music
BY BRET CAMPBELL
Classical Morsels
Must-see classical concerts flood February
T
concert Feb. 27 at Springfield’s Wildish Theater, featuring
Mozart’s delightful Clarinet Trio, Dohnanyi’s popular
Serenade for String Trio and more, including arrangements
of Beatles tunes.
The UO offers some splendiferous music from earlier
eras, beginning with a free performance of Baroque chamber
music Feb. 22 at the Schnitzer and performed by UO faculty
members, led by the expert cellist Marc Vanscheeuwijck.
On Friday, Feb. 24, Beall hosts three of the most renowned
masters of early music, who appear on hundreds of
recordings: cellist Jaap ter Linden, flutist Wilber
Hazelzet and harpsichordist Jacques Ogg. These
scintillating musicians will play music by J.S. Bach and
three of his composer sons, plus his friend Georg Philipp
Telemann, also one of the champion composers of the era.
In another gotta-go concert, the UO’s prismatic World
Music Series brings award-winning Japanese singer,
folk music specialist and shamisen (lute) master Chouei
Sato to Beall on Feb. 18. And there’s more world music
available Friday, Feb. 24, when Kutsinihira Cultural Arts
Center stages a benefit yoga class for impoverished
students in Zimbabwe, featuring mbira music from that
country played on the so-called “Thumb piano” by
Mudzidzi, at Just Breathe yoga studio.
Finally, you can head up to Portland to catch the city’s
annual jazz festival — and/or stay home for a barnburner
by former Portlander Tim Berne, who went on to great
success in New York’s downtown music scene, with his
fabulous Snakeoil quartet at The Shedd on Feb. 29. The
Brooklyn-based composer/alto saxophonist’s marvelous
new album, Snakeoil, shows that he’s still making hay in
improvised music.
ew
here’s plenty of classical music played around
town this month. The Eugene Symphony on
Feb. 16 at the Hult performs a couple of popular
chestnuts: Haydn’s dazzling Trumpet Concerto, which the
classical master wrote to show off the soaring capabilities
of the then-new instrument, and which will be played here
by Baltimore Symphony soloist Andrew Balio; and
Tchaikovsky’s moving sixth and final symphony, which
still surprises listeners by reversing the expectations of the
two final movements. The concert opens with a new
overture by today’s most exciting composer, Osvaldo
Golijov, the Argentine-American whom the Oregon Bach
Festival helped make famous.
The symphony also joins the Eugene Concert Choir
and Oregon Festival Choirs on Feb. 25 at the Hult to
perform one of the most profound works of the 20th
century, Benjamin Britten’s searing 1962 War Requiem, to
poetry by World War I victim Wilfred Owen, in hopes for
an end to wars. This is easily one of the year’s most
compelling classical music events.
Smaller in scale — yet no less ambitious — classical
music crowds this month’s calendar, starting with the
commencement of a two-year, six-concert survey of all 17
of Beethoven’s amazing string quartets performed by UO
faculty members who comprise the Oregon String
Quartet. Although he’s best known for his larger works,
Beethoven really innovated in his quartets, particularly the
last batch, which still sounds modern. The first concert is
Tuesday, Feb. 21, at the UO’s Beall Hall.
Another excellent ensemble composed of current and
former UO musicians, Chamber Music Amici, introduces
its new violinist/violist, Holland Phillips, in an attractive
V I P E R TO O N S P R O D U C T I O N S A N D E U G E N E W E E K LY P R E S E N T
F OLK M USIC OF N ORTHERN J APAN
CHOUEI SATO, Shamisen
with Chieko Shirogane and Simon Hutchinson
Chouei Sato, a vocalist and master of
the shamisen, performs the folk music
or “min’yo” of Northern Japan.
Saturday, Feb. 18 • 8:00 p.m.
Beall Concert Hall
A Benefi t for
Food for Lane County
1st Annual Eugene
Winter Blues Festival
S a t ., Feb
.
18 7 Coz mi c
th ,
pm at
199 W
8
th Ave, Eugene
$12 General , $8 Students & Seniors
541-346-4363 | tickets.uoregon.edu
Trotter
T
r o t t e r Visitin
V i s i t i n g P
Professor
r o f e s s o r
Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon
n
Feb. 23 • 1 p.m., Music 178
Bill Rhoades &
“The Thousand and One Paths:
on Becoming a Composer”
(wit h Henry Cooper)
Feb. 24 • 3:15 p.m., Collier House
“Word Ec(h)ology: text, music, meaning?””
Feb. 25 • 4 p.m., Beall Concert Hal
ll
Hall
Capstone Concert
“Tony Arnold Performs the Music of
Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon”
T he Party Kings
T he Vipers
Walker T. Ryan
$20 Advance | $24 Door
Advance tickets on sale at CD World, House of
Records, Museum of Unfi ne Art and Record Store &
online at www.cozmicpizza.com
Sponsored by
www.vipertoons.com
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EUGENE WEEKLY
FEBRUARY 16, 2012 21