![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/12\/us_const.jpg?resize=370%2C244\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Oregon Symphony violinist Greg Ewer<\/a> gave a recital at the Old Church last night in honor of the 74th anniversary of the repeal of prohibition.\u00c2\u00a0 As a way of signaling the importance of the date, Ewer brought a cooler full of tasty beverages for lucky audience members to imbibe during the performance.Lucky for those of us in the audience, the quality of the music making from the stage did not drive us to drink – only the celebration of the 21st Amendment<\/a> demanded we partake.\u00c2\u00a0 Ewer presented three major works in this beautifully played recital, featuring collaborators Cary Lewis<\/a> on piano and OSO Associate principal hornist Joe Berger<\/a>.<\/p>\n First came the Mozart Sonata in C major for piano and violin, K. 296.\u00c2\u00a0 The Mozart sonatas are referred to as piano sonatas with violin, and for good reason.\u00c2\u00a0 The keyboard parts were fleet and meaty, and deftly and sensitively handled by Lewis.\u00c2\u00a0 Ewer played the oft-accompanying violin lines with a silvery tone, beautifully tapered phrases, and with a decidedly Classical approach (with less vibrato and more shaping of notes with the bow) as opposed to the often over-vibrated Romantic approach used by big name violinists.<\/p>\n Next, in the words of Monty Python’s\u00c2\u00a0 Flying Circus, it was time for something completely different,\u00c2\u00a0 in the form of the massive and gorgeous early Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 18 by Richard Strauss.\u00c2\u00a0 This sonata presents the highest technical demands on the part of both the pianist and violinist, and for sensitive and limber leading and accompanying by both as well.\u00c2\u00a0 Ewer and Lewis delivered, with a lithe and impassioned performance that never strayed into the realm of the overwrought or sentimental.\u00c2\u00a0 I wish that this piece was more often found in the recital programs of the major soloists, but it appears that they are more in the hunt for pieces which show off their chops than for meaningful pieces that are a true duo partnership.\u00c2\u00a0 Bravo to Ewer and Lewis for their exceptional partnership in this piece.<\/p>\n Last came the great Horn Trio in E-flat major, Op. 40 by Johannes Brahms.\u00c2\u00a0 After some initial rocky intonation moments Ewer, Berger and Lewis played a wonderfully balanced and sensitive account of this score.\u00c2\u00a0 Balance is hard to achieve when you mix wind and string instruments, especially with the power of the french horn, but Berger played with remarkable sensitivity and taste throughout, resulting in truly well-balanced duo passages between both the horn and violin and the horn and piano.\u00c2\u00a0 The uncharacteristically emotional Adagio mesto was a high point of the evening, with the rollicking Finale living up to its con brio<\/em> (with fire) designation.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a great night of the highest level playing from three of Portland’s leading musicians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Oregon Symphony violinist Greg Ewer gave a recital at the Old Church last night in honor of the 74th anniversary of the repeal of prohibition.\u00c2\u00a0 As a way of signaling the importance of the date, Ewer brought a cooler full of tasty beverages for lucky audience members to imbibe during the performance.<\/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_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":[115,135],"tags":[67,3666,53,3662,62,3660,3659],"class_list":["post-567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-soloists-recitals","tag-classical","tag-oregon","tag-piano","tag-portland","tag-symphony","tag-viola","tag-violin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-99","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5804,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/02\/14\/opbs-artbeat-features-yeats-and-ewer\/","url_meta":{"origin":567,"position":0},"title":"opb’s artbeat features yeats and ewer","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Oregon Public Broadcasting's wonderful and long-lived arts program ArtBeat this week featured Portland bowmaker extraordinaire Michael Yeats, who talks about the craft of making bows for violins, violas, and cellos. \u00a0Also featured in that segment: Oregon Symphony violinist Gregory Ewer, who masterfully plays solo Bach (his great Chaconne). \u00a0Well worth\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "instruments"","block_context":{"text":"instruments","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/instruments\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/artist11.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3832,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/01\/17\/45th-parallel-inaugurates-success\/","url_meta":{"origin":567,"position":1},"title":"45th parallel inaugurates success","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 17, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Photo [L-R]: Jun Iwasaki, Charles Noble, Gregory Ewer, Trevor Fitzpatrick, Viorel Bejenaru, Justin Kagan. UPDATE: Northwest Reverb posted a review of the concert on Sunday. Saturday evening saw the inaugural concert of a new presenter in town: 45th Parallel.\u00a0 Founded by artistic director Gregory Ewer (also a violinist in the\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":[]},{"id":21377,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2021\/05\/16\/new-podcast-episode-with-greg-ewer-and-ron-blessinger-of-45th-parallel-universe\/","url_meta":{"origin":567,"position":2},"title":"new podcast episode with Greg Ewer and Ron Blessinger of 45th Parallel Universe","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The newest episode of the Classical Currents Podcast is now available. I talked with 45th Parallel Universe founder Greg Ewer and Executive Director Ron Blessinger about the beginnings of the organization, how it survived (and even thrived) during the pandemic, and maybe a few OG Oregon Symphony stories as well.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "45th Parallel Universe"","block_context":{"text":"45th Parallel Universe","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/45th-parallel-universe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/ep-008-45thParallelUniverse-sm.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/ep-008-45thParallelUniverse-sm.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/ep-008-45thParallelUniverse-sm.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/ep-008-45thParallelUniverse-sm.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1996,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/03\/02\/my-fondest-dream-did-come-true\/","url_meta":{"origin":567,"position":3},"title":"my fondest dream did come true!","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I wrote in a previous post that my fondest dream would be to be greeted just offstage with a frosty beer. Well, after a very long day, with a two-hour drive to play a huge quartet program in Astoria, Oregon at 2 pm, with a quick turnaround to get back\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "food & drink"","block_context":{"text":"food & drink","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/food-drink\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"imgp5779","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/imgp5779-400x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3786,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/01\/14\/new-chamber-series-opens-saturday\/","url_meta":{"origin":567,"position":4},"title":"new chamber series opens saturday","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"45th Parallel, a new chamber music series curated by Oregon Symphony violinist Gregory Ewer, presents its inaugural concert on Saturday evening, January 16th at 7:30 p.m. at the Old Church in downtown Portland (1422 SW 11th Avenue).\u00a0 Seating is limited, and the concert is likely to sell out, so don't\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":[]},{"id":1872,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/02\/09\/jeffrey-work-trumpet-recital\/","url_meta":{"origin":567,"position":5},"title":"jeffrey work trumpet recital","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Oregon Symphony principal trumpet Jeffrey Work will be giving his Portland recital debut at the Old Church on Tuesday, February 17th at 12 Noon. The program will include the Sonata by Karl Pliss, a world premiere of \"2002\" by Charles Knox, the Pietro Baldasarre Sonata in F, and the Fantasie\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"jeffrey work, trumpet","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/05\/jeffreyworkphoto.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567","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=567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}