BY BRETT CAMPBELL
Krzysztof Penderecki conducts OBF
orchestra July 7, Silva Hall.
Best of the Bach
Penderecki, McGhee highlight the week.
T
he Oregon Bach Festival soldiers
on with some of its strongest con-
certs this weekend. On Thursday,
July 7, one of the 20th century’s most impor-
tant composers, Krzysztof Penderecki ,
will lead the festival orchestra in a perform-
ance of his own Flute Concerto as well as
Beethoven’s perfect-for-summer Pastoral
Symphony at Silva Hall.
The flute concerto might be a little tame
for fans of Penderecki’s earlier, thornier
works, but it’s still spicy enough to delight
aficionados of more accessible 20th-centu-
ry music, while not frightening away the
Beethoven fans. It’s a real challenge for the
soloist, the Scots-born Vancouver flutist
Lorna McGhee , but judging by her fluent
performance of music by J.S. Bach and
Toru Takemitsu last week, she should
sparkle in this showcase.
McGhee is also featured in another rec-
ommended concert the following night,
Friday, July 9, when she joins harpist Heidi
Krutzen and violist David Harding in an
unusual and attractive program of chamber
music from Britain at Beall Hall. Just
because we had to leave their empire rather
forcibly doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy
the music of Henry Purcell (for Baroque
fans), Benjamin Britten, the contemporary
masters Peter Maxwell Davies and Gavin
Bryars, and more. The festival wraps up on
Sunday with one of the pillars of 19th-cen-
tury sacred music, Mendelssohn’s oratorio,
Elijah.
For me, the highlight of the festival so
far has been the Composers Symposium
concerts, with one of America’s greatest
composers, George Crumb, present to hear
his music performed by one of the West
Coast’s finest ensembles, Portland’s Third
Angle. The nuanced performance of the
classic Black Angels was even more sensi-
tive than the Kronos Quartet’s recording. (It
was quite a coincidence to hear it just days
after John Fogerty performed his own
Vietnam War inspired masterpiece,
“Fortunate Son,” at the Cuthbert.) Crumb’s
ethereal Nocturnes also received an evoca-
tive performance, and I was also impressed
by UO faculty member David Crumb’s
“Awakenings” (whose expressive range
was far greater than its trumpet and percus-
sion instrumentation might suggest) and
“September Elegy,” which transcends
mourning and dolefulness to capture some
of the complex feelings of loss and shock
that accompanied the Sept. 11 attacks.
26 JULY 8, 2004
When the New York Times music critic
John Rockwell appeared at the festival last
week, he noted that its interpretations of
Baroque music are on the cutting edge — of
the 1950s and 1960s. The absence of period
instruments and more historically informed
performance styles remains one of the festi-
val’s biggest omissions, but we have a
chance to hear something closer to what
Baroque listeners experienced on Sunday,
July 11 at Perugino’s, the delightful little
café across from the Hult Center, from noon
to 3 pm (just before Elijah), when you can
hear Rachel Streeter and other musicians
on harpsichord, baroque flute, lute, baroque
bassoon and more in music by Telemann,
J.S. Bach, Couperin, C.P.E. Bach,
Boismortier and other great Baroque com-
posers. And afterwards, you can hear more
early music when the Emerald Renaissance
Band performs in a free concert at
Washburne Park at 6:30 pm.
Don’t let the Bach Festival, Country
Fair, or the weather keep you out of the
clubs this month. On Thursday, July 8,
Luna features bassist Michael Manring
and guitarist Tony Kaltenberg in what’s
being billed as a New Age show. I’m sure
those fans will enjoy it, but there’s a lot
more to these two fine musicians than the
airy fluff that term suggests. Inspired by
Jaco Pastorius and a participant in many
Windham Hill sessions (including the band
Montreux), Manring is one of the few
bassists with the chops and musical imagi-
nation to carry a show by himself.
Kaltenberg’s glittering guitar work
descends from that of John Fahey, Michael
Hedges and Leo Kottke. They should be a
formidable duo.
Portland’s Pink Martini has played here
often enough that long time fans might want
to know why they should see the band again
on Friday, July 16. (Newbies shouldn’t hesi-
tate to give them a try.) Three reasons: First,
the show is at Alton Baker Park’s idyllic
Cuthbert Amphitheatre. Second, the band
will be augmented by the Latin Expression
Salsa Orchestra and the Brazilian percus-
sion ensemble Lions of Batucada . Third,
Pink Martini always puts on a fun show, and
it’ll be great to have room to groove to the
band’s samba, rhumba, and other Latin
rhythms. You can hear a different take on
Afro-Cuban rhythms on Wednesday, July
14, when the Boulder-based Motet brings its
funk/jazz/Afro-beat (inspired by Fela Kuti)
to the WOW Hall.
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