This weekend is a bit of a strange classical week for us, with this program being played only once in Portland, on a Sunday matinee. On Saturday evening, we bring the show on the road (down Route 99W, to be exact) to Newberg, to the excellent auditorium at George Fox University. We usually alternate classical and pops in Newberg each time we go, and so this is a classical year. It’s always usually really hard stuff to play. Two years ago it was Bartók Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta and the Strauss Suite from Der Rosenkavalier. This year it’s Ralph Vaughan Williams’ harrowing Sixth Symphony and Strauss’ Bourgeois Gentilhomme, with actor David Ogden Stiers narrating the essentials of Molière’s farce (in the guise of several different characters, no less) between movements. This is a very difficult concert, with two very different pieces.
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