The Kirkland Choral Society and Philharmonia Northwest join forces at Benaroya Hall for a concert at 2 p.m. on March 25. The concert will feature the lighthearted and sophisticated music of PDQ Bach (a.k.a. Dr. Peter Schickele). The program includes his “Eine Kleine Nichtmusik,” the West Coast premiere of his “Concerto for Very Grand Piano” with pianist Jeffrey Biegel, the “Liebeslieder Polkas,” and the grand oratorio “The Seasonings.”
P.D.Q. Bach was, as Schickele is fond of saying, “the 21st of Bach’s 20 children.” P.D.Q. Bach works include such classics as “Black Forest Bluegrass,” “Iphigenia in Brooklyn,” “Concerto for Horn and Hardart,” and “Oedipus Tex,” which features the “O.K. Chorale.” In addition to composing close to 20 albums of P.D.Q. Bach music, Schickele has had a varied career since his graduation from Juilliard. He has arranged albums for Joan Baez and other folk singers and written music for movies, documentaries, TV, and Broadway musicals. Schickele was also the Grammy winner for four consecutive years (1989-1992) for Best Comedy Performance Single or Album, Spoken or Musical. Schickele’s performance of P.D.Q. Bach’s “Konzertschtick for two violins mit orchestra” with Itzhak Perlman and the Boston Pops orchestra is a classic.
The concert opens with Philharmonia Northwest performing “Eine Kleine Nichtmusik,” a medley of well-known tunes based on a Mozart piece with an uncommonly similar name. Mozart’s piece is played in its entirely while successfully fending off attacks from over 50 other themes including “The Great Gates of Kiev,” “Turkey in the Straw,” the “Anvil Chorus,” and “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” Schickele lists this piece as his own but admits that when you’ve worked with a composer like P.D.Q. Bach for so long, some of P.D.Q. Bach’s musical influence “just rubs off.”
Philharmonia Northwest will also present “Concerto for Very Grand Piano,” featuring pianist Jeffrey Biegel. This piece was debuted by Biegel last fall with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. Biegel, who has a fine reputation as a solo artist, has dreamed of a collaboration with P.D.Q. Bach since he first met Schickele in the early 1980s. This piece, commissioned by 15 orchestras and many donors, has turned out to be the largest new P.D.Q. Bach piece to be “discovered” this century.
After a brief intermission, the concert resumes with the 100-member KCS performing the Liebesleider Polkas, a collection of pieces for mixed chorus and piano five hands. The Liebeslieder Polkas describe themselves as “the first opus of P.D.Q. Bach to be discovered in which he inflicted his music on the work of well-known poets, or even known poets, for that matter.” The concert concludes with the combined voices of KCS and the Lake Washington High School Choir, plus Philharmonia Northwest, all joining forces to present “The Seasonings,” the only oratorio written by P.D.Q. Bach, for which small favor, we must thank God. The Seasonings features many movements including “Tarragon of virtue is full,” “Bide thy thyme,” and “Summer is a cumin seed.”
Tickets for Kirkland Choral Society concerts are available at www.kirklandchoralsociety.com, by email at tickets@ KirklandChoralSociety.org, or by calling 425-442-9240.
