The basic theme running through the enormous quantity of classical music Chicago hears during the nine months of our regular concert season never really changes.
It’s the individual variations on that theme-the occasional bracing dose of the new, the appearance of an original young talent, the off-the-wall venture that, against all odds, lifts the audience out of its seats-that juice up what can sometimes seem a dryly predictable concert life.
Consider Performing Arts Chicago, our ever-innovative, ever-daring purveyor of cutting-edge culture. Susan Lipman, PAC’s dauntless executive director, has been forced by circumstances to spread her 35th-anniversary musical offerings over eight different venues, a marketing director’s nightmare. An insurmountable obstacle? Lipman prefers to call it a “creative challenge.”
This year’s PAC agenda includes a program of Kurt Weill songs and songs associated with Edith Piaf and Marlene Dietrich, performed by the German-born chanteuse Ute Lemper Nov. 2, 4 and 5 at Park West. Minimalist avatars Michael Nyman (of “The Piano” film-score fame) and Philip Glass also will put in appearances. The Michael Nyman Band makes its local debut Oct. 6 at Park West. The Glass Ensemble and vocalists will present “La Belle et la Bete,” the second part of his trilogy of theater works incorporating films of Jean Cocteau, April 9 and 10 at the Shubert Theatre.
Along more traditional lines, PAC will present another installment in the estimable Richard Goode’s cycle of the Beethoven piano sonatas Oct. 16 in Evanston’s Pick-Staiger Hall. Two of our finest string quartets, the Arditti and the Emerson, will bring world premieres to Chicago: The Arditti and pianist Ursula Oppens unveil piano quintets by Charles Wuorinen and Henry Brant Feb. 19, while the Emerson plays a new bass quintet by Edgar Meyer March 25; both concerts will be at the Athenaeum Theatre.
And PAC’s resident Vermeer Quartet, the area’s premier string quartet, will celebrate its 25th anniversary with a four-concert season complete with such guest artists as violinists Joseph Silverstein and Arnold Steinhardt. The Vermeer series begins Dec. 11 at De Paul University Concert Hall in Lincoln Park.
Taking a leaf from Lipman’s notebook, Orchestra Hall will venture a crossover series of its own, featuring such artists as the Bulgarian State Female Vocal Choir, Oct. 10; percussion virtuosa Evelyn Glennie, Feb. 17; pianist Keith Jarrett, April 21; and the Fab Four of new quartet music, the Kronos Quartet, May 21.
Listeners in search of something different also will want to direct their attention to the University of Chicago, where early music and contemporary music beckon. The early music series will include Italian Renaissance works performed by Pomerium, Alexander Blachly directing, Nov. 11; and music from the medieval pilgrimage routes as played by the Ensemble Project Ars Nova, Dec. 2.
As for new works, the Lark Quintet and guest artists will celebrate the music of Shulamit Ran, composer-in-residence at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Lyric Opera, Dec. 9. The Contemporary Chamber Players will begin their season April 2. Pomerium will appear at the U. of C.’s Rockefeller Chapel; other events take place at Mandel Hall.
Orchestra Hall will play host to its usual lavish parade of music, both home-grown and imported. Soprano Kathleen Battle is scheduled to join the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and music director Daniel Barenboim for a pension-fund gala concert Friday. Old friends Itzhak Perlman, violin, and Barenboim, piano, will launch this year’s Lexus Great Performers Series Sept. 26.
No fewer than eight visiting orchestras will grace Orchestra Hall under the Great Performers Series banner.
Back after a long absence is the Cleveland Orchestra, music director Christoph von Dohnanyi conducting, Feb. 1. Other anticipated visitors include the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly, April 7; and the Met Orchestra under music director James Levine, May 10.
Leading off the Piano Series, long an Orchestra Hall mainstay, will be sibling duo-pianists Anthony and Joseph Paratore, Oct. 16. Other pianists gracing the 10-concert series include Alicia de Larrocha, Oct. 30; and Jorge Federico Osorio, Feb. 12.
The CSO Chamber Music Series again will be divided between venues on either side of Michigan Avenue. Music and visual art will gather under several thematic umbrellas in the Sundays at the Art Institute Series, entering its fourth season Nov. 6. Among this year’s more promising programs: “Louis Sullivan’s Chicago” and “Monet Expressions.” Also, the Grainger Ballroom at Orchestra Hall will play host to six chamber programs by CSO instrumentalists Sunday evenings beginning Oct. 23.
Chicago’s oldest and most successful producer of the 17th and 18th Century choral-orchestral repertoire, Music of the Baroque, has lined up four concert performances of Monteverdi’s glorious 1642 opera about sex and power politics, “The Coronation of Poppea,” beginning March 27. Thomas Wikman also will preside over Bach cantatas in fall and winter concerts (various locations).
Also on the early music front, director and gambist Mary Springfels and her period-instruments ensemble, the Newberry Consort, will celebrate their 12th season with four concerts featuring works from Arthurian romances to Handel cantatas. The season begins Sept. 29 with a program designed to complement the Newberry Library exhibition “King Arthur in Word and Image.” The season finale May 4-6 will mark the 300th anniversary of Henry Purcell’s death, in a collaboration with the Boston string ensemble The King’s Noyse.
His Majestie’s Clerkes and the Chicago Baroque Ensemble will join the Purcell celebration with a collaboration featuring verse anthems and occasional works, April 22 to 30 (various locations).
While we are on the subject of chamber music, let’s not forget that the Rising Stars at Ravinia series again will showcase some of the world’s most promising young talent, in concerts running from October to May in Ravinia’s Bennett Hall, Highland Park. Prize-winning American pianist Kevin Kenner kicks things off with a recital Oct. 28.
For 1994-95, the Northwestern University School of Music is readying a lineup that includes the Summit Brass, Oct. 7, and pianist Ursula Oppens, Jan. 20. Concerts will be held in Evanston’s Pick-Staiger Hall.
Three small orchestras-Concertante di Chicago, Chicago String Ensemble and Chicago Sinfonietta-again will lay some tempting musical wares before the public.
Concertante will kick off its 10th anniversary Oct. 20 and 23 with “Festival Italiano,” with Italian orchestral, concertante and vocal music. Hilel Kagan is music director (De Paul University Concert Hall and Cove Auditorium, Winnetka).
The Chicago String Ensemble under music director Alan Heatherington will begin its 18th season with an all-baroque program featuring violinist Samuel Thaviu, Oct. 14-16. Programs Jan. 20-21 include world premieres by Robert Lombardo, David Bernstein and David Zabriskie (various Near North and suburban venues).
American pianist Leon Bates and the young Russian cellist Boris Strulev will team up with conductor Paul Freeman and the Chicago Sinfonietta for the ensemble’s opening concerts Oct. 9 and 12, a program that includes a work by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. Another season highlight is a Jan. 18 memorial concert in honor of Martin Luther King. In addition to Orchestra Hall, concerts are held at Rosary College, River Forest.
We’ll take a look at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra season next week.
