Contact: Allison Griffin
Public Relations Associate
503-416-6347
January 19, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … One performance is already sold out, and the remaining nights have only limited seating. Virtuoso violinist Itzhak Perlman will not only be featured as soloist at the Oregon Symphony’s performance of “Pure Pleasure,” but will also conduct the program. In addition, this will be Amy Schwartz-Moretti’s return to the stage as concertmaster. Performances are scheduled for Saturday, February 3 at 7:30 p.m. (sold out), Sunday, February 4 at 7:30 p.m. (limited seating) and Monday, February 5 at 8 p.m. (limited seating).
Perlman will perform Beethoven’s Romances for Violin, characterized as a “tender dialogue” between soloist and orchestra. They reveal an intimate side of the composer’s usually abrasive personality. This is the first Oregon Symphony performance of the work.
Perlman studied at the Academy of Music in Tel Aviv before moving to the United States to study at the Juilliard School with Ivan Galamian and Dorothy DeLay. He made his debut at Carnegie Hall in 1963 and won the prestigious Leventritt Competition in 1964. Soon afterward he began to tour extensively. In addition to an extensive recording career, he has made occasional guest appearances on American television, starting in the 1970s on shows such as The Tonight Show and Sesame Street, as well as playing at a number of functions at the White House. Perlman has been a soloist for a number of movie scores, notably the score of Schindler's List, which later won an Academy Award for Best Score. More recently, he was the violin soloist for Memoirs of a Geisha, along with cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Perlman can also sing, and has actually sung in a performance.
The program will also feature Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings. The piece is his homage to Mozart, whom he once called “the Christ of music.” After its completion, Tchaikovsky said, “I am violently in love with this work and cannot wait for it to be played.” Audiences at its premiere in 1881 agreed: they called for an encore of the second movement.
Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 will conclude the program. The piece illustrates a shift from the composer’s style in that it includes sounds from nature, hunting horn calls and dramatic fanfares that suggest nonmusical images that are reflective of the Czech countryside. The bohemian work became a personal battleground upon which the composer defended his Czech heritage.
Tickets are $30 to $104 and may be purchased at the Oregon Symphony Ticket Office, located at 923 S.W. Washington. Ticket office hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets can be charged by phone at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets may also be purchased at Ticketmaster outlets or by calling (503) 224-4400. Discounted tickets for groups of eight or more are available through the group sales hotline at (503) 416-6380. Support is provided by the Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation. Media support is provided by the Oregonian and KINK fm102.
Images and guest artist bios are available at www.orsymphony.org/media.