The orchestra got a copy of the brochure for next year’s concerts, and the season looks extraordinary!\u00a0 There will be lots of reasons to buy a subscription, including nearly 30 pieces never before played by the Oregon Symphony, a slew of A-list soloists, and some old chestnut favorites, too.\u00a0 I’ll write a post on my thoughts about the 2010-2011 season on Sunday or Monday.<\/p>\n
Tonight we have a very interesting and varied concert (which seems to be the new ‘normal’ under Carlos), that has something for everyone.\u00a0 The two halves of the concert mirror each other: light –> dark; dark –> light.<\/p>\n
The Overture, Waltz and Finale<\/em> from the opera Powder Her Face<\/em>, by Thomas Ad\u00e9s begins brightly, almost incandescently, in the height of decadence.\u00a0 Dance rhythms of all kinds permeate the Overture: foxtrot, tango, Charleston.\u00a0 The Waltz takes us into darker, more mysterious territory.\u00a0 Cross rhythms try to knock the waltz off its track, voices enter and exit, both unfinished and unbegun.\u00a0 The Finale comes straight from the Waltz, with the orchestra shaking itself apart in a flurry of disjointed pizzicati in the strings, and fades away as quietly as the Overture began, loudly.\u00a0 It is virtuoso composition for the orchestra (expanded from its original chamber opera version for 15 instruments), and an interesting feature is that Ad\u00e9s writes out all of the rubati that one might take if the music were written ‘straight’.\u00a0 Much like John Adams, Ad\u00e9s writes every last dynamic, tempo, and rhythmic subtlety out in detail, but the finished result ends up sounding loose and free, perhaps more so than if he had left these musical options open to the performers.<\/p>\n Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand<\/em> is one of my favorite pieces.\u00a0 It begins in the depths of the orchestra, featuring one of his favorite instruments, the contra-bassoon, rising from the murky depths of undulating double basses and droning cellos.\u00a0 This music is almost uniformly dark, with none of the manic gaiety of the G major Concerto<\/em>, but it is written brilliantly for the instrument – certainly it is true that if you were not looking at the soloist, you would be sure to think that they were using both hands! The piece most definitely shows off Ravel’s great strength: his ability to pace materials and build into tremendous climaxes with the utmost efficiency and subtlety.\u00a0 It’s a great end to the first half of the concert.<\/p>\n The second half opens with Gustav Holst’s Egdon Heath<\/em>, a tone poem based loosely upon themes from Thomas Hardy’s Return of the Native<\/em>, which is largely set within the confines of the fictional location of Egdon Heath.\u00a0 Described as a vast, desolate moor of sparse habitation, it is an area rife with superstition and tales of witchcraft.\u00a0 Holst was a good friend of Hardy’s and regarded Egdon Heath as one of his finest works.\u00a0 It begins, much like the Ravel, in the lowest reaches of the orchestra, the double bass section, in a rare exposed soli passage.\u00a0 Dark and brooding are the usual appellations given to this piece, and it is largely dark and murky, representing a landscape that, in Hardy’s novel, is anthropomorphized to\u00a0 reflect the tangled interpersonal relationships of a story which delves into illicit sexual relationships in the height of Victorian England. Fires burn hot, but are concealed underneath layers of clothing or the dark bogs of the heath’s moors.<\/p>\n The final piece on the program is one of Mozart’s sunniest symphonies, No. 34 in C major.\u00a0 C major is considered Mozart’s most open and optimistic key signature, and this piece bears out that bit of wisdom.\u00a0 Nothing but pure energy and joy from beginning to end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The orchestra got a copy of the brochure for next year’s concerts, and the season looks extraordinary!\u00a0 There will be lots of reasons to buy a subscription, including nearly 30 pieces never before played by the Oregon Symphony, a slew of A-list soloists, and some old chestnut favorites, too.\u00a0 I’ll write a post on my […]<\/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":[1045,2],"tags":[544],"class_list":["post-3916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-programming-music","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-thomas-ades"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-11a","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3900,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/01\/26\/powder-her-face\/","url_meta":{"origin":3916,"position":0},"title":"powder her face","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 26, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A suite of three instrumental sections from Thomas Ad\u00e9s' opera Powder Her Face will be amongst the works performed this coming weekend on the Oregon Symphony's next classical series of concerts. \u00a0Here's a clip of the Overture, as performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra and Christoph von Dohnanyi. \u00a0Enjoy! Purchase tickets\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "opera"","block_context":{"text":"opera","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/opera-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/5u84f48n.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":20998,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2021\/02\/02\/what-i-would-have-been-playing-this-week-2-1-21-edition\/","url_meta":{"origin":3916,"position":1},"title":"what I would have been playing this week \u2013 2\/1\/21 edition","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 2, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Sit back and enjoy the exhilarating emotional journey and melodic brilliance of Tchaikovsky\u2019s Fifth. Thomas Ad\u00e8s\u2019 new concerto \u2013 described as a successor to Gershwin\u2019s Rhapsody in Blue by\u00a0The\u00a0Boston Globe\u00a0\u2013 will be delectable in the hands of his longtime friend Kirill Gerstein. Lithuanian composer Raminta \u0160erk\u0161nyt? opens the program with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/wwibp.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/wwibp.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/wwibp.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":875,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/03\/23\/thomas-ades-nytimes-profile\/","url_meta":{"origin":3916,"position":2},"title":"thomas ad\u00c3\u00a9s nytimes profile","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"G. Paul Burnett\/The New York Times British composer phenom Thomas Ad\u00c3\u00a9s (age 37) is presenting a concert of his music at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group on Friday, March 29th. The New York Times' Vivien Schweitzer writes this article about his background and ethos in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Thomas Ad\u00c3\u00a9s - photo: G. 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That never happened\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/charles_publicity-e1408736073140.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6838,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/08\/31\/back-to-school-er-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":3916,"position":4},"title":"back to school, er, work!","author":"Charles Noble","date":"August 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Well, the day has arrived: the first day of the 2011-2012 season of the Oregon Symphony! I'm not quite sure that it warrants an exclamation point just yet (it is earlier in the morning than I'm used to being functional after a long summer), but this is going to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/iStock_000004257447XSmall-e1314804587119.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5314,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/09\/16\/gala-night\/","url_meta":{"origin":3916,"position":5},"title":"gala night!","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Tonight marks the official opening of the Oregon Symphony season - it's the gala concert with violin soloist Joshua Bell.\u00a0 The concert is selling well, but there seem to be tickets at all price levels available, so grab one or two quickly if you're so inclined. The Lalo Symphonie Espagnole\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\/2010\/01\/Joshua-Bell-photo-002-e1265300723916.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3916","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=3916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3916\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}