Week 29

It was the best of times…

BERLIOZ Romeo and Juliet
Valery Gergiev, conductor
Isabel Leonard, soprano
Michael Schade, tenor
Laurent Naouri, bass
Chicago Symphony Chorus

HERRMANN Psycho
HERRMANN The Trouble With Harry
HERRMANN Vertigo
HERRMANN Citizen Kane
INTERMISSION
HERRMANN Fahrenheit 451
HERRMANN Taxi Driver
HERRMANN North by Northwest
Joel McNeely, conductor
David New, narrator
Rebecca Davis, vocalist
Greg Cohen Quintet
Robert Burger, piano
Erik Charlston, percussion
Greg Cohen, bass
Marty Ehrlich, saxophone
Bill Frisell, guitar
Danny Kapilian, producer

Ars Viva
Sibelius Swan of Tuonela
SibeliusViolin Concerto (original version)
Hanson Symphony No. 2 (“Romantic”)
Alan Heatherington, conductor
Yang Liu, violin

Monday
7:30 MOB concert (St Matthew Passion)

Tuesday
1:30-3:30 4:30-7 rehearsals

Wednesday
1:30-3:30 4:30-7 rehearsals

Thursday
9-12 Ars Viva rehearsal
8 concert

Friday
12-3 rehearsal
8 concert (Film Night)

Saturday
10:30-1:30 Ars Viva rehearsal
8 concert

Sunday
2-5 Ars Viva rehearsal
7:30 Ars Viva concert

This week started in the heavens and ended in the sewer. I only wish I was being metaphoric.

The week began on a high note with the second performance of the St Matthew Passion by MOB at the Harris Theater.

At the other orchestra I work for Gergiev gave an impassioned rendition of the Berlioz, right on the edge of (and sometimes over into) chaos, but capturing the spirit of the piece quite well IMO. He did not conduct with a toothpick this time, only his ‘magic’ fingers flapping and wiggling like Montgomery Burns holding his hands up to a blow dryer. I really am quite fond of Gergiev and wish we would see more of him. Although in town for two weeks he is only conducting four concerts. Next week the Saturday concert is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of our chorus. This past Friday, Berlioz made way for Film Night. Both of those evenings Gergiev is back in New York conducting opera at the Met.

Film Night should probably be renamed Still Picture Night after this week’s performance. The Bernard Herrmann scores are some good (perhaps very good) movie music, the Greg Cohen Quintet made some intriguing things happen, but the visuals didn’t seem up to snuff. Perhaps an inability to obtain rights to use clips (or even stills) from the Hitchcock and Welles films made the presentation rely heavily on drawings of movie scenes and characters or photos of the composer shaking hands with directors. Admittedly, I was busy playing some of the time, but I recall glancing at the screen during one number and seeing a photo of Herrmann and Hitchcock standing together. A few minutes later, when I looked again, the same image was still there. North by Northwest, after what appeared to be stock images of Mt Rushmore, was represented by a series of scribbled pencil drawings. To top that off, the program seemed horribly out of balance. The first half dragged on for an interminable eighty minutes and did not end until twenty past nine. (I’m sure my opera-playing comrades are laughing, but I get very antsy when something goes on for more than an hour.) We took the stage again at 9:40 to begin the second half. Obviously fearing a sizeable overtime payment (per contract, an orchestral concert is considered overtime after two hours, fifteen minutes) the backstage bean counters made an artistic decision and cut some of the Jazz quintet material so the second half clocked in at thirty-six minutes.

Sorry to say, I don’t often read reviews, so I have no idea if critics attend these film night shows or if there is any oversight whatsoever for that matter. This program had a lot of musicians wondering what the heck we were doing. I’m curious to know if any audience members have opinions about these ‘concerts’.

Ars Viva had some problems booking rehearsal space this time around. Rehearsing the Hanson “Romantic” Symphony and Sibelius Swan of Tuonela at 9 AM (!) all but insures somnolence. On Saturday, let’s just say The North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie has a serious plumbing issue in the vicinity of their basement rehearsal room. As if twisting the knife, fate had us spending three hours of the first warm sunny day in months down there.

