One of my more recent revelations/resolutions -
there have been a few - concerns my decision to no longer write about or review arts events which I find unworthy of the space and ink.
But a recent e-mail exchange with the
Oregon Symphony's PR director, Carl Herko, merits some discussion here, because it depressed me in a manner severe.
Herko wrote me to complain about a short
Just Out blurb I penned in which I decried the Oregon Symphony's season-opening classical concert as a dud: pairing the Beethoven
Symphony No. 9 with Ralph Vaughan Williams' slight
Serenade to Music. Yaaaaaawn, season-opener!
In response, here is part of what Msr. Herko wrote to me:
Why is it that every time one of the warhorses is performed, critics in this town feel compelled to make the argument that the warhorses are performed too frequently?
And by "critics in this town" he means one of the three people in greater Portland who write in print about classical music with any regularity: David Stabler (
Oregonian), Brett Campbell (
WW) and myself.
OK anywhose, Herko continues:
If you look at the orchestra’s entire performance history of Beethoven 9, you’ll find that, on average, it’s performed about once every five years. Many times throughout its history, this orchestra has gone a decade or more between performances. Is that too much for Beethoven 9? Debatable, I guess, but consider this: Portland’s population is growing at a rate of about 40,000 a year. That means today there are 200,000 people in Portland who weren’t even living here the last time the Oregon Symphony did Beethoven 9. If we could capture 1 percent of them, we could fill an entire concert hall with people who’ve never had the chance to hear this orchestra do Beethoven 9 before in their lives – and that’s just 1 percent of the newcomers. That doesn’t even take into account all the other people who’ve lived here their whole lives and still never heard the Oregon Symphony do Beethoven 9. How many of those are there? Another 1.8 million?
I love love love the way Herko wets himself over some serious number crunching there and, by doing so, seems to miss the point entirely: not that I'm opposed to the Symphony performing Beethoven 9 outright (bring it!), but that the entire programming context needs to be, well... stronger, more thoughtful, better curated,
awesomer.
Which leads me to this...Hotshot composer Nico Muhly recently helped to
invent a little game that has people talking, including Oregon Symphony violist/blogger
Charles Noble.
It goes something like this: take out your local hometeam symphony orchestra glossy season schedule. Look at Program 1. Ask yourself: could this musical program possibly be any worse? Sub in new and old works and try to make it so. Then ask yourself: could this musical program possibly be any better? Repeat same trick. Hours of giddy pleasure ensue.
SO... since Noble
has asked us to take a serious look at upcoming Oregon Symphony programs, let's do that, shall we?
* * * * *
As
Joe Biden would say, let's be clear about this, folks.
The Oregon Symphony is playing fifteen Classical Series concerts this season.
Five of the programs are terrible. I will hasten to add that an additional two of them are mediocre.
Of the fifteen, I find but three of them to be really inspired and hey, three out of fifteen is a good place to start, Oregon Symphony. The rest I could take or leave (but won't attend). So on the whole, I find more than half of the Symphony's Classical Series concerts to be utterly and thoroughly uncompelling. I'm sorry, more than uncompelling: dead on arrival. (Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart and Tchaik make a number of appearances)
In the category of "terrible programming," I place:
DePreist/Ohlsson/Beethoven (April 18-20, 2009)James DePreist, conductor; Garrick Ohlsson, piano
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4
Sibelius: Symphony No. 1
My guess is that DePreist - music director emeritus - gets what he wants on a program, no questions. If that's not the case, then someone please answer for me what on earth is going on here! Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 - super! And Ohlsson, though a tad on the old-school for my taste, is a fine player. And Sibelius' first symphony - not a bad place to start with Sibelius! But why are these the only two works on the OSO program's plate? Beethoven's fourth piano concerto was path-breaking in its own way, though neglected during its time - you could make the case Sibelius' first was, too, but... I find the pairing unremarkable, and lacking punch.
UPDATE: Herko wrote to tell me that DePreist recently added a 3rd work to this program - living composer Christopher Theofanidis' Rainbow Body, a much-performed work from 2000 that takes a chant of Hildegard von Bingen for its main theme. OK, so this program just got, like, 5 times more interesting...
Brahms Violin Concerto (Nov 22-24, 2008)Jean-Marie Zeitouni, conductor; Jennifer Koh, violin
Beethoven: Overture to Egmont
Brahms: Violin Concerto
Stravinsky: Symphony in C
The Beethoven Egmont (Goethe-inspired muscle-worship!) versus the Stravinsky Symphony in C (neoclassical sublimeness) =
not bad not bad. But Brahms' Violin Concerto I could live without
period, so let's start by ditching that. Instead, Ms. Koh, why not offer one of the signature 20th or 21st century works you've championed: from Gyorgy Ligeti, Charles Wuorinen or Jennifer Higdon? The Ligeti Violin Concerto would make me especially hot.
