Anonymous "4" explore the roots of Anglo-American folk song

On Wednesday, December 3rd, The Anonymous 4 (minus Susan Hellauer, absent to attend to family matters) delivered a scintillating exploration of American music of Scottish, Irish and English origins at the Kaul Auditorium at Reed College. This Grammy winning, world-beloved vocal ensemble captivated a wildly enthusiastic audience despite missing one of their members. They were assisted by accomplished string players Darol Anger, a Portlander on fiddle and mandolin, and Scott Nygaard on guitar.

Read more here at NW Reverb.

PBO Assembles World Class Talent for 'Pergolesi, Naples and Julius Caesar'

I went to a fantastic display of baroque muscianship last night at the Portland Baroque Orchestra concert. Nicholas McGegan, Yulia Van Doren, and Matthew White are amazing musicians, and if you love early music, beg borrow or steal the money to go to one of the two remaining performances this weekend. I got Nick McGegan's autograph on one of his CDs, adding to my collection of autgraphed CDs by other renowned directors such as Monica Huggett, Richard Egarr, and Rinaldo Alessandrini. Bring on Chris Hogwood! I know, you can say it...I'm a total nerd. What fun it is...

A Quick Note on La Stella

Sunday at 3 pm at the First Presbyterian Church in Portland, the La Stella early music ensemble gave their first of hopefully many performances to come. I did not take notes at the concert, so this is just a quick heads-up about a promising new group.

La Stella consists of five performers:

Mary Rowell--violin
Zoe Tokar, alto recorder and voice flute
Owen Daly, harpsichord (playing an instrument of his own crafting)
Hideki Yamaya, theorbo and baroque guitar
Max Fuller, viola da gamba and baroque cello

They are all experienced Baroque musicians, and the depth of their expertise showed. The program consisted of very difficult works that required sincere scholasticism and excellent technique. While not quite flawless, as a serious early music fan this concert was one of the most satisfying meals I have had in some time.

In addition to trio sonatas for various combinations by Bach and Telemann, they delved into the early and middle Baroque repertoire for works by composers who are not heard as often, such as Giovanni Pandolfi (1620-1669) and Carlo Farina (1600-1640). Fuller played Marin Marais' langorous homage to his mysterious master, the famous Tombeau pour M'sieur de Sainte-Colombe for viola da gamba, . Yamaya presented two toccatas and a corrente for solo chitarrone (theorbo) by Alessandro Piccinini (1566-1638), and in the final 'Paris Quartet' by Telemann all five musicians played, with Yamaya joining the continuo on baroque guitar.

I'm not sure that there are any other small chamber ensembles in Portland who regularly play this type of music at this level, so I strongly hope that La Stella continues in this vein and receives the support that musicians like this so richly deserve from the PDX early music community. They do not have a website yet, but La Stella does have a Facebook page for those interested in learning more about the group or the performers.

NOTE: This is cross-posted ad Northwest Reverb.

Review of PSU Symphony at NW Reverb; preview of things to come

I attended a performance of the PSU Symphony's presentation of a Beethoven Mass as well as some new works, including the U.S. premier of Fresco by Portland's own Bryan Johanson. The review is here at NW Reverb.

Later this week at Suite101 I'm going to review facts n figurines, the debut CD by one of my favorite local alternative darlings Grey Anne, as well as (here at MO) a CD of PDX underground hip-hop that I bought for five bucks from a rapper on the street after he threw down and hit me with his flow right there on the sidewalk downtown. Now that's salesmanship!

Press Release: BCC Concert on October 26th

Cantata Choir to present free concert
Sunday October 26 at 2 pm, featuring Cantatas 106 and 140,
Plus Heinrich Schuetz: Psalm 128
Silent Auction Follows the Concert


The Bach Cantata Choir of Portland will present a free concert on Sunday, October 26th at 2pm at Rose City Park Presbyterian Church, 1907 NE 45th Ave in Portland, Oregon. The concert, under the direction of conductor Ralph Nelson, will feature a performance of Bach’s Cantata #106 “Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit”, Cantata #140 “Wachet auf” and Heinrich Schuetz’s 8-part setting of Psalm 128. The concert is free and open to the public. A free-will offering will be taken. Doors open at 1:30pm. A silent auction to benefit the operations of the choir will occur directly following the concert in the parlor adjacent to the sanctuary.

