JANUARY 2 019
the magazine of the
Oregon Symphony
Leslie Odom, Jr. FE ATURED CONCER T S Favorite Light Classics Rossini and Rimsky-Korsakov Americana with Edgar Meyer Leslie Odom, Jr. Schumann’s “Rhenish”
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CONTENTS JANUARY 2019 12
Feature
14
about us LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT 7 CONDUCTORS 9 ORCHESTRA, STAFF & BOARD 10 RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS 33 OUR SUPPORTERS 34
Favorite Light Classics
Simone Lamsma
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22
featured SIMONE LAMSMA 12 KENNETH FINCH 40 THE KELLER AUDITORIUM 42 KELLER MURAL 44
Rossini and Rimsky-Korsakov
26
Feature
performances
Americana with Edgar Meyer
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FAVORITE LIGHT CLASSICS 14 ATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 7:30 PM S S UNDAY, JANUARY 6, 2 PM
ROSSINI AND RIMSKY-KORSAKOV 16 ATURDAY, JANUARY 12, 7:30 PM S S UNDAY, JANUARY 13, 7:30 PM M ONDAY, JANUARY 14, 7:30 PM
AMERICANA WITH EDGAR MEYER 22 S ATURDAY, JANUARY 19, 7:30 PM Leslie Odom, Jr. Garry Trudeau
Schumann’s “Rhenish”
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Feature
Feature
LESLIE ODOM, JR. 26
42
S UNDAY, JANUARY 20, 7:30 PM
SCHUMANN’S “RHENISH” 28 ATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 7:30 PM S S UNDAY, JANUARY 27, 2 PM M ONDAY, JANUARY 28, 7:30 PM
Kenneth Finch
The Keller Auditorium
Oregon Symphony programs are supported in part by grants from the Oregon Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and by the Regional Arts & Culture Council and Work for Art, including support from the City of Portland, Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington Counties, and Metro.
on the cover: Leslie Odom, Jr.
®
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LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT Dear Friends, We look forward to a New Year of exceptional music – both here in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall and around our community. In a season in which we celebrate storytelling, we start the year with Favorite Light Classics (January 5–6), featuring some of the most famous and evocative selections from the history of orchestral music. Next, we welcome cellist Johannes Moser, as he begins his first of three years as artist-inresidence with Oregon Symphony. In addition to his Classical Series concert, Rossini and Rimsky-Korsakov (January 12–14), his time with us encompasses community-building partnerships and appearances including a youth concert at Chehalem Cultural Center, a rehearsal and performance with bravo Youth Orchestras, a live recital and chat on the radio at All Classical Portland, and masterclasses for high school and university students. The month continues with two Special Concerts: Americana with Edgar Meyer (January 19), including Copland’s delightful Appalachian Spring, and the Grammy®- and Tony-award winning Leslie Odom, Jr., who will perform an array of jazz standards and Broadway hits (January 20). We conclude the month with Schumann’s majestic “Rhenish” Symphony (January 26–28).
All of our work – inside and outside the hall – is made possible by you, our patrons and donors. Thank you for your support. Enjoy the music.”
SHARE YOUR STORY WITH #SOUNDSTORIES As part of this season’s theme of SoundStories, we’re collecting stories from you, our audience, about how music has impacted your life. We want to know about the first time you heard the Oregon Symphony, about your favorite musical memories from your childhood, and more. Share your story using the hashtag #SoundStories.
Scott Showalter president & ceo
@OregonSymphony
orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353
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Great concerts in February
Hansel and Gretel
Hansel and Gretel
Valentine’s Day with Smokey Robinson
FEBRUARY 1, 2 & 4
FEBRUARY 14
Carlos Kalmar, conductor Gregory Dahl, Father Chelsea Duval-Major, Hansel John Easterlin, Witch Maeve Höglund, Gretel Jenny Schuler, Mother Yungee Rhie, Sandman and Dew Fairy Pacific Youth Choir Shadow puppetry by Manual Cinema
Norman Huynh, conductor
Humperdinck: Hansel and Gretel Kodo
The Chicago-based Manual Cinema lights Humperdinck’s fairy-tale opera, set in the depths of the thick German forest, with the dazzling, phantasmic effects of shadow puppetry.
Kodo – One Earth Tour 2019: Evolution Simone Lamsma
FEBRUARY 5 The Japanese taiko-drumming troupe returns for a dramatic performance full of pulsing rhythms, athletic virtuosity, and stirring passion. The Oregon Symphony does not perform.
Smokey Robinson
Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony FEBRUARY 9, 10 & 11 Carlos Kalmar, conductor • Simone Lamsma, violin Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1, “Classical” • Khachaturian: Violin Concerto Dvořák: Symphony No. 8
Marc-André Hamelin
2018/19
With its abundance of folk tunes and shimmering evocations of the Bohemian countryside, Dvořák’s bucolic Eighth Symphony contains some of the Czech composer’s richest, most memorable melodies.
The Motown legend performs his greatest hits – “The Tracks of My Tears,” “Ooo Baby Baby,” “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me,” and many more. What a way to thrill your sweetheart on the most romantic night of the year!
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban™ in Concert FEBRUARY 16 & 17 Justin Freer, conductor Relive the magic of your favorite wizard in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban™ in Concert. Based on the third installment of J.K. Rowling’s classic saga, fans of all ages can now experience the thrilling tale accompanied by live music from the Oregon Symphony orchestra as Harry soars across the big screen. HARRY POTTER characters, names and related indicia are © & ™ Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. J.K. ROWLING’S WIZARDING WORLD™ J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Publishing Rights © JKR. (s18)
Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto FEBRUARY 23, 24 & 25 James Feddeck, conductor • Marc-André Hamelin, piano John Adams: Doctor Atomic Symphony • Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 R. Strauss: Death and Transfiguration Since its premiere, Rachmaninoff ’s showpiece has thrilled audiences with resplendent bravura and a melody so enduring that even Sinatra couldn’t resist it.
orsymphony.org 503-228-1353 your official source for symphony tickets MOVING MUSIC FORWARD
CONDUCTORS Carlos Kalmar Jean Vollum music director chair
Carlos Kalmar is in his 16th season as music director of the Oregon Symphony. He is also the artistic director and principal conductor of the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago. In May 2011, he made his New York debut at Carnegie Hall with the Oregon Symphony as part of the inaugural Spring for Music festival. Both his imaginative program, Music for a Time of War, and the performance itself were hailed by critics in The New York Times, New Yorker magazine, and Musical America, and the concert was recorded and released on the Pentatone label, subsequently earning two Grammy nominations (Best Orchestral Performance and Best Engineered). Under Kalmar’s guidance the orchestra has recorded subsequent cds on the PentaTone label – This England, featuring works by Britten, Vaughan Williams, and Elgar; The Spirit of the American Range, with works by Copland, Piston, and Antheil, which received another Best Orchestral Performance Grammy nomination; and Haydn Symphonies. New Yorker magazine critic Alex Ross called the Oregon Symphony’s Carnegie Hall performance under Kalmar “the highlight of the festival and one of the most gripping events of the current season.” That verdict was echoed by Sedgwick Clark, writing for Musical America, who described the performance of Vaughan Williams’ Fourth Symphony as “positively searing… with fearless edge-of-seat tempos… breathtakingly negotiated by all…” A regular guest conductor with major orchestras in America, Europe, and Asia, Kalmar recently made his subscription series debuts with three of America’s most prestigious orchestras: those of Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco. Past engagements have seen him on the podium with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the New World Symphony, as well as the orchestras of Baltimore, Cincinnati, Dallas, Houston, Milwaukee, Nashville, Seattle, and St. Louis. Carlos Kalmar, born in Uruguay to Austrian parents, showed an early interest in music and began violin studies at the age of 6. By the time he was 15, his musical promise was such that his family moved back to Austria in order for him to study conducting with Karl Osterreicher at the Vienna Academy of Music. He has previously served as the chief conductor and artistic director of the Spanish Radio/Television Orchestra and Choir in Madrid as well as the music director for the Hamburg Symphony, the Stuttgart Philharmonic, Vienna’s Tonnkunsterorchester, and the Anhaltisches Theater in Dessau, Germany. He lives in Portland with his wife, Raffaela, and sons, Luca and Claudio.
