By Andrew Moore

outh-watering music.

That’s how Murry Sidlin, the artistic director of the Cascade Festival of Music, described this year’s festival. Kicking off Saturday and lasting eight nights, the concert series features a top-notch symphony orchestra, world-class soloists, a lively array of world music acts and some celebrity talent to help the festival mark its 25th birthday.

Not to mention great music.

”We’ve chosen (a program) that celebrates,” said Sidlin. ”These are pieces, musical compositions, which I think are very expressive, powerful, dramatic and poetic … a music spectacle for the whole week.”

It’s the festival’s silver anniversary, and there is a plentiful variety of music to help newcomers and longtime fans celebrate.

Things get going Saturday with the first of the festival’s four classical concerts, featuring Rimsky-Korsakov’s ”Scheherazade” and Dvorak’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra.

The opening piece, ”Schehera-zade,” is a symphonic ode to the medieval Middle Eastern epic ”Arabian Nights.” Rimsky-Korsakov, a Russian who died in 1908, was fascinated by the Mideast, according to ”The Essential Canon of Classical Music” by David Dubal. It consists of four movements, and will feature the festival’s concertmaster, Ron Blessinger, on violin.

The concert’s second piece is Dvorak’s cello concerto, which guest cellist Lynn Harrell calls ”the greatest cello concerto ever written.”

It was written during Dvorak’s long stay in New York City, and inspired by the death of his first love, Harrell said.

”It’s strong and powerful and tender and intimate and, of course, the inner meaning of the piece, as a love song for his departed first love, is very poignant also,” said Harrell.

For more information on Harrell, see the story on Page 31.

Sunday, the festival shifts musical gears, to present a world music concert featuring Pepe and the Bottle Blondes. Although hailing from Portland, the 12-member group spans the globe with its music, which has a distinct tropical, south-of-the-border feel that has been characterized as ”Copacabana-style.”

The group is led by Pepe Raphael, a Spaniard who used to sing with Pink Martini. Raphael, a tenor, also sang on the festival’s recording of the tango operetta ”Maria de Buenos Aires,” which will be available for sale throughout the festival.

Monday is a return to classical music, with performances of the Stokowski transcription of Bach’s Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concert No. 1 with guest pianist Horacio Gutierrez, and Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2.

Gutierrez, a native Cuban who fled the island with his family before his 13th birthday, first played the Tchaikovsky concerto when he was 16. Gutierrez, who will turn 58 on Monday, has played it sporadically since then, but this performance will be just the second in 12 years. The first was earlier this month at the Bellingham Festival of Music.

”It’s such a great piece,” said Gutierrez. ”From the point of view of the audience, it has beautiful melodies, excitement, rhythmic vitality, very colorful textures and emotional power. From the point of view of the pianist, you are amazed at the genius, how (Tchaikovsky) was able to write a concerto unlike any other.

Gutierrez, who lives in New York City, said the concerto is also notable because Tchaikovsky was not really a pianist, adding that the composer was told the piece was unplayable when he unveiled it.

”It is extremely difficult to play, and at the same time, it sounds so wonderfully written for the piano,” said Gutierrez.

Tuesday is another thematic switch, this time to rhythm and blues. The festival presents ”A Tribute to Ray Charles,” featuring more than 20 jazz and blues musicians from Oregon, who will deliver renditions of many of Charles’ standards, including ”Georgia on My Mind,” ”What I Say” and ”Mess Around.”

Sidlin, who returns for his 11th festival, programs the festival’s world music acts in conjunction with the festival office. Folk music, he believes, is the root of most classical music, and the same holds true in America, vis-a-vis the blues.

”We try to vary the (concerts) and bring in organizations that are high quality and that I think our audience will like,” added Sidlin. ”I think that after 10 programs so far, I have a pretty good idea of what our audience enjoys. If we present it, it’s probably pretty good.”

Wednesday is a return to classical music, with a concert featuring Bizet’s Symphony in C, Ravel’s Suite No. 2 from ”Daphne et Chloe,” and Beethoven’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra with guest violinist Elmar Oliveira.

Oliveira, another New Yorker, loves the Beethoven concerto for its simplicity and believes it’s the greatest violin concerto ever written.

”Of course, it’s very personal, but the thing about the violin concerto, it’s made up of simple scales and arpeggios, that’s basically all it is, and yet the substance of the music is so profound that there’s nothing to compare it to,” said Oliveira. ”Often you hear people say simplicity is the closest thing to perfection; that’s really what this concerto is all about.”

Oliveira, 56, has never been to Central Oregon, and is excited to perform with Sidlin. Although the two have known each other for close to 30 years, they have never shared a stage, Oliveira said.

Thursday, get ready to party, and with none other than Doc Severinsen. A television fixture for more than 30 years as the leader of Johnny Carson’s TV band, Severinsen is also a native Oregonian. He was born in Arlington, near Hermiston, in 1927, and is as serious about music as his suits are loud.

Severinsen couldn’t be reached for this story as he is in the process of moving to Mexico, said his agent. Of course, he’ll back in time for Thursday’s concert, which will feature Severinsen as guest conductor, leading the festival orchestra in a variety of jazz and pop standards.

The concert will also be the festival’s official birthday, so a fireworks display is planned over Mirror Pond after the concert, and cake will be served to the public.

Friday, Sept. 1, it’s another world music concert. This time the highlight is Great Britain, by way of Canada. The band Leahy hails from Ontario, but the eight-member group of brothers and sisters is all about traditional and contemporary Celtic music.

On Saturday, Sept. 2, the festival closes with a classical music concert featuring Dvorak’s ”New World Symphony,” Gershwin’s Concerto in F for Piano and Orchestra with guest pianist Jeffrey Siegel, and Strauss’ Orchestral Suite from ”Der Rosenkavalier.”

Siegel, who also lives in New York City, is becoming a fixture in Bend. He performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 at last year’s festival, and also appeared at a November concert at the Tower Theatre with the Sunriver Music Festival. It is rare, he said, for musicians to be invited to festivals back-to-back, and for that honor, he is thankful.

”It very rarely happens in my profession,” said Siegel. ”I’m very touched, very honored, and much looking forward to playing with Murry and the orchestra.”

His piece will be Gershwin’s piano and orchestra concerto. It is a melodious piece, Siegel said, ”with a lot of quick, jazzy, really engaging rhythm.”

”Gershwin is one of these rare, special composers who had one foot in the jazz hall and one foot in the concert hall,” Siegel added. ”In particular, this work is a great marriage between the jazz idiom and classical music.”

The pops concert is sold out, but tickets are still available for the rest of the concerts. All concerts are held under the festival tent in Drake Park. Non-ticketholders can listen to the concerts outside the tent.

In addition, each of the festival orchestra’s rehearsals are free, except for the pops concert rehearsal. For times, see the accompanying schedule.

If You Go

What: The 25th annual Cascade Festival of Music

When: Through Sept. 2, see accompanying schedule

Where: Drake Park, Bend

Cost: $38, $29, $15

Contact: 382-8381 or www.cascademusic.org