{"id":2735,"date":"2009-06-22T11:40:09","date_gmt":"2009-06-22T18:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=2735"},"modified":"2013-02-07T19:47:14","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T03:47:14","slug":"astoria-festival-weekend-one-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/06\/22\/astoria-festival-weekend-one-recap\/","title":{"rendered":"astoria festival weekend one recap"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"059-sergey-antonov-in-astoria-01\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"059-sergey-antonov-in-astoria-02\"<\/a>
\nSergey Antonov performs Tchaikovsky at this year’s Astoria Music Festival.
\nAntonov photos: Sheryl Todd<\/a>\/Astoria Daily Photo [click to enlarge]<\/p>\n

We had a lovely week of rehearsals and concerts for the first week of the Astoria Music Festival.\u00c2\u00a0 Last Friday’s concert was the opening concert with the Astoria Music Festival Orchestra under the direction of conductor Keith Clark.\u00c2\u00a0 The concert opened with Mendelssohn’s Fourth Symphony<\/strong> (the Italian<\/em>).\u00c2\u00a0 The second half was taken up by highlights from Verdi’s great opera La Traviata<\/em><\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0 The cast of leads, two from the Metropolitan Opera (baritone Richard Zeller and soprano Emily Pulley) and one from the Chicago Lyric Opera (tenor Mark Panuccio) all sang terrifically – showing world-class form.\u00c2\u00a0 Pulley’s climactic aria was especially hair-raising with its pyrotechnics, and Zeller’s beautiful bel canto<\/em> singing was spectacular.<\/p>\n

Saturday night’s concert featured the cellist Sergey Antonov performing Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations<\/em><\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0 The Tchaikovsky Competition gold medal winner played with great elan and a sweet tone, and received a rapturous ovation from the audience.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s a cellist to watch – I would expect more high-profile appearances in the US in coming years.<\/p>\n

The finale of the concert was a complete performance of Beethoven’s mighty Ninth Symphony<\/strong>, featuring the three singers from Friday night’s concert plus Met mezzo soprano Juliana Gondek and three northwest Oregon community choruses: the North Coast, Columbia and Cannon Beach Chorales.\u00c2\u00a0 All were especially impressive in their major choral portions of the last movement, filling the Liberty Theater with sound.\u00c2\u00a0 They were joined by the Astoria Academy Apprentice Vocal Artists.\u00c2\u00a0 Many curtain calls ensued after the triumphant ending, and the audience went out into the night convinced of the brotherhood of all men.<\/p>\n

Sunday afternoon brought a reshuffled chamber program owing to the injury of the Astoria Chamber Players’ artistic director and pianist Cary Lewis while hiking in Montana the previous week (he hosted the program, arm in sling).<\/p>\n

Sergey Antonov opened the program with the Prelude<\/em> from the Bach First Suite for Solo Cello<\/strong>, and a west coast premiere of two recently discovered etudes for solo cello<\/strong> by the great Mstislav Rostropovich, which both gave the cellist a rigorous technical workout and charmed the audience with their wit and melody.\u00c2\u00a0 Next came one of Haydn’s London Trios<\/strong> for two flutes and cello – in this case the C major trio – performed by flutists David Buck and Jung-Wan Kang and cellist Heather Blackburn.\u00c2\u00a0 The three played with elegant precision and took a blistering tempo in the final movement that elicited astonished gasps from the audience.<\/p>\n

Antonov and Buck returned to perform Heitor Villa Lobos’ Assobio a J\u00c3\u00a1to<\/em><\/strong> (The Jet Whistle).\u00c2\u00a0 They gave a spirited and virtuosic performance – a meeting of two extraordinary artists that gave me a new appreciation for this unusual work.<\/p>\n

The finale of the concert was a performance of the rarely-heard, but beautiful Second Quartet in A minor by Anton Arensky<\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0 Scored for the unusual combination of violin, viola and two cellos, it was given a sensitive and moving performance by violinist In\u00c3\u00a9s Voglar, violist Jo\u00c3\u00abl Belgique, and cellists Dorothy Lewis and Heather Blackburn.\u00c2\u00a0 Written as a memorial to his mentor and teacher Tchaikovsky, the first movement was evokative of the Russian Orthodox chorales, intoned by the deeply voiced cellos.\u00c2\u00a0 The second movement was a set of variations on a song (When Jesus Christ was but a Child<\/em>, from 16 Children’s Songs<\/em>, Op. 54) by Tchaikovsky, each growing more and more impassioned and complex until melting back into the opening chorale theme from the first movement.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a magical moment, beautifully played.\u00c2\u00a0 The final movement featured a Russian theme that has appeared in quite a few previous chamber works, most notably in the finale of Beethoven’s first Razumovsky Quartet, Op. 59 no. 1, and from Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 Notes flew everywhere with passion and precision, and left the audience on its feet.\u00c2\u00a0 A great performance which all came together from nowhere the previous Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n

Take a look at some snapshots from the weekend here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sergey Antonov performs Tchaikovsky at this year’s Astoria Music Festival. Antonov photos: Sheryl Todd\/Astoria Daily Photo [click to enlarge] We had a lovely week of rehearsals and concerts for the first week of the Astoria Music Festival.\u00c2\u00a0 Last Friday’s concert was the opening concert with the Astoria Music Festival Orchestra under the direction of conductor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_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}},"categories":[148,153,136,115,135,138,2],"tags":[1694,1086,1015,1014,1689,1688],"class_list":["post-2735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-cello","category-chamber-music","category-music","category-soloists-recitals","category-summer-festivals","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-david-buck","tag-heather-blackburn","tag-ines-voglar","tag-joel-belgique","tag-richard-zeller","tag-sergey-antonov"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-I7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6611,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/06\/17\/astoria-music-festival\/","url_meta":{"origin":2735,"position":0},"title":"astoria music festival","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Tchaikovsky Competition winner Sergey Antonov plays the Saint-Sa\u00ebns Cello Concerto tonight with the Astoria Festival Orchestra under Keith Clark. The concert takes place in the historic Liberty Theatre in downtown Astoria at 7:30 p.m. tonight.","rel":"","context":"In "cello"","block_context":{"text":"cello","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/instruments\/cello\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/5843455355_32ce0559f5-300x400.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4842,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/06\/20\/astoria-music-festival-concert-two\/","url_meta":{"origin":2735,"position":1},"title":"astoria music festival – concert two","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 20, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Saturday night's concert was especially meaningful in regards to its location in Astoria, as it was devoted to the music of two giants of Scandinavian composers: Grieg and Sibelius.\u00a0 Astoria is steeped in the traditions of Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, with many immigrants from those nations choosing the settle\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/sepia_big-250x325.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12704,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/06\/17\/astoria-music-festival-week-one-report\/","url_meta":{"origin":2735,"position":2},"title":"astoria music festival – week one report","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"It was a fast-paced and busy first week of the Astoria Music Festival. 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My wife and I played the first week of the two-week Astoria Music Festival, which is located in the town of Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River. The first concert of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "soloists & recitals"","block_context":{"text":"soloists & recitals","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/soloists-recitals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/5852436336_ce91f7a272-300x400.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13445,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2014\/06\/16\/astoria-music-festival-week-one\/","url_meta":{"origin":2735,"position":4},"title":"astoria music festival – week one","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"It was a whirlwind week of rehearsals, driving, and more rehearsals, and then a couple of fantastic performances at the first week of the Astoria Music Festival, 2014 edition. Verdi made an appearance again this year, this time on Saturday night's performance\u00a0in the form of his perennial favorite,\u00a0La Traviata. 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