February 13, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … Laureate Director James DePreist and the Oregon Symphony present Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F minor and Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 4 in E-flat major featuring Principal Horn John Cox, as well as the world premiere of John Peel’s “Sinfonia Romanza” on March 13, 14 and 15 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, with an additional concert on March 16 at Salem’s Smith Auditorium. Media support provided by The Oregonian.
Tchaikovsky’s brooding and passionate Symphony No. 4 in F minor contains a running undercurrent of emotional upheaval, from the despondent first movement to the ecstatic finale. The idea of Fate as a malevolent force at work in Tchaikovsky’s life informed his musical ideas in the Fourth Symphony. He wrote, “The Introduction is…the quintessence, the chief though of the whole symphony… [the first theme] is Fate, the fatal power which hinders one in the pursuit of happiness from gaining the goal, which jealously provides that peace and comfort do not prevail.” By the end of the fourth movement, Tchaikovsky’s musical mood alters, and of the finale he wrote, “If you find no pleasure in yourself, look about you. Go to the people. See how they can enjoy life and give themselves up entirely to festivity…”
Principal Horn John Cox, whom The Oregonian has described as having “agile technique and an elegant way with the music,” opens the concert with Mozart’s popular and technically demanding Concerto for Horn No. 4 in E-flat major. “Horn players are extremely lucky to have the four concertos by Mozart,” he says. “He also flattered the horn by writing several major chamber works for it as well.”
DePreist and the Symphony continue the first half with the world premiere of Oregon composer and Willamette University Professor John Peel’s “Sinfonia Romanza,” which was commissioned by the Symphony for the 2003-04 season. Peel describes his work as a juxtaposition of contrasting ideas: the formal and balanced structure of a classical symphony paired with the freer emotional quality of music found in symphonic tone poems. The work also contains a musical tribute to the daughter of a good friend who died while serving in the Peace Corps in Africa. As Peel began work on the “Sinfonia Romanza,” he noticed that “a beautiful six-tone chord emerged: B-flat E G-sharp D-sharp F-sharp C-sharp.” After he heard the news about his friend’s daughter, that chord became central to the work. However, “I never felt its presence to be tinged with sadness,” Peel says. “Rather, [the chord] has always seemed to me to be possessed of a certain mysterious ambiguity and life-force.”
Oregon Symphony Classical concerts regularly include additional opportunities for listeners to learn more about the music and the orchestra. These activities include:
Pre-concert Talks: KBPS Classical host Patrick McElroy and Carol Lucas, chorus master of the Portland Opera will lead a discussion one hour before the concert of the works to be performed. John Peel is expected to join them. Media support for “Pre-Concert Talks” is provided by Classical Millennium.
Saturday: Laureate Director James DePreist will speak briefly from the podium in “Saturday Interactive.” Media support for “Saturday Interactive” is provided by KINKfm102.
Performances are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, March 13 and 14 at 7:30 p.m. and Monday, March 15 at 8 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, with an additional concert on Tuesday, March 16 at Salem’s Smith Auditorium. Tickets range in price from $17 to $76 and may be purchased at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office (923 S.W. Washington), Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or charged by phone at 503-228-1353 or (800) 228-7343. Tickets also may be purchased at all Ticketmaster outlets (503-790-ARTS) or through Ticketmaster Online, via the Symphony’s Web site at www.orsymphony.org. Service fees may apply.
John Cox has been a member of the Oregon Symphony for
22 years, and Principal Horn for the last 18. As
a soloist in front of the orchestra, Mr. Cox has
been featured numerous times with the Oregon Symphony.
He also has appeared with many smaller ensembles
in the Northwest as soloist, including concertos
with the Eugene Mozart Players and the Tacoma Symphony.
Mr. Cox’s accomplishments with the Oregon Symphony
have led to other notable engagements. He is a 14-year
member of Chamber Music Northwest and has served as
Principal Horn of the Cascade Music Festival. He is
also a 12-year member of the Mainly Mozart Festival
Orchestra. During 2002 he toured with the “Orchestra
of the Californias” in Mexico and California,
and in December 2002 he performed Bach’s Brandenburg
Concertos with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln
Center in New York.
Mr. Cox is a frequent recitalist throughout the West, as well as a clinician for Master Classes in regional communities and out of the Northwest. He has been a guest recitalist and clinician for the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, University of Oregon, University of Evansville, and the Interlochen Arts Academy. Mr. Cox has a solo album on the Centaur label that was hailed by American Record Guide as “one of the best chamber music releases of 1992.” A second CD was released on the Centaur label in the spring of 1998 featuring Mr. Cox’s horn section of the Oregon Symphony and Friends. The music includes transcriptions of Bach and Mendelssohn works for large horn choirs. Mr. Cox has been recognized by The San Diego Tribune as a “wonderfully controlled French Hornist,” The Oregonian as having “agile technique and an elegant way with the music,” and has been mentioned in numerous reviews for his leading of the Oregon Symphony Horn Section.
Before his arrival in Oregon Mr. Cox was Associate Principal Horn of the Orquesta Sinfonica Municipal of Caracas, Venezuela. He holds a Masters Degree in Horn Performance from Boston University and a Bachelor of Music Education Degree from the University of Evansville, IN. His principal teachers include Charles Kavalovski, Philip Farkas, Paul Nolte, Shirley Snethen, and T. Goldstein.
Mr. Cox and his bassoonist/nurse wife, Bonnie, have four children and one Dalmatian. He enjoys rebuilding horns and seems to always be working on his old Jeep. As a student he assigned to himself the goal of being a member of a major U.S. orchestra by the age of 25. When he auditioned for Maestro James DePreist and the Oregon Symphony, and won his position, he realized his goal with three hours to spare.
Born in Texas in 1946, composer John Peel’s earliest musical studies were on the clarinet and oboe. While in his & #8216;teens, Peel began the study of piano and composition. After completing an undergraduate degree at the University of Texas, Peel pursued graduate studies in music composition at Columbia University and Princeton University where his teachers included Milton Babbitt, Benjamin Boretz, J.K. Randall, Claudio Spies and Charles Wuorinen. Peel’s works range from solo and chamber pieces to symphonic and operatic compositions. Major ensembles that have commissioned and performed Peel’s music include the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony, the Riverside Symphony, the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic, the American String Quartet, Collage, Music Today, the New Arts Trio, Cuarteto Latinoamericano, and Parnassus.
Peel has been the recipient of awards and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Jerome Foundation, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Heinz Foundation, the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund, Meet-the-Composer and the American Music Center. Recent major performances include the opera-oratorio “Voces Vergilianae,” commissioned by Willamette University for the dedication of the Mary Stuart Rogers Music Center and the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, premiered in New York’s Lincoln Center with the Riverside Symphony and violinist Joseph Lin. Recordings of Peel’s music are available on the Vienna Modern Masters label (with the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic) and on Americus Records (with soprano Susan Narucki).
Since 1990 Peel has lived in Oregon where he is Composer-in-Residence and the Irene Gerlinger Swindells Professor of Music at Willamette University. In this position he teaches music composition, music history and aesthetics and has created New Music at Willamette, a series of concerts, residencies and lectures dedicated to presenting the finest performers and composers of our time.
