Education a key component of Oregon Bach Festival schedule

July 8, 2002

By Janos Gereben
From The Register-Guard

MIDWAY THROUGH a series of six Discovery concerts, here’s a look at the process behind the presentation of Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio” at the Oregon Bach Festival.

The concerts themselves are cool tips of some major icebergs, the festival’s educational programs that actually predate the 32-year-old performance history of the festival. What you see is Helmuth Rilling talking in a fascinating, compelling manner about the music before young conductors lead segments of the work.

What is not visible to the public is Rilling standing in front of the conductors every morning, teaching three-hour master class sessions. The class has grown to 42 participants, selected from many more applicants around the world, and it now includes such up-and-coming talent as Sarah Ioannides, incoming assistant conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony, at age 30.

Going further behind the scenes, even before Rilling’s arrival to the festival, Thomas Somerville organizes the group, begins teaching and coordinates the project all the way through the festival. Anton Armstrong and Robert Levin also participate in the program.

The young conductors observe festival rehearsals beyond their work with the “Christmas Oratorio,” including this year’s presentations by Tan Dun. Ioannides, incidentally, is a key assistant to Tan for “Water Passion,” having worked with him in Europe and Asia.

The conductors study the score with Somerville and “real live musicians” from the festival chorus and orchestra. Fourteen of them were given segments of the work to lead during the public performance they rehearsed under Rilling’s guidance. Physically, it’s just a few steps and a matter of mere hours from master classes in Room 198 to the performances in Beall Concert Hall (the remaining performances will be at the Hult’s Soreng Theatre), but the difference in class participants’ appearance and effectiveness on the podium is often dramatic.

The heart of both the classes and the performances is Rilling. How any one man can know so much about a subject is difficult to grasp. In his work with the master class, in his half-hour illustrated lecture in Beall, Rilling pours out a seamless stream of information, illumination, revealing facts and ideas, note by note.

Whether he explains the nature of an echo passage in class or takes apart a few measures in the lecture to trace movements of ancient shepherds finding their way to the manger, cross-references piling on top of historical data, musical structure sketched with torrents of dates and opus numbers, Rilling dazzles without meaning to, entertains on purpose, and sets up – unfailingly – both the desire to hear the work and already an appreciation of it even before the performance. He is the finest, most informative and encouraging advocate for music since the days of Leonard Bernstein.

To his junior, would-be colleagues, Rilling provides technical information, along with basic, essential tips. It was curious to hear Thomas Quasthoff in his class for young singers using “Rillingisms,” advice he has heard from Rilling many times – to “show the beauty, the joy of music” or “create an atmosphere of imagination, make contact with the musicians, the audience,” “listen to music as much as you can,” “respect the text,” etc., the simple, all-important ideas of the master teacher.

The “Christmas Oratorio” soloists present an especially interesting group this year. Soprano Karina Gauvin is new to the festival; alto Ingeborg Danz is a veteran star here, but she is singing on a whole new level this year, from the heart and well beyond technical excellence. The tenor is Christopher Cock, and Eric Owens is the bass-baritone … with “stick fever.” Many singers covet the authority of the conductor’s baton, but few actually make it. (Baroque tenor specialist Jeffrey Thomas has grown into an exceptional music director for the American Bach Soloists; Placido Domingo now alternates between singing and conducting, and there are a few more.)

Owens, who spent 12 years in Philadelphia as an oboist before starting his singing career, is determined to pursue a double career. He is in the master class, he is on the podium as a soloist in the afternoon. A couple of times, he crossed over from the side of the stage for the singers to the podium – and back again.

In class, in performance, the master class and the Discovery concerts provide a dizzying spectacle of young and veteran talent working, performing together.

Janos Gereben is arts editor of Post Newspapers and a reviewer and music news columnist for San Francisco Classical Voice (www.sfcv.org). He can be reached at janos451@earthlink.net.