March 9, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

THE OREGON SYMPHONY IN APRIL:
A MONTH OF UNEXPECTED MUSICAL PAIRINGS

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(PORTLAND, Ore.) – Good things will definitely come in pairs at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall as the four events on the Oregon Symphony’s April concert calendar feature a pair of Pops programs to open and close the month, a pair of back-to-back Beethoven symphonies (the “Pastoral” and the “Eroica”) at two consecutive Classical series events – and one concert that even pairs the sixth symphonies of two different composers on the same program. Complete details follow:

SATURDAY AND SUNDAY, APR. 2 AND 3:
THE POPS SEASON CONTINUES WITH A TRIBUTE TO THE FAB FOUR

• When and Where: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Apr. 2, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Apr. 3; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. (NOTE: This concert will also be performed at 8 p.m. Monday, Apr. 4, at Willamette University’s Smith Hall in Salem.)

• The Performers: The Oregon Symphony, with Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik on the podium, joined by a modern-day fab four, the Beatles tribute performers known as Classical Mystery Tour.

• The Program: An entire evening of the greatest songs from one of pop music’s greatest bands, the Beatles.

• Tickets: FOR THE PORTLAND PERFORMANCES: $20 to $90; 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.  

FOR THE SALEM PERFORMANCE: $40 to $58, available from AbsolutelyTix.com.

• What’s So Special About These Concerts:
• Jeff Tyzik is back on the podium in his third season as the Oregon Symphony’s principal pops conductor. He leads all four of the orchestra’s Pops series concerts again this season.
• As always, Tyzik’s engaging Pops concert programs aim to offer a smart and engaging in-depth look at a specific theme. This time it’s a survey of some of the greatest hits from the Beatles, pioneers of the British Invasion and the group whose sound came to epitomize the 1960s.
• Though they stopped performing more than 40 years ago, it’s nearly impossible to overestimate the influence of the Beatles. They still rank among the most highly regarded and most commercially successful performers in the history of rock ‘n’ roll. And their music still serves as the soundtrack for the Baby Boom generation.
• Joining Tyzik and the Oregon Symphony on stage will be the ensemble known as Classical Mystery Tour, a modern Fab Four of John, Paul, George and Ringo look-alikes who’ve performed Beatles tribute concerts around the world.
• Presenting sponsor of the concert is the Oregon State University Foundation.

 

SUNDAY AND MONDAY, APR. 10 AND 11:
YOUNG RUSSIAN-AMERICAN PIANIST NATASHA PAREMSKI TAKES ON PROKOFIEV

• When and Where: Two performances, at 2p.m. Sunday, Apr. 10, and 8 p.m. Monday, Apr. 11; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. (NOTE: There is no Saturday performance of this program.)

• The Performers: The Oregon Symphony, with guest conductor Günther Herbig on the podium, joined by pianist Natasha Paremski as soloist in the Prokofiev First Piano Concerto.

• The Program:
• Bohuslav Martinů: Symphonic Fantasias (Symphony No. 6)
• Sergei Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 1
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral”

• Tickets: $20 to $90; 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 concert is bookended by a pair of sixth symphonies – one a genuine rarity (Bohemian composer Bohuslav Martinů’s, from the mid-1950s, in its Oregon Symphony premiere) and one that ranks among classical music’s most popular works (Ludwig van Beethoven’s).
• In between, 23-year-old Russian-born pianist Natasha Paremski, making her Oregon Symphony debut, performs the first piano concerto written in 1912 by a then-21-year-old Sergei Prokofiev. (When Prokofiev performed as piano soloist at its Moscow premiere, it was the first time he had ever played with an orchestra.)
• The concerto – a mere 16 minutes long, its three movements played together without pause – is a bold opening statement by a composer destined for greatness, filled with look-at-me audacity.
• The concert’s second half is Beethoven’s great paean to nature, his Symphony No. 6, “Pastoral.” Beethoven gave its five movements such names as “Scene by the brook” and “Thunderstorm.” 
• The guest conductor, also collaborating with the Oregon Symphony for the first time at these concerts, is Günther Herbig, whose move from East Germany to the United States in 1984 led to a distinguished conducting career in the West. Herbig has served as music director of the Detroit and Toronto symphonies as well as principal guest conductor of the Dallas Symphony and London’s BBC Philharmonic.