Norman Huynh Harold and Arlene Schnitzer associate conductor chair
Now in his third season as Oregon Symphony associate conductor, Norman Huynh was selected from a field of over 100 candidates from around the world for his exceptional conducting technique, his passion for a wide-ranging repertoire, and his unique ability to communicate with an audience. The recipient of the 2015 Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Scholarship, he previously conducted the St. Louis, City of Birmingham (uk), Baltimore, Toledo, Charlotte, and Virginia symphonies, and the Peabody Symphony Orchestra. He made his international conducting debut with the Princess Galyani Vadhana Youth Orchestra in Bangkok, Thailand, and has also conducted the Leipzig Symphony. He previously served as assistant conductor for the Spoleto Festival usa, the Portland Symphony Orchestra in Maine, Opera Carolina, the Lyric Opera of Baltimore, the Peabody Opera Theatre, and The Peabody Singers. Norman co-founded the Occasional Symphony, an organization that presents innovative programs that resonate with eclectic venues throughout the city of Baltimore. He studied orchestral conducting at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, working with Gustav Meier, Markand Thakar, and Marin Alsop. For backstage stories, follow Norman on Instagram @normanconductor. Jeff Tyzik principal pops conductor
Jeff Tyzik has earned a reputation as one of America’s foremost pops conductors and is recognized for his brilliant arrangements, original programming, and rapport with audiences. Now in his 25th season as principal pops conductor of the Rochester Philharmonic, Tyzik is also in his 12th season as the Oregon Symphony’s principal pops conductor and continues to serve in the same role with the Seattle Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Florida Orchestra, and Canada’s Vancouver Symphony. Tyzik is also highly sought after as a guest conductor across North America. He holds Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the Eastman School of Music. He lives in Rochester, ny, with his wife, Jill. orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353
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O R C H E S T R A , S TA F F & B O A R D Orchestra MU S I C D IR E C TO R
CE LLO
H O RN
Carlos Kalmar Jean Vollum music director chair
Nancy Ives, Mr. & Mrs. Edmund Hayes, Jr. principal cello chair Marilyn de Oliveira, assistant principal Seth Biagini Kenneth Finch Trevor Fitzpatrick Antoinette Gan Kevin Kunkel
John Cox, principal Joseph Berger, associate principal Graham Kingsbury, assistant principal Mary Grant Alicia Michele Waite
A S S O CIATE COND U C TO R Norman Huynh Harold and Arlene Schnitzer associate conductor chair PR IN CIPAL P O P S COND U C TO R Jeff Tyzik VI O LIN
BASS Colin Corner, principal Braizahn Jones, assistant principal Nina DeCesare Donald Hermanns Jeffrey Johnson Jason Schooler
Sarah Kwak, Janet & Richard Geary concertmaster chair Peter Frajola, Del M. Smith & Maria Stanley Smith associate concertmaster chair FLU TE Erin Furbee, Harold & Jane Pollin Martha Long, Bruce & Judy Thesenga assistant concertmaster chair principal flute chair Chien Tan, Truman Collins, Sr. principal Alicia DiDonato Paulsen, second violin chair Inés Voglar Belgique, assistant principal assistant principal Zachariah Galatis second violin Fumino Ando P I CCO LO Keiko Araki Zachariah Galatis Clarisse Atcherson Ron Blessinger OBOE Lisbeth Carreno Martin Hébert, Harold J. Schnitzer Ruby Chen principal oboe chair Emily Cole Karen Wagner, assistant principal Julie Coleman Kyle Mustain Eileen Deiss Jonathan Dubay ENGLI S H H O RN Gregory Ewer Kyle Mustain Daniel Ge Feng Lynne Finch CL AR INE T Shin-young Kwon James Shields, principal Ryan Lee Todd Kuhns, assistant principal Samuel Park Mark Dubac Searmi Park Vali Phillips B A S S CL AR INE T Deborah Singer Todd Kuhns VIOLA B A S S O ON Joël Belgique, Maybelle Clark Macdonald Fund principal viola chair** Carin Miller Packwood, principal Evan Kuhlmann, assistant principal** Charles Noble, principal* Adam Trussell Brian Quincey, assistant principal* Jennifer Arnold CONTR A B A S S O ON Silu Fei Evan Kuhlmann** Leah Ilem Ningning Jin Kim Mai Nguyen* Viorel Russo Martha Warrington
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TR UMPE T Jeffrey Work, principal David Bamonte, assistant principal, Musicians of the Oregon Symphony Richard Thornburg trumpet chair Doug Reneau TR OMB ONE Casey Jones, principal Robert Taylor, assistant principal Charles Reneau B A S S TR OMB ONE Charles Reneau TUBA JáTtik Clark, principal TIMPANI Jonathan Greeney, principal Sergio Carreno, assistant principal PE R CU S S I ON Niel DePonte, principal Michael Roberts, assistant principal Sergio Carreno HAR P Jennifer Craig, principal LIB R ARY Joy Fabos, principal Kathryn Thompson, associate Sara Pyne, assistant O R CHE S TR A PE R S ONNE L MANAGE R Leah Ilem * Acting position ** Leave of absence
Administration Ella Rathman, development associate Scott Showalter, president and ceo Leslie Simmons, events coordinator Diane M. Bush, executive assistant Courtney Trezise, foundation Susan Franklin, assistant to the and corporate giving officer music director Nik Walton, annual giving manager Ellen Bussing, vice president for development MAR KE TING , Charles Calmer, vice president COMMUNI C ATI ONS & S ALE S for artistic planning Ethan Allred, marketing and Natasha Kautsky, vice president of web content manager marketing and strategic engagement Rachel Allred, patron Janet Plummer, chief financial services representative and operations officer Liz Brown, marketing partnership Steve Wenig, vice president group sales manager and and general manager Adam Cifarelli, teleservices manager Karin Cravotta, patron services B U S INE S S O PE R ATI ONS representative David Fuller, tessitura applications Katherine Eulensen, audience administrator development manager Tom Fuller, database administrator Rebecca Van Halder, patron Julie Haberman, finance and services representative administration associate Emily Johnstone, patron Randy Maurer, production manager services representative Peter Rockwell, graphic designer Chris Kim, patron Lynette Soares, finance and services representative administration assistant Cleo Knickerbocker, patron services representative D E VE LO PMENT Hilary Blakemore, senior director Nils Knudsen, assistant ticket office manager of development John Kroninger, front of house manager Rene Contakos, gift officer
Lisa McGowen, patron communications manager Christy McGrew, ticket office manager Carol Minchin, patron services representative Rebekah Phillips, director of marketing, communications, and sales Amanda Preston, patron services representative Robert Trujillo, patron services representative Ashley Weatherspoon, patron services representative Frances Yu, lead patron services representative
O PE R ATI ONS Jacob Blaser, director of operations Monica Hayes, education and community engagement program director Susan Nielsen, director of popular programming and presentations Steve Stratman, orchestra manager Lori Trephibio, stage manager Jacob Wade, manager, operations and artistic administration
Board of Directors O FFI CE R S Robert Harrison, chair Walter E. Weyler, vice chair Nancy Hales, secretary Tige Harris, treasurer LIFE MEMB E R S William B. Early Gerald R. Hulsman Walter E. Weyler MEMB E R S Rich Baek Janet Blount Christopher M. Brooks Eve Callahan
Cliff Deveney Dan Drinkward Greg Ewer Lauren D. Fox Robyn Gastineau Suzanne Geary Ralph C. Hamm III Jeff Heatherington J. Clayton Hering Rick Hinkes RenĂŠe Holzman Sue Horn-Caskey Judy Hummelt Grady Jurrens Gerri Karetsky
Kristen Kern Thomas M. Lauderdale Martha Long Priscilla Wold Longfield Roscoe C. Nelson III Dan Rasay James Shields Larry Vollum Derald Walker Jack Wilborn E X- O FFI CI O MEMB E R S Scott Showalter, Oregon Symphony Association Jo Ann Young, Oregon Symphony Association in Salem
orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 11
F E AT U R E D A R T I C L E
SIMONE LAMSMA by Elizabeth Schwartz A young musician with drive, talent, and access to a major cultural center like New York or London can pursue musical studies without significant disruption to their family life. Things were different for Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma, who grew up in Bergum, a small town in the north of Holland. According to family lore, Lamsma declared her intention to play violin at age 2, after watching another violinist perform on television. “Of course, I cannot remember that; my parents told me later,” said Lamsma in a 2009 interview, “but from my earliest youth, I had that love and fascination for the violin and music.”
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Simone L amsma began violin lessons at 5, and her formidable ability soon became apparent. For the next six years, she lived at home with her parents and sister, juggling a schedule that would tax most adults: music lessons (violin, piano, and music theory), orchestra rehearsals, and school. Eventually, Lamsma and her parents realized something had to give, and together, they made a lifealtering decision: she would move to England, leaving her family behind, to study music at the prestigious Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey. She was 11 years old. Three years later, Lamsma made her professional debut, performing Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the North Netherlands Orchestra. After some initial homesickness and loneliness in her first weeks at school, Lamsma adjusted. Surrounded by other music students and faculty who nurtured her musical skill, she thrived. Today, at age 33, Lamsma is doing exactly what she wants to do, living the life she imagined when she was a girl. A concert soloist’s life is demanding, often lonely, and frequently exhausting, but Lamsma seems born to it. Next month, she’ll return to Portland – her fourth appearance with the Oregon Symphony – to play Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto. Lamsma relishes the opportunity to create lasting relationships with orchestras and conductors. “It’s very rewarding to feel connected to the musicians in an orchestra, and the Oregon Symphony is a great orchestra,” says Lamsma. “I felt it from my first visit; everyone was so open and welcoming, not just the musicians, but also the management, the whole team. It was inspiring to make music with this orchestra – feeling well in yourself and being able to create something together.” The kind of synergy Lamsma responds to when she works with different ensembles can be hard to capture in words. “I’m sensitive to atmosphere and energy. When I walk into a room or a hall where the orchestra is rehearsing, I sense the personalities that are there, how open people are to listening,” she explains. “Those are the places you want to return to. These connections are often
non-verbal, but if you do feel that rapport [initially], when you come back you get to know people even better, and really build a relationship.”
the second movement. There’s also a lot of rhythmic diversity, which makes the music very exciting and great fun to both play and hear.”
Lamsma has performed with Music Director Carlos Kalmar in Europe, and she has appeared with the Oregon Symphony three times in the past four years – in 2014 with Korngold’s Violin Concerto, 2016 with Tchaikovsky’s, and 2017 with Britten’s – but her upcoming performance of Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto will mark the first time she, Kalmar, and the Oregon Symphony will make music together. Lamsma describes the process:
Whether it’s Bach, Beethoven, or a brand-new work, Lamsma brings a calm, focused intensity to all her performances. Her expressiveness emerges through the 1718 Mlynarski Stradivarius she plays, loaned to her by a generous anonymous benefactor. “I have been really lucky; throughout my life, I’ve had opportunities to play on beautiful instruments,” says Lamsma. “I had been playing on the ex Chanot-Chardon Strad for about five years, an instrument with an exceptional sound quality, when I was offered a chance to try the Mlynarski Strad. It was wonderful to feel that this violin offered so many new possibilities in sound and colors. I felt very inspired by this violin, and it was a great match. It is also a very sensitive instrument with a strong character. Sometimes it really challenges me; it is definitely a give-and-take relationship.”
You prepare separately and form your own vision, and the moment you start rehearsing, you listen and respond to each other. It’s about opening your heart and mind and listening to what the conductor thinks – interesting ideas that come through the orchestra. It’s not something you have to use a lot of words for – that is mostly how we work. When the vision matches well, there’s not much discussion.” “There are only a few conductors you connect with, where you feel really free,” she adds. “It’s not something that happens so often; it’s a function of everything coming together – conductor, orchestra, and audience. When it happens, this total sense of freedom is unique and deeply satisfying.” With more than 60 violin concertos in her active repertoire, why did Lamsma pick Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian’s for her upcoming visit? “It’s great to bring to Portland because it’s not played that often. It’s always a pleasure to play something new for the audience,” says Lamsma. “It’s a very outgoing, direct piece of music, full of fire and passion. Khachaturian uses Armenian folk scales and folk music elements, which are quite evident throughout, but especially in
o prevent burnout, Lamsma schedules T downtime in between her performances. “I try to find a good balance – I’m not away from home for more than three weeks at a time. I also try to have summer and Christmas periods at home.” During these breaks, Lamsma spends as much time as possible walking on the beach. “The ocean really empties my mind,” she explains. “I also like to go out for coffee and spend time with my family.” Lamsma’s schedule doesn’t allow much time for sightseeing when she’s on the road, but whenever possible, she loves to explore, particularly natural places. “I went to see Multnomah Falls last time I was there; there’s beautiful nature outside the city. I went to Powell’s, of course, and I love eating, and there are plenty of good places for that there, too.” Perhaps what Lamsma responds to most about the Rose City is a sense of the familiar, which she finds in the outgoing, tolerant attitudes of Portlanders. “It’s so open-minded; it reminds me of the Netherlands.” Simone Lamsma performs Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto with the Oregon Symphony on February 9, 10, and 11 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Find tickets and more at orsymphony.org. orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 13
FAVORITE LIGHT CLASSICS SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 2019, 7:30 PM SUNDAY, JANUARY 6, 2019, 2 PM SPONSORED BY
Norman Huynh, conductor James Shields, clarinet Chien Tan and Inés Voglar Belgique, violin Leonard Bernstein Edvard Grieg
Johann Pachelbel Aram Khachaturian Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Gioachino Rossini
Candide Overture Selections from Peer Gynt Morning Mood In the Hall of the Mountain King Canon in D Major Sabre Dance from Gayane Adagio from Clarinet Concerto in A Major James Shields William Tell Overture
INTERMISSION Ludwig van Beethoven Samuel Barber Johann Sebastian Bach
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Allegro con brio from Symphony No. 5 in C Minor Adagio for Strings Selections from Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor Largo, ma non tanto Allegro Chien Tan and Inés Voglar Belgique Lento assai—Allegro vivace from Symphonic Dances
ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL
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ROSSINI AND RIMSKY-KORSAKOV SATURDAY, JANUARY 12, 2019, 7:30 PM SUNDAY, JANUARY 13, 2019, 7:30 PM MONDAY, JANUARY 14, 2019, 7:30 PM Carlos Kalmar, conductor Johannes Moser, cello Mohanad Elshieky, speaker Gioachino Rossini Bernd Alois Zimmermann
Tancredi Overture Music for the Suppers of King Ubu Entry of the Academy King Ubu, Captain Bordure, and Their Followers Mama Ubu and Her Guards Pile, Cotise, and the Bear The Phynancial Horse and the Lackeys of Phynance Pavane of Pissemblock and Pissedoux Lullaby of the Little Financiers Who Can’t Fall Asleep Brainwashing March Mohanad Elshieky, master of ceremonies
INTERMISSION Dmitri Shostakovich
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
ello Concerto No. 1 in E Flat Major C Allegretto Moderato Cadenza Allegro con moto Johannes Moser Russian Easter Festival Overture This concert is being recorded for future broadcast. We ask our audience to be as quiet as possible during the performance. ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL
CONCERT CO NVERSATION Conducted one hour before each performance, the Concert Conversation will feature Music Director Carlos Kalmar and Brandi Parisi, host at All Classical Portland. You can also enjoy the Concert Conversation in the comfort of your own home. Visit orsymphony.org/conversations to watch the video on demand.
