Grant Park Music Festival

Broadway Rocks! – Grant Park Music Festival – July 31, 2024

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Robbie Ellis of WFMT emceed the pre concert talk, featuring conductor Lucas Waldin for the first 10 minutes before he had to leave to prepare for the concert.

Then the program went off the rails. Ellis and his other two guests, neither of whom I have any clue about, started comparing jukebox musicals to elements of Harry Potter. Half the attendees, myself included, had no idea what they were talking about.

Then, just as I was ready to bail, Ellis turned the discussion to a jukebox musical coming to town in 2025. Without going into detail, let me say that I, and the Porchlight Music Theatre (co producer of said show, Titanique, with Broadway in Chicago) Board of Directors sitting next to me, let our presence and enthusiasm be known, leading to a short dialogue with Ellis, who praised Porchlight, leading to cheering from the crowd.

It was then on to the concert itself, which consisted of a wonderful array of songs, energetically performed, and more costume changes by Lakisha Jones and Chloe Lowery in 90 minutes than I make in a year.

It was two shows in one, as a woman sitting three rows in front of me relived her youth throughout, while the man who appeared to be her husband sat stoically next to her, apparently no longer excited by her singing and chair dancing to the music.

Scheherazade – Grant Park Music Festival – July 26, 2024

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Just as he had two nights earlier in conducting a stirring rendition of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, Eric Jacobsen wore red socks with his black tuxedo, the latter of which directed me toward the paronomastic pursuit of linking it with the tales from Scheherazade’s One Thousand and One Nights, though I suspect Jacobsen did not wear different tails each night.

And, just as he had a week earlier, when conductor Anthony Parnther had put the pressure on him by announcing that he would be playing the violin part in the theme from Schindler’s List originally performed by Itzhak Perlman, concertmaster and 1st violin Jeremy Black provided the audience with a memorable experience.

A final word about Scheherazade. Even if the music weren’t beautiful, how could you not like a composition whose final movement is described in the program as concluding with The Ship Goes to Pieces on a Rock, which gives me the chance to plug a musical comedy about a ship that goes to pieces on an iceberg (I guess it’s not too soon), Porchlight Music Theatre’s upcoming spring 2025 Chicago premiere of Titanique, presented in association with Broadway In Chicago.

Grant Park Music Festival – Millennium Park – July 17 & 19, 2024

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Two beautiful evenings, two large crowds, two wonderful concerts.

On July 17th, I had a feeling of deja vu while listening to pianist 
Clayton Stephenson play Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. And then it occurred to me that I had heard it played by Bill Murray’s character (though really played by session musician Terry Fryer) in Groundhog Day at the party near the end of the movie.

So, it wasn’t an illusion of memory, or one triggered by reliving the same day 12,395 times, as computed and suggested by the yahoo!movies website, but rather an actual memory of a movie I saw three days in a row when it first opened.

On the 19th, for Star Wars and More: The Music of John Williams, I thought I might see a lot of attendees, particularly younger ones, in costume, but there was a dearth of Darth Vaders.

The Grant Park Orchestra, in top form both days, was led that day by Anthony Parnther, who, in addition to demonstrating his conducting skills and James Earl Jones impersonation, albeit from The Lion King, not Star Wars, proved to be an engaging raconteur, entertaining us with, among others, a story about a sound editing room physical altercation about a E.T. score volume alteration.

Grant Park Music Festival – Millennium Park – June 14, 2024

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I don’t bother writing about all my trips to the Grant Park Music Festival as it becomes boring to comment on one pleasurable evening after another and my grasp of the English language (even my native Mid-American version thereof) is such that I eventually run out of adjectives and/or the strength to defend my use of them.

But, I would be remiss if I didn’t relate my new experience this week, that is having something resembling a conversation with the festival’s chorus director, Christopher Bell, or, as he introduced himself to me prior to the June 14th concert, Chris, which, may I add, resulted in my new acquaintance taking my suggestion regarding the need for a jazzier pre-show 10-minute chime warning for those of us hanging out in the tent, usurping the chimes and mallet and playing a little ditty himself for the nearby patrons.

The interaction is noteworthy on two counts. First, that it happened at all, which can be solely attributed to Chris’s friendliness, his need to stand somewhere to eat his turkey pinwheel and there being such an available “where” right next to me.

