{"id":7033,"date":"2011-11-01T17:11:14","date_gmt":"2011-11-02T00:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/?p=7033"},"modified":"2013-02-07T20:57:27","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T04:57:27","slug":"what-a-strange-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/11\/01\/what-a-strange-week\/","title":{"rendered":"what a strange week…"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Karen Gomyo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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<\/a>, and Carl Nielsen’s Fourth Symphony “The Inextinguishable”. Throw in the delightful, nostalgic little Copland “Letter from Home” and you’ve got quite a nice concert. All pretty normal and mundane by symphony orchestra standards, right? Well, almost. We got word that Carlos was going to be delayed in Vienna due to a family emergency. Our first rehearsal was set for last Tuesday. Carlos would not be flying back into Portland until late Thursday. That meant that Resident conductor Gregory Vajda<\/a> would be leading four of our five rehearsals before our Sunday morning dress rehearsal.<\/p>\n

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Gregory Vajda<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s hard to step in and rehearse an orchestra under any circumstances, but even more so when one is going to rehearse but not actually conduct the performances. I would suppose that the temptation would be to either put your own stamp on the pieces, but then that would mean that there would be more work for the music director to change things to his liking in one short rehearsal. On the other hand, one could rehearse the transitions, give the orchestra time to play through and familiarize themselves with the pieces, and then let the music director step in and guide things in his direction. Wisely, Vajda chose the latter choice, and it made things a lot easier in some respects, even though it did make for some frustratingly vague rehearsals. So, when Carlos showed up for his Sunday morning dress rehearsal with us and the soloist, things went very well. We’ve developed a shorthand for communicating things quickly with Carlos, and he with us, and so things went together quickly and smoothly.<\/p>\n

When the matinee concert Sunday afternoon began with those solo timpani notes at the start of the Beethoven concerto, it was clear that there was going to be some serious music-making going on. It was, as Carlos remarked to us Monday morning, pure chamber music between Karen Gomyo, Carlos, and the orchestra. It doesn’t hurt that Karen is a superb musician and that the Beethoven is one of the supreme masterpieces of classical music. Oh, and the orchestra and Carlos aren’t chopped liver, either. It was a joy from beginning to end, and it was particularly inspiring to hear our bassoon section, with its many wonderful melodies and counter-melodies, of Carin Miller and our new second bassoonist Adam Trussell, who played this week with us ahead of his official December 1 start date. And of course, in the Nielsen, the addition of contra-bassoonist Evan Kuhlmann was great, too.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Assia Dulgerska<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We had a wonderful guest concertmaster, Assia Dulgerska<\/a>, who was visiting from her current position as Assistant concertmaster of the Houston Symphony. She played her incidental solos in the Nielsen with warmth and passion. Also with us last week (and again this week) was guest principal flutist Jessica Sindell<\/a>, who has the most magnificent flute sound, and seemed to fit right into the woodwind section as the week went along. She had some beautiful contributions in all of the pieces, especially the Beethoven and Nielsen, both as a soloist and part of the woodwind choir.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Carl Nielsen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Nielsen, of course, was a knockout. It is one of those pieces that is somewhere between “just ok” and “fun” to play, but is an absolute blast to hear performed live from the audience. There were so many things that went so well – the brass shone from beginning to end (they finally<\/em> got a piece that they could sink their considerable teeth into), with special kudos to the low end – Charles Reneau on bass trombone and JaT’tik Clark on tuba. All of the woodwinds played with remarkable sensitivity in the third movement. And the violins played the shit out of the furious 32nd note fugue subject at the beginning of the last movement. And, I say with due modesty, the violas made very effective machine guns in the first movement.<\/p>\n

So, the orchestra continues on its upward trajectory after our Carnegie Hall debut last May. It’s an exciting place to be!<\/p>\n

Speaking of exciting, this coming weekend’s concerts will be incredible. First, the orchestra gets to flex all of its virtuosic musculature in Richard Strauss’ Don Juan<\/em> – it will knock your socks off! Then there is the remarkable Britten Piano Concerto, which is seldom heard – it was last played by the Oregon Symphony in 1948(!) – with pianist Stephen Osborne, but a wonderful piece. And finally, one of the great symphonies ever composed, Mozart’s final symphony, No. 41 ‘Jupiter’.<\/p>\n

Get your tickets now!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 got quite a nice concert. […]<\/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_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":[2],"tags":[2844,2400,2843,319,2780,2842,3668],"class_list":["post-7033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-beethoven-violin-concerto","tag-carlos-kalmar","tag-copland-letter-from-home","tag-gregory-vajda","tag-karen-gomyo","tag-nielsen-fourth-symphony","tag-oregon-symphony"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-1Pr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6809,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/08\/25\/the-write-stuff\/","url_meta":{"origin":7033,"position":0},"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":7021,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/10\/28\/ludwig-carl-and-aaron\/","url_meta":{"origin":7033,"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":3998,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/02\/06\/karen-gomyo-plays-prokofiev\/","url_meta":{"origin":7033,"position":2},"title":"karen gomyo plays prokofiev","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 6, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This weekend's set of Classical series concerts at the Oregon Symphony feature the Canadian violinist Karen Gomyo, who I had a chance to hear several times when she was still just on the cusp of a career, most recently when she came to play the Bruch G minor Violin Concerto\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":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13712,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2015\/05\/08\/2014-2105-a-retrospective-part-two\/","url_meta":{"origin":7033,"position":3},"title":"2014-2105: a retrospective, part two","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"And now, for the big list - the stuff I played with the Oregon Symphony this past season*. Lots of variety, and some holes in repertoire that I really couldn't believe when I looked at the list - only one work by Brahms, for example? Hm... Barber - Adagio for\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\/noble-oso-pic-e1408736178252.jpg?fit=451%2C300&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7199,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/12\/31\/my-top-musical-experiences-of-2011\/","url_meta":{"origin":7033,"position":4},"title":"my top musical experiences of 2011","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm sure that I will have forgotten something obvious, and except for item #1, the list is roughly in reverse chronological order. Send in your favorites from 2011 in the comments section below. The Oregon Symphony's Carnegie Hall debut. It would be hard to top this one. I'd been 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":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14970,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2018\/10\/29\/where-has-the-time-gone\/","url_meta":{"origin":7033,"position":5},"title":"where has the time gone?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 29, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I try to avoid having more than a month elapse between blog posts, but I've failed in this effort this time, my last post having been Sept. 23rd. There has been a lot going on, musically, in my life. Here's a brief recap of my orchestral activities since that last\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7033","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=7033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7033\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}