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Join us for the Oregon Symphony’s Signature Gala
Saturday, April 13 portland art museum Event Chairs Daniel & Kathleen Drinkward Tige & Peggy Harris Rick & Veronica Hinkes
4:30 pm 6 pm 7 pm
cocktail reception concert: music of the americas dinner & progr am ~ Black-Tie ~
reserve your table or tickets now gala2019@orsymphony.org | 503-416-6344
R O S S INI AND R IM S K Y- KO R S A KOV Biographies
including the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Atlanta Symphony. Throughout his career, Johannes has been committed to reaching out to all audiences, from kindergarten to college and beyond. He combines most of his concert engagements with masterclasses, school visits, and preconcert lectures.
Johannes Moser Johannes Moser last appeared with the Oregon Symphony on October 16, 2017, when he performed Saint-Saëns’ First Cello Concerto with conductor Baldur Brönnimann. Hailed by Gramophone Magazine as “one of the finest among the astonishing gallery of young virtuoso cellists,” German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser has performed with the world’s leading orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, London Symphony, and Cleveland Orchestra, with conductors of the highest level including Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, Valery Gergiev, Zubin Mehta, and Gustavo Dudamel. In 2017, Johannes won his third echo Klassik award as Instrumentalist of the Year for his Russian recital disk on the Pentatone label, for whom he records exclusively. His recordings include the concertos by Dvořák, Lalo, Elgar, and Tchaikovsky, which have gained him the prestigious German Record Critics’ Award and the Diapason d’Or. November 2018 saw the release of his most recent disc, featuring the Lutosławski and Dutilleux concertos with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and Thomas Søndergård. Highlights of the 2018/19 season include Johannes’ debuts with the Vienna and Oslo philharmonic orchestras, the world premiere of Andrew Norman’s cello concerto with the San Francisco Symphony, and returns to orchestras
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Born into a musical family in 1979, Johannes began studying the cello at the age of 8 and became a student of Professor David Geringas in 1997. He was the top prize winner at the 2002 Tchaikovsky Competition, in addition to being awarded the special prize for his interpretation of the Rococo Variations. A voracious reader of everything from Kafka to Collins and an avid outdoorsman, Johannes is a keen hiker and mountain biker in what little spare time he has. Johannes Moser plays on an Andrea Guarneri Cello from 1694 from a private collection.
Portland Mercury. Mohanad has opened for national touring acts such as Colin Quinn, Emily Heller, Andy Kindler, and Sarah Schaefer. He is also a co-host of Portland’s most powerful comedy show, Earthquake Hurricane. Originally from Libya, Mohanad brings a unique perspective to the comedy scene; not afraid to say what on his mind, he discusses politics, racial issues, and has an opinion on everything. His comedy has been described as genuine and thought provoking. Mohanad once had a tweet about Uber that got more than half a million likes and got nothing back from Uber.
Program Notes GIOACHINO ROSSINI 1792–1868
Tancredi Overture composed: 1813 first oregon symphony performance instrumentation: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, bass trombone, timpani, and strings estimated duration: 7 minutes
Mohanad Elshieky Mohanad Elshieky is a stand-up comedian based in Portland, or. He has recently been named as one of Team Coco’s Comics to Watch at the New York Comedy Festival and has been featured on the Lovett or Leave it podcast, npr, Buzzfeed, and the Put Your Hands Together podcast. You can see him on the docuseries Unprotected Sets by producer Wanda Sykes on epix. He has recently been named one of the “Top Three Funniest People in Portland” and been called an “Undisputed Genius of Comedy” by the
Three weeks before his 21st birthday, Gioachino Rossini struck gold with his ninth opera, Tancredi. Rossini had had success previously with Il signor Bruschino, but it was Tancredi that established him as the foremost opera composer of his time. As Rossini scholar Philip Gossett points out, “No composer [in any genre] in the first half of the 19th century enjoyed the measure of prestige, wealth, popular acclaim, or artistic influence that belonged to Rossini.” Tancredi opened on February 6, 1813, in Venice’s La Fenice, less than a month after Il signor Bruschino premiered in the same theater. As the first performance of Tancredi approached, Rossini realized he would not have time to write a new overture, so he repurposed one he had composed for La pietra del paragone. Like most of Rossini’s early overtures, the
R O S S I N I A N D R I M S K Y- K O R S A K O V music is full of energy and drive, and easily serves its intended purpose: to capture and hold the audience’s attention. Tancredi is based on Voltaire’s 1760 play Tancrède. Its plot centers on the doomed love between Amenaide, daughter of a powerful ruler, and Tancredi, a soldier. When Amenaide is wrongly convicted of treason and sentenced to die, Tancredi risks his own safety to return from exile and save her. Voltaire’s play ends tragically, with the gravely wounded Tancredi dying in the arms of Amenaide, but Rossini felt constrained by the conventions of opera seria to write a happier ending for the opera. Barely a month after Tancredi’s premiere, however, Rossini replaced the ending with one more in line with Voltaire’s original. The French writer Stendhal adored Rossini, in general, and Tancredi, in particular. He considered Tancredi Rossini’s best opera, because in it Rossini had created, in Stendhal’s words, “the perfect equilibrium between the ancient craft of melody and the modern craft of harmony.”
BERND ALOIS ZIMMERMANN 1918–70
Music for the Suppers of King Ubu: Dark Ballet with Seven Parts and an Entrée composed: 1966 first oregon symphony performance instrumentation: speaker, jazz combo (clarinet, cornet, electric guitar, amplified double bass), 3 flutes (all doubling piccolo), 3 oboes (1 doubling English horn), 3 clarinets (1 doubling bass clarinet), tenor saxophone, 3 bassoons (1 doubling contrabassoon), 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, whip, cymbal, piccolo snare drum, bass drum, cowbell, tam tam, vibraphone, guiro, high hat, maracas, tambourine, temple blocks, triangle, tenor drum, harp, piano (doubling celesta), organ, 2 guitars (1 doubling electric guitar, 1 doubling mandolin), and 4 double basses. estimated duration: 17 minutes
Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s music stands out for its incorporation of short excerpts from other works. Upon first listening, it is easy to dismiss this technique as Zimmermann’s facile talent for pastiche, particularly in Music for the Suppers of King Ubu, whose numerous quotes are deliberately chosen for their familiarity. For Zimmermann, however, quotations served a more significant purpose: to illustrate how time manifests through music. In his 1974 essay “Interval and Time,” Zimmermann wrote, “Music is essentially understood through the arrangement or ordering of progressions of time… as an experience which occurs both in time while also embodying time within itself.” Quotations illustrated Zimmermann’s interest in the realtime and metaphysical occurrences of disparate events. immerman composed the ballet score Z Music for the Suppers of King Ubu to mark his installation as a member of the Berlin Academy of Art in 1966. The topsy-turvy nature of the story reflects its origins in the 1896 absurdist play Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry. “The piece is a ‘ballet noir,’ which is performed at a banquet at the Court of Ubu,” Zimmerman explained. “The Academy of the country in which the piece is set is commanded to attend the banquet – and at the end, in the ‘Marche du decervellage’ [Brainwashing March], is dispatched through the trap door – symbolic of the fate of a liberal academy under the reign of a usurper. In order to show up our absolutely disproportionate intellectual and cultural situation, musical collages of the most amusing and hardest tone are used; the piece is pure collage, based on dances of the 16th and 17th centuries, interspersed with quotations from earlier and contemporary composers. [The ballet is] a farce which is seemingly merry, fat, and greedy like Ubu himself; apparently an enormous prank, but for those who are able to hear beyond this it is a warning allegory, macabre and amusing at the same time.”
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BACH AND THE YOUNG PRINCE VIRTUOSO CONCERTI FROM THE COURT OF PRINCE LEOPOLD FEB 15 | 16 | 17
THE ROAD TO DRESDEN TELEMANN, HANDEL, AND MORE MAR 15 | 16 | 17
ROSSINI AND R IM S K Y- KO R S A KOV Listen for quotes from the “Dies irae,” Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries, Strauss’ Till Eulenspiegel, Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 1, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, among others.
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH 1906–75
THE FULFILLMENT OF GENIUS MOZART’S JUPITER SYMPHONY APR 26 | 27 | 28
Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major, Op. 107 composed: 1959 most recent oregon symphony performance: December 5, 2010; Carlos Kalmar, conductor; Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Experience Baroque music that captures the style, spirit, and sound of the time in which it was written! PBO.org | 503-222-6000
instrumentation: solo cello, 2 flutes (one doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons (one doubling contrabassoon), horn, timpani, celesta, and strings estimated duration: 28 minutes
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On June 6, 1959, Dmitri Shostakovich surprised the public by announcing his next composition, a concerto for cello. Upon completion, six weeks later, Shostakovich contacted cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, who had waited a long time for Shostakovich to compose a piece of music for him. Rostropovich and his accompanist Alexander Dedyukhin left Moscow for Leningrad, where they received a copy of the score on August 2. Four days later, having memorized the complete concerto, Rostropovich and Dedyukhin performed it for Shostakovich at the composer’s summer home. Shostakovich’s son-in-law, Evgeny Chukovsky, who was present at the performance, recalls thinking, “Who, if not God, has given the author such power over people?” This auspicious beginning marked the start of a longstanding creative collaboration between Rostropovich and Shostakovich; Shostakovich went on to write a second concerto and a cello sonata for his friend “Slava.” On October 4, 1959, Rostropovich gave the premiere with Evgeny Mravinsky leading the Leningrad Philharmonic.
