Symphonic conductors in the United States once fought to secure a place for American music in the concert hall. They won the battle, but apart from a small number of signature pieces, composers who once defined American music now are heard less often outside the cities where they initially were championed.
Wednesday night’s concert by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra addressed that condition by representing American masters — Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber — and their heirs — Leonard Bernstein, John Corigliano.
The enterprising program of resident conductor William Eddins began with Barber’s “Toccata festiva” for organ and orchestra. Written in 1960 as a display piece, it lacks the classic balance of Barber’s violin and piano concertos. Still, its bravura is stunning, as soloist David Schrader’s performance showed, and as a surefire program-opener, it outstrips the only other significant American candidate for organ and orchestra, Walter Piston’s Prelude and Allegro.
Corigliano’s “Phantasmagoria,” music recycled from his opera, “The Ghosts of Versailles,” proved more problematical. He shares Barber’s desire to write communicative music that is not necessarily difficult. But often his eclectic, postmodernist style has revealed only efficiency and theatrics.
Both were present Wednesday in a piece that’s all gestures — sound-effect overkill. Surrounded by slithery “ghost music” is a polystylistic romp that recalls such purveyors of the false smile as Rodion Shchedrin. Not a good choice to mark Corigliano’s 65th birthday next month.
Bernstein’s “Facsimile” ballet — heard in a concert version called a “choreographic essay” — is a lovely artifact from the 1940s about urban loneliness. Its jazziness makes it a sweet rather than stern experience, and everything points the way to better-known Bernstein. This time, it sounded a little squarer and cruder than when the composer used to conduct it, though there was no faulting Mary Sauer’s rippling piano obligato.
The program ended with the Suite from Copland’s “Billy the Kid” ballet, an American classic premiered in 1938 by the Ballet Caravan in Chicago.
The suite includes the ballet score’s best music, except for a treasurable waltz for bassoon, trombone and strings that, in the concert hall, is justification for performances of the complete score.
Eddins got spirited playing that communicated homespun fantasy as well as an epic quality. Drawbacks were coy exaggerations in the trumpet solos and closing pages that did not sustain intensity.
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The program will be repeated 8 p.m. Saturday.