All-Tchaikovsky Program (December 6-8, 2008)Carlos Kalmar, conductor; Stephen Hough, piano
Tchaikovsky: Coronation March
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 2
Tchaikovsky: Nutcracker (Act II)
This program is like drinking a quart of corn syrup. Does anyone deserve such torments? A little queer Tchaik goes a long way, people. And if there's ever a hyperromantic composer whose music evaporates at right around the 60-minute mark, it's Tchaikovsky. Sure, the three works are quaintly unique, but really, Carlos - all-Tchaik? I get the distinct feeling that this whole show was a place-holding program for a program that never got programmed.
Lintus/Gutierrez/Rachmaninoff (April 4-6, 2009)Hannu Lintu, conductor; Horacio Gutierrez, piano
Mozart: Symphony No. 36 (Linz)
Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Lindberg: Feria
Ravel: Bolero
OK, so I would advocate for this program if it didn't seem so...
anything-goes batshit bizarre. The "Linz" Mozart symphony is a beaut, all refined elegance. I love the idea of the living Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg's frantic and lustrous
Feria bumping up against the Mozart.
Love it. But WTF with the Rach and Ravel, people?? Too much of a weird thing. Kill the Rach, which seems indulgent at best, and sub either a short 20th-century classic to feature the piano soloist or - better yet - a better-known Finnish composer (hello, Sibelius? or even Kaija Saariaho??) for the blustery
Bolero.
So how about Mozart "Linz" Symphony, Lindberg
Feria, Saariaho's haunting
Du Cristal, and, for the pianist, something wild and explosive that doesn't come to mind immediately.
Bell Plays Mendelssohn (May 16-18, 2009)Carlos Kalmar, conductor; Joshua Hot-Pants Bell, violin
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto
Bruckner: Symphony no. 7
OK, so when floppy haired hotty Josh Bell plays, college age girls,
I mean, audiences buy tickets. Fair enough. But if you're gonna give Bell an evergreen like the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto (no complaints from me), then why not ask him to throw in one of the "lighter" American works he's also applauded for, like some Bernstein or John Corigliano? I do not at all get any connectivity here between the Mendy and the Bruckner. It looks like Kalmar said "hey, you know, let Josh play whatever he wants and then, Charles and Elaine, choose whatever else you want for the first half that sounds cool, ya dig? OK, gotta run and catch a plane somewhere,
love ya, buh-bye."
Moving right along... In the category of "inspired programming," I gladly place three concerts:Grieg Piano Concerto (October 18-20, 2008)Carlos Kalmar, conductor; Valentina Lisitsa, piano
Smetana: The Moldau
Grieg: Piano Concerto
Golijov: Last Round
Revueltas: Homage to Federico Garcia Lorca
Ginastera: Estancia Suite
Three words:
Sign. Me. Up. I love the triumvirate of short Spanish-flecked works (from Ginastera to Golijov). I don't know what the Grieg has to do with any of it, but I sort of don't care - it's pure joy of a piece. Same with the Smetana, which totally makes me bounce in my chair.
The Classical Guitar (February 7-9, 2009)James Gaffigan, conductor; Eduardo Fernandez, guitar
Haydn: Symphony No. 83 (The Hen)
Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez
Busoni: Elegiac Lullaby
Stravinsky: Firebird Suite
Why do I see this program and smile? Well, noting Jimmy Gaffigan at the podium is part of it. I love that it is pure eclecticism, with Rodrigo's rarely heard
Concierto as the centerpiece, and Busoni's tear-streaked "Berceuse" a neat compliment to Rodrigo's own wrenching middle movement of the guitar concerto. The Haydn and Stravinsky are all flash and color. The package is a nice one.
Svoboda Premiere (March 14-16, 2009)Carlos Kalmar, conductor; Freddy Kempf, piano
Svoboda: Vortex for Orchestra (world premiere)
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3
Brahms: Symphony No. 3
Aside from the ugly fact that the Symphony has programmed but one American or world premiere in their season - and that one premiere, by Portlander Tomas Svoboda, is also the sole work by a Northwest composer up all year - for many reasons I dig this mix, and not only for the book-ending third symphony congruence.
I'll end, because I should, with
this thought from blogger and esteemed classical music publicist person Amanda Ameer, where she kinda wraps it up all perfect-like:
Administrators, think about your programming. Publicists, think about your pitches. Journalists, reward both efforts with equally interesting press coverage.
... If the Times stopped covering the Philharmonic's boring concerts, would the Philharmonic be forced to program differently? If the Philharmonic's publicity department told the artistic administrators, sorry, we can't pitch this, would the Philharmonic be forced to program differently?Chicken...egg...chicken...egg...