R O S S I N I A N D R I M S K Y- K O R S A K O V ergei Prokofiev’s Symphony-Concerto, S which Shostakovich admired, gave the latter direct inspiration for Opus 107. Fortuitously, Rostropovich had also worked with Prokofiev on the Symphony-Concerto and was intimately familiar with it. According to biographer Laurel Fay, Shostakovich told Rostropovich “he had played his record of [Prokofiev’s] work so many times that he had worn it out.” y 1959, Joseph Stalin had died and B Shostakovich was able to breathe more freely with regard to the reception of his work by the Soviet Composers’ Union. However, this relatively calm period in Shostakovich’s life is not reflected in the music of his First Cello Concerto. One author characterized it as “quite possibly the most neurotic piece Shostakovich ever wrote,” full of fidgety restlessness embodied in the masterful virtuosity of the cello part. The late music critic Michael Steinberg aptly observed, “The Cello Concerto is a work that feeds on grim memories.” In the first movement, a solo horn stalks the cello, as if spying. As musicologist Malcolm MacDonald noted, “In the outer movements especially, the agile, voluble soloist seems constantly on the run – pursued and harried, rather than supported, by the orchestra.” The second movement is a resigned elegy heavy with weariness. Even six years after Stalin’s death, Shostakovich seems haunted by his oppressive ghost. In the final movement, Shostakovich thumbs his nose at Stalin, albeit covertly, by incorporating fragments of Stalin’s favorite melody, “Suliko,” a sentimental Georgian folk song. Shostakovich strips the sentimentality away and presents the fragments in a demented repetitive whirl, but so altered as to render the song virtually unrecognizable. Shostakovich’s comment about using “Suliko,” that “I just took a simple, tiny theme and tried to develop it,” seems an ironic understatement at best.
NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV 1844–1908
Russian Easter Festival Overture, Op. 36 composed: 1887–88 most recent oregon symphony performance: March 15, 2004; David Atherton, conductor instrumentation: 3 flutes (1 doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, cymbals, glockenspiel, tam-tam, triangle, harp, and strings estimated duration: 15 minutes “In order to appreciate my Overture even ever so slightly, it is necessary that the hearer should have attended Easter morning services at least once, and at that, not in a domestic chapel, but in a cathedral thronged with people from every walk of life, with several priests conducting the cathedral service.” – Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov As a child growing up in Tikhvin, a market town 120 miles east of St. Petersburg, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov attended church services in a large, centuries-old cathedral. The raucous, joyful nature of the Easter services in Tikhvin Cathedral made an indelible impression on RimskyKorsakov. In the summer of 1888, as he finished Scheherazade, RimskyKorsakov also completed a 15-minute orchestral work he titled “Svetlyi prazdnik” (The Bright Holiday), an Easter overture based on music from the obikhod, a collection of chants used in Russian Orthodox liturgy.
orchestra explodes with a pent-up, joyful celebratory shout announcing the Resurrection. I n his autobiography, My Musical Life, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote, “This legendary and heathen side of the holiday, this transition from the gloomy and mysterious evening of Passion Saturday to the unbridled pagan-religious merry-making of Easter Sunday, is what I was eager to reproduce in my overture… The rather lengthy slow introduction... on the theme ‘Let God arise’ [woodwinds], alternating with the ecclesiastical melody ‘An angel wailed!’ [solo cello], appeared to me, in the beginning, as it were, the ancient prophecy of Isaiah of the Resurrection of Christ. The gloomy colors of the Andante lugubre seemed to depict the Holy Sepulchre that had shone with ineffable light at the moment of the Resurrection in the transition to the Allegro of the overture. The beginning of the Allegro, ‘Let them also that hate Him flee before Him,’ led to the holiday mood of the Greek Orthodox service on Christ’s matins; the solemn trumpet voice of the Archangel was replaced by a tonal reproduction of the joyous, almost dancelike tolling of bells, alternating now with the sexton’s rapid reading and now with the conventional chant of the priest’s reading the glad tidings of the Evangel. The obikhod theme, ‘Christ is arisen,’ … appears amid the trumpet blasts and the bell-tolling, constituting also a triumphant coda.” © 2019 Elizabeth Schwartz
amilies of instruments (winds, F strings, brasses) take turns intoning different chants from the obikhod – their distinctive timbres reference the varied crowd, “people from every walk of life.” Duets abound – flute with cello, oboe, and bassoon – and provide further shadings and nuances of orchestral color, before the full
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AMERICANA WITH EDGAR MEYER SATURDAY, JANUARY 19, 2019, 7:30 PM Norman Huynh, conductor Edgar Meyer, double bass Aaron Copland Giovanni Bottesini
Appalachian Spring Suite Double Bass Concerto No. 2 in B Minor Allegro Andante Allegro
INTERMISSION Edgar Meyer William Grant Still
Double Bass Concerto No. 3 in E Afro-American Symphony Longing: Moderato assai Sorrow: Adagio Humor: Animato Aspiration: Lento, con risoluzione—Vivace ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL
Biography
Edgar Meyer Edgar Meyer last appeared with the Oregon Symphony on September 26, 2009, when he performed The Melody of Rhythm: Concerto for Banjo, Tabla and Double Bass with Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain, and conductor Carlos Kalmar. In demand as both a performer and a composer, Meyer has formed a role in the music world unlike any other. Hailed by The New Yorker as “…the most remarkable virtuoso in the relatively un-chronicled
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history of his instrument,” Meyer’s unparalleled technique and musicianship in combination with his gift for composition have brought him to the fore. His uniqueness in the field was recognized by a MacArthur Fellowship in 2002. As a solo classical bassist, Meyer can be heard on a concerto album with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra conducted by Hugh Wolff featuring Bottesini and Meyer concertos both alone and with Yo-Yo Ma and Joshua Bell. He has also recorded an album featuring three of Bach’s unaccompanied suites for cello. Meyer was honored with his fifth Grammy Award in 2015 for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album for his bass and mandolin collaboration with Chris Thile. As a composer, Meyer has carved out a remarkable and unique niche in the musical world. His music has been premiered and recorded by Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Yo-Yo Ma, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Béla Fleck, Zakir
Hussain, Hilary Hahn, and the Emerson String Quartet, among others. Collaborations are a central part of Meyer’s work. He has been and remains a member of numerous groups whose members include Chris Thile, Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Mark O’Connor, Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Mike Marshall, and Amy Dorfman, among others. His debut album in 1985 featured the first public appearance of Strength in Numbers, whose members were Bush, Douglas, Fleck, O’Connor, and Meyer. Meyer began studying bass at the age of five under the instruction of his father, and he continued further to study with Stuart Sankey. In 1994, he received the Avery Fisher Career Grant and, in 2000, became the only bassist to receive the Avery Fisher Prize. Currently, he teaches bass in partnership with Hal Robinson at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
Program Notes AARON COPLAND 1900–90
Appalachian Spring Suite composed: 1943–45 most recent oregon symphony performance: December 8, 2014; James Gaffigan, conductor instrumentation: 2 flutes (one doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, timpani, bass drum, claves, orchestra bells, snare drum, cymbal, tabor, triangle, wood block, xylophone, piano, harp, and strings estimated duration: 24 minutes Shortly before the debut of Ballet for Martha, Aaron Copland’s working title for the ballet Martha Graham had commissioned from him, the choreographer announced that she had decided on the name Appalachian Spring. Graham, who borrowed the words from Hart Crane’s poem “The Dance,” admitted she had chosen it simply because she liked the sound of the words together and that it had no connection with either the location or scenario of the ballet. “Over and over again,” Copland recalled in 1981, “people come up to me after seeing the ballet on stage and say, ‘Mr. Copland, when I see that ballet and when I hear your music I can just see the Appalachians, and I just feel spring.’ Well, I’m willing if they are!” In Appalachian Spring, Copland’s penchant for folk melodies and folk idioms reaches its zenith. The Shaker hymn “Simple Gifts,” which Copland discovered in a 1940 book on Shaker culture, and Copland’s celebratory variations of its melody, form the climax of Appalachian Spring. When Copland arranged Appalachian Spring as an orchestral suite, he emphasized the song’s centrality by cutting several episodes from the ballet and changing the order of the variations. As scholar William Brooks notes, “In this context the Shaker melody came to serve as a kind of paradigm for the simplicity and
authenticity of frontier America: mythical music for a mythical past.” In similar fashion Copland’s music, particularly Appalachian Spring, became the paradigm of the American sound. opland explained his musical C conception: “When I wrote Appalachian Spring, I was thinking primarily about Martha and her unique choreographic style, which I knew well. Nobody else seems quite like Martha: She’s so proud, so very much herself. And she’s unquestionably very American: There’s something prim and restrained, simple yet strong about her, which one tends to think of as American.” dwin Denby, a noted dance critic, E provided program notes for the premiere of the Appalachian Spring orchestral suite in 1945: “A pioneer celebration in spring around a newly-built farmhouse in the Pennsylvania hills in the early part of the last century. The bride-to-be and the young farmer-husband enact the emotions, joyful and apprehensive, that their new domestic partnership invites. An older neighbor suggests now and then the rocky confidence of experience. A revivalist and his followers remind the new householders of the strange and terrible aspects of human fate. At the end, the couple is left quiet and strong in their new house.”
GIOVANNI BOTTESINI 1821–89
Double Bass Concerto No. 2 in B Minor composed: 1845 most recent oregon symphony performance: January 19, 2009; Carlos Kalmar, conductor; Edgar Meyer, double bass instrumentation: solo double bass, flute, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, and strings estimated duration: 17 minutes Double bassists owe a huge debt to Giovanni Bottesini. Without him, the double bass might still be languishing at the back of the string section, its players unknown and its potential
as a solo instrument unrealized. Through his brilliant playing, Bottesini singlehandedly gave the double bass a new identity as a virtuoso instrument. He also composed a number of works that feature the double bass, although many are seldom performed today because of their extreme technical difficulty. ottesini became a bass player by B accident. At 14, he entered the Milan Conservatory, but the only scholarships available were for bassoon and double bass. Bottesini quickly became a virtuoso player; after he left the conservatory, he soon established himself as an outstanding soloist. Bottesini performed throughout Europe and also toured America; it was during this time that he earned the nickname “Paganini of the double bass.” In later life, he became a noted conductor and composer, but it is for his double bass techniques that Bottesini is best remembered, and where he made his most significant musical contributions. dgar Meyer considers this concerto his E favorite in the bass repertoire. “In my headlong desire to put my mark on the piece, I indulged in some rewriting of the concerto,” he admits, referring to his rewriting of the first movement cadenza. “It [the cadenza] consists primarily of whatever tricks I knew on the bass.” These “tricks” include lightning-fast glissandi and technically demanding phrases played in double-stops, as well as forays into the highest and lowest ends of the bass’s range. he second movement is an aria for T double bass, warm and lyrical, with an understated string accompaniment, while the third features a vigorous, muscular theme that transforms into a march. The third movement also includes another solo cadenza by Meyer, which showcases his breathtaking virtuosity and speed; it also ranges over an unheard-of six octaves. “Of course, that last octave or so, once you get well past the end of the fingerboard, is really novelty material,” says Meyer modestly.
