Photo [L-R]: Jun Iwasaki, Charles Noble, Gregory Ewer, Trevor Fitzpatrick, Viorel Bejenaru, Justin Kagan.
UPDATE: Northwest Reverb posted a review of the concert on Sunday.
Saturday evening saw the inaugural concert of a new presenter in town: 45th Parallel. Founded by artistic director Gregory Ewer (also a violinist in the Oregon Symphony), it is a presenter that aims to showcase the best local musicians in intimate settings. Last night’s concert featured the Oregon Symphony’s concertmaster, Jun Iwasaki, as well as Gregory Ewer, myself, violist Viorel Bejenaru from the OSO, cellist Justin Kagan (from, well, everywhere), and OSO cellist Trevor Fitzpatrick. The program featured works inspired by or related to the opera or ballet. The program opened with a Duo Concertante, op. 57, no. 1, by the “French Paganini”, Charles de Bériot. Then, the seldom-played, and little known Quartet in E minor by Giuseppe Verdi. The grand finale was an audience and player favorite, Tchaikovsky’s decadent and flamboyant string sextet, Souvenir de Florence.
It was such a pleasure to play the Verdi and Tchaikovsky with such wonderful colleagues – Portland is blessed with many, many fine musicians, both from within the Oregon Symphony and from without. The Verdi was a revelation – it’s a cool piece – very terse and compact and dense. Not at all like much of his sprawling operatic output. It’s also hard as hell. The Tchaikovsky is a piece that I’d read many times at chamber music reading parties (yes, there are such things) and so it was nice to get a chance to learn it and perform it “for real” with some great musicians.
The Old Church, where the concert was held, was nearly if not completely sold out, and this is an auspicious beginning for the series. Many thanks to all of the hard working staff and on-air personalities over at 89.9 FM Allclassical.org – they really pulled out all the stops to make this a great success, and it’s worth saying again that we’re so very lucky to have a classical radio station of this caliber in Portland.
The second concert of the season takes place on Friday, May 21 at 7:30 p.m. at the Old Church, and will feature Portland Baroque Orchestra leader and violinist Monica Huggett with Gregory Ewer, Adam LaMotte, Tanya Tomkins, and Joanna Blendulf in works of Schuber (his great Cello Quintet) and Mozart.
4 replies on “45th parallel inaugurates success”
Bravo Charles! Stellar playing! Thanks for all your help with the concert. Can’t wait for the next one.
Bravo Greg! I wish I could have been there! Greetings from Budapest
I love it when people are so excited by what they’re hearing they can’t help BUT break into applause spontaneously between movements. It’s been a long time since I’ve been part of an audience that was so obviously awestruck by a performance. What a fantastic night.
Yes, awestruck would be the word. Our friends were all quite envious that they hadn’t gone. At intermission that evening, Bill, otherwise known on certain web pages as “Voice from the Couch”, also decided to participate in the drawing from All Classical for the free CD. Daniel Hope is playing Mendlelssohn’s Violin Concerto as I’m typing this. Thank you again for an unforgettable evening!