music
BY BRETT CAMPBELL
Musica Maestrale
Indie Baroque
Ensembles assemble in Eugene
I
t used to be rare to hear Oregon
musicians play Baroque music the
way composers intended rather than
in the anachronistic styles that dominated
performances till the end of the 20th century.
Now, it’s happily becoming commonplace
— but no less a delight. Institutions like
the UO and Portland Baroque Orchestra
theater
harbor scholar-musicians well-versed in
the styles, tunings and instruments (or
replicas) that make the music lean and
fl eet, and more transparently expressive
than it’s been in centuries.
But these days, it’s not only the big
institutions that feature period-instrument
specialists
revealing
the
beauties
obscured by centuries of uninformed
misinterpretation. This month offers a pair
of delicious opportunities to savor these
formerly seldom-heard sounds, performed
by what might be called indie Baroque
ensembles. On Sunday, Jan. 8, at First
United Methodist Church, several Baroque
specialists convene under the name
Musica Maestrale to play and sing some
ravishing music by Monteverdi, Castello,
Barbara Strozzi and other composers from
17th century Italy.
Sunday, Jan. 15, fi nds the Oregon
Bach Collegium (including soprano
Catherine Olson, who’ll also sing with
Musica Maestrale) at United Lutheran
Church, where it will perform 17th
century broadside ballads and dance
tunes for violin, lute, fi ddle, harpsichord
and voices. Both concerts should strip
away any outdated sense of stuffi ness to
reveal — and revel in — vivid musical
responses to human passions that persist
in the loveliness of Baroque music and the
instruments that originally played it.
First Methodist is also the site of a
Jan. 14 free concert (kids encouraged)
by members of the Eugene chapter of the
American Guild of Organists that
shows how those remarkable mechanisms
called pipe organs work. Not only will the
mighty Hochhalter — which we’re lucky
to have in our city — be used; also on hand
will be a little portative organ similar to the
instrument whose agreeably reedy sound
graced so many delightful works by Bach,
Handel and other composers.
I confess that I used to detest organ
music, probably because of forbidding
associations with tedious church music.
But as innovative 20th century composers
like Olivier Messiaen and Lou Harrison and
colorful young performers like Cameron
Carpenter are demonstrating these days,
the instrument is becoming hip again.
Another keyboard is key in the Oregon
Mozart Players’ concert Saturday, Jan.
7, at the Hult Center, when UO faculty
member Dean Kramer takes the solo role
in Mozart’s sparkling Piano Concerto No.
23. Mozart wrote those pieces to perform
himself, and his mature concerti are some
of the fi nest of all his music. The chamber
orchestra will be conducted by another
pianist, Kelly Kuo, an Oregon native
currently auditioning for the OMP’s music
director position. Kuo will also lead the
band in Beethoven’s not-so-often heard
Symphony No. 2 and Aaron Copland’s
frequently performed but always welcome
music from his great 1944 ballet,
Appalachian Spring.
Additionally, Kuo will lead a free master
class 1 pm Friday, Jan. 6, in the UO music
building’s Schnitzer Hall, and it’s open to
the public. Also on campus Tuesday, Jan.
10, at Beall Hall, the superior fl ute virtuosa
and modern music maven Molly Barth
joins fellow faculty member David Riley
in a recommended recital of attractive
music for fl ute and piano by J.S. Bach
and Paul Hindemith, as well as solo fl ute
works by 20th century composers Robert
Muczynski and Andre Jolivet.
ew
BY ANNA GRACE
“T
Radicalism in a
Fancy Hat
My Fair Lady ready to occupy,
and entertain, Eugene
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
he lack of money is the root
of all evil,” George Bernard
Shaw astutely clarifi es. A
well-known radical in his time, Pygmalion
(the stage play from which My Fair Lady is
taken) was Shaw’s biting commentary on
class distinction, masked as a love story.
In the play, phoneticist Henry Higgins
boasts in his misogynistic way that he can
transform a down-and-out Cockney fl ower
seller into a proper lady in three months.
The culture clash is on, and it looks like it
might be scrappy Eliza Doolittle who will
turn the professor’s world upside-down.
Romance ensues.
Pygmalion was musicalized in 1956
into My Fair Lady by Alan Jay Lerner and
Frederick Loewe, and went on to win six
Tony Awards and spur an iconic fi lm.
I spoke with Dan Sher, executive
producer behind this new MFL tour, to
fi nd out why a 1912 play turned musical in
the 1950s is still edgy next to the likes of
Avenue Q and Spring Awakening.
“America right now is at the most
polarized I’ve ever seen,” Sher says,
referring to the ever-widening gap between
the rich and poor. In My Fair Lady there is
“an underdog element,” he says. “You’re
really rooting for Eliza Doolittle. The
power struggle (between Eliza and Henry)
is transcendent of time and culture.”
Sher says he is particularly excited
about the casting. He notes that watching
the 1964 fi lm version, one is always aware
that Audrey Hepburn is Audrey Hepburn,
even when she’s smudged up with a few
‘America right
now is at the most
polarized I’ve ever
seen’ — Dan Sher
ashes before Eliza Doolittle’s glamorous
transformation.
According to Sher, Eliza will be played by
Aurora Florence, a young actress in her fi rst
big role outside of Utah. “There is something
really magical about the chemistry in these
leads,” he says, noting that casting a younger
Henry Higgins (Chris Carsten) lessens the
“creep factor” of their romance.
As Eugene police have cleared out
our own Hooverville … er … Occupy
encampment, My Fair Lady — a gussied
up form of protest — sweeps into town
in its wake. Shaw, Lerner and Loewe
may have employed witty repartee and
swooning love songs in place of cardboard
signs and a bandana facemask, but the root
message is the same: The old system needs
to be turned on it’s head.
Perhaps we need to make like
Eliza Doolittle and take on the system
individually, one by one. Because, as Shaw
notes, “If all economists were laid end to
end, they would not reach a conclusion.” ew
My Fair Lady Plays at Eugene’s Hult Center Jan. 7-8;
www.hultcenter.org or call 682-5000.
EUGENE WEEKLY JANUARY 5, 2012 21