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AMERICANA WITH EDGAR MEYER EDGAR MEYER b. 1960
Double Bass Concerto No. 3 in E composed: 2011 first oregon symphony performance instrumentation: solo double bass, 2 flutes (1 doubles piccolo, 1 doubles alto flute), bass flute, 2 oboes, 3 clarinets (1 doubles E-flat clarinet; 1 doubles bass clarinet), contrabass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, timpani, 2 glockenspiels, and strings estimated duration: 22 minutes
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Bassist Edgar Meyer has carved out a unique niche for himself and his instrument. His abilities as a classical performer have won him international acclaim, and he continues to expand the boundaries of “classical” music in his collaborations with violinist Mark O’Connor, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile, bluegrass violinist Sam Bush, and others. As did his predecessor Bottesini, Meyer has also added to the solo double bass repertoire with several compositions of his own. “My dear friend Béla Fleck was speaking to his banjo predecessor Earl Scruggs at some point previous about composition and the limits on one’s own voice,” Meyer writes in his notes for the Concerto in E. “Béla’s best paraphrase of Earl’s thoughts: ‘Most folks just have one tune in them, maybe two.’ I am still writing my tune, but doing my best to draw it out. All of my musical interests inform this piece, including most instrumental music that I am aware of, but I am interested in creating music outside of my current understanding. That is, after all, where a lot of the fun is.” Meyer wrote the concerto in three movements, which are played without pause. The first two movements introduce and develop various musical ideas, while the third summarizes material from the previous two. Meyer
AMERICANA WITH EDGAR MEYER points out what he calls “the music of interest,” 12 notes played in three subphrases by the solo oboe. “This music is rarely played by the solo bass,” Meyer points out, “but it is played often by the woodwinds and is fundamental to the organization of the piece.” In a review of the 2012 premiere, which was co-commissioned by the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Michael Huebner wrote, “With the ink barely dry on the 22-minute work, [the concerto] is a fresh and vibrant impression of Meyer’s considerable stylistic palette, incorporating shades of Appalachian folk music and jazzy pitch bends. One section distinctly referenced an Indian raga, the bass becoming a sitar or sarod [and] the orchestra providing the tambura drone. “Meyer’s compositional strengths lie with orchestral color and rhythmic intensity. An expanded woodwind section includes such underused instruments as the contrabass clarinet, bass flute, and contrabassoon – all, not coincidentally, [having a range] residing in the neighborhood of his own instrument.”
WILLIAM GRANT STILL 1895–1978
Afro-American Symphony composed: 1930 first oregon symphony performance instrumentation: 4 flutes, (1 doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, English horn, 3 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, vibraphone, triangle, wire brush, snare drum, cymbals, tenor banjo, harp, celeste, and strings estimated duration: 24 minutes “I knew I wanted to write a symphony,” said William Grant Still. “I knew that it had to be an American work; and I wanted to demonstrate how the blues, so often considered a lowly expression, could be elevated to the highest musical level.”
till’s childhood and teen years were filled S with music. Still’s stepfather Charles introduced him to classical music through recordings and live operetta performances in Little Rock, Arkansas. Still studied violin in his teens and taught himself to play a number of other instruments before he graduated high school at 16. He attended Wilberforce College and Oberlin College, and studied composition with George Whitefield Chadwick. In 1919, Still joined the pit orchestra as an oboist for Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake’s pioneering musical, Shuffle Along. Throughout the 1920s, Still rarely lacked for gigs – he played regularly with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra – and for two years, he also studied privately with the French modernist composer Edgar Varèse. Under Varèse’s mentorship, Still met influential musicians and conductors, had his own works performed, and expanded his compositional horizons. I ronically, Still’s busy schedule left him little time to concentrate on a longform composition. “It was not until the Depression struck that I went jobless long enough to let the [Afro-American] Symphony take shape,” Still observed. “In 1930, I rented a room in a quiet building not far from my home in New York and began to work. I devised my own Blues theme (which appears in varied guises throughout the Symphony, as a unifying thread), planned the form, then wrote the entire melody. After that I worked out the harmonies, the various treatments of the theme, and the orchestration.” Still completed his first symphony in just five weeks, during the autumn of 1930.
scheme of harmonization would prove befitting in a musical picture of them. ‘Tis only the simpler harmonies, such as those employed, that can accurately portray them. From the hearts of these people sprang Blues, plaintive songs reminiscent of African tribal chants. I do not hesitate to assert that Blues are more purely Negroid in character than very many Spirituals. And I have employed as the basic theme of the symphony a melody in the Blues style. This theme appears in each movement.” till gave each of the symphony’s four S movements a descriptive title as well as a tempo marking – Longing: Moderato assai, Sorrow: Adagio, Humor: Animato, Aspiration: Lento, con risoluzione— Vivace – and also included lines from Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poetry. As Still mentioned, each movement features a prominent blues melody. In Longing, displaced former slaves yearn for a homeland of their own. Sorrow speaks through the medium of a Negro spiritual, while Humor uses popular tunes of the day and a banjo accompaniment to conjure up happier times. Aspiration combines memories of a painful past with hopes for a dignified, optimistic future. oward Hanson led the Rochester H Philharmonic in the first performance on October 28, 1931. The Rochester Evening Journal’s review noted, “The symphony has life and sparkle when needed and a deep haunting beauty… It laughs unrestrainedly; it mourns dolefully.” © 2019 Elizabeth Schwartz
In his program note for the premiere, Still laid out his intentions: “The AfroAmerican Symphony is not a tone picture of the ‘New Negro.’ It portrays that class of American Negroes who still cling to the old standards and traditions; those sons of the soil who differ, but little, if at all, from their forbears [sic] of antebellum days. These are an humble people. Their wants are few and are, generally, childlike. Theirs are lives of utter simplicity. Therefore no complex or elaborate orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 25
LESLIE ODOM, JR. SUNDAY, JANUARY 20, 2019, 7:30 PM Thomas Douglas, conductor Program will be announced from the stage.
ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL
Biographies
Thomas Douglas Thomas W. Douglas is a compelling and passionate conductor, having performed in more than 200 opera, oratorio, orchestral, and musical theater productions. He is the music director of the Newton Symphony in Kansas and is also the artistic director of the Bach Choir of Pittsburgh. Career highlights include conducting Webber’s Phantom of the Opera in Basel, Switzerland; Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess; the Pittsburgh premiere of the classic silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc with live orchestra and chorus; and the u.s. premiere of David Chesky’s The Agnostic. He works regularly as musical director at the Music Theater Wichita, where his productions have included Smokey Joe’s Café, 9 to 5, Hairspray, Miss Saigon, Beauty and the Beast, and Les Misérables. He has worked with the Anchorage Opera, Pittsburgh’s City Theater, Pittsburgh Festival Opera, Canton
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Symphony, Wichita Symphony, Dallas Symphony, River City Brass Band, and the Pittsburgh Symphony. He has also appeared with classical guitarist and Latin Grammy winner Berta Rojas, Tony winner Kelli O’Hara, and Tony and Grammy award-winning artist Leslie Odom, Jr. Douglas has been the recipient of the Mary Jane Teall Award and the Robert Frankle Award for his contribution to theater in Wichita and Pittsburgh. Douglas is the director of opera studies and the director of choral activities at Carnegie Mellon University.
Leslie Odom, Jr. Multifaceted performer Leslie Odom, Jr. is a Grammy Award winner as a principal soloist on Hamilton’s Original Broadway Cast Recording, which won the 2015 Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album. Odom, Jr. originated the role of Aaron Burr in a sold-out run at The Public Theatre in 2015, earning a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding
Featured Actor in a Musical and a Lucille Lortel Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical. Odom, Jr. made his Broadway debut at the age of 17 in Rent before heading to Carnegie Mellon University’s prestigious School of Drama, where he graduated with honors. He is the recipient of a 2002 Princess Grace Award for Acting, which is dedicated to identifying emerging talent in theater, dance, and film. Additional theater credits include Leap of Faith on Broadway, for which he won the 2012 Astaire Award for Outstanding Male Dancer on Broadway and was nominated for a Drama League Award; the 2014 musical Venice, which also played at The Public Theater; and the Encores! Off Center production of Tick, Tick... Boom!, which was his first time working with Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda. On the small screen, Odom, Jr. is best known for his portrayal of Sam Strickland in the nbc musical series Smash and his recurring role as Reverend Curtis Scott on Law & Order: svu. He’s also appeared in episodes of Gotham, Person of Interest, Grey’s Anatomy, House of Lies, Vanished, and csi: Miami. On the big screen, he starred in the 2012 film Red Tails opposite Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr., and David Oyelowo. Odom, Jr. was raised in Philadelphia and currently resides in New York City.
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SCHUMANN’S “RHENISH” SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 2019, 7:30 PM SUNDAY, JANUARY 27, 2019, 2 PM MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 2019, 7:30 PM Markus Stenz, conductor Viviane Hagner, violin Ludwig van Beethoven
Unsuk Chin
ymphony No. 1in C Major S Adagio molto—Allegro con brio Andante cantabile con moto Menuetto: Allegro molto e vivace Finale: Adagio—Allegro molto e vivace Violin Concerto Movement 1 ( =99–100) Movement 2 ( =60) Movement 3 ( =176) Movement 4 ( =132–140) Viviane Hagner
INTERMISSION Robert Schumann
Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, “Rhenish” Lively Scherzo: Very Moderate Not Fast Solemn Lively
ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL
CONCERT CO NVERSATION Conducted one hour before each performance, the Concert Conversation will feature guest conductor Markus Stenz and Christa Wessel, host at All Classical Portland. You can also enjoy the Concert Conversation in the comfort of your own home. Visit orsymphony.org/conversations to watch the video on demand.
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Biographies
Cologne on the Oehms Classics label. Recent notable recordings include Glanert’s Requiem for Hieronymus Bosch with the Royal Concergebouw Orchestra, an album of Henze orchestral works, James MacMillan’s St. Luke Passion, and k.a. Hartmann’s Simplicius Simplicissimus with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. Markus Stenz resides in Cologne, Germany, with his wife and two children
Markus Stenz
The Hyperion label has issued her performances of Vieuxtemps’ Violin Concertos Nos. 4 and 5, and the Canadian company Analekta released her recording of Unsuk Chin’s Violin Concerto with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
With this concert, Markus Stenz makes his debut with the Oregon Symphony. Markus Stenz, chief conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and conductor-in-residence of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, is known for performances of great expressive scope, probing interpretations of German repertoire, and an audacious command of contemporary music. During the 2018/19 season, Stenz led the much-anticipated world premiere of Fin de Partie by György Kurtág at La Scala in November, broadcast live on rai-Radio 3. The one-act opera, with a libretto based on the Samuel Beckett play End Game, represents the 92-year-old Hungarian composer’s first opera. Since his debut as an opera conductor at La Fenice in Venice, Stenz has led many world premieres, including three operas by Hans Werner Henze: Das verratene Meer at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, Venus und Adonis at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, and L’Upupa und der Triumph der Sohnesliebe at the 2003 Salzburg Festival. Stenz has appeared at many of the world’s major opera houses and international festivals, including Teatro alla Scala, La Monnaie, English National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Salzburg Festival. He has conducted orchestras around the world including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Gewandhaus Orchestra, and Berlin Philharmonic. Stenz’ extensive discography includes many award-winning recordings, among them the complete symphonies of Mahler with the Gürzenich Orchestra
repertoire, Hagner is an ardent advocate of new, neglected, and undiscovered music. In 2002, she gave the world premiere of Unsuk Chin’s Violin Concerto with the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin and Kent Nagano, later playing the work in Berkeley – an event which prompted The San Francisco Chronicle to praise her performance as “vibrant, warmtoned and jaw-droppingly precise [and] may well be unimprovable.”
Program Notes Viviane Hagner With this concert, Viviane Hagner makes her debut with the Oregon Symphony.
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Born in Munich, violinist Viviane Hagner has won exceptional praise for her highly intelligent musicality and passionate artistry. Hagner performs with “poise and magnificent assurance” (The Times/ London) and “an almost hauntingly masterful display of technique and artistry” (Washington Post). Bringing her own unique sensibility to performances, she has proven herself an artist of effortless virtuosity on the stages of the greatest concert halls in the world.
