(Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway) While I’m not advocating the Oregon Symphony jacks up its ticket prices, the first half of tonight’s program is worth the goddamned cost of admission all by itself. Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg gets the party going with the Suite No. 1 from Peer Gynt, which contains both of his biggest hits. I’m hoping my impulse control is strong enough to resist bitch-slapping fellow concertgoers who will inevitably hum along with these magnificently infectious tunes. After their visit to the Hall of the Mountain King, those in the supremely lucky Schnitzer crowd shall witness nothing less than the most influential classical violinist currently residing on our planet: Hilary Hahn. She’s sitting in for three glorious days with Rip City’s biggest unplugged band, to bring another Scandinavian composition to life: a fiddle concerto penned in 1911 by Denmark’s favorite musical son, Carl Nielsen. The work’s enigmatic emotional flare and sweet-ass solo turns will dazzle with fresh intensity in the hands of this thirtysomething virtuoso. Hahn’s appeal is so universal her fucking violin case has amassed 25.4K followers on Twitter, so prepare to have your tiny, weed-encrusted minds blown when you catch the owner of this luggage in the flesh. You’ll need an intermission to recover. ANGRY SYMPHONY GUY
Portland Mercury
(Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta) The players of the Oregon Symphony are unquestionably the hardest working musicians in town, and any moron who says otherwise can blow it out their skinny-jeaned ass. Case in point: Greg Ewer. When this fiddler isn’t tearing it up with our orchestra’s outrageously tight string section, he’s busy leading 45th Parallel, one of Rip City’s most consistently impressive small-scale classical outfits. In addition to his technical mastery and emotional depth, Ewer also has a knack for putting together magically eclectic programs; tonight’s smorgasbord of virtuosity not only includes the 45th Parallel quartet, but also performances from brilliant percussionist Sergio Carreno, the Oregon Symphony’s chief trumpeter Jeff Work, beatboxer Gabe Gleason, and local composer Kenji Bunch, who proves once and for all that, yes, it’s quite possible to shred on a viola. The other half of the show belongs to Jackstraw, a kickass bluegrass group featuring the dreamy twang of Jon Neufeld’s guitar. And I’ve got your fucking vegan icing on your goddamned gluten-free cake right here: The gig goes down at the Alberta Rose Theatre, so all you pathetic lushes will finally be able to listen to classical music and sip the night away.
My favorite musical moment of the year took place on January 28 at a Monday evening Oregon Symphony concert, when the band’s special guest was soprano Amber Wagner—a native Oregonian who has gone on to perform opera internationally. Maestro Carlos [Kalmar] was atop the podium with an ingenious program of back-to-back gems from Richard Strauss: Death and Transfiguration followed seamlessly, without applause, by the composer’s posthumously published Four Last Songs. Rather than dutifully note the orchestral and vocal proficiency on full display that night, it’s probably best to skip any futile attempts at explaining the sublimely ineffable. After the final Last Song was sung and the delicate strings, hushed winds, and muted brass slowly left this world forever, somehow the sound of an intensely precious voice remained, offering hope that in the end—in the very end—everything would be okay.
For all you ignorant fucktards who wrongly assume orchestras just play old music: Tonight our Oregon Symphony busts out a violin concerto written in 2006 by Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg. With its drastically stripped-down orchestration focused on high-strung pensiveness, Lindberg’s 27-minute work is nothing less than a sonic wonder for the ears and an ethereal playground for the soul. Plus, I’m pleased as proverbial punch to report the evening’s guest fiddler is none other than Elina Vähälä—sliding, scratching, and plucking her way to stratospheric heights on a 335-year-old Stradivarius. If Vähälä’s last few appearances at the Schnitz are any indication, this Nordic gypsy’s powerful technique and astounding grace will certainly produce spellbinding results. But hang on to your goddamn Poler hats—there’s more! P-town’s biggest band opens up this show with the sly, dry wit of Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges‘ surreal orchestral suite and closes it down with Tchaikovsky’s flamingly over-the-top Symphony No. 4. What’s that? Tonight you’ll be texting while listening to some pasty lad in pearl-snap buttons whine through masturbatory lyrics? Lucky for you, the program repeats Sunday and Monday, so you’ve got exactly zero excuses for missing out on the orchestra’s last classical concert of 2013.
