Best of the ! Bach O
Highlights of this year’s fest
Each year, the Oregon Bach Festival gets a lot of attention
for its big productions, and this year’s no exception: Brahms’
German Requiem, Handel’s oratorio, Jephtha, Beethoven’s
piano concertos, along with an unusual and attractive dance con-
cert, highlight the schedule at the Hult Center’s Silva Hall.
But for alternative types such as you folks reading this, why
not try an alternative — and to my ears, superior — venue and
musical menu?
The UO’s Beall Concert Hall hosts a half dozen smaller-
scale shows that pack at least as much musical muscle as the big
whoppers at the Incredible Hult. With no major contemporary
works on the bill, this may be the summer to sample some of
those more intimate pleasures as well as the mega productions.
Friday, June 27, 8 pm
Handel Jephtha (Silva Concert Hall, Hult Center)
We haven’t heard enough from that other titan of the
Baroque, George Frederic Handel, at the Bach Festival lately.
While Bach often gazed inward or heavenward, Handel was a
man of theater, and wrote extroverted, crowd-pleasing music
often in the grand manner. Jephtha was the last of his great series
of oratorios — almost operatic settings of Biblical stories,
replete with grand choruses, dramatic soloists, and small orches-
tra — and one of his last important works.
This one sets the story of the Israelites’ battle against the
Ammonites, and throws in some added characters and plot
devices. If you like the Handel oratorio everyone has heard —
Messiah — give this one a try.
By Brett Campbell
including the “Sonatine” for piano, later arranged for flute, harp
and viola. Later, even the more experimental French composer
Andre Jolivet couldn’t resist this combination’s lyrical pull, and
this concert presents his “Petite Suite.” Performed by top-notch
soloists, this should be one of the loveliest concerts of the sum-
mer, and a prime recommendation for this festival.
Tuesday, July 1, 8 pm
Beethoven Piano Concertos Nos. 2, 3 and 4 (Silva)
Thursday, July 3, 8 pm
Beethoven Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 5 (Silva)
Jeffrey Kahane, soloist and conductor
This has been the year of Beethoven in Eugene. Our sym-
phony has embarked on a complete cycle of his symphonies; the
Oregon Mozart Players did the triple concerto last month, and
now Jeffrey Kahane will play all five of his piano concertos, sec-
ond only to the symphonies among Beethoven’s orchestral
music. The somewhat tentative first (confusingly called Number
2) concerto owes a lot to his teacher, Haydn; the second evokes
Mozart but already shows signs of moving beyond the Classical
style, while the dramatic third uses Mozart’s late concertos as a
launching pad into new harmonic dimensions, signaling the
arrival of Romanticism.
The quietly but consistently surprising fourth concerto cul-
minates in a movement of exultant joy. His monumental final
piano concerto is one of the most popular ever written, sym-
phonic in its proportions and ambitions. It’s one of the pillars of
classical music, so maybe the July 3 concert is the one to choose
if you can see only one of these.
Saturday, June 28, 8 pm
Paul O’ Dette, lutenist (Beall Concert Hall, UO School of Music)
Wednesday, July 2, 8 pm
For a change from the large-scale grandeur of Handel, try
this quietly intense recital of Elizabethan music performed by
perhaps the greatest living lutenist, Paul O’Dette (accompanied
in some songs by counter tenor Matthew White), in the ideal
intimate setting of the UO’s Beall Concert Hall. Just as Bob
Dylan, accompanied solely by his acoustic guitar, can pack more
emotional punch than an army of heavy metal electric guitarists,
this music of William Byrd, Henry Purcell, and other English
and Italian composers can, in its own stark way, feel as power-
ful as massive Baroque passions or oratorios. If you like solo
acoustic guitar (jazz or folk), give this one a listen.
Tenor James Taylor, vocal recital (Beall)
Sunday, June 29, 4 pm
Bach Brandenburg Concertos (Silva)
The best of Bach, the Baroque, and maybe even classical
music, the Brandenburg Concertos are perhaps the most widely
accessible yet critically lauded staples of the repertoire, so tune-
ful and creative that — unlike certain other popular Baroque
tunes — they deserve a lifetime of repeated listenings. This is
the ideal concert for the classical music novice or someone look-
ing for just one Bach Festival concert of guaranteed delight.
That other James Taylor’s Cuthbert show may be sold out,
but this one looks a lot more interesting anyway. An award-win-
ning tenor, Taylor has won plenty of praise in his previous Bach
Festival performances, and he’s performing in several concerts
again this time. OFAM fans should love this survey of American
art songs from Charles Ives (the first great American composer)
and John Jacob Niles (who collected and set folk songs from his
native Appalachia as well as composing his own) through
Samuel Barber’s and John Duke’s settings of poems from James
Joyce, A.E. Houseman and others.
Contemporary composers are represented by Dominick
Argento, who sets Shakespeare and his contemporaries’ verse to
modern sounds, and Jake Heggie, who recently turned Dead
Man Walking into a popular opera, who gives a musical back-
drop to Emily Dickinson’s poems.
