{"id":2202,"date":"2009-03-20T11:23:26","date_gmt":"2009-03-20T18:23:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=2202"},"modified":"2013-02-07T19:35:21","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T03:35:21","slug":"more-vortex-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/03\/20\/more-vortex-response\/","title":{"rendered":"more vortex response"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brett Campbell writes<\/a> enthusiastically about the recent Oregon Symphony premiere performances of Tomas Svoboda’s Vortex for Orchestra<\/em>, as well as the rest of the concert.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a nice, tight review, well-written and very nice to see in the pages (web) of the Willamette Week.<\/p>\n

The major local work premiered last week, though, was Svoboda\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Vortex for Orchestra<\/em>, which closed the weekend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Oregon Symphony<\/a> concerts. This had to be one of the season\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s best shows, not least because they achieved the unlikely feat of keeping me awake in a Brahms symphony, and making a persuasive case that his third isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t, as sometimes claimed, the runt of the litter. Tight ensemble, luscious sonorities, expressive playing \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 it was a compelling performance, marred only by a somewhat mannered third movement, but then the orchestra sounds so good these days (especially the cellos and horns here) that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy to understand (if not endorse) music director Carlos Kalmar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision to linger on certain plush passages rather than letting the tune unfurl naturally and unsentimentally. Flashy Freddy Kempf played the heck out of Sergei Prokofiev\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s whirlwind 1921 Piano Concerto #3<\/em>, and the orchestra stayed right with him, not least in the piece\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cocky, Jazz Age swagger.<\/p>\n

Either of those classics can be a daunting act to follow, but Vortex<\/em> raised the artistic stakes. Opening with plucked strings, the piece proceeded through punchy brass exclamations, martial piccolo and snare drum, building to a gradual eruption of strings with punchy brass punctuation. Quieting with spiraling-down cello passages played affectingly by Nancy Ives , Vortex<\/em> exploded into a crossfire of brief brass, cello, percussion and violin volleys, then again subsided to quiet cello and xylophone passages before climaxing in a furious flurry of strings and more. You didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to read the program note to appreciate that Vortex<\/em> is a contemporary artist\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s response to the terrible war and other American crises of the past decade, when the the 69-year-old Portlander composed it. Like most music written in this vein, echoes of Dmitri Shostakovich are hard to avoid, but Svoboda\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s original voice resounds. Vortex<\/em> demands more hearings, and not just in Portland.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Also included in this ‘classical roundup’ is a review of the inaugural Cascadia Composers concert played by FearNoMusic<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brett Campbell writes enthusiastically about the recent Oregon Symphony premiere performances of Tomas Svoboda’s Vortex for Orchestra, as well as the rest of the concert.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a nice, tight review, well-written and very nice to see in the pages (web) of the Willamette Week. The major local work premiered last week, though, was Svoboda\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Vortex […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[148,115,269,2],"tags":[837,3668,1341],"class_list":["post-2202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-music","category-new-music","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-concert-review","tag-oregon-symphony","tag-tomas-svoboda"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-zw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2152,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/03\/15\/surviving-the-first-rehearsal\/","url_meta":{"origin":2202,"position":0},"title":"“surviving the first rehearsal”","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I spotted this YouTube clip featuring John Adams talking about the world premiere of his work Slonimsky's Earbox with the Hall\u00c3\u00a9 Orchestra (the Oregon Symphony played the US premiere), and it struck me that said that the hardest part about being a composer was surviving the first rehearsal of one's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2260,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/03\/27\/svoboda-talks-about-vortex\/","url_meta":{"origin":2202,"position":1},"title":"svoboda talks about vortex","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"From the Oregonian: see video after the jump: Notes of protest swirl in angry 'Vortex'","rel":"","context":"In "composition"","block_context":{"text":"composition","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/composition\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2157,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/03\/16\/vortex\/","url_meta":{"origin":2202,"position":2},"title":"vortex","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Photo: Mike Lloyd\/The Oregonian We've done the first two performances of Tomas Svoboda's Vortex for Orchestra, and the final performance is tonight.\u00c2\u00a0 It's a piece which seems to be growing in power and depth with each time we perform it.\u00c2\u00a0 It needs to be recorded by our orchestra. Tomas is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tomas Svoboda after the world premiere of his 'Vortex for Orchestra'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/d439df2cf9325c2dfdfb6a37e26f3b5c-399x260.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2124,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/03\/12\/mr-svobodas-new-opus\/","url_meta":{"origin":2202,"position":3},"title":"mr svoboda’s new opus","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Tomas Svoboda Tomas Svoboda's new opus is opus 197, to be exact: Vortex for Orchestra.\u00c2\u00a0 It's quite a piece, very elegantly crafted, full of energy and vibrant textures, and it's really something of a concerto for orchestra.\u00c2\u00a0 Tomas Svoboda is clearly at the height of his powers these days (was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"svoboda-3x3","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/svoboda-3x3-400x410.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2162,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/03\/17\/behind-the-scenes\/","url_meta":{"origin":2202,"position":4},"title":"behind the scenes","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I bought a new ultra-compact camera last week, and thought it might be nice to bring it to work last night to give a behind-the-scenes look at the goings on before and after an Oregon Symphony performance.\u00c2\u00a0 So, without further ado... Here's the viola nook - the area behind and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "photography"","block_context":{"text":"photography","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"the viola nook","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/img_0071-200x266.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1665,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/01\/02\/the-year-ahead\/","url_meta":{"origin":2202,"position":5},"title":"the year ahead","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Most bloggers took a look back at 2008, but I'd like to look forward, instead.\u00c2\u00a0 I'll take some chances and make a few predictions of what I think will happen in 2009, and also talk about some things that I'd like to happen in 2009 as well. First, my predictions:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chamber music"","block_context":{"text":"chamber music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/chamber-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2202\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}