This week’s issue of the New Yorker has music critic and arts writer Alex Ross’ thoughts on the Spring for Music Festival and the Oregon Symphony’s program and performance at Carnegie Hall earlier this month. The verdict? He liked it. A lot. Here’s an excerpt from the article: ….”Great programs create a kind of
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I was prompted, after a comment by fellow arts blogger James Bash, to look in the Los Angeles Times archives for the text of the review of the Oregon Symphony’s prior debut, that being at the Hollywood Bowl, which took place in September 1992. Written by Times critic Daniel Cariaga, it was quite different
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Many people, both within the Oregon Symphony ‘family’ and in the public at large have commented both publicly and privately that they were mystified by a paragraph in the otherwise glowing review of the Oregon Symphony’s Carnegie Hall debut in today’s New York Times. Music critic Allan Kozinn wrote the following: The orchestra was
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As we were getting ready to deplane in Portland, people were whipping out their various smart devices, and the news came quickly: the New York Times review was an unabashed rave. Here it is, written by Allan Kozinn, in its entirety: It is hard to believe that the Oregon Symphony had never performed in
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[Justin Kagan, cellist and coffee roaster extraordinaire, was at the Itzhak Perlman recital Tuesday evening - the following is his exclusive review. - C.N.] AN INFORMAL “REVIEW” OF ITZHAK PERLMAN RECITAL @ THE SCHNITZ 4-27-2010 Since my esteemed friends and colleagues of the OSO were doing yeoman’s work in Salem (four straight nights of Tchaik
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A colleague in the orchestra sent me quite possibly the most bizarre music review that I’ve ever read. It was written in 1983 for the Nevada newspaper Desert Aria by Lisa Coffey, when Zukerman was married to a previous wife (not Amanda Forsyth). Bear that in mind when you read the last sentence. This review
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Bob Hicks (a.k.a. Mr. Scatter) has a review of the Oregon Ballet Theater’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which featured the return of the OBT orchestra after being absent due to budget cuts for all of the 2009-2010 season. Here’s the portion of the review that deals with the orchestra: Welcome back, orchestra. After
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Peggy Swafford, former violist with the Oregon Symphony and forever a Finn, sent me this poetic review of Sunday night’s performance – enjoy!
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In case you’ve missed it in your day’s rounds of the internet, Jon Kimura Parker, soloist with the orchestra last week in the Brahms d minor piano concerto, responded to David Stabler’s review (a markedly negative one) of the performance: We live in a fascinating time where reviewers cannot hide behind their newspapers as in
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Last night was a bit of a strange concert, at least speaking for myself from my vantage point on the stage. First of all, there was the sobering sight of empty seats in the hall – lots of them. It’s not as though this is a strange program – Brahms d minor piano concerto is
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The OSO’s music director Carlos Kalmar has demonstrated an affinity for the music of Gustav Mahler throughout his tenure with the orchestra, usually opening or closing a season with a major work of the Austrian composer. This year, at his other gig, Kalmar began the home stretch of the season of the Grant Park Music
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[click photo to enlarge] After reading this extraordinary review of the new pianist phenom Yuja Wang with the San Francisco Symphony, I now am fairly desperate to see her in performance. I hope that we can get her for an OSO series in an upcoming season. I’d heard rumors that she was like Lang Lang
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Steve Smith, music editor for Time Out New York and a freelance reviewer who often writes classical music reviews for the New York Times, writes about his review of the Gilbert Kaplan led performance of Mahler 2 with the New York Philharmonic here. Interesting reading, and it shows how critical a missing sentence can be
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I think it would be safe to say that Lang Lang’s Portland Oregon Symphony debut was a triumph. The roar that came from the sold-out crowd at the Schnitz at the conclusion of the Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto was well nigh deafening, such was the response from the audience. I can’t say that I’ve ever
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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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