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Strings and voices

By Doug Hubley

JOSEPH SILVERSTEIN in as PSO conductor while Toshi’s off in the Czech Republic.

In the early months of the year, the classical music scene is less about hot news and more about satisfying sounds. The

splashy season premieres are long gone, musicians have recovered from their Christmas concerts and audiences are feeling the first flush of cabin fever. We’re ready to dive deep into music.

Which isn’t to say that there’s no news. In the coming months, the Portland Symphony spotlights a Maine composer and PCA Great Performances brings back the ever-heavenly Anonymous 4. The DaPonte String Quartet’s “all Beethoven, all the time” theme has proven so popular they have moved to a bigger venue, while the Portland String Quartet also plays two Beethoven quartets for compare-and-contrast listeners. In academe, Bowdoin devotes a series to contemporary reed repertoire and Bates presents pianist Frank Glazer with the complete Chopin nocturnes. Meanwhile, two choral groups present dueling Handels.

Merrill Auditorium, as always, is the setting for the big names and big sounds. PCA’s first classical program for 2001 is Anonymous 4, a quartet of women who sing sans accompaniment. On January 26 they’ll perform music from their 1994 recording Love’s Illusion, a collection of romantic 13th-century French motets, songs in which multiple texts and tunes twine around like sweet pea vines.

The lovey-dovey stuff turns more sinister on February 7, as PCA resumes its popular operatic offerings with the bloody Carmen, performed by the London City Opera. Slated for March 22, PCA’s other opera this season is Verdi’s Aïda, another romantic imbroglio, this time set in ancient Egypt, and produced by the young and largely Bulgarian Teatro Lirico D’Europa. Ending PCA’s season on April 26 is the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, mixing harp, flute, singing, and strings in a predominantly 20th-century program.

The Portland Symphony’s Classical Series, which resumes January 9, routinely features guest artists, but rarely are they conductors. The exception appears February 6, when Joseph Silverstein covers for Music Director Toshiyuki Shimada, off gigging in the Czech Republic. Silverstein was the Boston Symphony’s concertmaster for more than 20 years, its assistant conductor for 12, and later helmed the Utah Symphony. Other PSO guests are French pianist Brigitte Engerer, who beats up Tchaikovsky’s first piano concerto on April 10, and violinist Sandra Meei Cameron, a 14-year-old wunderkind who headlines a Mozart & More program on April 22. Cameron made her Maine debut at the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival in 1999.

The PSO plays a piece by Bath composer Gia Comolli, Flight of Icarus, on March 6. And as always, PSO players get some spotlight time. Harpist Jara Goodrich plays Debussy in a Mozart & More concert on January 21; there too is a Jeremy Beck piece that Shimada recorded with the Moravian Philharmonic. On May 8, ending the PSO season with a hoot, principal French hornist John Boden tackles a Richard Strauss concerto. There’s no shortage of orchestral meat and spuds, either. Remaining PSO dates feature two symphonies each by Beethoven and Mozart, and one each by Shostakovich and Brahms — the latter’s No. 3, my personal fave.

That March 6 concert is also the occasion for the PSO’s annual duet with the Choral Art Society, which this year is Verdi’s Four Sacred Pieces. Shortly thereafter, on April 1, the CAS goes all counter-intuitive on us and performs Handel’s Messiah. This is no April Fool’s trick: though Messiah is best-known as one of those Christmas chestnuts roasting on an open fire, it actually has more to do with Easter. Not to be outdone, the Oratorio Chorale pays its own Handel homage on March 10 (Brunswick) and 11 (Yarmouth) with the composer’s dramatic Samson, based on Milton’s poetic masterpiece, Samson Agonistes.

Vocal music is a happening thing at the University of Southern Maine, too, in the coming weeks. Malcolm Smith, profoundly esteemed in the unglamorous discipline of bass singing, holds a residency there starting February 9. That evening he’ll be joined by three faculty vocalists in a concert that includes songs by Schumann and Brahms’s Liebeslieder Walzer, more lovey-dovey stuff. On March 10, singer Michelle Rios and the Core Ensemble perform Tres Vidas, a musical portrait of three notable Latinas including Frida Kahlo. Still in March, USM presents a fully staged student production of Mozart’s opera Marriage of Figaro, complete with live orchestra. And USM’s Faculty Concert Series offers the Nordica Trio and hornist John Boden with music by Hohavness, Rochberg, and Brahms on February 2; new works by faculty composer Scott Harris on March 9; and jazz guitarist Gary Wittner with his own music and some of his trademark Monk transcriptions on April 20.

The highlight at Bowdoin College is Now Reed This, a four-part concert-discussion series focusing on reed players and 20th-century repertoire. Kenneth Radnofsky, one of the world’s best-known classical saxophonists, kicks off the series on February 16. Electronic music, new Japanese sounds, and seldom-heard instruments turn up in later installments.

Up at Bates College’s Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, pianist Frank Glazer performs the complete Chopin Nocturnes over three Noonday Concerts on January 16, 23, and 30. Evening concerts, also at Olin except as indicated, include Musicians from Marlboro, players linked with the acclaimed Vermont festival (January 26); vibraphonist Stefon Harris and pianist Jacky Terrason from the Jazz at Lincoln Center series (Lewiston Middle School, February 4); and on March 2, baritone Scott Murphree singing music written for Alice Esty, a 1925 Bates alumna. Composers who wrote for Esty include Poulenc, Milhaud, and Virgil Thomson.

Back at Merrill, the 2001 schedule for Portland’s newly improved Kotzschmar Organ is already filling up. Douglas Rafter, who was the city’s municipal organist from 1976 to 1981 and who first played the Kotzschmar in 1934 (!), puts the new digital console through its paces on January 30. In two performances on March 20, current municipal organist Ray Cornils marks J.S. Bach’s birthday with a program including the Toccata in F major. And on April 3, guest organist Dennis James accompanies the 1925 silent film version of Ben Hur.

Portland’s chamber scene has settled down after a boffo autumn. The Portland Chamber Music Festival offers its annual free winter concert on February 11 at Ludcke Auditorium, an intimate affair with three musicians and works by Mozart, Ravel, and Brahms. With three concerts left in their rampage through the Beethoven quartet cycle, the DaPonte String Quartet has moved to State Street Church to accommodate bigger-than-expected audiences. So get there early. (Concerts are February 24, April 7, and May 19, and are bracketed by dates in Damariscotta and Brunswick.)

Portland String Quartet concerts at Woodfords Congregational Church on March 4 and April 1 include some Beethoven too, as well as Haydn, Mendelssohn, Shostakovich and a student composer as yet unannounced. Finally, if you’re questioning your musical orientation and seek a non-threatening environment in which to explore your curiosity, don’t forget the First Parish Church Noonday Concerts. Starting January 11 with the Portland String Quartet and continuing through April 5, these Thursday chamber concerts start at 12:15 p.m. and will cost you nothing but time and a little temerity.

Doug Hubley can be reached at doug.hubley@worldnet.att.net.