Second, as he seemed like a nice guy, I restrained myself and didn’t mention that I hate choral performances (don’t tell him) and had no intention for staying past intermission to hear The Cloud Messenger (after thoroughly enjoying Christian Tetzlaff playing Elgar’s Violin Concerto in B Minor in the first half of the concert).

One final note. The mere title, The Cloud Messenger, is a turnoff for me. I’ve never seen a movie I liked with the word cloud in the title, including the critically-acclaimed, but not by me, Cloud Atlas.

I will admit, however, to liking Chicago’s Cloud Gate and the songs Get Off of My Cloud and Cloud Nine, though I’m still confused as to how one can look at clouds from both sides.

Grant Park Music Festival – 2024 Festival Season 
Highlights Presentation – February 22, 2024

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Even in winter, with the glass doors closed the Pritzker Pavilion stage at Millennium Park is warm and cozy. As is my wont, I hung out near the back, near the food, in a spot probably inhabited by a percussionist during a summer concert.

As to the hors d’oeuvres, who decided long ago that kabobs were the way to go at such events? They’re really not finger food. Eating off a stick just doesn’t measure up to eating off the bone. They don’t slide easily off the holder, perhaps because they’re usually too dry unless you dip them in some messier than tasty sauce, and you risk impaling the inside of your mouth with the sharp end. But the wine and cheese were good.

The program was better. Christopher Bell, Director of the Grant Park Chorus, walked around in a natty hat, looking a lot like a Truman Capote impressionist, and gave us a rare insight to a normally well-guarded secret, of which we were not sworn to secrecy, so here it is.

During last year’s Chicago Nascar event, Bell became aware of, and fascinated by the fact that, a driver of the same name was competing in the race. One thing led to another, and Nascar will be sponsoring this year’s 4th of July concert and Chicago’s Bell will be wearing (this part’s the usual non-reveal) a special Nascar racing suit with the number 1 on it (also with, I assume, some red, white and blue).

Two musicians from the orchestra performed beautifully, one on the double bass (sorry, I didn’t get her name) and new orchestra member  Josh Jones, who lit up the room playing  the marimba.

Carlos Kalmar spoke about his upcoming final season as the orchestra’s conductor, aided by some recorded selections from this year’s lineup, and one that was inserted accidentally, not that any of us would have noticed had he not pointed out the faux pas. He was very pleased to tell us that his final concert will include a Vienna children’s choir directed by his daughter.

After the bassist played a second short piece to close the program, and the audience rose to clap, I made my quick exit (first one to the coat rack!), walking past Kalmar, who was standing in the wings. I expressed my surprise that my departure had been greeted with such applause, which brought a smile to his face, so I guess we’re buddies now.

Grant Park Music Festival – Millennium Park – August 16, 2023

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Despite further evidence of a new normal, extreme climate this summer that caused unprecedented concert cancellations and occasionally unfortunate, inhospitable conditions at the outdoor venue, I managed to make it to a fair number of events, all good, but none as good as this one, in part because of the first Grant Park Orchestra performance of a work by a composer previously unknown to me.

I went in assuming I was biding my time waiting for Sir Stephen Hough to entertain the audience with Mendelssohn’s concerto No. 1 in G Minor, as he did with great skill, when I was treated to six wonderful movements from Foreign Lands by the little-known Moritz Moszkowski, and to a picture of his magnificent mustache in the program.

By the time the evening rolled around to the last composition, after an encore by Hough, I thought my musical appetite might already be satiated, but I was able to find room for a delicious dessert of Les Preludes by Liszt.

Grant Park Music Festival – Millennium Park and Lake Shore Park (String Fellows) – August 2 & 3, 2023

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The music was good, yada, yada, yada, so let’s get to the other things going through my head.

Millennium Park doesn’t allow dogs, except for service animals (which don’t include emotional support animals), so barking during the concerts there Is one of the few interruptive sounds you don’t hear. Keep in mind that I’ve heard all manner of disruptive noise during the music, but haven’t yet, though it’s probably only a matter of time, heard any of the people in the audience bark (as they have been doing in the Dawg Pound bleachers at Cleveland Browns games since 1985).