Symphony No. 1 in C Major, Op. 21
Since making her international debut at the age of 12 – and a year later participating in the legendary joint concert of the Israel and Berlin Philharmonics, conducted by Zubin Mehta – Hagner has become known for her substantial and beautiful sound as well as her thoughtful interpretations. She has appeared with the world’s great orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic, and Chicago Symphony Orchestra, in partnership with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman, and Esa-Pekka Salonen. In addition to bringing insight and virtuosity to the core concerto
1770–1827
composed: 1799–1800 most recent oregon symphony performance: September 29, 2014; Carlos Kalmar, conductor instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings estimated duration: 25 minutes Ludwig van Beethoven’s First Symphony is a musical snapshot of the composer at age 29: a self-confident young man, comfortable working within the established musical and societal parameters of his day. Beethoven was not yet the iconoclastic deaf genius, possessed of a fiery temper and an irascible personality. In 1800, as Beethoven worked on his First Symphony, he was simultaneously still making his way in the high-pressure world of musical Vienna. At this time, Beethoven’s reputation rested on his skill as an excellent pianist who played for the most select aristocratic audiences. Beethoven’s pianistic virtuosity also brought him many pupils, and his
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SCHUMANN’S “RHENISH” connections among the aristocracy and other important leaders in Vienna assured him entry into the most desirable strata of society. However, Beethoven was not yet widely known as a composer, even though he had been publishing his music since 1795. I n the 1790s, Beethoven briefly studied composition with Haydn. He later claimed to have learned nothing from the older man, however, and their teacherpupil relationship was strained and uncomfortable. Beethoven’s music from this period shows Haydn’s influence, but this likely came from Beethoven’s study of Haydn’s music, rather than from anything directly taught him by the older composer. The audience at the premiere of Beethoven’s Opus 21, which Beethoven conducted at Vienna’s Hofburg Theater on April 2, 1800, would have heard a typical symphony of the Classical period: four movements scored for a thenstandard orchestra of strings, timpani, trumpets, and pairs of woodwinds. The forms of each movement also emulate those of a Mozart or Haydn symphony: a fast first movement in traditional form; a slower and freer second; a so-called “minuet” (although even in this early symphony we can hear the beginnings of a true Beethovenian scherzo lurking beneath) and an exuberant, up-tempo finale. However, Beethoven abandons convention at the outset by opening the first movement with a chord that resolves to the “wrong” key, F major (instead of the expected C major). Beethoven was roundly criticized for this shocking introduction but responded in what became typical Beethovenian fashion by using the same opening in an even more deliberate way in his very next work, the overture to the ballet The Creatures of Prometheus. Aside from the unconventional opening, however, critical reception was generally favorable, and the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung praised the symphony’s “considerable art, novelty and... wealth of ideas.”
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SCHUMANN’S “RHENISH”
UNSUK CHIN b. 1961
Violin Concerto composed: 2001 first oregon symphony performance instrumentation: solo violin, 2 flutes (1 doubling piccolo), 2 oboes (1 doubling English horn), 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba, timpani, antique cymbals, bass drum, claves, cymbals, glockenspiel, guiro, Javanese gong in D, 2 marimbas, metal blocks, 2 snare drums, steel drum, thunder sheet, tambourine, triangle, tubular bells, vibraphone, xylophone, zanza, 2 harps, harpsichord, and strings estimated duration: 27 minutes “The most important thing for me in my music is that there should be a big palette of expressive possibilities. If it’s only lyrical, or only aggressive, then, for me, it is flat and one-sided. So, within a piece I try to communicate diverse, differing states of feeling and modes of expression.” – Unsuk Chin Born in post-war Seoul, South Korea, Unsuk Chin’s first experience of music came from the hymns she heard in her minister father’s Presbyterian church. Chin’s family could not afford private lessons, but Chin displayed a formidable talent for and determination to learn on her own and picked up enough piano to accompany her father’s congregation by age nine. “For me, it was like an exercise in harmony,” she recalled in a 2004 interview. “I was only eight or nine years old, very young, and it was quite stressful, but it was also very good practice.” In her early teens, Chin’s school music teacher, herself a composer, encouraged Chin to become a composer as well. “I learned everything by myself,” said Chin. “I listened to music every day, Western classical
music; I played piano; I studied a lot of scores. It wasn’t normal [in Korea at that time] to buy recordings or scores: they were all rarities and very expensive. I borrowed scores from other people, too, and copied them out – the Tchaikovsky Sixth Symphony, in its entirety.” oday, Chin is regarded as one of the T leading modernist composers of our time. Her music explores a rich color palette of timbres and often requires – especially in works featuring solo instruments – an astounding degree of virtuosity. In 1985, Chin received a German music scholarship and left Korea to study with György Ligeti in Hamburg. Three years later, Chin moved to Berlin, where she has lived and worked ever since. Chin first achieved international recognition with Akrostichon-Wortspiel (Acrostic Wordplay, 1993); throughout the 1990s, she received a number of commissions from European new music groups, including the Parisbased Ensemble InterContemporain, co-founded by Pierre Boulez, and ircam (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique). In 2001, Chin wrote her Violin Concerto while serving as composer-in-residence with the German Symphony Orchestra in Berlin. Kent Nagano led the orchestra and soloist Viviane Hagner in the premiere, on January 20, 2002; two years later, the Violin Concerto earned Chin the Grawemeyer Award. She has received a number of other prestigious honors in the years since, including the 2017 Sibelius Prize. he violin’s four open strings serve T as the foundation for increasingly complex melodic and harmonic explorations. The soloist begins by sounding the violin’s harmonics in a soft, musing manner. The numerous percussion instruments offer a delicate partnership, as in a pas de deux. As the first movement progresses, Chin ramps up the solo part, and layers more timbres from the orchestra. The second movement, a quasi-chamber
ensemble for an ethereally high solo violin and percussion, features delicate solo flutters and arabesques. The brasses’ abrupt interruptions make for shocking contrasts of volume and mood. A nervous energy permeates the three-and-a-half-minute scherzo, which highlights staccato percussion and pizzicato strings, including the harpsichord, a plucked string instrument not often included in a 21stcentury work. In the closing movement, the solo violin’s lower range sounds for the first time, amidst freewheeling cascades of runs and playful leaps. Gradually the dense textures and sounds fade into a return of the opening harmonics and elemental four notes of the violin’s individual strings.
ROBERT SCHUMANN 1810–54
Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 87, “Rhenish” composed: 1850 most recent oregon symphony performance: November 17, 2003; Carlos Kalmar, conductor instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, and strings estimated duration: 30 minutes Robert Schumann composed his final symphony in five weeks during the autumn of 1850. Two months later, when the “Rhenish” premiered on February 6, 1851, Schumann was on the podium in his new position as municipal music director for the city of Düsseldorf. The “Rhenish” premiere marks the only time Schumann conducted the first performance of one of his symphonies. In his previous orchestral works, Schumann was criticized for his clumsy handling of the orchestra. Specifically, some critics thought
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FRIDAY :: Feb 15, 2019 :: 7:30 pm :: Kaul Auditorium “The award-winning a cappella octet has a repertoire that stretches from early English choral pieces to jazz standards and recent pop tunes. But above all, it is the on-stage presence, character, and connection with the audience that has made it so successful.” The Telegraph
SCHUMANN’S “RHENISH” Schumann, a pianist first and foremost, did not understand orchestral writing, and did not present the orchestra’s full range of timbres to best advantage. The “Rhenish” – the title, not Schumann’s, is an homage to the Rhine River – effectively silences this claim. In each of its five movements, Schumann proved his mastery of orchestral writing, not only to dubious critics, but also to himself. The heroic sweep of the opening Lively exudes an unshakable self-confidence – particularly in its ebullient horn solos – that is neither arrogant nor bombastic. Schumann the symphonist has arrived. The Scherzo’s primary melody may suggest the gracious sweep of Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony (as the opening Lively evokes Beethoven’s “Eroica”), but Schumann’s music moves and develops in its own manner quite different from Beethoven’s rhythm-based motifs. The Scherzo also portrays the flowing waters of the Rhine itself, on a magnificently sunny day. Wilhelm Joseph von Wasilewski, concertmaster of the Düsseldorf Musikverein during Schumann’s tenure as its conductor, wrote in his 1858 biography that Schumann was particularly inspired by a ceremony he had witnessed at the cathedral in Cologne to install the new Archbishop, in November 1850. Solemnly recalls Schumann’s memory of the event in its brass chorale, the slow, stately unfolding of melody and countermelody, and its somber E-flat minor tonality. The concluding Lively juxtaposes lighthearted interludes with forceful, majestic statements. The “Cardinal’s theme” from Solemnly reappears towards the end, and the “Rhenish” closes with a celebratory brass fanfare. © 2019 Elizabeth Schwartz
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RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS FROM ROSSINI AND RIMSKY-KORSAKOV
FROM AMERICANA WITH EDGAR MEYER
Rossini: Tancredi Overture Riccardo Chailly – National Philharmonic Orchestra 2-Decca 443850
Copland: Appalachian Spring Suite Leonard Bernstein – New York Philharmonic Sony Classical 63082
Zimmermann: Music for the Suppers of King Ubu Peter Hirsch – Cologne West German Radio Symphony Orchestra Wergo 73402
Bottesini: Double Bass Concerto No. 2 Edgar Meyer, double bass Hugh Wolff – St. Paul Chamber Orchestra Sony Classical 60956 Also includes Edgar Meyer’s Double Bass Concerto in D
Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 1 Johannes Moser, cello Pietari Inkinen – West German Radio Symphony Orchestra Hanssler 98643 Rimsky-Korsakov: Russian Easter Festival Overture Yuri Temirkanov – New York Philharmonic rca Victor Red Seal 61173
Edgar Meyer: Double Bass Concerto No. 3 No recording available Still: Afro-American Symphony Neeme Järvi – Detroit Symphony Orchestra Chandos 9154
FROM SCHUMANN’S “RHENISH” Beethoven: Symphony No. 1 Karl Böhm – Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra 2-Deutsche Grammophon 439681 Unsuk Chin: Violin Concerto Viviane Hagner, violin Kent Nagano – Montreal Symphony Orchestra Analekta 29944 Schumann: Symphony No. 3 Leonard Bernstein – Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra 2-Deutsche Grammophon 453049 Recordings selected by Michael Parsons, who studied music at Lewis & Clark College and has worked professionally with classical recordings for several decades. Select recordings will also be available for purchase in the Grand Lobby.
