this weekend. During the rehearsals, she was controlled, a bit reticent, and was clearly getting used to conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni’s approach to the score and the orchestra. Then came the concerts. A force of
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I’ve been thinking a lot about the artistic progression of my orchestra over the last couple weeks. You can point all you want to how the orchestra sounds under its music director, but to me the real test of the artistic growth of an orchestra is how they sound under a guest conductor. I’ve noticed
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[click photo to enlarge]
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It’s that time of the season when the first wave of fatigue starts to set in. We’ve had two back-to-back classical series, then the Inside the Score concert, and now we’re on our second back-to-back classical run. It feels like everyone is pretty much running on fumes this week, and with the Stravinsky Symphony in
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Yesterday (Wednesday) I and three of my OSO colleagues gave a free lunchtime brownbag concert at the Old Church in downtown Portland. As we were rehearsing on Tuesday, the conversation drifted around to the subject of dress – what would we wear for this concert? The concert came at the instigation of the violinist and
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I don’t know how one could actually come up with a list like this and keep a straight face, but I guess it’s akin to the coaches/journalists polls that determine college football/basketball rankings. At least orchestras don’t have to navigate the inanities of the BCS system… UPDATE: Robert Levine skewers this idiotic ranking with his
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This weekend I was asked to participate in one of the Concert Conversations before each evening’s concert. My co-host for the half-hour talks was John Pitman of KBPS 89.9 FM. He’s such a consummate professional in the broadcast realm – I always marvel at how broadcasters can so deftly avoid verbal pauses (ah, um, etc)
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This is something that one doesn’t often run into in the course of being an active freelance musician – raging wildfires on the way to a concert! The music is Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 – which was what they were going to rehearse/perform at their gig that day, and it turns out to be very
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Every time we have a guest conductor, I’m always amazed at how differently each of them handles their role on the podium in rehearsals, and how different the results can be. This week we’ve been working with the Austrian conductor Christoph Campestrini. He’s conducted here once before (though I cannot remember the repertoire) and he’s
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Hopefully this guy is NOT appearing on a podium near you! This week we’re working with a very pleasant guest conductor, the Austrian Christoph Campestrini, who wears a pretty unique apparel item for a conductor: the polo shirt. Â They might be striped, solid colors, or in patterns. Â I have not run into another conductor who
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[L-R] John Dalley, Michael Tree, Arnold Steinhardt, David Wiley Photo credit: Dorothea von Haeften David Stabler reported today that John Dalley, the second violinist of the Guarneri Quartet (which is in its last season as an ensemble this year), has been stricken with cancer. John really has been the drive within the quartet – the
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This weekend comes Classical 4, which features an interesting program: Too Hot Toccata by Aaron Jay Kernis, Concerto in F by George Gershwin, and Rachmaninoff’s Third Symphony. It’s interesting because each work on the program is a standard form with an individual “take” on the form in the eyes of its composer. The Too Hot
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Sam Bergman over at Inside the Classics Arts writes today about the efforts to attract the elusive (and some say mythical) 18-40 year old audience to orchestral concerts. He offers the idea of a later concert that might synch up with the predilictions of that age group: But there are ways to massage these things,
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Thanks to Fugue State, I have found video from the Netherlands Opera production (Peter Sellars’ version) of the final aria from the first act of Doctor Atomic, “Batter My Heart” – it will give you an idea of what I think was the highlight of the opera. You’ll have a second chance to see the
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