Even if they were permitted to come, the dogs might not be interested. Studies show that classical music reduces stress in dogs, but that, after a time, they become bored (as do many humans), and that in the long term they respond better to reggae and soft rock. It’s not clear what the time limit is on a dog’s attention span, but all but one of the numerous dogs at the one-hour Lake Shore Park concert held it together throughout and that one’s owner was kind enough to take it for a stroll as soon as the problem arose.

Now if we could only get concert ushers to take unruly human attendees for a walk.

Grant Park Music Festival – Millennium Park – July 19, 2023

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Two things drew me to the park for this concert, the beautiful weather (as opposed to the previous two Wednesday evenings, which featured flooding one night and a tornado warning the other, both of which shut down the concerts), and the Gorchakov, as opposed to the more commonly played Ravel, orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, which I had never heard before (not that I can tell the difference).

But neither was the main attraction (well, maybe the weather, as evidenced by the largest crowd of the year).

The first piece, the one-year-old Profiles, an homage to Harlem, was introduced by its composer, Carlos Simon, who told the audience that the sound of nearby sirens during rehearsal, given the subject matter, seemed entirely appropriate for the music, and that we should accept it as such if it happened during the performance. I couldn’t help but wonder whether the musicians had a different viewpoint.

After Profiles, the orchestra gave us Alexander Glazunov’s Concerto in A Minor, featuring solo violinist Esther Yoo. What followed that was the highlight of the night, as Yoo played a solo encore of . . . wait for it . . . Yankee Doodle Dandy that displayed her exceptional talent and artistic whimsey.

For a joyful five minutes, listen to the version I found online of her playing it at the 2022 Copenhagen Summer Festival.

Chicago Duo Piano Festival – Nichols Hall – July 16, 2023

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Eleven days ago I saw Michelle Cann rock Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue on the piano at a rehearsal with the Grant Park Orchestra (no Oscar Levant impersonations involved). In addition to her virtuosic playing, she flashed a radiant smile and an animated involvement with the music. I even was mesmerized by the way her feet danced with the pedals,

Unfortunately, I missed Joyce Yang performing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 a week later, as did she, when a tornado warning shut down the Millennium Park concert. If I had been there I’m sure the closing of the large glass doors to protect the musicians from the elements would have reminded me of The Time Machine, when the doors at the sphinx’s base closed, trapping Weena and other Eloi inside.

But Joyce escaped (as did Weena with the unnamed inventor’s help) and I was there to hear her work her magic on Franz Lisa’s Totentanz three days later in the park.

My stroll through the world of piano got topped off the next day by watching the Millennium Park soloists of the future play in the Music Institute Of Chicago’s student recital portion of its annual Chicago Duo Piano Festival, highlighted by the play of the already-acclaimed, brother-sister, young-teen-team of Eric and Katie Koh.

As great as they were, however, my fancy was struck by three of the young artists playing Rachmaninoff’s 2 pieces for 6 hands waltz; three others playing Kevin Olson’s Outstanding, which features one of them walking back and forth behind the other two to play different parts of the piano; and the four-person, two-piano rendition of Take Five.

According to UPI, the Guinness World Record was set in 2018 when 40 pianos were played on a stage in China in unison with 599 pianos in a nearby square, for a total 639 played at the same time. I can’t believe I missed that one.

Grant Park Music Festival – Millennium Park – August 5, 2022

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The guest soloist, Andreas Haefliger, deftly played Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand. In case you were wondering, as I was, there are pieces for the right hand only, and, this one was really on my mind during the concert, a series of books with music that can be played with either hand alone.

I also wondered what Haefliger would be doing with his right hand during the performance. If he didn’t know the piece by heart he could have used it to turn the pages. If he had a page turner, would that person have to use only their left hand?

But he just let the right hand sit idle. Seemed like a waste. He could have used it to text. Isn’t that what everyone does when they have a free hand, especially while driving?

I wonder if next year the festival will include a clarinet concerto for the lower lip.

Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique closed the evening. Everything I could hear was good but there were some parts that were so soft that I only knew the orchestra was playing by watching the conductor wave his baton. He could have been faking it, but not during the fourth movement’s hallucinatory March to the Scaffold, which told a story supported by the percussion section that was both symbolic and cymballic.