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 raconteur Greg Ewer, who wanted an opportunity to play some favorite quartets with people that he didn’t normally get a chance to perform.  His ethos behind the concert was to have fun - no pressure, just making music with friends and in front of a friendly audience.  So, jokingly, he suggested we wear Hawai’ian shirts.

We were in luck, because our other violinist, Inés Voglar, is married to OSO principal violist Joël Belgique, who has a world-class collection of the loudest shirts that are legal to wear in public!  She found four prize specimins (which all happened to basically fit us) and off we went!

Clothing aside, the program consisted of two quartets: Haydn’s op. 76 no. 5 and Beethoven’s op. 18 no. 6.  Each is from an opus of six quartets, the Haydn from the end of his compositional life (he only wrote one more group of quartets, the op. 77), the Beethoven from the beginning of his compositional life.  Beethoven was very much indebted to “Papa” Haydn for his group of op 18 quartets - for Haydn had inspired Mozart to write his set of six quartets dedicated to the older master, and it was Mozart’s set of “Haydn” quartets (K. 385, 421, 428, 458, 464 and 465) that in turn inspired Beethoven to write his initial set of six.  In fact, Beethoven wrote a virtual bar-by-bar remake of Mozart’s A major K. 464 as an homage to the elder composer when he wrote his A major quartet, op. 18 no. 5.

Another thing that occurs to me is that this brings me closer to my goal of completing my “life list” of playing all of the Beethoven quartets at least once.  Thus far I’ve performed the following opuses: 18/2, 18/6, 59/2, 59/3, 74, 95, 130, 131, 132, and 135.  That means I only have 18/3 thru 5, 59/1, 128 and 133 to go!

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) and maintain a train of thought - that the 30 minutes flew by.  The last time I did a pre-concert talk I had to do it myself, and it was many times more nerve-wracking doing it that way.  There were also many more people at the talk than I’d remembered from years ago, and that was great as well.  It’s good to know that there are so many concertgoers who are curious to learn as much as they can about what they’re enjoying during the concert.

Today I was thinking of ways that the whole experience could be even more interesting for those in attendance.  Wouldn’t it be interesting to have a short video presentation with various members of the orchestra sharing their impressions of a piece, or what their most difficult licks in the piece might be, or what was their favorite moment in the piece.  I could envision a 15 minute video which would include either commercially pre-recorded excerpts of audio, or possibly video footage from a rehearsal.  Things like this are always hard to navigate through the minefield of work rules and other contractual considerations, not to mention finding the money to ensure that it doesn’t look like a typical YouTube home video, but it might be worth trying, as it could be featured on the orchestra’s website to promote the concert as well.

That aside, I had a great experience doing the Concert Conversation this past weekend, and I encourage you to attend future conversations one half-hour prior to each Classical series concert throughout the season!

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 Toccata is a riff on the old Italian form (from the Italian word toccare “to touch”) which features busy passage-work in a rapid tempo.  It is indeed fast, has lots of notes, and is a virtuoso showpiece for the orchestra - especially the horns and trumpets.

The Concerto in F is a more earnest attempt by Gershwin to produce a “serious” piece of concert music as opposed to something that might be more at home on the bandstand.  I don’t know if it succeeds, but it is a wonderful piece which shows off the skills of the pianist and is a much more lengthy and substantial piece than the more famous Rhapsody in Blue.  It’s a perfect combination of early jazz/blues styles in a classical format.

Rachmaninoff’s Third Symphony shows how stubborn Rachmaninoff was in regards to being out of step with the music of his time.  You’d be hard pressed to find anything significantly different in this piece than in his much for well-known Second Symphony, the piano concerti, Symphonic Dances, or tone poems.  But by his very stubborness, his music stands out in the crowd.  Take a look at what was also written during the years this work was composed (1935-1936):

• Berg Violin Concerto
• Schoenberg Violin Concerto
• Walton First Symphony
• Stravinsky Dumbarton Oaks
• Prokofiev Second Violin Concerto

Definitely not conventional works in the arch-Romantic style that Rachmaninoff favors!

Tomorrow we have a rehearsal for the next Inside the Score concert, which will feature Brahms’ First Symphony.  One of the few advantages of playing in an orchestra that has a limited number of classical weeks is that I’m not yet sick of any of the Brahms symphonies, especially the First, as it’s probably the most often programmed of the four.

I remember when I was studying with Joseph DePasquale, who was then the principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, I asked him which of the Brahms symphonies was his favorite.  I asked if he liked the First.  He gave one of his “bah!” laughs and replied that if he never played the Brahms First again, it would be too soon.  He explained that they did it nearly every season and on tours, so he’d performed it hundreds of times in his years as principal viola.  When pressed, he admitted that the Fourth wasn’t too bad.

We at the OSO, on the other hand, tend to take about 5-7 years to play a cycle of the Brahms symphonies, which means that by the time we do the Third symphony this season, I’ll have done the cycle twice in my 13 seasons.  As a consequence, there hasn’t been any contempt bred of familiarity.  While I love the autumnal splendor and understated emotion of the later Brahms works, I have to admit that I’m a sucker for his more impetuous, youthful musical statements.  The First is full of such moments, right from its grab you by the collar and shake you opening to the gorgeous string scoring of the main theme of the last movement.

I particularly remember as a student seeing a video of Bernstein conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in the finale of the First symphony, and when that moment came, the Viennese strings played with their incomparable richness and Lenny just leaned back against the podium railing and watched them do their thing.  It was too much to stand as a young musician who had never seen Lenny conduct, or heard the VPO play, and it stays in my mind to this day as a touchstone of what music-making on the highest level can be.

So, I’m very much looking forward to this performance, and working with conductor Bill Eddins, who comes with high compliments from Elaine Calder.  It should be a treat for us and for you.

This weekend brought a huge program to the Schnitz.  Huge how?  Well, first, in terms of a major new talent that is just beginning to be known here in America, the Latvian violinist Baiba Skride, playing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto.  Second, the Walton First Symphony, a gigantic workout for the entire orchestra that makes a similarly large (read LOUD) sonic statement in its second performance in OSO history. [Read more →]

The German broadcasting network Deutsche Welle has an excellent documentary on the supremely talented Latvian violinist Baiba Skride, who is making her OSO debut this weekend.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

violinist greg ewer appears as a rainbow trout

jen arnold - the world's coolest violist

[Read more →]

Can you tell which is the real Carlos Kalmar?

Carlos Kalmar with Acting Principal bassonist Evan Kuhlmann

Photo credit: Cathy Cheney | Portland Business Journal

Today at a lunch meeting with the musicians between our morning and afternoon rehearsals, OSO President Elaine Calder gave a short, no-nonsense talk on the state of the OSO’s finances in light of the stock market crash, bank credit crisis, and other such ominous events. [Read more →]

The OSO players will be getting a briefing on the state of the orchestra’s finances tomorrow between rehearsals at the hall.  If I’m allowed to share some of that information, I will, but if not, I’ll give a broad-brush, impressionistic version (basically: thumbs-up, thumbs-down, or thumbs-sideways).  My hunch is that we’re going to be ok - the support from our donors and audiences is holding - but that some belt-tightening is going to occur. [Read more →]