Cuthbert

Eugene Symphony, City Team Up for Free Concert in the Park
July 18 concert at Cuthbert features new music director — and his wife

An email late this morning alerted me to the best classical news Eugene's had since ... well ... since the Eugene Symphony hired Danail Rachev to be the new music director:

Summer + sponsors + Symphony = free concert at the Cuthbert! The program includes several songs for Rachev's wife, soprano Elizabeth Racheva, and a familiar piece that Symphony Exec Director Paul Winberg said is "traditional for a summer concert," Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. Here's Seiji Ozawa conducting the Berlin Philharmonic's summer outdoor 1812 Overture:

Outdoor concerts have been part of the Symphony's long-range planning effort for a while. I wrote about that back in September of 2007. Specifically, I wrote:

[The] presentation includes the idea for outdoor summer concerts; there's a cheer and pumping fists. Outdoor summer concerts are a winner! ("We don't know the venue yet, or how we'd do it, exactly, but we're going to work on it" is the message.)

The Symphony web page looks pretty excited about it too:

Winberg told me this morning that the board and staff had been working on outdoor concerts pretty hard last year but that the city had other things on its plate (you know, the Olympic Trials?). The Symphony secured funding for the free, did I mention FREE? concert last night and sent out the press release this morning, just a teeeeeeny bit too late for us to get it into this week's Summer Guide, but I can't imagine anything more exciting for this city's classical music scene (OK, a series of free outdoor concerts, like those in, ahem, New York, would be superb) this summer than the expansion of accessible classical music.

Winberg and Board President Mary Ann Hansen both mentioned in conversations today that the outdoor, free part was definitely a way to lower barriers that some people experience with other Symphony concerts. "Thursday night can be a barrier, the Hult Center itself can be a barrier," Winberg said. He added that the time of the full-season concerts doesn't necessarily work for families. The summer concert's time is the same, 8 pm, but it's a Saturday night in the summer outdoors with the kids, who can fall asleep on blankets as the concert goes on (yes, yes I did experience this early and often in my young life).

Then there's the price. Or rather, the lack of price. While the Symphony has regular-season tickets for, and I kid you not, FIFTEEN DOLLARS, that's still $15 more than free. Winberg and Hansen both sounded grateful to Ward Insurance for putting together the final piece of the puzzle and being the major sponsor for the event (there are other sponsors, of course; it's not cheap to fly in your music director and his wife from Philadelphia or to pay the musicians for practice and performance time).

I'd add that families can bring picnics or buy food and beverages at the newly revamped Cuthbert, and that helps make it a fun summer outing. Winberg said that he's hoping for around 4,600 people to attend the concert, which seems reasonable given that last fall's music director search concerts "sold out" of free tickets for the 2,500-seat Silva Performance Hall soon after they became available — for concerts at the Hult Center, on various nights of the week, with no kiddie-friendly area nearby.

Combined with the Bach Festival's July 4 concert at the Art and the Vineyard Festival and the splendid Washburne Park concert series, the Symphony's concert in the new, prettier Cuthbert should make July all the more fun.

The full program, copied and pasted from the Symphony's email:

Franz von Suppe Light Cavalry Overture
Dvořák Slavonic Dances, op. 46, no. 8
Mascagni Cavalleria rusticana: Intermezzo
Lehar Meine Lippen Sie Kuessen So Heiss from "Giuditta," featuring Elizabeth Racheva, soprano
Bizet L'Arlesienne Suite No. 2, Pastorale and Farandole
Styne Gypsy Overture
Leroy Anderson Fiddle Faddle
Leroy Anderson The Typewriter
Gershwin "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess, featuring Elizabeth Racheva, soprano
Bock/Harrick "When Did I Fall in Love" from Fiorello, featuring Elizabeth Racheva, soprano
Lerner/Loewe "I Could Have Danced All Night" from My Fair Lady, featuring Elizabeth Racheva, soprano
Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture

Also, if I may just say? SQUEE! Jumping for joy here in the ol' office.

First I got the new issue of Rolling Stone, which features Guns 'N' Roses on the cover.

Then I got a press release announcing the Black Crowes' upcoming show at the Cuthbert.

Sorry, but did I miss something? Did I wake up in 1990? Should my jeans be tighter and stretchier and my hair a couple feet longer? (The shirt, it will remain black and plain. Some things never change.)

There's a rant to be written here about summer concerts and their tendency to look ever backward, ignoring the current crop of artists — in large part, I suspect, because the somewhat-out-of-date acts aren't charging as much. (It should go without saying that this isn't always true — there are good summer shows; take a peek at the Edgefield's summer lineup. But you don't often see Def Leppard and Foreigner on tour in the winter. The Black Crowes aren't quite at that level of Former Arena Rock Glory, but can you name their last two albums? I don't think so. (Yes, yes, I know, some of you can. But you're in the minority. Sorry)

But anyway. Yeah. 1990. Around there. In case you're wondering, the GNR cover is celebrating the 20th anniversary of Appetite for Destruction's release. How old do you feel now?