{"id":5756,"date":"2011-01-31T23:10:11","date_gmt":"2011-02-01T07:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/?p=5756"},"modified":"2011-01-31T23:10:11","modified_gmt":"2011-02-01T07:10:11","slug":"percussion-fest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/01\/31\/percussion-fest\/","title":{"rendered":"percussion fest"},"content":{"rendered":"

This past weekend’s concerts were built around pieces that had a very good amount of percussion in them, including the centerpiece of the concert, Jennifer Higdon’s Percussion Concerto<\/em>, with the Scottish percussion soloist Colin Currie.<\/p>\n

Percussion instruments are always great for audiences to see and hear in a featured role – you don’t often get to hear them as anything more than a background color, or a reinforcement of a musical climax.\u00a0 To hear the percussion instrument in the role of solo instruments is to be exposed to a tremendous amount of color, dynamic range and rhythmic vitality.<\/p>\n

So this past weekend, it was great to see our percussion section (augmented from its usual three plus timpani to six percussionists) take a central role in all of the pieces on the program.\u00a0 They did themselves proud, and made all of the pieces come to life.\u00a0 The sardonic touches in Rodion Shchedrin’s\u00a0 ballet version of Bizet’s Carmen<\/em>, were all spot on, and they provided touches of humor, too.<\/p>\n

Most of all, I appreciated Jennifer Higdon’s remarkable Percussion Concerto<\/em>.\u00a0 The work emerges out of silence, at the lowest octaves of the huge five octave marimba, the notes as much sensed as heard at the outset.\u00a0 There is a genuine dialogue between the solo percussionist and his colleagues in the orchestra, with a call and response going back and forth, including the tremendous climax of the virtuoso cadenza.\u00a0 This piece makes the percussion battery a grand musical instrument, not just a collection of noise makers that do so simply for effect.\u00a0 Jennifer has really become a strong, confident, unique voice in contemporary music – it’s no wonder that she’s one of the most performed living composers today.\u00a0 It was great to have her here last week for the rehearsals and performances.<\/p>\n

What’s coming up next weekend? A tremendous piano soloist, the dynamic and beautiful Yuja Wang plays Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto, the orchestra takes up Brahms’ dark and intense Tragic Overture, and we get more percussion featured in Carl Nielsen’s quirky (and hard as hell) Sixth Symphony “Simplice”.\u00a0 Lots of notes, lots of drama, and lots of great music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This past weekend’s concerts were built around pieces that had a very good amount of percussion in them, including the centerpiece of the concert, Jennifer Higdon’s Percussion Concerto, with the Scottish percussion soloist Colin Currie. Percussion instruments are always great for audiences to see and hear in a featured role – you don’t often get […]<\/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":[2127,135,2],"tags":[2123,541,3668,2505],"class_list":["post-5756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-percussion","category-soloists-recitals","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-colin-currie","tag-jennifer-higdon","tag-oregon-symphony","tag-percussion-concerto"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-1uQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3934,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/01\/31\/higdon-percussion-concerto-wins-grammy\/","url_meta":{"origin":5756,"position":0},"title":"higdon percussion concerto wins grammy","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 31, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Jennifer Higdon's Percussion Concerto (which will be performed by Colin Currie and the Oregon Symphony next season) has won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition!\u00a0 The recording which was nominated and won featured Colin Currie and Marin Alsop with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.\u00a0 It's available on the London\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "contemporary"","block_context":{"text":"contemporary","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/contemporary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3964,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/02\/01\/higdon-percussion-concerto\/","url_meta":{"origin":5756,"position":1},"title":"higdon percussion concerto","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"On heels of the Percussion Concerto receiving a GRAMMY, and its being programmed on next year's Oregon Symphony season, I thought it might be nice to get a preview. \u00a0Here's Colin Currie (who will play the piece here in Portland) with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. This appears to be a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "percussion"","block_context":{"text":"percussion","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/instruments\/percussion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5734,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/01\/20\/jennifer-higdon-in-portland\/","url_meta":{"origin":5756,"position":2},"title":"jennifer higdon in portland","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Jennifer Higdon, who has a familial connection to Portland, will be returning to oversee the Oregon Symphony rehearsals and performances of her Percussion Concerto (2005), with percussion superstar Colin Currie.\u00a0 It will be a great pleasure to see her, and I hope to have some sort of special blog feature\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "composition"","block_context":{"text":"composition","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/composition\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/resolutions_higdon-400x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7829,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/09\/07\/opening-with-a-bang\/","url_meta":{"origin":5756,"position":3},"title":"opening with a bang","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 7, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The moniker for the season opening special concert this year is \"Opening with a Bang\", and it's very appropriate! If you love all of the spectacular (both loud AND soft) things that a full symphony orchestra can do, then this concert is tailor-made for you. I know that Respighi's Pines\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "percussion"","block_context":{"text":"percussion","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/instruments\/percussion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/ColinCurrie3cChrisDawes_orig-266x400.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7825,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/09\/05\/best-symphony-preview-blurb-ever\/","url_meta":{"origin":5756,"position":4},"title":"best symphony preview blurb – ever","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"In this week's Portland Mercury, from our own Classical Beaver, aka Angry Symphony Guy: OREGON SYMPHONY, COLIN CURRIE (Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway) The Oregon Symphony's first classical concert of the 2012\/13 season rightfully deserves an exhaustive six-page spread, but the fucking idgits who run this craptastic \"newspaper\"\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":3945,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/02\/01\/osos-2010-2011-season\/","url_meta":{"origin":5756,"position":5},"title":"OSO’s 2010-2011 Season","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Saturday evening, the Oregon Symphony unveiled its 2010-2011 season programming.\u00a0 I was giving the pre-concert talk that night, so I couldn't be at the unveiling reception, but I suspect that there must have been a fair amount of applause and the sound of jaws hitting the floor as the specifics\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\/2010\/01\/Joshua-Bell-photo-002-250x313.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5756","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=5756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5756\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}