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OUR SUPPORTERS The Oregon Symphony thanks these individuals for their generous contributions received from September 1, 2017, to October 31, 2018. We apologize for any omissions or misspellings. Please notify us of any adjustments. TRANSFORMATIONAL: $100,000–ABOVE Anonymous (4) Rich* & Rachel Baek Karen & Bill* Early Robert* & Janis Harrison Michael & Kristen* Kern Lynn & Jack Loacker Stephanie McDougal+ Estate of Minerva T. Nolte, M.D.+ Arlene Schnitzer & Jordan Schnitzer Harold & Arlene Schnitzer care Foundation Ann & Bill Swindells Charitable Trust
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Janice & Ben Isenberg Philanthropic Fund Nancy Ives‡ Drs. Susan & Jeffrey Johnson Katherine Joseph Aase S. Kendall Andrew Kern James & Lois King Paul & Marijke Kirsten Mark Koenigsberg & Polly Alexander Willa Fox & Becky Kreag Moshin & Christina Lee Robert & Nancy Leon William Liedle Pamela MacLellan Jim & Midge Main Marta Malinow Gail & Jim Manary Linda & Ken Mantel Geoffrey McCarthy John & Ann Moore Jeffrey Morgan Greg & Sonya Morgansen Jane & John Morris Phil & Gretchen Olson Roger & Joyce Olson Alfred & Eileen Ono William O’Shea Terry Pancoast & Pamela Erickson Lance Peebles Vicki Perrett Sandford B. Plant Portland Art Museum H. Roger Qualman Kim & Roger Reynolds Eric & Tiffany Rosenfeld Mr. David Roth & Ms. Tangela Purdom Jane Rowley Julie & David Sauer Hubert & Ludmila Schlesinger Fund of ocf Douglas & Ella Seely Leslie & Dorothy Sherman Fund of ocf The Shulevitz Family Sara Stamey Michael & Judy Stoner Herman Taylor & Leslye Epstein Brian Thomas & Susan Morgan Richard & Larie Thomas Dave Thompson Jon Vorderstrasse Mr. and Mrs. Steve§ & Alexandra Wenig Roberta Lee White Gordon D. Wogan & Patricia Hatfield Susan E. Wohld Darrell & Geneva Wright P. J. & Donald Yarnell *current board ‡current musician §current staff
Encore Society The Oregon Symphony Encore Society was established to thank and recognize those generous individuals who have remembered the Oregon Symphony in their estate plans. For more information, please contact the Development Office at 503-416-6325. Anonymous (11) Markus Albert Kirby & Amy Allen Margaret A. Apel Margaret & Scott Arighi Laurel Bardelson+ Lynda R. Bell Steve & Patt Bilow Leola J. Bowerman Dean Boyd & Susan Wickizer John & Yvonne Branchflower Steve & Kristine Brey Elizabeth Burke Ellen E. Bussing§ Craig & Karen Butler Elaine Calder & William J. Bennett Carl & Connie Clark Debi Coleman Terry & Peggy Crawford Dr. Jim Darke Niel B. DePonte‡ Ginette DePreist Jess Dishman Allen L. Dobbins William Dolan & Suzanne Bromschwig Clarke Donelson Kay Doyle Gerard & Sandra Drummond Bill* & Karen Early Judith M. Erickson The John S. Ettelson Fund of ocf George Fabel Louise P. Feldman Beulah Felt+ Bill Findlay+ Ed Reeves & Bill Fish Harry & Gladys Flesher Mark Gardiner & Mary Nolan Robyn Gastineau* Jim & Karen Halliday Susan Halton Betsy & Gregory Hatton Diane M. Herrmann Carol Herron Henry M. Hieronimus Rick* & Veronica Hinkes Renée* & Irwin Holzman Donna Howard Beth & Jerry* Hulsman Judy & Hank Hummelt Anne & Charles Jochim Karen & Keith Johnson Dennis Johnson & Steven Smith Richard Kaiser & Virginia Shipman Susie Kasper Richard & Ruth Keller Helen Kirkpatrick+ Georgia A Koehler Sally & Tom Kuhns Kyle & Marcia Lambert Wayne & Carolyn Landsverk Barbara A. Lee Fernando & Dolores Leon Cary & Dorothy Lewis
Ardath E. Lilleland A. G. Lindstrand Lynn & Jack Loacker Linda & Ken Mantel Michele Mass & Jim Edwards Dr. Louis & Judy McCraw Roger & Pearl McDonald Stephanie McDougal+ Duane & Barbara McDougall Edward+ & June McLean Sheila McMahon Karen McNamee Ruben J. & Elizabeth Menashe Robert+ & Violet Metzler Bruce F. Miller Mia Hall Miller Hannelore Mitchell-Schicht Richard Patrick Mitchell Carol N. Morgan Christi R. Newton Ann H. Nicholas Minerva T. Nolte, M.D.+ Ann Olsen Roger N. & Joyce M. Olson Marianne Ott Jane S. Partridge Janice E. Phillips Janet Plummer§ & Don Rushmer Arnold S. Polk Harold & Jane Pollin David Rabin Tom & Norma Rankin Richard & Mary Raub Barbara Perron Reader William L. & Lucille Reagan+ Mary & Mike Riley Peter Rodda & Vincenza Scarpaci Sherry Robinson & Steve Shanklin Betty Roren Walt Rose Betsy Russell William C. Scott Sara Seitz Scott Showalter§ V. L. Smith & J. E. Harman George & Molly Spencer Anne Stevenson Mrs. John Stryker Henry Swigert Diane Syrcle & Susan Leo Herman Taylor & Leslye Epstein Bruce & Judy Thesenga Mike & Diana Thomas Leslie & Scott Tuomi Linda & Stephen VanHaverbeke Randall Vemer John & Frances von Schlegell Les Vuylsteke Joella B. Werlin Jack* & Ginny Wilborn Gary Nelson Wilkins Roger & Kathleen Wolcott Nancy Wolff & E. David Booth + in memorium
OUR SUPPORTERS Corporate Partners The Oregon Symphony thanks these corporations for their generous contributions received from September 1, 2017, to October 31, 2018. TR ANS FO RMATI ONAL $10 0 , 0 0 0 A ND A B OV E
VIR T U O S O S O CIE T Y $5 0 , 0 0 0 – $ 9 9,9 9 9
O P U S S O CIE T Y $ 2 5 , 0 0 0 – $ 49,9 9 9
HOFFMAN CORPORATION
MOZ AR T S O CIE T Y $10 , 0 0 0 – $ 24 ,9 9 9
MACY’S
SAMUEL I NEWHOUSE FOUNDATION
32 DEGREES DIGITAL,LLC
PAR K ING S P ONS O R
ME D IA S P ONS O R
OTHE R S P ONS O R S
ALASKA/HORIZON AIRLINES, INC. ALL CLASSICAL PORTLAND AMAZON.COM ANDANTE VINEYARDS ARGYLE WINERY ART OF CATERING THE AV DEPARTMENT BADASS CATERING CGC FINANCIAL SERVICES CROWLEY WINES D.A. DAVIDSON & CO. HEADWATERS AT THE HEATHMAN JASON DESOMER PHOTOGRAPHY
DOCUMART COPIES & PRINTING DOMAINE SERENE FREELAND SPIRITS GENIUS LOCI WINES GERANIUM LAKE FLOWERS RACHEL HADIASHAR PHOTOGRAPHY INICI GROUP, INC. KLARQUIST SPARKMAN, LLP KROGER MAGAURN VIDEO MEDIA MONDAY MUSICAL CLUB OF PORTLAND JONATHAN NAGAR
NEL CENTRO ONPOINT COMMUNITY CREDIT UNION PORTLAND ART MUSEUM POSTER GARDEN PREMIERE VALET RAMPANT CREATIVE, INC. RAVEN & ROSE ROCHE BOBOIS ROCKWELL COLLINS CHARITABLE CORPORATION SINEANN WINERY VIDON VINEYARD
orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 37
OUR SUPPORTERS Foundation and Government Support The Oregon Symphony thanks these organizations for their generous contributions received from September 1, 2017, to October 31, 2018. TR ANS FO RMATI ONAL $10 0 , 0 0 0 A ND A B OV E
GLOBE FOUNDATION
JAMES AND SHIRLEY RIPPEY FAMILY FOUNDATION
VIR T U O S O S O CIE T Y $5 0 , 0 0 0 – $ 9 9,9 9 9
ANN AND BILL SWINDELLS CHARITABLE TRUST
WILLIAM AND FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION
ART MENTOR FOUNDATION LUCERNE
O P U S S O CIE T Y $ 2 5 , 0 0 0 – $ 49,9 9 9
HAMPTOM FAMILY FOUNDATION OF OCF
MAYBELLE CLARK MACDONALD FUND
ROSE E. TUCKER CHARITABLE TRUST
RESER FAMILY FOUNDATION
MOZ AR T S O CIE T Y $10 , 0 0 0 – $ 24 ,9 9 9
ANONYMOUS (1) JACKSON FOUNDATION WALTERS FAMILY FOUNDATION
AARON COPLAND FUND FOR MUSIC, INC
B R ONZ E B ATON $ 4 , 0 0 0 – $5 ,9 9 9
E. NAKAMICHI FOUNDATION
COND U C TO R ’ S CIR CLE $ 2 , 5 0 0 – $ 3 ,9 9 9
AUTZEN FOUNDATION
CON CE R TO $1, 0 0 0 – $ 2 , 49 9
H.W. & D.C. IRWIN FOUNDATION
KINDER MORGAN FOUNDATION
DAVID & LOA MASON CHARITABLE TRUST
WHEELER FOUNDATION (WA)
In Memory of Dr. Michael Baird Marta Malinow In Memory of Katherine Forrest Althea Jordan In Memory of Lynn Getz-Riley Julie & Wayne Anderson Catherine Bentley Fran & Fritz Bloemker Don Carson Tom & Maggie Churchill Chase & Lynne Curtis
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SCHLESINGER FAMILY FOUNDATION
Julie Firestone David Grainger Robert Lynn Gregory Mast Andrew & Joan McKenna Joseph & Tracy Merrill In Memory of Isabel and A. Sheridan Grass Isabel Sheridan
ESCO FOUNDATION HERBERT A. TEMPLETON
THE WOLLENBERG FOUNDATION
JUAN YOUNG TRUST
Tribute gifts March 17, 2017– October 12, 2018
ROBERT & MERCEDES EICHHOLZ FOUNDATION
LAMB FAMILY FOUNDATION
S ILVE R B ATON $ 6 , 0 0 0 – $ 9,9 9 9
TR IB U TE
THE JAY AND DIANE ZIDELL CHARITABLE FOUNDATION
Frank & Bonnie Nusser The Redd Family Karen Spangler In Memory of Mike Hertz Judith Hertz
In Memory of Arnetta Turner Ingamells Mary Tuck Eleanore Turner
In Memory of Mary Rose Guimond Travel Portland
In Memory of Dorothy Millikan Barbara Millikan
In Memory of Marjorie Gray Hindman Charles & Meg Allen Anne Black Nicole Dunn Don Miles
In Memory of Richard Oliverio Les Vuylsteke In Memory of Gregory Pikus, Irma Lapis, and Alexander Lapis Fedor G. Pikus
WINTZ FAMILY FOUNDATION
In Memory of Carol Ann Sampson Frank Sampson In Memory of Mayer Schwartz Anonymous In Memory of Sue Showalter Renée* & Irwin Holzman In Memory of Julie Underwood Jean Cauthorn In Honor of Robert H. Armour Jean A. Major In Honor of Sarah Kwak and the Oregon Symphony Kay Bristow In Honor of Dylan Lawrence Dan & Lesle Witham
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ON A HIGH NOTE By the tender age of 7, cellist Kenneth Finch had more stamps on his passport than most Americans amass in their whole lives. After traveling the world with his family, Finch settled in Oregon and took up the cello in the fourth grade. Winner of the high school state solo contest for three consecutive years, he followed up with two years as the principal cellist for both the University of Oregon Symphony Orchestra and the Eugene Symphony. Finch studied under legendary cellists Gabor Rejto and Ronald Leonard before earning his bachelor’s from U of O. He went on to study at Eastman School of Music, where he served as a teaching assistant to another cello great, Robert Sylvester. He played with the Colorado Philharmonic and Rochester Philharmonic before joining the Oregon Symphony in 1984. His wife, Lynne, is a violinist with the Oregon Symphony, and the two teach at the Oregon Summer Music Institute.
