They'll be rolling out the concertos.

Byline: Fred Crafts The Register-Guard

If there can be a flock of birds and a band of sheep, then surely the Oregon Bach Festival can be allowed a crash of concertos.

The festival has so many concertos lined up and raring to go, you'd think it was the paddock at the Kentucky Derby.

The first one out of the starting gate will be J.S. Bach's popular Brandenburg Concertos on June 29.

The festival chamber orchestra will play Nos. 2-6.

ORCHESTRAL MUSIC

When Bach visited Berlin in 1718, the Margrave of Brandenburg asked him for some of his music.

Bach sent him six concertos that appear to have been composed over a 10-year period.

"They're just incredibly great music, and they're very festive," says chamber orchestra concertmaster Kathleen Lenski. "Audiences just never seem to tire of hearing them over and over again, and the musicians never tire of playing them over and over again.

"It's Bach at his greatest in the secular world."

A founding member of the Angeles String Quartet and concertmaster of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Lenski recently "semi-retired" in Morro Bay, Calif.

The cycle of the Brandenburgs, which the festival has presented several times, will begin with the toe-tapping No. 3, then move to 6, 4, 5 and finally to 2, which features very high trumpet work by Guy Few.

"You can come and watch my head explode," he quips.

Musically, Lenski says, "It's a great way to end any concert."

Of the lot, Lenski favors No. 4, because, as a player "you can just sink your teeth into it and rip. It gives the solo violin a lot to do, and I love it. I call it `rock 'n' roll Bach' or `Bach 'n' roll.'

"When you get the tempos going and get into the groove, it just takes off and transports you to another place."

Pianist undertakes a Beethoven marathon

Besides concerti grossi such as the Brandenburgs, the festival also includes concertos that feature single instruments, such as pianos.

Jeffrey Kahane will pull a rare feat, playing all five of Ludwig van Beethoven's piano concertos in two nights (July 1 and 3).

While playing, Kahane also will lead the festival chamber orchestra.

Winner of the 1983 Rubinstein Competition and a finalist at the 1981 Van Cliburn Competition, Kahane is up to the challenge.

Having done the Beethoven cycle twice before, he knows it is "a very thrilling to do."

Rilling conducts Brahms, Alyssa Park on violin

As a change of pace, Alyssa Park will play Alban Berg's 12-tone Concerto for Violin and Orchestra as part of a July 6 program that also includes "A German Requiem" by Johannes Brahms. Helmuth Rilling will conduct both works.

Well known to local audiences, Park was a visiting professor of violin at the University of Oregon School of Music during 2001-02. At age 16, she was the youngest prize-winner in the history of the Tchaikovsky International Competition.

Since then, she has performed with the orchestras of Cincinnati, Louisville, San Jose, Austin, Knoxville, Annapolis and New Orleans and with the Japan Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony, Berlin Radio Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, Lisbon Symphony and the Munich Philharmonic.

And more Bach, featuring oboist Allan Vogel

Longtime festival oboist Allan Vogel will be featured July 11 in Bach's Concerto in C Minor for Oboe, Violin and Harpsichord (BWV 1060).

The program also includes Bach's Concerto in D Major for Three Violins and Orchestra (BWV 1064), featuring Kathleen Lenski, Elizabeth Baker and Jacqueline Brand; and Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 1 in C Major (BWV 1066) and Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B Minor (BWV 1067).

CAPTION(S):

Guy Few's high trumpet work will be featured in the Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, the last of five of the Brandenburgs that will be performed by the festival's chamber orchestra on June 29. Pianist Jeffrey Kahane will play all five of Ludwig van Beethoven's piano concertos over two nights (July 1 and 3).