EW’S GUIDE TO THE OREGON BACH FESTIVAL 2011
ALBAN GERHARDT,
JUNE 29 AND JULY 1
Get Mellow with the Cello
Or, actually, don’t — amp it up!
Have you suffered through The Witches of Eastwick simply to see
Susan Sarandon in raptures over that tall, rich, stringed instrument?
Maybe you own Hilary and Jackie not for the agony and the ecstasy
but for the music. And if you took a survey of all of your mp3s or CDs
— or even your vinyl — the Vivaldi, Bach, Haydn, Dvorak and other cello
concerto recordings would reach the stratosphere.
Well, this year’s Oregon Bach Festival has more than enough to satisfy
your cravings. Things kick off June 23 with Yo-Yo Ma playing Osvaldo
Golijov’s Azul, a piece written for this grand master of the cello. Ma
premiered the work on the West Coast in 2009 with the Los Angeles
Chamber Orchestra under the direction of OBF fave Jeffrey Kahane, and
Kahane also opens the Bach Fest with Ma this year.
Tickets have been sold out for a couple of weeks, but do not despair.
Check Craigslist or eBay, and, of course, the Hult will release returned
tickets before the concert (and sell them for the face value).
Also do not despair, for cello music keeps on going in the 2011 OBF.
Big faves in Portland and around the internet for things like a well-
watched cover of Kanye West’s “All of the Lights”, the Portland Cello
Project plays free at 1 pm June 27 in the Hult lobby and around 9 pm,
aka “dusk,” in the big party July 4 at Alton Baker Park just before the
“Freedom Festival” fi reworks display. The concert is “free,” though you
need to buy admission to Art & the Vineyard for any kind of decent seats
and acoustics. The Bach Festival concert and the fi reworks usually snag
about 15,000 to 20,000 attendees, so get your art (or vineyard) on early.
If you prefer soloists, and you prefer more J.S. Bach in your Bach
Festival, don’t miss German cellist Alban Gerhardt, performing two
concerts of Bach and Britten cello suites, 7:30 pm June 29 and July 1
at Beall Hall on the UO campus. Beall’s shockingly good acoustics and
intimate feel should make these concerts some of the best of a packed
schedule. Meanwhile, you can also appreciate the cellists in the Brahms
and Beethoven concerts and in the Discovery Series, where you’ll see
them in slightly more casual attire. — Suzi Steffen
Celebrate 34
years with us!
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Young and Wild for Music
Maybe it’s not typical to take your 6-year-old to the Oregon Bach Festival’s big choral concerts — and that’s probably
just as well for the 6-year-old, unless she’s already in love with the massive works that anchor both ends of the schedule
and the founder’s concert in between.
But without 6-year-old and 16-year-old and 26-year-old listeners now, who will make up the Bach Festival’s audience
in 20 or 30 or 40 years? Parents looking for events for their children (and grandparents searching for something to share)
would do well to consider some of the OBF’s special programming for kids, while not ignoring that some of the shorter or
smaller concerts could indeed interest children, depending on the children’s attention spans and interest levels.
The Bach Festival programs several child-specifi c events each year, such as the Savion Glover performances a couple
of years ago. This year, one of the fest’s themes is “The Americas,” and the fi rst OBF kids’ event fi ts that theme perfectly.
Miguel Harth-Bedoya, former music director for the Eugene Symphony and current music director at the Fort Worth
Symphony Orchestra, conducts the Caminos del Inka ensemble in “Travel the Inka Road” at 11 am Saturday, June 25, at the
Hult. The group will demonstrate various instruments, play with images and deliver high-quality music for the under-adult
set (while not boring the adults). This concert may sell out soon, but, as usual, stand in line for a while before the show, and
you might be rewarded with a returned ticket or three.
At 1 pm, also on the 25th, the PICCFEST Choirs (lots of children’s choirs from all over the country) perform for free in the
Hult Lobby. It’s both intimidating and impressive to see the young ones fi ll the space. And at 7:30 pm Sunday, June 26, you
can hear the PICCFEST choirs and more at the First Baptist Church of Eugene, a gorgeous venue for music.
Another kid-specifi c concert runs at 11 am Saturday, July 2, also in the Soreng, when Jamie Bernstein (yes, that’s Leonard’s
daughter) brings the OBF orchestra to the stage to show off the
music of the young Mozart. The Bach Festival literature
says that a young Amadeus himself may pay a
visit to the concert hall, so if your kid likes
to sing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,”
this may be the concert for you.
Finally, the Stangeland Family
Youth Choral Academy: Eighty-
fi ve teenage singers under the
baton of Anton Armstrong,
take the stage in Eugene at 3
pm Sunday, July 3, to perform
a variety of works including
“Danny Boy” and “Loch
Lomond.” — Suzi Steffen
CAMINOS DEL INKA
JUNE 25
www.eugeneweekly.com
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