Featured in the concert will be sopranos Nan Haemer and Solveig Nyberg-Akert, alto Irene Weldon, tenor Byron Wright and baritone Jacob Herbert. The works will be accompanied by a small chamber orchestra. John Vergin will provide the organ continuo. This concert features the Bach Cantata Choir – a choir of 50 professional or semi-professional voices, drawn from many of Portland’s finest choirs.

Bach’s sacred cantatas were written to be performed as part of the Lutheran Church liturgy. Cantata #106 “Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit” (“God’s Time is the Best of Times”) is one of the earliest cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach – written in 1707 when the composer was 21 and working as organist in the small German town of Mühlhausen. Bach subtitled the work, “Actus Tragicus”, and the cantata is a fascinating and extremely moving work – written to be used at funeral services. It is quite unique in that it is scored is for 2 recorders, 2 viola da gamba, continuo, soloists and chorus.

Cappella Romana Review up at NW Reverb

I attended a marvelous concert by Capella Romana, a Portland-based ancient music choir. The review is up here at NW Reverb.

PCSO Review up at NW Reverb; notes on KBPS pledge drive and PSC/BCC seasons

I just got done attending a concert by the Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra consisting of works by two of my favorite composers, Shostakovich and Beethoven. You can check it out here at NW Reverb.

I also got done spending 8 hours over the last two evenings manning the phones at KBPS 89.9 All Classical for their fall pledge drive; although I left with two hours left to go in the drive, it seemed like they were well on their way to making the goal for this year. It's always a blast to go down there, and P-town (as well as the Columbia River Gorge, the Oregon Coast and the entire world thanks to AllClassical.org) is lucky to have such a phenomenal station that is able to be so successful. I just wanted to thank all the volunteers, the local restaurants that donated food, the charismatic, committed staff and hosts, and especially the KBPS members in the community and the world at large for making it happen.

And I can't believe I haven't written this yet, but please check out the Bach Cantata Choir and the Portland Symphonic Choir websites (links for these and for KBPS are right off to the side there so just click on 'em!) for a full update on the 08-09 seasons. The PSC just got done singing Beethoven's 9th with the OSO and we're going to be working all day long tomorrow on Rachmaninov's Vespers for a concert next year. This is a titanic, amazing work, and quite simply one of the most beautiful pieces of music I think has ever been composed; such rich, haunting, uniquely Slavic music. On top of that, we're doing Mozart's Requiem and Kyrie in D-minor next year, in addition to our Wintersong Concert featuring a medley of Christmas tunes as conceived of by the brilliant Ralph Vaughan Williams.

In the BCC, our first concert (and our silent auction: please come and spend money with us! I'm the silent auction chair and I need to look good!) is coming up on October 26th at 2 pm; we're doing Cantatas 106 and 140, the famous Wachet Auf! (Sleepers Awake!) In addition, we're singing a gorgeous setting by Heinrich Schutz of Psalm 128 for double choir. Don't miss it! And let me know if you'd like to receive the BCC Newsletter; I write and edit that and it's been quite a hit with our audience. I usually write one historical article as well as a profile of one of our orchestra or chorus members; upcoming is our AD Ralph Nelson's article on his experiences studying with Helmuth Rilling at the Oregon Bach Festival this summer. I can put you on our mailing list to receive it on paper or send it to you electronically; I plan on archiving past editions online soon. I should have it ready to go next week.

It's late, I'm rambling, I'm going to head to bed cuz it's been a loooong week and the weekend looks just as busy. All in the service of music, the greatest of human endeavors. Buenas noches.

William Byrd Fest Concert Review at NW Reverb

I attended the book-end concerts of the William Byrd Fest and reviewed them at NW Reverb; you can read the review of the final concert here if you'd like.

Review of William Byrd Festival at NW Reverb

I attended a spectacular display of keyboard brilliance at the opening of the William Byrd Festival last night, and wrote a review of it here at NW Reverb.

