Contact: Allison Griffin
Public Relations Associate
503-416-6347
October 20, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … Music Director Carlos Kalmar will lead the Oregon Symphony’s next classical program, “Contrasts,” featuring violin soloist Leila Josefowicz in Paul Hindemith’s Violin Concerto. The program also includes Franz Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 37 and Richard Wagner’s Excerpts from The Ring of the Nibelung. Performances are Saturday, November 11 at 7:30 p.m., Sunday, November 12 at 7:30 p.m. and Monday, November 13 at 8 p.m. at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.
Josefowicz made her Carnegie Hall debut at age 16. Now 29, she has won numerous awards, including the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant. She has appeared on national broadcasts such as The Tonight Show, Evening at Pops and PBS’ Live from Lincoln Center. Her performance of John Adams’ Violin Concerto with the BBC Symphony was televised throughout Europe. A performance on a Bob Hope TV special at the age of 10 was introduced by Lucille Ball.
Kalmar and the Symphony will open the concert with Haydn’s Symphony No. 37 in C major. The piece reflects the composer’s excitement in being appointed a music director after many years as a poor, freelance music teacher. He wrote the symphony for his first patron, Count Karl Joseph Franz Morzin. The buoyancy of the first and final movements are complemented by the gentle and elegant sounds of the second and third movements.
Paul Hindemith’s ambition was to write a solo concerto for every instrument in the orchestra. In his Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, his only for violin, he documents his move from Nazi Germany six years after his music was labeled as “cultural Bolshevism.” The concerto illustrates his escape to Switzerland and his response to the regime.The Symphony will conclude with excerpts from Wagner’s The Ring of the Nibelung. It took the composer 26 years to complete the epic cycle, which is 17 hours in length. He assembled the cycle from texts of various medieval epics. The orchestra will perform approximately 40 minutes of various pieces from the Gotterdammerung story, which outlines the downfall of the gods and their magical realm, Valhalla.
Tickets are $20 to $88 and may be purchased at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office, located at 923 S.W. Washington. Ticket office hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets can be charged by phone at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Discounted tickets for groups of eight or more are available through the group sales hotline at (503) 416-6380. Tickets may also be purchased at Ticketmaster outlets. Kuni BMW is the official automotive sponsor of the 2006-07 Classical Series. Lufthansa is the exclusive airline of the Symphony’s 2006-07 Classical Series. Media support is provided by The Oregonian.