While touring America on a massive publicity blitz in 1928, lucky bastard Maurice Ravel got to check out the raging jazz clubs of Harlem, accompanied by none other than George fucking Gershwin. This epic night on the town unsurprisingly seared itself into the Frenchman’s musical soul, soon blossoming into the syncopated rhythms, wailing winds, and mad energy of the piano concerto he composed the following year. Fast forward to tonight (and Monday), when Israeli-born Inon Barnatan teams up with our Oregon Symphony to bring Ravel’s heart-thumping showstopper to life. Barnatan may only be in his early 30s, but he’s been performing with orchestras the world over for more than 20 years. Simply put, this red-hot piano god’s upcoming gig with Rip City’s biggest band offers a chance to catch a level of frenetic intricacy and raw, unplugged power impossible to find anywhere else. As a bonus, the Steinway rollout will be flanked by Shakespearean homage: The program kicks off with a trio of Macbeth dances from Giuseppe Verdi and concludes with a batch of Romeo and Juliet orchestral scenes from the always colorful Hector Berlioz. His star-crossed finale will likely have the Schnitzer crowd wetting its collective codpiece. The way I see it, gentle reader, you have three choices: get tickets, drink poison, or go stab yourself. ANGRY SYMPHONY GUY
Chief cultural blogger for the Telegraph of London. Prodigious recorder of more than 50 albums. MacArthur genius. Theologian. Poet. Queer activist. Composer. The guy wears a lot of (size 60) hats, but first and foremost: Stephen Hough plays piano and will forever and ever reign at the high altar of my personal pianoforte pantheon. Our very own Oregon Symphony is thankfully hosting Mr. Hough on his latest visit to Portland—this time ’round for a pair of concerts featuring the sometimes romantic, sometimes explosive, always kick-ass Piano Concerto No. 2 composed by Franz Liszt. If Hough’s last appearance with the symphony was any indication, the pride of the Wirral Peninsula will be fueled by dark chocolate and British puddings, with his virtuosic wonders on full display as he gives all 88 keys the proverbial what-for. Look, I realize the social calendar of most Mercury readers has been full for weeks now, but c’mon… Fuck the cat show. Fuck the unicycle convention. Fuck the locally sourced paleo potluck. Globally adored virtuosos like Stephen Hough don’t come to town every week, you know. Did I mention a Beethoven symphony is also on the program? Bring a change of shorts (you’ll need ’em) and I’ll see you at the Schnitz, goddammit.
What would it be like to have a living legend jam with your favorite local band? One’s daydreaming could lead to pants-wetting images of Neil Young strumming with Weinland, or Björk yodeling with Menomena. Luckily, I ain’t some poor sap forced to settle for mere flights of fancy—because I already scored tickets for the Oregon Symphony’s next concert, featuring piano god André Watts. Listen the fuck up: Most Oregon Symphony concerts feature an international virtuoso that teams up with Portland’s big band, but Mr. Watts is this season’s only soloist to carry legendary status with him onto the Schnitzer stage. Introduced by Leonard Bernstein on national TV in the early ’60s when he was a 16-year-old black kid, the wunderkind instantly rocketed to stardom and has been playing to packed houses ever since. The sweet, sweet fact that Watts is in PDX to knock out Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fifth (and final) Piano Concerto makes this program the very first do-not-miss performance of 2013. Why not be absolutely crazy and resolve to catch at least one show in the new year that doesn’t feature ironic facial hair?
Gustav Mahler was a much better human than I’ll ever be. Case in point: If someone gave me a sledgehammer, my first impulse would be to enter Ned Lannamann’s pathetic cubicle at the Mercury offices and start swinging away at any computer (or fingers) I could find, with the aim of silencing this hopelessly uninformed, wildly myopic, so-called music editor for a good long while. Luckily, when the muses presented Mr. Mahler with a sledgehammer, the composer bravely resisted any destructive inclinations, and instead inserted this bluntest of instruments into his Symphony No. 6. The epic work might be labeled a symphony on paper, but in a live performance, this music will be nothing less than cathartic sacrament—nearly 90 solid minutes of 96 classically trained musicians on the Schnitzer stage wrestling with sonic nihilism and bitter chaos! Folks, this is Gustav fucking Mahler we’re talking about here. Witness. This. Show.
Also on: http://www.nobleviola.com/2012/10/31/angry-symphony-guy-strikes-again/
The Oregon Symphony’s first classical concert of the 2012/13 season rightfully deserves an exhaustive six-page spread, but the fucking idgits who run this craptastic “newspaper” wouldn’t know culture if it bit them on their skinny-jeaned douchetard asses. So here’s a preview that even the PBR-addled brain of a Mercury music editor can comprehend: Finnish up front and Italian on the back end, Saturday’s program features several epic hits penned by Jean Sibelius and Ottorino Respighi. As if that weren’t kick-ass enough, the symphony once again exceeds expectations by sharing the stage with an internationally renowned soloist. Colin Currie is percussion royalty, and he’ll be jamming on a five-octave marimba, a metal vibraphone, and a panoply of exotic instruments, showcasing a super fresh composition written especially for him. Unless you’ve already made plans to hear (yet another) whiny trustafarian strum his way through a setlist of half-assed introspective shit, do yourself a favor and put down this wretched rag, order some symphony tickets, and experience what it’s like to have your mind blown by 70-plus musicians of the highest caliber.
Letters to Editor – 5/31/2011
DEAR MERCURY SHIT-FOR-BRAINS—Really?! Our brilliant Oregon Symphony crams close to 90 musicians onto the Schnitzer stage for their final blowout concert of the classical season, but you can’t be bothered to bestow one of your measly little recommendation stars on the event? I swear to fucking god I am never reading your so-called newspaper again.
http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/letters-to-the-editor/Content?oid=6165602