oregon bach festival

Violin virtuoso Sarah Chang brought the Oregon Bach Festival audience to its feet last night with a rousing performance of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons. I heard murmurs and comments of awe coming from the audience around me throughout the piece. And, breaking with protocol just a little bit, the audience gave a round of applause halfway through the work, between Summer and Autumn, as well as a full standing ovation at the end.

But enough about the music, we all want to know what Sarah was wearing! It can best be described as a mermaid gown. For a visual example, see the woman pictured second from the right below (between Biancé and Britney Katherine Heigl, I think her name's Rihanna something or other):

In fact, that's the exact color and sheen that Sarah wore last night (and just as curvy). I think these styles of dress are known as "fishtails," and it fit perfectly with the Spring and Summer movements of the Four Seasons (but maybe not so much Autumn and Winter). It all really came together when I saw this bewildering text come on the supertitles:

"the lark coos, the goldfish sings."

I can picture a lark cooing, but a singing goldfish? Ah, but then you look down and see Ms. Chang "singing" with her violin in a fishtail dress and it all makes sense.

You can check out Sarah Chang's rendition of The Four Season's by clicking on the image below:

So, you're wanting to escape Olympic Trials madness? You won't be able to with this guy. He's sold out!

I'm afraid that since the (eeeeeeeeevil) Nike helped "rebrand" (gag! GAG! TRIPLE GAG!) the Oregon Bach Festival, classical music lovers can't really get away. But anyway. That's a long, long rant for another time. Moving on to the news of the day:

The OBF's PR guy tells us that the Fest is selling crazy amounts of tix.

More than 2,300 people have tix for tonight's B-Minor Mass at the Schnitz in PDX. (The Portland Center for the Performing Arts' website says capacity is 2,776; I wonder how many people will buy tix today or this evening?)

Plus, things are selling out.

Here are the sellouts so far:

• InChoir (that was, I think, Monday night)

• Garrison Keillor 6/30

• Mendelssohn’s Octet 7/5

• The Schubertiade 7/9

Did you miss our Bach Fest special section? Check it out! You can read articles about what you won't be able to get tickets for!

And what you can:

• The 5 Browns 7/2

• Bach & Haydn 7/6

• The Four Seasons 7/10

• St Matthew Passion 7/13

Go to the Bach Fest's new, REBRANDED page for more info and tix.

See you there. With my No Sweat shoes on!

The Shanghai Quartet

First sellout of the Oregon Bach Festival season!

Did you wait to get your tix to the Shanghai Quartet + OBF string principals Mendelssohn Octet?

Well, sucker, you're too late!

So! Be sure to secure tix to the Quartet's China Song with the group on its own; Le Salon Français, with Heidi Krutzen, harp; David Riley, piano; and the OBF wind principals; and the Schubertiade, with "Sibylla Rubens, soprano; Ingeborg Danz, alto; Lothar Odinius, tenor; Michael Nagy, bass; Carey Bell, clarinet; Rick Todd, horn; Alexandre Dossin, David Riley, piano; Schubert Singers of the OBF Men's Chorus."

Gonna be a great fest. I feel it in my bones. Now let's make them feel it at the box office ...

This just in:

Experts 'rebuild' composer's face

The face of Johann Sebastian Bach has been recreated by experts at Dundee University more than 250 years after the German composer's death.

Dude! Where's the wig! AAAAAAAAAA!