Consistency is a hallmark of Oregon Bach Festival

By R.M. Campbell
From The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

EUGENE, Ore. -- Oregon is novel for a state its size in the existence of three major arts festivals -- Northwest Chamber Music, Oregon Bach and Oregon Shakespeare -- founded decades before festivals became omnipresent on the summer scene.

Each is still strong, but among the attributes that makes the Oregon Bach Festival unique is that its co-founders, German conductor Helmut Rilling and administrative director Royce Saltzman of Eugene, are still at the helm, 32 years after an inaugural year of workshops and one informal concert. Today, there are dozens of concerts in various sizes day and night for more than two weeks in late June and July.

Eugene may not be near any metropolitan center, but somehow 35,000 people each summer from across North America, Europe and Asia find their way to the town, home to the University of Oregon.

Like the Oregon Shakespeare Festival to the south in Ashland, the Oregon Bach Festival does not limit itself to the artistic genius after whom it was named. Bach is always present in some form; this season, for instance, with his Mass in B Minor; "Christmas" Oratorio; the solo canata, "Ich habe genug" ("I Have Enough"); "Goldberg" Variations; chamber music; and various organ works. There are also Mendels- sohn, Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Brahms, Barber, Schubert, Bruckner and a raft of Bach's contemporaries from Italy and Germany, not to mention composers from the 20th and 21st centuries.

The musicians are equally diverse, from Eugene and Portland and the rest of Oregon, but also from throughout the United States and Europe. Rilling has an international reputation as a choral conductor and Bach specialist. He is interested in the best. His repertory is wide-ranging. Previous soloists have included Arleen Auger, Ben Heppner, Frederica von Stade, Sylvia McNair and Hugo Wolff. Pianist Jeffrey Kahane is a regular at the festival, where he chose to make his conducting debut in 1988. German bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff is also a fixture at the festival. He made his American debut here in 1995.

At this summer's festival, I heard the American premiere of Tan Dun's "Water Passion After St. Matthew" and Quasthoff in an evening of art songs, what the Germans call a "Liederabende." Both were extraordinary, for quite different reasons.

Dun is arguably the most prominent of a slew of Chinese-born composers who make their home in the United States, with a career that spans three continents. He was among a quartet of composers commissioned by Rilling to compose modern settings of the Passion narrative for his Internationale Bach- akademie Stuttgart in Germany to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Bach's death. Dun, who is a Buddhist, chose a variety of texts, not all of which one would expect from a work of art depicting the last days of Christ. What Dun was particularly interested in was the concept of water, such as water involved in the Christian baptism and the thirst Jesus experienced during his wanderings in the desert.

Water is not only a visual element in the production but also an instrument that is slapped and dripped and poured throughout the piece by three percussionists. It is contained in 17 transparent bowls, lighted from below, that form a cross on the stage.

Tan's forces are striking. The chorus comprises about 60 people, men and women, divided left and right, dressed in black and seated on risers. The percussionists stand at the three ends of the crucifix made by the bowls of water, with the fourth occupied by Dun, who conducted. There are only four other musicians: a bass-baritone and violinist on stage right and soprano and cellist on stage left, flanking the conductor. The percussion section involved not only water but also bells, cymbals, drums and a handful of other instruments, some Chinese in origin. The chorus does double duty here and there with metal sheets to depict thunder.

The work is simultaneously evocative and provocative, worldly and otherworldly. It summons serene beauty at one moment and terror at another. Dun's effects are so remarkable and striking at first, they almost detract from the work, but eventually they lead the way to a new universe and approach to one of the great stories of Western civilization. It deserves repeated performances. It has much to say, in eloquent and poignant terms.

The performance was more than a concert: It was carefully staged in a manner that made the unfolding of the music drama even more meaningful.

Dun was nearly everywhere in Eugene this festival season, not only with his extraordinary "Water Passion" but other music, including his score for the film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

Quasthoff's evening of songs was another matter. Instead of using the expansive space of the Hult Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Eugene, he employed the more intimate surroundings of Beall Concert Hall on the campus of the University of Oregon, where festival concerts were held until the Hult Center was opened in 1982. Certainly, Quasthoff is one of the leading concert singers in the world. He is enlightening in his musicianship, illuminating text and music in ways most singers can't imagine.

His program was Schubert's lengthy cycle "Schwanengesang" and sets of four songs from Hugo Wolf and Richard Strauss. A more satisfying evening would be hard to conceive because Quasthoff is so intelligent, sensitive and musical coupled with a voice of range and considerable beauty. Quasthoff's longtime pianist Justus Zeyen injured himself 36 hours before the performance and had to return to Germany. He was replaced by Kahane, who has performed with Quasthoff on other occasions, although this time he had to learn the music in a matter of hours. He was a partner to the singer in every conceivable way.

P-I music critic R.M. Campbell can be reached at 206-448-8396 or rmcampbell@seattlepi.com