A snow day in the city

Thursday night we were scheduled to go to a concert the the CSO - Pierre  Boulez conducting. The weather forecast was for double digits of snow. We did not want to miss the concert, so we decided to go downtown the night before the snow started to avoid the long commute and the possibility of getting stuck or sliding off the road. Whimpy, I know.



Next morning we were greeted with some snow - but not a lot. We decided to go to the Art Institute to spend the day, and go to the concert across the road in the evening.
Click to see the AIC pictures.
The concert was marvelous - Pierre Boulez at 85 was spry and active, and conducted a strong performance of "Bluebeard's Castle" by Bartok. Michelle DeYoung, mezzo-soprano and
Falk Struckmann, bass-baritone take their bows.

We had a great day.

"Le Tragedie de Carmen" at the Harris Theater

We went to see "La Tragedie de Carmen" produced by the Chicago Opera Theater at the Harris theater in Millenium Park last night. It is an interesting remix of Bizet's Carmen by Marius Constant. Same music (different sequence), smaller orchestra, condensed down to about 75 minutes by eliminating dancing, choruses, and happy parts. The whole cast plus the conductor appear in the photo above. Four of the six characters ended up dead. Two plus the conductor lived on.
The cast had great singing talent, with somwhat awkward acting by the Lead, Carmen.
We especially enjoyed the pre-concert talk by the assistant which gave us an insight into what Constant did, and why.

Shakespeare and Mozart's last works.

This week we went downtown to see two excellent productions - Shakespeare's last play - "The Tempest" and Mozart's last work - "La Clemenza di Tito".
Both were unusual and excellent productions.

"The Tempest" at Steppenwolf was played in non-traditional dress, with the players shunning traditional Shakespearean declamatory style in favor of totally modern prosody. The result was an enthralling performance.



"La Clemenza di Tito" was played on a simple, but credible, set. By any measure the Chicago Opera Theater is Chicago's second string Opera Company. However, this production was in no way inferior to anything produced by the Chicago Lyric Opera. The voices of the young singers were world class. I have no doubt that their names will become famous. Watch, in particular, for Dominic Armstrong, Charlotte Dobbs, and Renata Pokupic.

What is not mentioned in the course of the performance is that the Tito of the title is the Titus who destroyed the second Temple in Jerusalem!

Haitink and the Chicago Symphony

We listened to a program of Webern, Mahler and Schubert (The Great Symphony) at the CSO last night. Despite walking with the aid of a cane, Haitink delivered his usual masterful performance.

Le Sacre du Printemps

We went to the ballet this afternoon to see the Joffrey Ballet production of Le Sacre (Stravinsky's great genre shattering ballet), done so as to reproduce the original Ballet Russe production. It was good, but the orchestra was not as exciting as some recordings I have. Still, very interesting.

Parallel Operas - Bess and Lulu?

Last night we went to see "Porgy and Bess" at the Chicago Lyric Opera. We saw Lulu by Alban Berg a couple of weeks ago. The operas share were both written at the same time in the mid-30s, and focus on a women's relationship with several men. I enjoyed Lulu much more than Porgy and Bess - not a common view among my acquaintances in Chicago, several of whom did not stay for the whole work. My view of Porgy may be colored by my memories of the great jazz performances of some of Gershwin's melodies. The Ella Fitzgerald version below gives me goosebumps!



The operatic voices don't stand a chance.

Symphony - Murray Periah - Beethoven Piano Concerto #4

We went to the CSO tonight - overall a very good program:

Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Bernard Haitink, conductor
Murray Perahia, piano

Haydn -   Symphony No. 44 (Mourning)
Lutoslawski -   Symphony No. 4
Beethoven -   Piano Concerto No. 4

The pre-concert talk was given by Johann Buis, whose enthusiasm and knowledge always make for an entertaining lecture.
As the Lutoslawski ended, somebody rudely booed - presumably to display his displeasure at any music from the last century, or something.
The video below shows a much younger Murray Perahia playing the end of the Beethoven.

Another video of the whole last movement - better filmed, conducted by Colin Davis.

And finally, further from tonight's actual performance, but very interesting - Ricardo Muti (the next CSO Music Director) and Claudio Arrau rehearsing the Beethoven in mixed English and Italian:

CSO - Mahler's Symphony #2 - wonderful

Last night we went to the Chicago Symphony and heard Mahler's Symphony #2. Wonderful performance from the full orchestra and chorus - and the organ. A literally ground shaking event. After seeing and hearing the opera Lulu by Alban Berg the night before, I realized how much my taste in music has moved to the more modern - Mahler the bridge from the old and Berg the new.
This morning I heard that the Chicago Symphony has been voted the best symphony orchestra in the USA by the Gramophone Magazine critics - and fifth in the world. I feel privileged to be able to attend so many of their concerts.
The full listing is:

1 Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

2 Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

3 Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

4 London Symphony Orchestra

5 Chicago Symphony Orchestra

6 Bavarian Radio Symphony

7 Cleveland Orchestra

8 Los Angeles Philharmonic

9 Budapest Festival Orchestra

10 Dresden Staatskapelle

11 Boston Symphony Orchestra

12 New York Philharmonic

13 San Francisco Symphony

14 Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra

15 Russian National Orchestra

16 Leningrad Philharmonic

17 Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra

18 Metropolitan Opera Orchestra

19 Saito Kinen Symphony Orchestra

20 Czech Philharmonic

Source: Gramophone

Lulu

We went to the opera "Lulu" by Alban Berg last night. Magnificent!
This was the most integrated work I have ever seen. The music, lyrics, staging, plot, directing and acting combined to create an amazingly effective experience. Marlis Petersen in the title role was outstanding - singing and acting - and visibly aging as the plot progressed.

The director of Lulu...