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This report is intended mainly for our CUBE mutual friend and oboeist ‘Trisha Morehead.

Today at the 12:15 Classical Monday concert series at the Chicago Cultural Center,
a young oboe player named Jennet Ingle went 45 minutes with music by Telemann,
Madaline Dring, Antonio Pasculli and then more Telemann to finish off.

It’s not very often the oboe is featured as the star player in a recital. There
was piano accompaniment by Paul Hamilton, but it faded into the background
compared by the spectacular oboe-ising of Jennet.

This’s got me all tuned-up for the ICE battle of the oboes Feb 10th at MoCP.

After Thursday’s rehearsal I had great expectations for a great CSO concert
Saturday night. I was definitely granted what I wished.

The concert proceeded in reverse order from the rehearsal: Boulez, Bartok
& Stravinsky.

As I said in my previous blog, the Boulez Livre pour cordes is as old as I am,
but seems so new.

And unlike the rehearsal of Bartok’s Concerto for two Pianos, Percussion
and Orchestra, Katinka and her stand-mate’s music stand didn’t telescope down
to the two-foot level and Cynthia Yeh and the Maestro reconciled a discrepancy
between the percussion sheet music and conductor’s score.

The Firebird was magical as it was intended. To hear the full orchestra bring
it to a close is one of those experiences that makes life worth living.

–
Bruce

For those who weren’t by an FM radio today at lunchtime, the
PianoForte Foundation presented the Accessible Contemporary
Music’s Palomar Ensemble for a concert of music by living composers.

On the program were:

Mulatash Stomp by Derek Bermel
Nachgesang by Philippe Hersant
Talking from a three moment piece by Seth Boustead, Dissonance Still Talking
Breakdown Tango by Johan Mackey

All of these pieces were flawlessly performed by Hulya Alpakin (piano),
Alyson Berger (cello), Ellen McSweeney (violin) and KT Somero (clarinet).

Palomar artistic director Francesco Milioto did an excellent job narrating
us throught the pieces. And Seth humbly accepted the gratitude of the
audience after his piece.

Being known for the accessibility of their repertoire, I don’t think too many
WFMT listeners went catatonic or had their heads explode during this
broadcast. All the listeners in the hall appreciated it very much.

–
Bruce

This morning I had the opportunity to attend an open rehearsal
by the CSO under Pierre Boulez in preparation for this weeks
concerts.

The program includes a piece by Boulez written in 1948, one
by Bartok from 1937 and Stravinsky’s Firebird from 1910. All
of these pieces would be considered new music by most of
the CSO audience. I’ll enjoy hearing them again Saturday night
at the real performance, but I wonder if most of the audience
will appreciate them.

For rehearsal, the Firebird was performed first, although it’ll
be last for the real concert. It’s one of those ballet scores
that seems kind of empty without seeing the dancers, but
the finale is still awe inspiring. 1910? Indeed.

The Bartok Concerto for two Pianos, Percussion and Orchestra
was new to me, but I was happy to see percussionists
Cynthia Yeh and Vadim Karpinos featured up front with the two
pianos played by Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich.
At rehearsal there was much discussion about the pianos.
The one in the front already had its lid removed, but the one
behind had it’s lid on and Pierre-Laurent couldn’t see the Maestro
over it. So four union guys pulled the hinge pins and took the
lid off. It’s a great piece with a subtle ending.

Boulez’s Livre pour cordes was all strings and was very pleasant
considering it was composed the year I was born
–
Bruce

According to Shulamit Ran’s last Contempo concert, there’s room
for this genre in the music lover’s backpack too…

Sunday afternoon, January 17th, there was a concert I couldn’t pass up,
even if it conflicted with New Music at the Green Mill. Loyola U was
presenting a sacred music concert at their renovated Madonna della
Strada Chapel. I’ve been by the Loyola Lakeside Campus dozens of
times driving up to Pick-Staiger or Red-lining to Uncommon Ground.
But in the past four years, I’ve never seen a concert happening there
in the weekly listings.