 

SATURDAY-MONDAY, APR. 16-18:
CANADIAN VIOLIN VIRTUOSO JAMES EHNES MAKES HIS OREGON SYMPHONY DEBUT

• When and Where: Three performances, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Apr. 16 and 17, and 8 p.m. Monday, Apr. 18; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. (NOTE: This concert will also be performed at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Apr. 19, at Willamette University’s Smith Hall in Salem.)

• The Performers: The Oregon Symphony, with Music Director Carlos Kalmar on the podium, joined by violinist James Ehnes as soloist in the Bruch First Violin Concerto.

• The Program:
• William Walton: Partita for Orchestra
• Max Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 3, “Eroica”

• Tickets: FOR THE PORTLAND PERFORMANCES: $20 to $90; 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.  

FOR THE SALEM PERFORMANCE: $35 to $48, available from AbsolutelyTix.com.

• What’s So Special About These Concerts:
• The concert marks the Oregon Symphony debut of the great Canadian violinist James Ehnes, who’s been labeled, by Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper, “the Jascha Heifetz of our day.”
• Ehnes will perform the best-known work of German composer Max Bruch, his melodic Violin Concerto. No. 1. The legendary 19th century violinist Joseph Joachim compared Bruch’s concerto to those of Beethoven, Brahms and Mendelssohn, describing Bruch’s as “the richest, most seductive” of the four.
• Ehnes performs on the 1715 Stradivarius violin known as the ex-Marsick, on extended loan to him from the Fulton Collection (and an instrument not to be confused with the 1705 Marsick Stradivarius that was owned by violin great David Oistrakh.) And, since this is 2011, it may come as no surprise to learn that the Ehnes’ Ex-Marsick Stradivarius has its own Facebook page.
• Also on the program: English composer William Walton’s Partita for Orchestra, a work never before performed by the Oregon Symphony, as well as the second great Beethoven symphony performed by the orchestra in as many weeks, his  Symphony No. 3, “Eroica.”
• The arrival on the scene of Beethoven’s “Eroica” in 1805 is considered one of the 19th century’s groundbreaking musical events. For one thing, its length alone – more than 45 minutes – was unheard of for the era. Beethoven recommended in the score, in fact, that it be performed at the beginning of a concert rather than at the end, so audiences wouldn’t be too tired to appreciate it. (More than two centuries later Carlos Kalmar, apparently harboring no such fears, has programmed it as the concert’s rousing finale.)

 

SATURDAY AND SUNDAY, APR. 30 AND MAY 1:
THE POPS SEASON WRAPS UP WITH ONE HOT NIGHT IN HAVANA

• When and Where: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Apr. 30, and 3 p.m. Sunday, May 1; Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

• The Performers: The Oregon Symphony, with Principal Pops Conductor Jeff Tyzik on the podium, joined by the Latin ensemble Tiempo Libre.

• The Program: It’s all music with a Latin inflection, as the Oregon Symphony opens the concert with Arturo Márquez’s Danzon No. 2 – a huge audience hit when the orchestra performed it in a recent Classical program – and Astor Piazzolla’s Milonga del Angel. Then the orchestra joins forces with Tiempo Libre for the remainder of the concert’s first half, before Tiempo Libre goes solo after intermission, adding even more heat to the night.  

• Tickets: $20 to $90; 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:
• With this concert, the second Pops event of the month, Jeff Tyzik wraps up his third season as the Oregon Symphony’s principal pops conductor.
• The concert’s guest artists – the Cuban ensemble Tiempo Libre – are three-time Grammy nominees. Tiempo Libre’s seven members were all classically trained at Cuba’s premier conservatories before coming together as a group in 2001.
• They’re now based in Miami, but as teenagers in Cuba when the government there forbade its citizens from listening to American music, Tiempo Libre’s members would cobble together homemade antennas late at night in the hopes of pulling in the sounds of Miami radio stations. Their newest album, My Secret Radio, to be released by Sony Masterworks on May 3, pays homage to those roots.
• Media sponsor of the concert is The Oregonian.

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