sunriver music festival roundup

We just got back today from the lovely high desert resort community of Sunriver, located in Central Oregon about 15 miles south of Bend.  This was the  Sunriver festival’s 31st year of existence, which is a great thing considering the quick and final (Chapter 7) demise of the Cascade Festival of Music this summer.

This year’s festival was a relaxed and enjoyable affair, with good audiences and wonderful playing by the orchestra and the guest artists.

The season kicked off at the Tower Theater in downtown Bend with a pops concert devised and conducted by principal bassist Frank Diliberto.  Sparkling arrangements by the former OSO pops maestro and conductor laureate Norman Leyden made up most of the program, including some great numbers featuring Portland’s own jazz diva Shirley Nanette.  The program was concluded in fine fashion by Pink Martini front-man Thomas Lauderdale in Gershwin’s ever fresh and exhilarating Rhapsody in Blue.  A great time was had by all, and the musicians had an even better time at the Deschutes Brew Pub afterwards!

The first concert showcased several of our fine string principals as well as our sparkling wind section.  Acting concertmaster Paula Bird played the Mozart Adagio in E, K. 261 with a lovely, full tone and supple phrasing, while later both she and Principal cellist Kari Caldwell (principal cellist of the Tulsa Philharmonic) played the demanding solos from Haydn’s Symphony No. 31 ‘Horn signal’ with virtuosity.  The strings got an extremely unusual reprieve in the second half of the concert with the performance of the sublime Gran Partita wind serenade of Mozart.  

The second concert of the first weekend was the most demanding of the festival.  Prokofiev’s ‘Classical’ Symphony No. 1 put the entire orchestra through its paces, but was more enjoyable in a chamber orchestra setting than with full symphony orchestra string sections.  Quick tempos predominated, with some especially fleet playing by Principal flutist Adam Kuenzel (Principal flute of the Minnesota Orchestra) and second flutist Christine Gangelhoff.  

Then came the commanding piano soloist Kirill Gerstein, who was scheduled to play both of the Mendelssohn Piano Concertos on a single concert.  Instead, a last-minute program change was made, and the Mendelssohn #1 was performed along with the substituted piece: Beethoven’s great ‘Emperor’ concerto.  Gerstein was exceptionally impressive in the seldom-heard Mendelssohn – cascades of notes were tossed off with crystalline sound and clarity and tremendous dynamic range, while the Beethoven was given a refreshingly lean and propulsive performance – it did not sound like a labored war horse in this performance!  Kirill’s performances were the highlight of the festival for me.  

In between the two concerti, the 4th Symphony ‘Tragic’ of Schubert was performed.  It came off quite well, but the last movement has some brutal passage-work for the strings and took some of the edge off of my enjoyment! 🙂

The second weekend’s first concert was actually an added performance.  On Thursday evening, in a gesture of goodwill to the patrons of the Cascade Festival of Music, subscription ticket holders were offered a concert at which their tickets would be honored for admission.  The response was very gratifying, with many patrons very thankful to the Sunriver Festival for their generosity and the fine performance.  

The musicians of the orchestra were instrumental in consenting to convert an evening rehearsal to a concert to make this event possible.  It was the least that we at the Festival could do for these ardent classical music supporters who were out several hundred dollars for their CFM tickets.

The first official concert of the second weekend was an operatic extravaganza featuring two alumni of the Festival’s Young Artist Scholarship Program, soprano Courtney Huffman and mezzo-soprano Sarah Mattox.  Favorite selections from the operatic repertoire featured the singers both in duo and solo arias.  The concert was sold-out and the audience response was ecstatic.

The final concert of the festival began with a taut and focused account of the Stravinsky Octet for winds and brass.  The first half was concluded with a bouncing and lilting performance of the Bach Orchestral Suite No. 1.  After intermission, the husband and wife combination of violinist Stefan Milenkovich and cellist Ani Aznavoorian gave a brilliant performance of the Brahms Double Concerto for violin and cello.  

They both played wonderfully, but I’d put my money on Aznavoorian as the one to watch for the brightest future.  As an encore they played a superbly flexible rendition of the Handel/Halvorsen Passacaglia.

Amidst all of this I managed six rides around the local roads, including a climb up to Mt. Bachelor, and trips out to the Cascade Lakes Highway.  The first weekend also featured triple-digit temperatures, which put a damper on outdoor activities for a web-foot such as myself.

Oregon Symphony musicians who took part in this years festival were hornist Mary Grant, trumpeter Jeffrey Work, and double bassists Frank Diliberto and Jeffrey Johnson.

All classical concerts were ably and affably led by the SRMF’s artistic director and conductor (and former OSO music director) Lawrence Leighton Smith.