I’m revisiting my previous post, in which I somewhat lazily dissected the season announcements of three orchestras (Chicago, Seattle, and Nashville) for 2012-2013, to a look at the soloists that they’ve engaged for the season (plus those slated for the LA Philharmonic as well, to add some more (?) into the mix). Will there be
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It’s the middle of the summer. The dog days, one might say, at least here in Portland, where the mercury is expected to top 90°F again today. There is little going on, classical musically speaking in Portland right now, except for the final concerts of Chamber Music Northwest‘s summer festival this Thursday through Sunday. The
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If you’re a fan of the up and coming talent in classical music in Portland/SW Washington, then you are no doubt familiar with the Young Artists at the Schnitz concert. It’s a great way to hear lots of great music for instrumentalists and vocalists with a great pick-up orchestra under the able direction of Niel
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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 just perused a recent article about the Florida Orchestra and some highly-publicized comments from subscribers about the contemporary programming that is being done by music director Stefan Sanderling. I understand that some patrons don’t care for hearing anything written after 1870 or so. Fine. But why do they complain so about hearing something new
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Oregonian classical music critic David Stabler has posted his list of 10 guest artists that he’d like to see at the Oregon Symphony. It’s a good list – I’d add Jonathan Biss, pianist; Tabea Zimmerman, violist (I know, I know…); Janine Jansen, violinist; and Daniel Barenboim, conductor/pianist, among others…
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I’m once again back in PDX, and pretty tired from a busy two weeks at the Sunriver Music Festival. Rachel Barton Pine There was some early drama as Andre Watts was forced to cancel due to health problems, and a last minute replacement was found in the person of Rachel Barton Pine, the wonderful violinist
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One of my favorite music bloggers, the pianist Jeremy Denk, made quite a splash at the Portland International Piano Festival this past weekend – click here for a complete review by Oregonian classical music critic David Stabler. Here’s the lead-in: Many piano concerts are like trips to the shopping mall: safe, predictable excursions with a
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[click photo to enlarge] Photo [Reuters/NYTimes]: Rostropovich pictured playing at Checkpoint Charlie after the fall of the Berlin Wall in December 1989. Rostropovich appeared with the Oregon Symphony only once during my tenure. He did a one night special with the orchestra, playing the venerable Dvorak Concerto. It was a remarkable experience for all of
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Last night I was able to attend the second of two concerts by the Pacifica Quartet at Portland State University’s Lincoln Hall. It was a wonderful program (if a bit conservative) that showed what a wonderful young quartet the Pacifica has become. The program began with Mozart’s “Dissonant” Quartet, Kv. 465, from his set of
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The feedback from the recital has been coming in over the past day or so, and the response has been very gratifying, indeed. I was alerted to a review on the blog of James Bash, a local writer who does a lot of arts coverage for the Willamette Week. It was nice to find out
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Ah, the day after a recital! There is nothing quite like it, the feeling of total unabashed hedonism as one sits around in one’s p.j.’s all day without even a passing thought of the viola. The concert went well – it wasn’t really so much a recital as a concert in which I played a
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A great article from the Washington Post about what would happen if a great violinist on a great instrument put out his hat and played during the morning commute at one of the busiest commuting hubs of the nation’s capitol. Too good for words! I found the most interesting bit to be about the little
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Well, it’s D-Day, now I’m just anxiously awaiting H-Hour: 7:30 tonight. It’s a difficult thing, to do a recital as an orchestral musician. Especially after 11 years of doing the orchestra thing. The span of concentration required, and the awareness that no one’s got your back for the difficult bits (which are every note of
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A few months ago Elaine Calder asked the orchestra members to suggest guest artists with whom they would like to work. I’ve compiled a list of those who I’d personally love to see come, as well as those who I think would really create excitement and big audience numbers for our concerts. It’s been quite
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