Masterworks can be dull.

Queer composer Ned Rorem once proposed that some enterprising Foundation hand out seven-figure checks to musical organizations promising to offer not new works, but the final performances ever of shopworn musical masterworks (ciao, Carmina Burana! Farewell, Mahler’s “Symphony of a Thousand!”). The idea did not, for the record, catch on.

However facetious Rorem may have been, he was on to something – it can be maddeningly dull to hear, again and again, some of the same classical music warhorses in concert, however “unique” their interpretations. So it’s with some trepidation that I recommend the Oregon Symphony’s 2008-09 official season-opening concerts this weekend, September 27-29 at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Why? Because standard rep is on the bill.

But the Symphony earned some goodwill from their stunning pre-season performance with chamber pop sensations Antony + The Johnsons, in collaboration with PICA. So I’ll let this one slide.

The works on tap for the big weekend? Beethoven’s blasting Symphony no. 9, with a roster of promising young vocal soloists and the Portland Symphonic Choir, and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ charming but slight Serenade to Music. Music director Carlos Kalmar leads both – tickets are available online here.