Sergey Antonov's West Coast debut: From Moscow to Astoria, Oregon

Last night was special at the Liberty Theatre in Astoria, Oregon. Bright young star cellist, Sergey Antonov played, backed by the Astoria Festival Orchestra and conducted by Keith Clark. Eternal thanks to Stephanie Roley of Area Properties for dragging me away from my computer work on a Saturday evening. I have to admit that I would have gone in a flash if I'd known that Charlie Musselwhite, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, or J.J. Cale were playing (you get the picture), and I deliberated . . . fix the busted HTML on my web site, or go listen to orchestral music? When Stephanie told me that "this guy" was probably going to be considered the next "world's best cellist," I decided I shouldn't miss the opportunity. I was so glad I went.

I try to limit my Astoria, Oregon, Daily Photo posts to one photo per day as set out by the City Daily Photo guidelines, but today I'm making an exception. Here's Sergey at work (or play) and below, I've linked to a YouTube video so you can see what the fuss is about. Sergey was born into a family of Russian cellists, which should tell you something right there, and already at 25, his credentials are a mile long. The late Mtislav Rostropovich called him "a brilliant cellist," and there are quite a few folks online who already like him better than Yo Yo Ma. "Plays with passion" is a phrase I'm seeing a lot. Even with my limited involvement with classical music, other than the chamber music and Medieval I enjoy listening to, I was immediately drawn in, felt and heard the atmosphere turn to pure beauty (the acoustics in the Liberty were superb), and I now have another icon to add to my list of musicians born to make the heart sing. The piece was Tchaikovsky's "Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op 33." What more can I say? Click on the YouTube video:

On Sunday night I got e-mail from Charles Noble, Assistant Principal Violist with the Oregon Symphony, asking if he might use my photos on his blog. Charles is the guy on the far right in the top photo. I appreciated the complement, and you can see the pix again with his description of the weekend and the performances here. Be sure to click on the "read more" button to get the full story. At the bottom there's a link to Charles' Flickr slideshow of the weekend with scenes of Astoria, food, practice, Sunday Market, and the beach. Have fun!