Schedule-at-a-Glance
Friday, June 27
6 p m Opening Ceremonies: Pacific International Children’s Choir
Festival (Hult Center Plaza)
7 p m Inside Line: John Steinmetz (Soreng)
8 p m Festival chorus and orchestra: Handel Jephtha* (Silva)
Saturday, June 28
1 0 p m Pinocchio, Eugene Youth Ballet (Silva)
1 2 pm On the House: St. Louis Children’s Choir (Hult)
8 pm Intimate Evenings: Paul O’Dette, lutenist (Beall)
Sunday, June 29
3 pm Inside Line: Marc Vanscheeuwijck (Soreng)
4 p m Festival chamber orchestra:
Bach Brandenburg Concertos (Silva)
Monday, June 30
1 2 p m Organ Interludes: ElRay Stewart Cook (Central Lutheran
Church)
5 p m Discovery Series I: Bach Cantata BWV 150* (Beall)
8 p m Intimate Evenings: Lorna McGhee and Friends,
French works for flute, harp, and viola (Beall)
Tuesday, July 1
12 p m Let’s Talk: Helmuth Rilling (Studio One)
5 p m Discovery Series II: Bach Cantata BWV 131* (Beall)
8 pm Festival orchestra: Beethoven Piano Concertos Nos. 2, 3, & 4
with Jeffrey Kahane, pianist and conductor (Silva)
Wednesday, July 2
1 2 p m Organ Interludes: John Jantzi (First Christian Church)
5 p m Discovery Series III: Bach Cantata BWV 14* (Beall)
8 p m Intimate Evenings: James Taylor vocal recital,
American art songs, Donald Sulzen, accompanist (Beall)
Thursday, July 3
1 2 p m Let’s Talk: Tom Somerville and conducting
master class (Studio One)
5 p m Discovery Series IV: “From Africa to Gospel” with
André Thomas (Beall)
8 p m Festival orchestra: Beethoven Piano Concertos
Nos. 1 & 5 with Jeffrey Kahane, pianist and conductor (Silva)
Friday, July 4
Independence Day/No concerts
Saturday, July 5
1 2 p m On the House: Oregon Renaissance Band (Hult Lobby)
8 p m Intimate Evenings: Ya-Fei Chuang and Robert Levin
duo piano recital (Beall)
Sunday, July 6
3 pm Inside Line: Robert Hurwitz (Soreng)
4 p m Festival chorus and orchestra: Brahms A German Requiem,
Berg Violin Concerto with soloist Alyssa Park* (Silva)
Monday, July 7
1 2 p m Let’s Talk: Anton Armstrong and André Thomas (Studio One)
5 p m Discovery Series V: Bach Cantatas BWV 2 & BWV 135* (Beall)
8 pm Intimate Evenings: Festival Baroque Ensemble (Beall)
Tuesday, July 8
12 p m Organ Interludes: Barbara Baird and Julia Brown (Beall)
5 p m Discovery Series VI: Bach Cantata BWV 112* (Beall)
8 p m Youth Choral Academy in concert; Anton Armstrong,
conductor, with André Thomas and Helmuth Rilling (Silva)
Wednesday, July 9
Monday, June 30, 8 pm
1 2 p m On the House: Guy Few (Hult Lobby)
5 p m Discovery Series VII: Bach Double Choir Motets* (Beall)
8 p m Intimate Evenings: “The Tao of the Well Tempered Bach”
with Chungliang Al Huang and Robert Levin (Soreng)
Lorna McGhee and Friends (Beall)
The French may be cheese-eating surrender monkeys — or
they may be skeptical about one country unilaterally attacking
another, killing civilians and ultimately making terrorism more
likely. Uh, where was I? Oh, oui, the French. Whatever you
think about their politics, French composers wrote
some of the most beautiful music of the early 20th
century, especially Claude Debussy’s ravish-
ing 1915 “Sonata for Flute, Viola and
Harp,” some of the finest chamber
music ever composed. Its charac-
teristically French elegance
harkens back to at least the music
of the 17th century, when Marin
Marais composed three pieces for
the same forces, also performed at
this concert.
Maurice Ravel looked back to French
composers of that period when he com-
posed a number of his finest works,
B
F
Thursday, July 10
12 p m Let’s Talk: James Taylor and vocal soloists (Studio One)
5 p m Discovery Series VIII: “Beethoven as Inheritor of Mozart”
lecture-demonstration with Robert Levin (Beall)
8 pm Intimate Evenings: Festival Chorus a cappella, Peter Hopkins
and Kathy Romey, conductors (Beall)
Friday, July 11
1 2 p m On the House: Word Pictures with Mark Lewis (Hult Lobby)
5 p m Discovery Series IX: “Mozart’s Unfinished C Minor Mass: History
and Promise” lecture-demonstration with Robert Levin (Beall)
8 p m Bach and Ballet, Eugene Ballet Company, Festival chamber
orchestra (Silva)
Saturday, July 12
1 0 a m “Banging Bamboozles,” Lelavision (Silva)
1 2 pm On the House: Voices of Korea (Hult Lobby)
8 pm Intimate Evenings: William Porter organ recital,
works by Bach (Central Lutheran)
Sunday, July 13
Paul O’ Dette, Beall Concert Hall,
UO School of Music, Saturday June 28.
3 pm Inside Line: Peter Hopkins (Soreng Theatre)
4 p m Festival chorus and orchestra: Bach Magnificat, Mozart
Mass in C Minor* (Silva)
*Helmuth Rilling, conductor
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