It is never a sure thing who an orchestra is really considering when they are looking for a new music director. Some conductors don’t want to be seen as ‘auditioning’ for the gig, and orchestras are often competing for the same scarce resource: a good conductor. So it pays to be cagey about just who
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There were two major highlights to last weekend’s classical series concerts with the Oregon Symphony: Joshua Bell and our brass section. Due to changes in his calendar, Bell dropped the Shostakovich First Violin Concerto for the Brahms Violin Concerto. Basically, he was to perform the piece publicly for the first time this season, but several
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James Manishen of the Winnipeg Free Post has put up his top ten recordings of classical music for 2011, and the Oregon Symphony’s Music for a Time of War made #3. See the other musical and arts genre lists here. 1. Glenn Gould, On Television: The Complete CBC Broadcasts 1954-1977 This 19-hour, 10 DVD set is
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I hope that the Classical Beaver brings a change of underwear for the Oregon Symphony’s January 14, 15 and 16th concerts, because the ‘rock star’ violinist Joshua Bell will now be playing the great Violin Concerto of Johannes Brahms in place of the previously programmed First Concerto of Dmitri Shostakovich. I’ll bet that principal oboist
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You can see his picks on his blog The Rest Is Noise by clicking here.
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Last night the Oregon Symphony played a concert that is, in many ways, emblematic of the tenure of our current music director Carlos Kalmar. On display were canny programming, a stellar soloist, and a well-known chestnut with an interpretive twist. The work that has most occupied the members of the orchestra in the weeks preceding
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Saturday and Monday nights will see another great set of concerts in this already stellar season. The big surprise for this week? The Britten Piano Concerto. Never heard of it? Well, neither had I, before this season’s repertoire was announced. We had our rehearsals with pianist Stephen Osborne over the last two days, and the
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In case you’re on the fence about this week’s concerts (and why should you be – isn’t the Mozart Jupiter symphony and Strauss’ Don Juan enough of a reason to make it?), here are YouTube videos of the Britten Piano Concerto that is also on the program. The British pianist Stephen Osborne will be the soloist
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This past week brought a concert that was one of my favorites of this season. The two major pieces on the program were the Beethoven Violin Concerto with soloist Karen Gomyo, and Carl Nielsen’s Fourth Symphony “The Inextinguishable”. Throw in the delightful, nostalgic little Copland “Letter from Home” and you’ve got quite a nice concert.
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This week’s concerts by the Oregon Symphony feature three works that range from the well-known to the virtually unknown. It’s a good mix of the familiar and the new (though none of the pieces was written more recently than 67 years ago). Beethoven’s only violin concerto is one of those pieces that can only be
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You may be familiar with the alternate alphabets that are used for military or aviation or police work. A = alpha, B = bravo, and so forth. You are no doubt not familiar with the alternate alphabet of the Oregon Symphony’s music director, Carlos Kalmar. Over the years, my stand partner Joël and I have
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Music for a Time of War, the Oregon Symphony’s first recording with Music Director Carlos Kalmar, is now available for download. Physical CD’s will be available October 25th. At Amazon.com and at iTunes (will open iTunes application).
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The Oregon Symphony’s recording (made live in Portland from two performances at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall) of its acclaimed Carnegie Hall program is up for pre-order on Amazon.com. It’s being released for shipment on October 25th. The Pentatone label is producing the disc, and they are known for their extraordinary hi-fidelity recordings. It should be
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The rehearsal period for our first classical series concerts has finished, and Saturday night we play our first of three concerts here at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall (click here for tickets). It’s an all-Russian program (which can often feel like an all-rushin’ program, with all of the fast passagework that such repertoire often entails),
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I know that the official opening of the Oregon Symphony’s season began on September 1st, but really, in the hearts of most of us on stage, the real opening of the season is when we begin rehearsals for the first classical series program of the year. That starts today. Most of today’s two rehearsals will
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