PYP News
Lera Auerbach Part 3: “Chimera”—The Backstory (2)
Posted on April 17, 2019
from Lera Auerbach, “Rooforisms” (reproduced in Excess of Being). Photo used with permission of auerbach.studio © All rights reserved.
An abundance of associative ‘connective tissue’ joins the characters of Mermaid, Chimera, and Icarus; all of them are, in different ways, more-than-natural, impossible beings. While Chimera is a mythical mix of species, both Mermaid and Icarus try to escape the natural forms which imprison them, re-form themselves... Read More ›
Lera Auerbach Part 4: “Chimera”: The Music
Posted on April 15, 2019
According to DeStella, the symphony is “a ‘chimera’ of two different versions of The Little Mermaid: the original 3-hour version that premiered in Copenhagen, and the 2.5-hour version done in Hamburg, conducted by the late Klauspieter Seibel. Certain parts cut to make the Hamburg version later found their way into the symphony. Seibel also conducted the US Premiere of “Chimera” in New Orleans with his... Read More ›
PROGRAM NOTES: JACQUES OFFENBACH’s Overture to ‘La Belle Hélène’
Posted on April 12, 2019
Photo from the BBC
Paris in the 1860s, the home stretch of the brief, eighteen-year Second Empire, between two bloody wars: Haussmann’s boulevards bringing light and fresh air into the city; industrial and infrastructure growth, along with the first department stores and investment banks, leading to the birth of the bourgeoisie; the everyday landscapes and still lifes of Manet and Monet shaking... Read More ›
PROGRAM NOTES: BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ‘s Concerto for Oboe
Posted on April 10, 2019
Photo from the BBC
PYP alumnus (2008) Max Blair, now Associate Principal Oboe with the Pittsburgh Symphony, returns to Portland to perform Martinů’s beautiful Oboe Concerto with PYP on Sunday, May 5, 2019, in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.
Bohuslav Martinů wrote his Oboe Concerto in 1955 at the request of Czech oboist Jiri Tancibudek. Like other composers, most notably Richard Strauss, Martinů... Read More ›
PROGRAM NOTES: ERNEST BLOCH’s ‘Schelomo,’ Hebraic Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra
Posted on February 18, 2019
Photo fromThe Oregon Encyclopedia
Deeply disturbed by the suffering around him at the end of World War I, Swiss-born American composer Ernst Bloch sought inspiration for his newest composition from the biblical book of Ecclesiastes. The book features the story of King Solomon, whose name translates to Schelomo.
Considered by many to be his finest work, Schelomo was written at the end... Read More ›
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