Olympic Music fest's last hurrah of season

They're saving what might be the best for the last at the Olympic Music Festival, where Bach's landmark "Goldberg Variations" is on offer Saturday and Sunday. Bay Area pianist Paul Hersh will be the soloist; he also opened this year's festival in June with a solo recital, so there's a certain symmetry in this conclusion.

The two programs this weekend, both starting at 2 p.m., are slightly different. Saturday's performance includes Schubert's big Sonata in B-Flat Major (Opus Posthumous) along with the Goldbergs.

The Sunday concert has just the Goldbergs, along with a pair of auctions: a silent auction, opening at noon, and a live auction following the performance. Bidder packets may be reserved at 206-527-8839 or by e-mail at info@olympicmusicfestival.org.

Included in the $5 bidder packet: three glasses of wine, hors d'oeuvres and an auction catalog of items donated by a long lineup of groups and individuals. These include: ACT Theatre, Bon Vivant School of Cooking, Bellevue Art Museum, Dimitriou's Jazz Alley, Emerald Downs, Eastlake Bar and Grill, Hoodsport Winery, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Pacific Science Center, Poulsbo Inn and Suites, Seattle Mariners, Seattle Opera, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Tillicum Village & Tours and Teatro Zinzanni (among many others).

The Olympic Music Festival, which draws more than 12,000 visitors each summer, was founded in 1984 by violist Alan Iglitzin (then of the Philadelphia String Quartet) as the quartet's summer home. A barn on the 1890s dairy farm proved an ideal site for concerts, and the festival quickly expanded from three weekends to 12.

The bucolic surroundings, on the Olympic Peninsula near Quilcene, Jefferson County, and just west of the Hood Canal Bridge, attract families, groups, senior citizens and all sorts of music lovers, who come to picnic and stroll the grounds as well as sit on the hay bales (and more traditional seating, too) in the barn.

Lawn seating outside also is available, a good option for families with wiggly children, or sun worshippers. (No dogs, except for service canines; they excite the donkeys and cause them to bray during the concerts.)

Classical-music previews

You'll find ticket info and driving directions at 206-527-8839, or www.olympicmusicfestival.org.

On Hood Canal, the first season of the Annas Bay Music Festival continues this weekend with a lineup of American song, including today's 2 p.m. "American Women" concert (Amy Beach's Piano Quintet and Ellen Taafe Zwilich's Chamber Symphony). A 4:30 p.m. "Voices of America" concert and an 8 p.m. "Other Voices" program will be followed Saturday by another round of concerts, concluding with the 8 p.m. "Opera à la Carte" program with noted baritone Robert Orth among the performers. (Orth is a previous winner of the Seattle Opera "Artist of the Year" award.)

Sunday's Annas Bay events include an 8 p.m. program called "Martha Graham: An American Legend," with Copland's popular "Appalachian Spring" and other ballet scores performed by the South Shore Chamber Orchestra (Jerrod Wendland, conductor).

A commemoration of the Sept. 11 terror attacks will be held at 2 p.m. Monday, with a program of contemporary music including Peter Winkler's "Requiem Aeternam," along with other choral and chamber-orchestra works of Argento, Tower, Thompson, Barber, Harrison, Wuorinen, Kirke Mechem and John Cage (his "4:33," essentially a span of silence lasting four minutes, 33 seconds).

For information, driving directions and tickets, consult the Web site, www.annasbay.org.

Want to hear the "William Tell" Overture live? And the hot young Chinese-born pianist whom everyone's talking about, Lang Lang, playing Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini"? Tickets are going fast for the Seattle Symphony's Opening Night Gala, at 7 p.m. Sept. 16 in Benaroya Hall (206-215-4747).

Melinda Bargreen: mbargreen@seattletimes.com