Soft-spoken, self-effacing, shy-to-a-fault Helmuth Rilling is a walking, amazing contradiction. One moment, he blends into the landscape so that you can't spot him at all; the next, he presides effortlessly over 200 musicians at a Mahler Second Symphony rehearsal as they play through enormously difficult dynamic changes. At 66 (young for a great conductor), he is constantly on the move, with the Stuttgart-Oregon-Caracas circuit just one of his appointed rounds. But most notably, this man who is genuinely uninterested in publicity or "fame," is engaged in projects that boggle the mind. While in the middle of a 160-CD recording project of all of Bach's 1,126 catalogued works (including hundreds to be recorded for the first time), Rilling is... commissioning new works! And his new project is not just a work here and something new there: it's a big, comprehensive, bold venture. For the European Music Festival of Aug. 27 - Sept. 10, next year, Rilling will celebrate "Passion 2000" with his Bach Collegium Stuttgart performing four newly-commissioned, major works telling the story of Christ: * Tan Dun -- St. Matthew Passion * Osvaldo Golijov -- St. Mark Passion * Wolfgang Rihm -- St. Luke Passion * Sofia Gubaidulina -- St. John Passion Bach's own St. Mark and St. John Passions will frame the new works. It is also known at this point that Rilling will present the St. John and St. Matthew Passions (along with the B Minor Mass) here, at the Oregon Bach Festival, next June-July, but the intriguing possibility is a "way out of town" preview or at least rehearsal in Eugene for the Stuttgart celebration. But right now, Rilling is concentrating on the "Resurrection" Symphony so much that he is even conducting choral rehearsals himself. And then he'll receive a honorary degree from the picky University of Oregon, only the third one in its 123-year history. (An eclectic bunch: the other honors went to Mark Hatfield and Cory Aquino.) The recognition is for Rilling's work in founding the festival and sustaining it each and every season, for 30 years. Janos Gereben/SF (in Eugene to 7/11) [log in to unmask]