VOX 3 was the first. They presented a sacred music concert that ranged
from early renaissance to modern Anglican church service. VOX 3 is a
group of 15 or so musicians whom I never heard of. Mostly vocalists, but
augmented by violins, cello and keyboard. James Morehead played
harpsichord and Loyolan Steven Betancourt played organ for this concert.

There was a very full program with just about every combination of
vocals and instruments. I hope your Latin or French is still workable:

Orlando di Lasso – Musica dei donum optimi (1594).
A-capella choir from the back of the chapel started the concert
with wonder and awe.

Barbara Strozzi – Gaude Virgo (1655).
Rebecca Prescott, soprano with harpsichord and cello continuo.

Giovanni Legrenzi – Ave regina caelorum (1660).
Heather De Souza, soprano and Angela Young Smucker, mezzo
with harpsichord and cello continuo. This remined me of the
final heart piercing duet at the end of Monteverdi’s L’ Incoronazione
de Poppea.
>> Best of Show <<

Alessandro Grandi – O intemerata (1627).
Two mezzos with organ, sung from the organ loft.

Henry Purcell – Lord, What is Man? (1683).
Oliver Camacho, tenor, with harpsichord and cello continuo.

Antonio Vivaldi – Sanctorum Meritis (1720).
Rachel Frye, soprano, with duo violin accompaniment.
So Four Seasons!

Claudio Monteverdi – Sancta Maria (1618).
Alexia Kruger and Kimberly Gunderson, antiphonal sopranos
on opposite sides of the organ loft, were accompanied by the
organ. (All of the following were also performed fom the organ
loft, so there was much craning of the necks to see what was
happening.)

Claudio Monteverdi – Nisi Dominus a tre voci e duoi violini (1650).
The three voices were Ashlee Hardgrave, soprano, Matt Newlin,
tenor and Brian von Rueden, baritone. The two violins were
Daniel Moss & Heather De Souza. You can hear this composed
during time Monteverdi was dragging music into the new secular era.

Georg Telemann – Laudate Jehovam omnes gentes (1758).
This was performed by the full ensemble and organ directed
by James Morehead.

Louis Lefebure-Wely – Andante from Choeur de Voix humaines.
Organ solo. It’s a beautiful church organ. I’d estimate the
free-standing organ case in the loft to be 30 feet across.

Francis Poulenc – Litanies a la vierge noire (1936).
Organ and women’s choir. The men will get their chance later.

Jeanne Demessieux – Choral prelude In Manus Tuas.
Organ solo.

Maurice Duruffle – Kyrie from Messe “Cum Jublio” (1966).
The men sing a short piece just to justify their existence.

Herbert Howells – Magnificat and Nunc dimittis from the
Gloucester Cathedral Mass (1936). The finale for full choir and
organ was modern, but Howells managed to preserve the
high rising voices of the traditional English cathedral choir.

======

Please visit http://www.vox3.org/ for more info on this interesting group.
In April they’ll be singing new vocal works by Chicago composers.

If you’re ever in the Loyola Lakeside area, walk about two blocks North
from the Devon/Kenmore bus stop, look toward the lake and you can’t
miss the Madonna dell Strada Chapel. It’s very unusual in its Art Deco
architectural style. Go inside for a visual treat. And visit here for more info:
http://www.luc.edu/sacramental_life/Madonna_Della_Strada_Renovation.shtml
http://www.luc.edu/sacramental_life/organ/
–
Bruce

The Harris Theater presented The U of C’s Contempo ensemble and
a Jazz Duo on Saturday, January 16th.

Shulamit Ran introduced the program to the audience as she usually does.
The first part of this program was a “Rands sandwich”, with the main work by
Bernard Rands preceded by a work from Shawn Brogan Allison and followed
by a work from Yu-Hui Chang. All three composers were in attendance and took
their bows. Musicians from eighth blackbird constituted the backbone of the
team, with others brought in as required.

