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Weekend MusicWatch: HIP tips

By Brett Campbell
November 22, 2012
Featured, Music

St. Paul’s Rose Ensemble performs in Salem Tuesday.

Plates may be full but musical pickings are slim this holiday weekend, but a pair of historically informed performances beckon music fans not incapacitated by tryptophan and football.

Portland Baroque Orchestra, Friday-Saturday, First Baptist Church and Sunday, Kaul Auditorium, Reed College, Portland: Veteran PBO violinist Carla Moore directs the period instrument ensemble in a splendid program that ranges through a century of Italian Baroque repertoire, including works by Locatelli, Vivaldi, and more. Eugene native  Nate Helgeson stars in works featuring the early bassoon called the dulcian.

Rose Ensemble, Tuesday, Hudson Hall, Willamette University, Salem: The name sounds like they should be from Portland, but the moniker actually refers to various uses of the flower as a symbol of Christianity in music of the medieval, Baroque and Renaissance eras, which is what the acclaimed Minnesota-based vocal ensemble sings.

Oregon Symphony, Saturday, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland: the orchestra and live singers perform music from Disney films.

“The Pipsqueak Scrolls,” Gary Noland, Saturday, Sherman Clay Pianos, Portland: the veteran Oregon composer narrates and plays piano in his original musical story about a college professor getting his comeuppance.

Radio heads-ups

“The Old Maid and the Thief,” Opera Theater Oregon, radio broadcast noon Saturday, KQAC radio: OTO staged Gian Carlo Menotti’s comic tale set during the Great Depression at Portland’s Mission Theatre last month, but it was written as a radio opera, so it’s appropriate to hear it on authentic instruments, as it were.

On the station’s website, you can also hear last Saturday’s edition of the valuable Club Mod show, which brings in Portland composer, author and Reed College music professor to help host Robert McBride pay tribute to the long career of American composer Elliott Carter, who died this month at age 103. Click “listen now,” then “audio archive,” then “Club Mod.”

Behind the Velvet Curtain from Opera Theater Oregon on Vimeo.

Oregon ArtsWatch Archives