April 25, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … Oregon Public Broadcasting Radio will present Oregon Symphony performances of Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 and Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21, from a November concert conducted by Music Director Carlos Kalmar, on Friday, May 6, from 9-11 p.m. This broadcast is the fifth in a series of classical Oregon Symphony concerts on OPB Radio the first Friday of each month through October 2005.
The concert features Brahms’ blithe and joyful Second Symphony, which suggests the coming of spring with its musical evocations of nature. “This music is as happy as Brahms can get,” says Kalmar, a big fan of Brahms’ work. Pianist Stephen Hough, winner of a 2001 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, joins the Symphony to perform one of Mozart’s best-known piano concertos. The instantly recognizable melody of the second movement was immortalized in the 1967 film score to “Elvira Madigan,” making it a perennial audience favorite. The concert opens with an Oregon Symphony debut, Russian composer Alfred Schnittke’s humorous “Moz-Art á la Haydn,” which combines fragments of Mozart’s music with the amusing finale from Haydn’s “Farewell” Symphony.
In addition to the concerts, OPB and KBPS are collaborating to bring listeners interviews with musicians and conductors during the performance intermission. The May 6 broadcast features a discussion with Kalmar on Brahms and the music featured in the concert. For a list of OPB Radio frequencies, log on to www.opb.org.
Oregon Public Broadcasting is a statewide network of community-supported learning resources, including OPB Television, an affiliate of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), and OPB Radio, presenting local news coverage and the programs of National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Radio International (PRI) and American Public Media (APM). The OPB Web site is opb.org.
For more information, please contact Carol Howard at (503) 977-7751 or carol_howard@opb.org, or visit the Symphony’s website at www.orsymphony.org.