Towards the Flame (2009) – Shawn Brogan Allison (b. 1976)

This work for violin, flute, cello and percussion was a reprise from last season’s
Tomorrow’s Music Today. It was performed well, so let’s move on…

“now again” fragments from Sappho (2006) – Bernard Rands (b. 1934)

There was an enlightening introduction by Bernard. He told us about his
lifelong interest in literature and poetry and how they influenced many
of his compositions, including this one. There is only one known complete
poem by Sappho, but lots of “fragments”. Bernard collected his own
fragments from this broad pallet to musically express in this composition.

The music takes the form a narrative sung by mezzo Suzanne Mentzer
accompanied by the “Greek Chorus” of soprano Amy Conn and alto
Nina Heebink. A very diverse instrumental ensemble provided the
right environment to support the plaintive vocals.

And FYI: Bernard recently completed his first opera, called Vincent,
based on letters by van Gogh. I look forward to the 1st production
(in Amsterdam?).

Bing Delirium (2007) – Yu-Hui Chang (b. 1970)

eighth blackbird’s Matthew Duvall, who performed in everything above,
put the cap on the contemporary half of the concert with this solo
for non-pitched percussion. It got jazz-improv-like at the end, providing
a segue into the 2nd half.

Before the second half, Shulamit felt the need to address the audience
about the theme of this concert, i.e.: how jazz intersects with contemporary
music. She made the point that listeners my be divided as to what type
of music they like, but for musicians, music is music. And it’s not uncommon
to have musicians crossover genres. Not being a jazz fan, I thought I’d
put this proposition to the test.

September Song (1938) – Kurt Weill (1900-1950)

This classic song of melancholy was sung by Mentzer accompanied by
eighth blackbird’s Lisa Kaplan. Near the end, the jazz duo of Chris Potter
and Kenny Werner (sax & piano) moved in and took over the stage to complete
the song.

Chris and Kenny then played four compositions of their own with several
improvised cadenzas (I’m sure jazz aficionados don’t call them that).
I’d say this duo was the idea choice by Shulamit to make her point.
The mood was contemplative and the sax playing would’ve been at home
in any contemporary music setting. In one piece, the pianist did some
piano case and string banging like some contemporary pieces. They
finished with an arrangement of a flute Raga.

But wait… after a standing ov, there was an improvised encore, which
was where they lost me. Not contemplative jazz anymore. Good bye.
–
Bruce Oltman

On Monday the 4th a new configuration of contemporary musicians surfaced at the rather obscure Heaven Gallery at 1550 N Milwaukee in Wicker Park.

But first, let me digress. On the way up to North & Damen, I got on the Blue Line at the Monroe platform. There was a older Chinese man there playing Greensleeves on boombox what I think was a Yehu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yehu. This might’ve been the one and only time I dropped a dollar in the hat of a subway performer.

The Heaven Gallery is upstairs at 1550 and has hosted at least one concert I’ve attended with bass clarinet and sax, the “Lowfirm” subdivision of ICE. This time the audience was mostly 20-plus-ers except for me, Pat Morehead, and two or three others who had some gray hair.

Performing that night were two new ensembles, probably put together by
dal niente cellist on hiatus studying in NYC, Isabel Castellvi. They’re “Stereo” and “The Bell Cycle”. Stereo is the clarinet duo Alejandro Acierto and Jake Wise, this time accompanied by a vocalist and laptop player Odeya Nini. The Bell Cycle is Isabel singing and playing guitar & cello with Shawn Barnett on violin and Mitch van Dusen on percussion.

Isabel was wearing a Cub Scout shirt she insisted she found on the street. But I think she really mugged a Cub Scout in Central Park to get it. Oh well.

