Saturday evening, the Oregon Symphony unveiled its 2010-2011 season programming. I was giving the pre-concert talk that night, so I couldn’t be at the unveiling reception, but I suspect that there must have been a fair amount of applause and the sound of jaws hitting the floor as the specifics were announced. It’s that good.
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Holly Mulcahy has a wonderful article up at The Partial Observer about the rash of program/artist substitutions prompted by the funding crisis at US orchestras. Here at the Oregon Symphony, there haven’t been any mid-course corrections, as such, but guest artists have had their contracts renegotiated at lower rates, and some pieces were not programmed
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This week’s Willy Week features a rare article (from its rarely heard and seen classical music writer – at least at OSO concerts) about the Oregon Symphony. And what does this august journal choose to highlight? The fact that the OSO does not play enough new music (I’m assuming that they’re talking about commissions or
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Stephen Marc Beaudoin takes a look at this year’s OSO programming, and he doesn’t like much of what he sees. Here’s a brief sample: The Oregon Symphony is playing fifteen Classical Series concerts this season. Five of the programs are terrible. I will hasten to add that an additional two of them are mediocre. Of
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(this came to my attention care of Sam’s excellent blog) Nico Muhly has an interesting game that he played with the New York Philharmonic’s season opener – which was: Berlioz Roman Carnival Overture Ibert Flute Concerto Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 They initially decided to try to make the program worse, which it seems they weren’t
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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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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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I’ve been pondering Ron Blessinger’s thoughts on the 2008-2009 season programming at the OSO, and the more I think about it, the more I wish there were not only works by living composers, but that there were works which have received their first performances at least since 1995. Why 1995? Because this is my blog,
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So, should musicians have input into the programs that the orchestra presents? It’s not an easy a question to answer. With orchestras, it’s always as many times complicated as there are players in the orchestra – plus the artistic administrator and the music director, oh, and the audience.
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