February 13, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … The music of three European cities that helped define several styles and genres of classical music is the focus of the Oregon Symphony’s innovative Front Row Center series, “a closer look at classical music,” for the 2004-2005 season. Music Director Carlos Kalmar will conduct the first of three programs, which will feature the music of his home city, Vienna; Emil de Cou, associate conductor of the National Symphony, will present an evening of music from pre- and post-revolutionary Moscow; and Alastair Willis, Resident Conductor of the Seattle Symphony, will return to lead a concert of music from Paris.
Kalmar, who has lived in Vienna most of his life, will take us on a musical tour of his hometown Nov. 12 to explore the music most closely associated with Vienna: the waltz. This singular dance, which today epitomizes grace and elegance, developed under a cloud of controversy and scandal because it evolved not in the courts of Austrian aristocracy but among common people who shocked the decency standards of the time by embracing each other as they danced. With music of the “Waltz King,” Johann Strauss and his sons Johann II, Josef and Eduard, Kalmar and the orchestra will present music that spans the history of the waltz and will demonstrate why this dance of ordinary folk became the obsession of 19th-century Europe.
The second concert of the series takes us to Moscow,
the glittering capital of Russia on Jan. 14, 2005.
Title “Moscow Before and After,” this concert
will focus on music from pre-and post-revolutionary
Russia and will feature music of Rachmaninoff, Mosolov
and Shostakovich. Associate Conductor of the National
Symphony Emil de Cou introduces us to the lush romanticism
of pre-revolutionary Russia through the music of Rachmaninoff,
then guides us through the turbulence of the Russian
Revolution and its Soviet aftermath featuring the
ground-breaking music of avant-garde composer Alexander
Mosolov’s “Steel Ballet,” which
incorporates the sounds of an iron foundry, and Dmitri
Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 in E minor,
a scathing musical portrayal of Soviet dictator Joseph
Stalin.
The final concert of the 2004-05 Front Row Center Series, “Paris Impressions,” will whisk audiences off to Paris, the City of Light, during the late 19th and early 20th century on March 4, 2005. During this unusually creative time in music history, Paris was a magnet for musical influences from around the world, including American jazz, as well as popular music from the streets and music halls. The Paris musical scene also borrowed ideas from the worlds of dance under the influence of Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe and the global cultural celebration of the Paris Exposition, which brought in music from “exotic” Asian locales. Led by former Seattle Symphony Resident Conductor Alastair Willis, this concert will feature Debussy’s watershed work “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun,” excerpts from Stravinsky’s “Firebird Suite” and orchestral arrangements of Erik Satie’s “Gymnopedies.”
The Front Row Center series debuted as the Nerve Endings series in 1996 as a Knight Foundation “Magic of Music” initiative, designed to redefine and revitalize the symphonic concert hall experience for audiences and musicians.
Front Row Center concerts are presented on Friday nights at 7:30 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.
Subscriptions for Front Row Center range in price from $42-$147 and may be purchased at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office in downtown Portland at 923 S.W. Washington, or charged by phone at 503-228-1353 or (800) 228-7343, weekdays (and Saturdays, Sept. through May) from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Subscription orders also may be placed online at www.orsymphony.org. Front Row Center subscribers receive full subscription benefits, including flexible ticket exchange and advance purchase for Special Event concerts. Single tickets for Front Row Center and other Symphony concerts will be available to the general public at 9 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 16, 2004.