This week

This week’s CSO program

Zimmermann Stillness and Return
Schütz Psalm 100: Jauchzet dem Herren, SWV 36
INTERMSION
Rihm Das Lesen der Schrift
Brahms A German Requiem
Kent Nagano conductor
Celena Shafer soprano
Christian Gerhaher baritone
Chicago Symphony Chorus

This week’s Ars Viva program

Rimsky-Korsakov Russian Easter Overture
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2
TCHAIKOVSKY Pas de Deux from Sleeping Beauty
Igor Stravinsky Divertimento from The Fairy’s Kiss
Alan Heatherington, conductor
Andrew Mariano piano (winner of the Steinway Concerto Competition)

Monday
off

Tuesday
1:30-3:30 4:30-7 CSO rehearsals

Wednesday
1:30-3:30 4:30-7 CSO rehearsals

Thursday
2-5 Ars Viva rehearsal
8 CSO concert

Friday
8 CSO concert (run out to Madison WI)

Saturday
2-5 Ars Viva rehearsal
8 CSO concert

Sunday
12-3 Ars Viva rehearsal
4 Ars Viva concert

Monday
7:30 Ars Viva concert

Run out concerts are generally a drag – most of a day wasted. I’ve all but given up traveling with the orchestra on tours and run outs. Although I generally love all my colleagues, finding myself trapped with them on a bus or airplane sometimes severely tests those feelings. Run out concerts are an opportunity to take a road trip with my good friend and colleague Max Raimi. We each bring a few CDs for the trip and it’s a nice time. Most of my life takes place in the narrow strip of land along the Chicago lakefront between my house and orchestra hall, so taking a drive is a nice change of pace.

Some of that Ars Viva repertoire looks suspiciously like what the CSO performed two weeks ago…

The Ars Viva program had a few unfamiliar works on it – the Diamond and the Schuman, although during the first rehearsal, when we got to the slow movement of the Schuman I realized I had played it before – at the 1975 Congress of Strings in Seattle. Why the slow movement triggered such a distant memory, I have no idea.

Anyhow, between the Diamond, Schumann and Bartok it was the kind of concert where every piece is faster, more aggressive and thornier than the one before. The Diamond was mostly counting. Here are a couple passages from the Schuman.

1st movement theme

Finale opening

The Bartok is better known, I think. This passage always gets me

The above passage got a bit frantic at the concerts. By the time the basses entered the tempo heading off the scale – probably around 120 to the dotted quarter note, way too fast!

This week's schedule

This week’s CSO program

STRAUSS On the Beautiful Blue Danube
LIGETI Lontano
LIGETI Atmospheres
INTERMISSION
STRAUSS Also sprach Zarathustra
David Zinman conductor

Ars Viva program
HINDEMITH Trauermusik
DIAMOND Rounds
WILLIAM SCHUMAN Symphony for Strings
INTERMISSION
BARTOK Divertimento
Alan Heatherington conductor
Robert Swan viola

Sunday
2-5 Ars Viva rehearsal
7:30 Ars Viva concert

Monday
7:30 Ars Viva concert

Tuesday
10-12:30 1:30-3:30 CSO rehearsals

Wednesday
10:00-12:30 rehearsal

Thursday
10-12:30 CSO rehearsal
8 PM CSO concert

Friday
Teaching TBD
2-4:30 CSO rehearsal
8 PM CSO concert (film night)

Saturday
8 PM CSO concert

Sunday
Chicago Bass Ensenble rehearsal (Time TBA)

Yes, the Ars Viva concert was during the Super Bowl. That combined with the fact that the temperature was about zero at concert time whittled the audience down to a hundred hearty souls or less. Monday was a bit better, but if anything it was even colder so the mostly aged audience stayed away. The all 20th century program didn’t help either, I’m guessing. To top matters off, when I opened my case for the Monday concert, I discovered a big ugly crack on the top of my bass.

This week's CSO program

KODÁLY Concerto for Orchestra
GERSHWIN Piano Concerto
INTERMISSION
TÜÜR Zeitraum
LUTOSLAWSKI Concerto for Orchestra
Paavo Yärvi, conductor
Wayne Marshall, piano

This week's Ars Viva program

Mozart Overture to Lucio Silla, K. 135
Mozart Rondo in C, K. 373
MozartViolin Concerto No. 5 in A, K. 219
INTERMISSION
MozartSymphony No. 41 in C, K. 551 Jupiter
Alan Heatherington, conductor
David Taylor, violin

The Kodály and Tüür pieces I am sure are unknown to me. If I have ever played Mozart’s Overture to Lucio Silla I have no memory of it.

My work schedule

Monday
off

Tuesday
10 - 12:30
CSO rehearsal

Wednesday
10 - 12:30
1:30 - 3:30
CSO rehearsals

Thursday
10 - 12:30 CSO rehearsal
8 CSO concert

Friday
11 - 1 teaching
3- 6 Ars Viva rehearsal
8 CSO concert

Saturday
3 - 6 Ars Viva rehearsal
8 CSO concert

Sunday
2 - 5 Ars Viva rehearsal
7:30 Ars Viva concert

Monday
7:30 Ars Viva concert