I was reading a Facebook post by an old friend of mine, who was bemused by his sudden realization of his advancing age due to the change in what was being programmed at concerts these days.\u00a0 He noted the shift to much more programming of the Shostakovich string quartets, for example, and the virtual disappearance of the music of Aaron Copland from concerts (at least in his area).\u00a0 It got me to thinking about how various pieces (or types of pieces) come in and out of fashion as times and tastes change.<\/p>\n
We used to perform (and hear performed) a lot more Copland than we do now, at least here in Portland. \u00a0We just did Appalachian Spring<\/em> here last weekend, but it had been about five years since we’d previously done it. \u00a0We haven’t done the Third Symphony since Murry Sidlin programmed it, which is a real shame, since it’s a wonderful piece, both as a showcase for the orchestra and as a piece that would go over well with audiences. \u00a0His other ballet music, such as Billy the Kid<\/em> and Rodeo<\/em>, show up much less frequently, as do El Salon Mexico<\/em> and Music for the Theater<\/em>, a piece that I love.<\/p>\n Though ever hugely popular, the music of Hindemith seems to be getting even more rare to encounter on the concert stage – even accessible pieces such as Nobilissima Visione<\/em>, the Mathis der Maler<\/em> symphony, and the slightly more popular Symphonic Metamorphosi<\/em>s. \u00a0It’s too bad, because he also wrote a couple of other cool pieces, including Concert Music for Strings and Brass<\/em>, and a Concerto for Orchestr<\/em>a (as well as the Violin Concerto, which we did a couple years back with Leila Josefowicz).<\/p>\n Overtures also seem to get less attention than they used to, when the standard concert format tended towards the “overture, concerto, intermission, symphony” format. \u00a0There are so many wonderful Weber overtures, including Der Freisch\u00fctz<\/em>, Oberon<\/em>, and Euryanthe<\/em>. \u00a0Rossini overtures also used to be a concert staple, with the operas The Silken Ladder<\/em>, An Italian in Algiers<\/em>, The Barber of Seville<\/em>, and the Thieving Magpie<\/em> all having amazing and delightful overtures. \u00a0The Wagner opera overtures seem to get fairly often performed, but the Mozart opera overtures seem to be out of fashion these days. \u00a0I can’t remember the last time we did the overtures to Marriage of Figaro<\/em>, Cosi fan Tutte<\/em>, or Magic Flute<\/em>.<\/p>\n As for concertos, it was great to do the Liszt First Piano Concerto with Stephen Hough this season, it used to be a common concert staple, but less pianists seem to tour with it these days (and even less the Second Concerto). \u00a0Busoni used to show up on all sorts of late 19th century – early 20th century programs, but you’re hard-pressed to hear much of his music nowadays. \u00a0I’d love to hear his massive Piano Concerto (with Garrick Olson, a champion of the piece) or some of his orchestra music.<\/p>\n This only scratches the surface – do you have any repertoire that you haven’t heard for years that you’d like to hear live? \u00a0Drop me a line or write a comment below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was reading a Facebook post by an old friend of mine, who was bemused by his sudden realization of his advancing age due to the change in what was being programmed at concerts these days.\u00a0 He noted the shift to much more programming of the Shostakovich string quartets, for example, and the virtual disappearance […]<\/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":[1045,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-programming-music","category-the-orchestra-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-1sS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7536,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/04\/25\/short-seasons-and-saint-saens\/","url_meta":{"origin":5634,"position":0},"title":"short, seasons, and saint-saens","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 25, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This week's classical series program is quite an interesting one, at least to me. It begins with a symphony of Aaron Copland that is still seldom performed, the Second Symphony (also known as the Short Symphony). It's a slight, three movement work, which could be compared to neoclassical works of\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\/12\/copland-286x400.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7021,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/10\/28\/ludwig-carl-and-aaron\/","url_meta":{"origin":5634,"position":1},"title":"ludwig, carl, and aaron","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"This week's concerts by the Oregon Symphony feature three works that range from the well-known to the virtually unknown. It's a good mix of the familiar and the new (though none of the pieces was written more recently than 67 years ago). Beethoven's only violin concerto is one of those\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "programming"","block_context":{"text":"programming","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/programming-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/KG_016a1-599x299.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/KG_016a1-599x299.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/KG_016a1-599x299.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":96,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2006\/11\/10\/digital-scholarship\/","url_meta":{"origin":5634,"position":2},"title":"digital scholarship","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 10, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I was randomly surfing around the Web last night and happened upon a couple great resources: first is the Library on Congress' Internet Resources for Music, Theater and Dance. It is a page designed primarily for researchers looking for in-depth information that can be found in the major repositories of\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":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6809,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/08\/25\/the-write-stuff\/","url_meta":{"origin":5634,"position":3},"title":"the write stuff","author":"Charles Noble","date":"August 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I just turned in my first set of program notes for the Oregon Symphony! I was asked to write notes that were a bit off the beaten path of program notes (which are normally all written for the Oregon Symphony by the excellent Elizabeth Schwartz), and it was fun and\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\/2011\/08\/iStock_000001958827XSmall-200x199.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3703,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/12\/31\/anti-hopes-for-the-coming-decade\/","url_meta":{"origin":5634,"position":4},"title":"anti-hopes for the coming decade","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 31, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Here are things that I hope don't occur or take place or become more prevalent in the coming decade.\u00a0 The naughts have basically sucked for everyone (unless you're in one of the surviving financial giants, that is), and the teens have got to be better. That programming continues to get\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":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7033,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/11\/01\/what-a-strange-week\/","url_meta":{"origin":5634,"position":5},"title":"what a strange week…","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"This past week brought a concert that was one of my favorites of this season. The two major pieces on the program were the Beethoven Violin Concerto with soloist Karen Gomyo, and Carl Nielsen's Fourth Symphony \"The Inextinguishable\". Throw in the delightful, nostalgic little Copland \"Letter from Home\" and you've\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\/10\/KG_016a1-300x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5634","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=5634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}