What led you to choose to pursue the cello at such a young age? It was the public schools that got my older brother and me to play violin and cello in the fourth grade before the band could get us in the fifth grade. I decided to play the cello so that I could play duets with my brother. We really appreciated the public school orchestra, and the fact that it was an elective during school hours! We went our different ways, but I stayed with music and found my voice in the cello. As for my brother, he traveled the world as a 777 captain for United Airlines. He recently gave me his lonely violin that sat untouched for 30 years so that I can give it to somebody deserving.
Oregon Symphony cello
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Photo: Christine Dong, Artslandia.
Kenneth Finch
Symphonic performances are obviously not about a superstar personality that can sell out an arena with amazing amplification lights and feel-good videos. They are much more about the music and often something epic like a Mahler symphony, Verdi’s Requiem, or John Williams’ film music. In the days after 9/11, there were symphonic performances all over the United States, including one here by the Oregon Symphony, simulcast by the Blazers organization to the capacity crowds both in the Schnitzer and the adjacent park blocks outside. Some of the most significant performances of music will always involve a full-size symphony, and that creates a desire by many very generous people to choose to support what it takes to have a symphony orchestra. Symphony orchestra organizations will always find a way to be relevant as well as epic, because we can.
I met my wife Lynne in music school. While we played chamber music together and loved it, skiing is what got us together! I went east to pursue a master’s degree at the Eastman School in Rochester, New York, where I received a snail mail letter every day from Lynne. She got the job with the Oregon Symphony while I was back east, and after graduating, getting married, and hitting the audition trail, there was finally an opening in the Oregon Symphony cello section... Nailed it! Lynne and I love working together. The job is exciting and a privilege to share with her, to work in what we trained to do. We also raised two incredible children. The most substantial challenge was when the kids were in school, and our schedule was no longer in sync with theirs. We made it through, and they are both wonderful people! Now, we are enjoying our colleagues in the orchestra, as this group of musicians is the most talented and supportive to be around.
Oregon Symphony’s lineup for this season runs the gamut of popular and classical offerings. How do you view the relationship between popular and classical music? Do you prefer one to the other? Programming takes both profound vision and acceptance of economic reality. Some say an orchestra is both a museum and a laboratory. I know that when someone develops a program or series, they love what they chose to present. I am happy to give my services and am often surprised at what we can do in almost any genre. How much time do you spend practicing in a week? Where do you most often practice? Practicing is a moving target. We must keep up our playing first, like an athlete. We must also feed our musical minds with constant discoveries of both the new and different, as well as rediscoveries of previous musical conquests. At some points in the season, we are performing many intensive projects at such a fast pace that it can become a question of diminishing returns if we are too fatigued. Time management is a priority.
What do you find most challenging about being a professional musician? Convincing people that this is truly my day job! Are there any other genres or art forms you’d like to explore? Always. I’m old enough to know there is a lot to discover out there. What’s something people would be surprised to learn about you? Not much! I might be right-handed. I might be left. I still haven’t figured that one out.
Literary Arts’ annual celebration of remarkable literature created right here in Oregon.
2019 Oregon Book
Awards Ceremony OR
Tell us about your experience of being married to a musician in the same orchestra.
EG
ON
AP
BOOK AW AR
DS
What role do you think classical music – both traditional and modern – has in today’s world?
RIL 3 0, 201
8
April 22 at 7:30 p.m. Gerding Theater at the Armory Tickets start at $12 BrownPaperTickets.com
The 2019 Oregon Book Awards celebrates the state’s most accomplished writers in the genres of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, young readers, and drama. The evening will be hosted by Cheryl Strayed, author of the #1 New York Times best selling memoir Wild, New York Times best sellers Tiny Beautiful Things and Brave Enough, and the novel Torch.
®
orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 41
THEN & NOW
The Keller Auditorium Past & Present 1933
Portland Public Auditorium before remodeling, 1933, Org. Lot 23, bb003264. The building occupies an entire city block bounded by Third and Second Avenues and Clay and Market Streets.
2016
Photo by Jason Quigley.
The Keller Auditorium, one of the Portland’5 Centers for the Performing Arts, has experienced a near-complete metamorphosis and several name changes since it opened in 1917 as Portland Public Auditorium. Also called Municipal Auditorium, it served as a meeting center, a movie house, a boxing venue, a hospital and morgue during the 1918 Spanish f lu epidemic, and a temporary home for returning WWII veterans. A nearcomplete renovation completed in 1968 left only 17 percent of the original structure intact, with some of the exterior materials recycled at the Portland Japanese Garden and the Community Music Center. The new venue, named Civic Auditorium, was further remodeled in 2000 and renamed Keller Auditorium after Portland Development Commission Chairman Ira Keller, thanks to a large donation from his family. The theater is now home to Oregon Ballet Theatre and hosts many performances by the Portland Opera, among other performing arts, community, and family events.
Historic photographs for this series are provided by the Oregon Historical Society, a museum, research library, archive, and scholarly asset located in the heart of Portland’s Cultural District. View more photos of historic Portland on the new ohs Digital Collections website at digitalcollections.ohs.org/ portland-cityscapes.
Have an anecdote or old school photograph of you posing in front of The Keller Auditorium? Post it! Don’t forget to tag #Artslandia and #ThenAndNow
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O N A N U N R E L AT E D N O T E JENNIFER GRIT T, PIT TO CK MANSION Jennifer Gritt, associate director of Pittock Mansion, recently shared with Susannah the fascinating history of the Pittock Mansion and its first inhabitants, Henry and Georgiana Pittock. Susannah: What’s your perfect road trip?
Jennifer Gritt
Jennifer: I would like to do a road trip in New England, for two reasons. One, I am probably one of the few people on the planet who has actually read all of the five Leatherstocking Tales – including The Deerslayer and Last of the Mohicans – by James Fenimore Cooper. I would love to get into that area where he lived and wrote, and then on to Rhode Island and Massachusetts to explore my colonial ancestry. I also have a dream road trip to Choco Canyon in New Mexico because of the way they align their buildings with the sun cycles and the moon cycles.
This podcast transcript has been edited and condensed for print.
HAVE AN ADVENTURE IN ARTSL ANDIA? EMAIL SMARS@ARTSL ANDIA .COM.
UPCOMING GUESTS: Fear No Music Oregon Children’s Theatre Fertile Ground Oregon Story Theater
Subscribe to Adventures in Artslandia with Susannah Mars on iTunes or Google Play.
Kevin
Betsy
FIDDLE
FIDDLE
Freddy
Inés
C UATRO
VI O L I N
BURKE BRANCH BLOSSOM VILCHES VOGLAR $25 Admission Lincoln Hall, PSU
ENTRY: WHERE:
STEEL DRUMS, VOCALS
WHEN: TICKETS:
Feb. 9th, 4pm oregonbravo.org/cb3 orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 43
ART DEPT
Keller Mural T
he eponymous Keller Auditorium Mural by KoreanAmerican artist Una Kim is a carnival mishmash of playful characters buoyantly and joyfully engaged in performing arts. Portland State University students collaborated with Kim in 2012 to bring her vision to life with acrylic paint on a concrete wall. The work is a lively take on works of fine art that feature performers, such as Cassatt’s At the Opera, Dufy’s The Yellow Violin, and Degas’ ballerinas. According to Kim, the goal of the work was to inspire students of diverse backgrounds, educate on the creative process of design in the public sector, and provide a gift to the public. The Regional Arts & Culture Council and private donations funded the project.
Photo by Blanche Minoza, Artslandia.
Since the location of this month’s Art Dept feature is identified by the work’s title, email a photo of yourself standing in front the mural to submit@artslandia.com with “Art Dept” as the subject for a chance to win an Artslandia Box.
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#AR T SL ANDIAWA SHERE @orculturaltrust
orculturaltrust We’ve teamed up with @artslandia – and as you can see, their office pup @sirrileyruxpin is ready for the OREGON CULTURE TREASURE HUNT! They’ve carefully chosen a handful of Portland’s most iconic locations for you to seek out. #culture #oregonculturaltrust #portland #pdx #traveloregon #oregon #portlandor #pnw #pnwonderland #ArtslandiaWasHere #scavengerhunt #cultural #clues #treasurehunt #game #pdxnow #portlander
@osomusicians
osomusicians Our carolers visited @ohsudoernbecher on Friday! #sharejoy #carolingproject #holiday #cheer #community #musicforall #oregonsymphony #osomusicians #portland #pdx #classicalmusic #symphony #portland5 #arleneschnitzerconcerthall #art #instamusic #orchestra #musicians #musicalfamily #instaphoto #oregon #pnw #portlandnw #artslandia #pacificnorthwest #portlandia #youroregon #ArtslandiaWasHere
@artslandia
artslandia Behind the scene of the photo shoot with @gia.goodrich and @portlandopera for our next Arts Guide! Grab your copies in January! #performingarts #photoshoot #ArtslandiaWasHere #ladiesleading #opera #portland #oregon #costumes #photoshoot Use hashtag #ArtslandiaWasHere on your social media posts, and they could end up here!
Get Drawn In...
Ashland’s Visual Arts Event
A Taste Of Ashland April 27 & 28, 2019
Food . Wine . Art
atasteofashland.com
facebook.com/ashlandgalleries instagram.com/ashlandgalleries
complimentary Gallery Guide sponsored by Ashland Gallery Association ashlandgalleries.com
orsymphony.org | 503-228-1353 45
SEEN ON THE SCENE
Attendees of Mary Poppins.
Attendees of Mary Poppins.
Dawn and Grady Penna, volunteers.
Attendees of It’s A Wonderful Life.
Dámaso Rodríguez, Artistic Director of Artists Repertory Theatre, and his son.
Beth Harper, Director of It’s a Wonderful Life, and Shawn Lee, Producing Director at Artists Rep.
Gretchen Corbett and Brian Weaver.
Attendees of A Chirstmas Carol.
Attendees of A Chirstmas Carol.
mary poppins by northwest children’s theater
it’s a wonderful life by artists repertory theatre
a christmas carol by portland playhouse
Artslandia mixed and mingled with the patrons of nwct’s magical adaptation of the classic film turned Broadway musical hit. Filled with memorable songs, soaring dance numbers, and spoonfuls of imagination, the show was the perfect way to spend “a jolly holiday!”
The beloved holiday staple came to life as a live 1940s radio broadcast, complete with favorite local talent and an onstage Foley artist. The production was so touching that it brought Artslandia’s media director, Chris Porras, to tears!
We joined Ebenezer Scrooge and the ghostly spirits who visit on Christmas Eve to guide the grumpy miser through a redemptive and transformative journey toward friendship and love. A hopeful, musical, and incredibly fun show!
f irst row of photos
second row of photos
Don’t forget to tag #Artslandia and #ArtslandiaWasHere on your event photos for the chance to be featured!
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third row of photos
PHOTO CREDIT: Max McDermott, Artslandia.
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