Anniversaries are the name of the game

You might look at this year’s Oregon Bach Festival as a sprawling musical anniversary party. 2009 marks 250 years since composer George Frideric Handel died. It’s been 350 years since English Baroque composer Henry Purcell was born. Joseph Haydn died 200 years ago, in 1809, the very year German Romantic composer Felix Mendelssohn was born. Music from all four of those great composers — not to mention music by Johann Sebastian Bach himself — will be featured in this year’s festival, which opens with concerts Friday night in Eugene and Saturday night in Portland. The event then runs through July 12, with more than 50 concerts and events under the sprawling notion of “Themes and Variations.”

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