Review of Bach's B-minor Mass at NW Reverb

I had the great pleasure of attending a performance of Helmuth Rilling's Mass in B-minor at the Schnitz last week, and wrote a review of it here at Northwest Reverb.

Updates...

I'm kind of late in posting this, but I heard yet another wonderful performance by In Mulieribus on Sunday, June 8th. You can read that review on Northwest Reverb. I purchased their inaugural cd, Notre Dame de Grace and plan to review that here at Musical Oozings soon. Keep your eye open at Northwest Reverb this winter for a multi-media project that Anna Song and I are planning, which will present photos and audio clips of In Mulieribus performing live.

Also, James Bash is currently at the annual convention of the Music Critics Association of North America in Denver and is publishing regular updates and reviews also at NWR. Interesting reading there.

Interview with Anna Song at Northwest Reverb

Last year, in the midst of the Christmas concert season when I was mind-numbingly busy preparing for the PSC's Wintersong concert as well as the BCC's Christmas Oratorio concert, I decided I really wanted to hear some choral music that wasn't coming out of my own mouth. I'd heard a lot of buzz about In Mulieribus, thanks in part to the strong reception of their first CD, Notre Dame de Grace (which I still haven't bought yet, but I plan to remedy that on Sunday) so I decided to go hear their concert. I'm a huge fan of ancient music, but I'd never heard this kind of music performed live with such flawless, haunting intensity in my entire life. It's incredible to hear music that's a thousand years old presented with such consummate skill and passion that it sounds as fresh and exciting as it must have when it was new. I attend dozens and dozens of concerts every year, and the In Mulieribus concert certainly ranks as one of the top one or two that I heard last year.

I think, being a performer as well as a reviewer, that I tend to gush too much at times when reviewing. Part of that stems from the fact that since I do perform, I can attend a concert that is horrible (fortunately those are very few and far between) and I still appreciate the hard work that goes into it. It's something I need to work on; separating my innate sympathy with the performers from a (hopefully) objective analysis of the performance. But another part of it is that music still infects me like Pixie dust, it's something that can tear me out from my oft incredibly jaded weltanschaauung and fill me with a joie de vivre (how's that for dropping two foreign phrases in one sentence?) in a way that almost nothing else can. At least, music unlocks that sense of wonder in me far more readily than anything else I can think of.

The point of all this rambling being, although I tend to love most of the music I go to hear, In Mulieribus presents amazing music at a skill level that is a true rarity. Anyone who loves or is remotely curious about ancient music should make an effort to hear them. Not to mention that a portion of the proceeds from each concert goes to charity.

I got to interview artistic director Anna Song, and she shed quite a bit of light on their upcoming concert at Northwest Reverb. 'Nuf said; read what Anna has to say, and I hope to see you at the concert Sunday. Get there early if you don't already have tickets; this one may sell out.

The first ooze...

Ahh...my own blog. I've been having a lot of fun posting on James Bash's blog Northwest Reverb. Classical music lovers or those remotely interested in classical music, please check it out: great coverage of the classical music scene specifically in and around Portland, OR, although we do roam further afield from time to time.

But I've come to determine that I need a more informal outlet for my musical musings (musical musings...musical usings...uzings...oozings.) I know; it's a terrible bastardization of a portmanteau word, since a true portmanteau of 'musical' and 'musings' would be simply 'musings,' that doesn't quite work. 'Musical Oozings...' it's self-deprecating, low-brow and vaguely disgusting. In short, the perfect title for me. I overuse elipsis and semi-colons, so get ready for that. I tend to blather, so I guess having a blog is the perfect outlet for me. I don't even expect all my postings to deal with music, although I think most of them will, since I'm a complete music nerd and obsess about it daily.

I've decided to leave my comments un-moderated; we'll see how that goes. Maybe I'll change it if too many annoying assholes hurt my feelings and make me want to go cry in the corner (that is, if any of them bother reading this anyway,) but for now, let the uncensored good times roll! Speaking of uncensored, I feel that way about writing here on my blog as well, so if I occasionally drop the f-bomb or go on a foul tirade, I can only plead, as did Tom Hulce's 'Wolfy' to the Austrian Emperor in Amadeus: "I'm a vulgar man. But, I assure you, my music is not." Well, the vast majority of it anyway...