Monday morning the OSO begins its rehearsals for next weekend’s penultimate classical series of the 2011-2012 season. Yes, then end of our season is just over two weeks away. It’s hard to believe, often, it seems to stretch into infinity around January or February, and then May is here, and with the close of the month comes the close of our season.<\/p>\n
This concert, which is advertised as being all about pianist Arnaldo Cohen and Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, really centers around two of my favorite pieces: Benjamin Britten’s Four Sea Interludes & Passacaglia from Peter Grimes<\/em>, and Sibelius’ Seventh Symphony. I have written before that I have yet to encounter a work by Britten that I didn’t almost immediately like, and I must say that the Four Sea Interludes were the first pieces of Britten’s that I had ever performed, and most likely ever heard. They were written to transition between sections of the opera – hiding the noise of set changes and the like – but they are awesomely beautiful, and exquisitely crafted. These are not throwaway scraps by any means. The Passacaglia (another instrumental interlude from the opera) is notable both for its use of the ancient passacaglia form which relies upon a repeating bass line upon which the rest of the structure is built, and for its lonely and haunting solos for the principal violist – which will be expertly played by my long-time stand partner Jo\u00ebl Belgique this week.<\/p>\n The Sibelius is a fascinating end to his line of seven symphonies (almost eight, but for the loss of that manuscript at the hands of the composer), it begins with a simple C major scale in the entire string section, and then goes on to produce some of the most deeply emotional and beautiful music of all of his symphonic output. It features one of the crowning trombone solos in all of the symphonic literature – it will be a treat to hear Aaron LaVere play this music again.<\/p>\n More after the rehearsal period begins…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Monday morning the OSO begins its rehearsals for next weekend’s penultimate classical series of the 2011-2012 season. Yes, then end of our season is just over two weeks away. It’s hard to believe, often, it seems to stretch into infinity around January or February, and then May is here, and with the close of the […]<\/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":[148,1045,2],"tags":[3045,2759,2400,3042,3668,3043,3044,3046,2857],"class_list":["post-7566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-programming-music","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-arnaldo-cohen","tag-benjamin-britten","tag-carlos-kalmar","tag-four-sea-interludes","tag-oregon-symphony","tag-passacaglia","tag-peter-grimes","tag-seventh-symphony","tag-sibelius"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-1Y2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7528,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/04\/24\/oregon-symphony-broadcast-schedule-announced\/","url_meta":{"origin":7566,"position":0},"title":"oregon symphony broadcast schedule announced","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Finally! The Oregon Symphony is back on the airwaves, and not only our local FM station (89.9 FM Allclassical.org), but streamed around the world and available for two weeks after the broadcast date as an archived stream. Kahane Plays Mozart Carlos Kalmar, conductor Jeffrey Kahane, piano Vaughan Williams: Symphony No.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "radio"","block_context":{"text":"radio","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7584,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/05\/09\/tales-from-the-practice-room-5102012\/","url_meta":{"origin":7566,"position":1},"title":"tales from the practice room – 5\/10\/2012","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 9, 2012","format":"aside","excerpt":"This week is getting busier and busier. We're rehearsing our program for this coming weekend, which has higher stakes than usual as we're recording part of the program to complete our second CD of British music - Britten's Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes. Add to that the Passacaglia (also\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\/2012\/05\/adams1-599x394.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/adams1-599x394.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/adams1-599x394.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5828,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/02\/20\/thoughts-on-the-upcoming-season\/","url_meta":{"origin":7566,"position":2},"title":"thoughts on the upcoming season","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"As promised (or threatened), here are my thoughts on the upcoming 2011-2012 season which was just announced today (or yesterday, if you are an Oregonian reader). To keep it simple, I'll divide the comments into two sections - artists, and repertoire. Artists The new season continues with the same level\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\/02\/RF7_CREDIT_DECCA_ANDREWECCLES-300x400.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4451,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/04\/16\/whats-next-at-the-oregon-symphony\/","url_meta":{"origin":7566,"position":3},"title":"what’s next at the oregon symphony","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The 2009-2010 season has about six weeks left before it ends, and we're just about to enter the home stretch.\u00a0 May is a super-busy month, but April still has some compelling concerts to see and hear. I've very much looking forward to our next Classical series (April 24-26), which features\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "cello"","block_context":{"text":"cello","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/instruments\/cello\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/Midori3_orig-266x400.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4668,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/05\/18\/final-push\/","url_meta":{"origin":7566,"position":4},"title":"final push","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm sitting at the computer with my afternoon latte beside me, and am reflecting upon the fact that this is the last week of the Oregon Symphony's 2009-2010 season.\u00a0 It truly has gone by in what seems like the blink of an eye.\u00a0 Last night we concluded our three concert\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":12754,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/07\/04\/obf-a-night-at-the-opera\/","url_meta":{"origin":7566,"position":5},"title":"obf – a night at the opera","author":"Charles Noble","date":"July 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Tuesday night was the only full concert conducting appearance at this year's festival by Oregon Bach Festival Artistic director designate Matthew Halls. It was a doozy. Entitled \"A Night at the Opera\", it was a nearly seamless exploration of operatic masterpieces by the three birthday boys of the opera this\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\/2013\/07\/9188461048_c2c18e4dab_c.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/9188461048_c2c18e4dab_c.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/9188461048_c2c18e4dab_c.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/9188461048_c2c18e4dab_c.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7566","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=7566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7566\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}