September 9, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … Oregon Public Broadcasting presents Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 and Wagner’s Prelude to Act I of “Lohengrin” in an Oregon Symphony Classical concert with Music Director Carlos Kalmar on Friday, Oct. 7 from 9-11 p.m. This broadcast is the last in a series of classical Oregon Symphony concerts which aired on OPB Radio the first Friday of each month beginning in January, 2005.
“I consider Mahler’s fifth symphony vital for an orchestra of our size and quality,” says Kalmar, explaining why he chose this work for the final Classical series concert of the 2004-2005 season. The 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.
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 19th 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.
In addition to the concerts, OPB and KBPS are collaborating to bring listeners interviews with musicians and conductors during the performance intermission. The October 7 broadcast features Kalmar discussing the music featured in the concert. For a list of OPB Radio frequencies, log on to www.opb.org. KBPS programs classical music all day, every day at 89.9 FM in the Portland region and 90.1 in the Columbia Gorge.
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). 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.