The approximately 30 minute opening set by Stereo started with dual clarinets producing some awesome beat-frequencies from close harmony. Then Odeya kicked-in with taps on an old Smith-Corona student typewriter (as if composing a letter to a friend). About half-way through this piece, Jake started to look weird (like a baby alien might pop out of his belly), but instead he sat down on a stool and broke down his clarinet and proceeded to clean out the crevices in his boots with a protruding silver key from the middle section of his clarinet!
But this was nothing in comparison to the next phase. Jake seemed to be
transformed to some kind of “White Worm” crawling on his belly on the floor while breathing heavily through the bottom section of his clarinet. [Eat your heart out Christie Miller] (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lair_of_the_White_Worm
for my association with this theatricality.) On the way back from from the center aisle, Jake turned over on his butt and was stroking and pounding the keys of the clarinet. The piece finally ended up with moans from Odeyand clarinet tapping from Alejandro and Jake with Odeya pulling the letter out of the typewriter and wrinkling it up and throwing it away. Then there was a break with wine, which was welcome because of the intensity of the last half hour.

After the break, The Bell Cycle took over. Isabel, who I didn’t know was
proficient on the guitar or vocals, sang several “atmospheric” songs
reminiscent of Natalie Merchant & 10,000 Maniacs. Mitch, the percussionist surprised me with some innovative playing of a limp plastic bag with brushes, and later with a tin bucket and then even later with a plastic bag over a tabla.

After more wine there was a group improv. And this time and old decrepit Merrill (of Boston) upright piano was included. It had only 6 out of 12 hammers in the top octave. But as Isabel told me, “We don’t need all those dumb high notes”. Mitch played the good middle octaves for a while and then crouched down to hit piano strings directly with his mallets while the rest of the mixed group droned and sang to a conclusion that deserved an encore. After the applause, there was much meeting and greeting.

BTW, During the early warm-ups, Odeya was messing with a Honer squeezbox and a small paper-tape music box. Unfortunately because of the improv nature of the concert, she never got to play either of those instruments.

Bruce Oltman

It’s been a long dry spell since the last performance I attended in 2009,
a Dame Myra Hess piano recital by May Phang on December 23rd.
May began with Scarlatti (Kirkpatrick #213, for those who know them
by number Not being the warhorse sonata (K. 380) we all hear all the time,
I enjoyed it and then the follow-up of “Etude Homage Scarlatti” by Marc-Andre
Hamelin. Having been satisfied by the 1st two pieces, I escaped before the
Johann Neppomuk Hummel and Gershwin Broadway songs hit the fan.

In between the two holidays, there was “Icarus” playing at Lookingglass that
sounded interesting, but turned out to be very less than expected. It was a
hodge-podge of Greek mythology with the story of Icarus & Daedalus tacked on,
presumably to put it in context. If any reader has seen it you’ll know what I
mean when I say it had some significant “baggage” dragging along and had
“strings attached”. If you’re curious and like a good aerial performance don’t
hesitate to see it.

So into January 2010…

The 1st Monday of the month concert by the Chicago Chamber Musicians
at lunchtime under the Tiffany Dome was devoted to a single work (unusual
for the Cultural Center), the Dvorak Piano Trio in f minor. It was performed
by Jasmine Lin violin, Wendy Warner cello and Meng-Chieh Liu on piano.
Meng announced that this was one of most romantic trios by Dvorak and
the ensemble will be playing it at an alumni reunion at the Curtis Institute
in Philly this spring.

After a 40 minute performance the nearly-packed house expressed their
appreciation to the players. Afterward, several piano aficionados (and me)
walked up to stage to see the electronic tablet that Meng was using on
the music stand. I’ve seen it before but never got this close. It was a tablet
ala Kindle, but larger and made by Fujitsu. Page flipping was by a wireless
BlueTooth connection to a foot-pedal Meng had by his left foot.

Later in the day I went to a performance by the new mix & match ensembles
of Stereo and The Bell Cycle in Wicker park. With that teaser, I’ll post my
complete thoughts on this amazing concert later…

Bruce Oltman