February 11, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 5 will be the featured work as Music Director Carlos Kalmar and the Oregon Symphony present the final Classical Concert of the 2004-05 season on May 21, 22 and 23 at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Lufthansa is the exclusive airline sponsor for the Symphony’s Classical series. Media support is provided by The Oregonian.
“I consider Mahler’s fifth symphony vital for an orchestra of our size and quality,” says Kalmar. This music, which begins with a funeral march and ends with a celebration of joy, traverses the gamut of the emotional spectrum. The famous fourth movement Adagietto, made famous by Leonard Bernstein, who conducted it at a memorial for President Kennedy, serves as an oasis of calm amidst the energy and turmoil of the surrounding movements. Although this movement is now often associated with death, Mahler originally wrote it as a musical love letter to his then-fiancée, Alma Schindler.
The concert also includes Wagner’s “Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin,” which Kalmar says we will hear in a whole new way when it is performed with Hungarian composer György Ligeti’s “Atmosphères for Large Orchestra.” “If you’re in a museum and look at two paintings together, they relate to one another. Pairing modern with 19 th century music will make us hear Wagner differently,” Kalmar explains.
Fans of Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 epic sci-fi film “ 2001: A Space Odyssey” will recognize “Atmosphères” from the film’s score. Ligeti wrote individual parts for each player in the orchestra, and these single strands of sound weave together in an innovative manner to create an aural fabric in which no single line is discernable.
Oregon Symphony Classical concerts regularly include additional opportunities for listeners to learn more about the music and the orchestra. These activities include:
Concert Conversations: Carlos Kalmar and Shaun Yu of KBPS All Classical 89.9 will have a discussion one hour before the concert of the works to be performed. Media support for “Concert Conversations” is provided by Classical Millennium.
Saturday: Carlos Kalmar 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, May 21 and 22 at 7:30 p.m. and Monday, May 23 at 8 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Tickets range in price from $18 to $80 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.
