December 10, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

THE OREGON SYMPHONY IN JANUARY:
A RETURN TO THE CLASSICS – WITH A BIT OF HOMESPUN HUMOR

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(PORTLAND, Ore.) – Following a month of nearly non-stop holiday music, the Oregon Symphony gets back to basics at the start of the new year with three Classical programs on its January concert calendar, all led by Music Director Carlos Kalmar. But it’s not all serious stuff – how could it be, with humorist Garrison Keillor making two appearances on the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall stage? Complete details follow:

 

SATURDAY-MONDAY, JAN. 9-11:
THE SPOTLIGHT SHINES ON SCHUMANN AND SHOSTAKOVICH  

• When and Where: Three performances, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 9 and 10, and 8 p.m. Monday, Jan. 11; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

• The Performers: The Oregon Symphony, with Music Director Carlos Kalmar on the podium, joined by piano soloist Benedetto Lupo.

• The Program:
• Alberto Ginastera: Glosses on Themes of Pablo Casals
• Robert Schumann: Piano Concerto
• Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 6

• Tickets: $15 to $100; at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office, 923 SW Washington St., in downtown Portland. Ticket office hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Tickets may also be purchased by phone at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343 during the same hours, at the concert hall box office starting two hours before the performance, or online at any time from the orchestra’s web site, OrSymphony.org.  

• What’s So Special About These Concerts:
• The program features one of music’s most loved Romantic masterworks – Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto – paired with a seldom-heard blockbuster of an entirely different kind, from the 20th century’s last great composer of symphonies, Dmitri Shostakovich.
• Performing the Schumann concerto will be Italian pianist Benedetto Lupo, in place of the previously announced soloist, Ingrid Fliter, who has withdrawn for personal reasons.
• Lupo, a medalist at the prestigious Van Cliburn competition in 1989, most recently performed with the Oregon Symphony in February 2006. (He played the Grieg Piano Concerto at those concerts.)
• The third work on the program, Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera’s Glosses on Themes of Pablo Casals, receives its Oregon Symphony premiere at these concerts. It was written in 1976 to commemorate the American bicentennial and the 100th birthday of Casals, the great Spanish cellist.

 

SATURDAY-MONDAY, JAN. 23-25:
RISING-STAR VIOLINIST ARABELLA STEINBACHER TAKES ON DVOŘÁK

• When and Where: Three performances, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 23 and 24, and 8 p.m. Monday, Jan. 25; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

• The Performers: The Oregon Symphony, with Music Director Carlos Kalmar on the podium, joined by violin soloist Arabella Steinbacher.

• The Program:
• Bohuslav Martinů: Thunderbolt P-47
• Antonin Dvořák: Violin Concerto
• Ottorino Respighi: La boutique fantasque, ballet after Rossini

• Tickets: $15 to $100; at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office, 923 SW Washington St., in downtown Portland. Ticket office hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Tickets may also be purchased by phone at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343 during the same hours, at the concert hall box office starting two hours before the performance, or online at any time from the orchestra’s web site, OrSymphony.org.  

• What’s So Special About These Concerts:
• Two Oregon Symphony premieres are featured: Bohemian composer Bohuslav Martinů’s jazz-infused World War II-era Thunderbolt P-47 was written in homage to the American fighter pilots who flew dangerous missions over Europe. Italian composer Ottorino Respighi’s delightful ballet score La boutique fantasque (The Strange Shop) was composed, coincidentally, in the midst of Europe’s other calamitous 20th-century conflict, in 1918.
• Between them, German violinist Arabella Steinbacher, a rapidly rising star on the world’s major concert stages, makes her Oregon Symphony debut, performing the seldom-played Violin Concerto of Antonin Dvořák.

 

TUESDAY-WEDNESDAY, JAN. 26-27:
GARRISON KEILLOR TELLS STORIES FROM LAKE WOBEGON

• When and Where: Two performances, at 7:30 p.m. each night on Tuesday, Jan. 26, and Wednesday, Jan. 27; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

• The Performer: Internationally known author and radio personality Garrison Keillor in a solo turn. [NOTE: The Oregon Symphony does not perform.]

• The Program:
• An evening filled with the one-of-a-kind tales that have cemented Keillor’s reputation as an unforgettable story-teller.

• Tickets: $25 to $130; at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office, 923 SW Washington St., in downtown Portland. Ticket office hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Tickets may also be purchased by phone at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343 during the same hours, at the concert hall box office starting two hours before the performance, or online at any time from the orchestra’s web site, OrSymphony.org. Tickets are also available from Ticketmaster.com.

• What’s So Special About This Performance:
• Garrison Keillor – best-selling author, radio legend and all-around raconteur – is best known as the creator and host of the nationally syndicated weekly show A Prairie Home Companion, heard by 3 million listeners a week on more than 450 public radio stations.
• Keillor last shared the stage with the Oregon Symphony in September 2006. (This time around he’s flying solo; the Oregon Symphony does not perform.)

 

SATURDAY-SUNDAY, JAN. 30-31:
SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW – WITH A PAIR OF PORTLAND PREMIERES  

• When and Where: Two performances, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 30, and a matinee at 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 31; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

• The Performers: The Oregon Symphony, with Music Director Carlos Kalmar on the podium, joined by piano soloist Jean-Philippe Collard.

• The Program:
• Thomas Adès: Overture, Waltz and Finale from Powder Her Face
• Maurice Ravel: Concerto for the Left Hand
• Gustav Holst: Egdon Heath
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 34

• Tickets: $15 to $100; at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office, 923 SW Washington St., in downtown Portland. Ticket office hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Tickets may also be purchased by phone at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343 during the same hours, at the concert hall box office starting two hours before the performance, or online at any time from the orchestra’s web site, OrSymphony.org.  

• What’s So Special About These Concerts:
• The program features three significant 20th-century compositions. Two of them – Gustav Holst’s Egdon Heath and Maurice Ravel’s masterful Concerto for the Left Hand – are from the century’s early decades. The third – excerpts from Thomas Adès’s first opera, Powder Her Face – was composed in 1995 and comes from the pen of one of music’s hottest contemporary figures.
• The works by Holst and Adès receive their Oregon Symphony premieres at these concerts.
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Symphony No. 34 qualifies as the “something old” on the program, but even it is a relative rarity: The Oregon Symphony last performed it exactly two decades ago, in January 1990.
• The program has a performance schedule that’s unusual for Oregon Symphony Classical concerts: Two performances only, one on Saturday evening and one Sunday afternoon.

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CONTACT:
Carl Herko
Vice President, Media & Public Relations
(503) 416-6347
cherko@orsymphony.org