Last night, the Oregon Symphony played its annual Waterfront Concert at Tom McCall Waterfront Park in downtown Portland. It is the first year that rain has struck the event with any degree of severity. We’ve had some stray sprinkles here and there, but not the out and out deluge that descended upon us Thursday evening.
The Waterfront Concert is always such a fun way to start the season. It’s free to everyone, so we get big crowds – up to 20,000 or so. This year the dire forecast did cut down the attendance somewhat, but we still had thousands brave the elements, and those who did not come down in person were able to listen to the live broadcast of the concert on AllClassical Portland 89.9 on the radio and via web stream.
Much of the day was overcast and blustery, with the rain starting to move in during the afternoon’s set of performances by local arts ensembles. My concert with the Third Angle Quartet at 2:00 was dry, but FearNoMusic didn’t fare as well during their performance at 3:00, when the mist moved in to make everything damp, in spite of the canopy over the side stage area. There was no steady rain in the afternoon, but the portent was set for the rest of the day.
The main event started dry enough, with enough wind present to make my job as page turner more involved than usual. About the time we started the Mozart symphony, the rain really started, and then began to absolutely pour. A few of our less prepared audience members made a run for it at that point, but they were small in number. Most everyone else remained, opened their umbrellas and put on their ponchos, and stayed for the duration.
Can I just say at this point how impressed the orchestra was by our fabulous Oregonian fans? We think that you were all rock stars! It warmed our hearts to see all of you braving the rain and damp and mud to listen to us perform. You have our enduring admiration and respect!
We got to the Bizet, selections from the L’Arlésienne Suite, which featured principal players of the Metropolitan Youth Symphony playing alongside the OSO principals, and there was a brief pow-wow at the changeover in which it was decided to cut several numbers and proceed to the 1812 Overture finale. Norman Huynh made his excellent debut as our new Assistant conductor in music from John Williams’ score to E.T., and then the Portland Youth Philharmonic principals joined us for their side-by-side for the Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture. The rain began to taper during the performance, leaving it safe for us to get our instruments to the backstage tents without incident as the fireworks display commenced. We were sorry to miss our collaboration with the dancers of Oregon Ballet Theatre (Tchaikovsky Serenade), but it would not have been safe for them to dance on a wet stage. We’ll look forward to playing with them again next August!
All in all, it was a dramatic and different Waterfront Concert, but still very rewarding and fun for all!