Grant Park Music Festival

Classic Broadway – Grant Park Music Festival – Millennium Park – August 13, 2021

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In past years, an overflowing crowd, limited by barriers, would come on a Monday evening, so chosen, I suppose, because Broadway is generally dark on Mondays and the performers could fly in from New York in the morning, rehearse, do the show, and be back at their jobs on Tuesday, which, in some cases, who knows, might have been as singing waitstaff at Ellen’s Stardust Diner (love that place).

But, unless your name is Bruce Springsteen, your Broadway (or even off-off-Broadway) show hasn’t opened yet, so you can play the Pritzker Pavilion on Friday and Saturday night and not miss any time from work.

This also means that you can concentrate more on the Chicago performance, unless you’re still trying to memorize the menu from Ellen’s. It seemed to me that the performers, always in fine voice, were more engaged with their characters than in past years. Even the guest conductor, Lawrence Loh, pulled down his mask to chip in a few lines in one of the songs, to the great amusement of the crowd.

As readers may recall, my history of seeing (or not seeing) Betty Buckley is somewhat checkered, but Mamie Parris played Grizabella in the revival of Cats, so seeing and hearing her sing Memory last night can finally put that chapter to rest, unless Buckley breaks a dinner date with me.

Grant Park Music Festival – Millennium Park – August 7, 2021

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The orchestra’s rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 1 in G Minor coordinated beautifully with the gentle breeze that was blowing through the pavilion. And renowned violinist Augustin Hadelich’s presentation of Sibelius’s Concerto for Violin in D Minor was an extra special treat. So much for the music itself.

Sibelius had synesthesia, a neurological condition whereby information meant to stimulate one of your senses instead stimulates several of your senses, in his case, sound to color synesthesia.

According to the program, Sibelius experienced the tonal center for this concerto as yellow, although it didn’t sound yellow to me. I tried to envision Hadelich standing on the stage and, instead of making his 1744 Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu purr like a cat getting its belly scratched, splashing plumbonacrite-infused yellow earth from a Northern Italy quarry on a large canvas with an animal-hair paint brush constructed by a Rembrandt apprentice. Still didn’t sound yellow to me.

If Sibelius were in outer space, and couldn’t hear the music, would he still see yellow? You might not hear the screams from the cast of Alien, but there is enough interstellar gas and dust that sound waves can move through space. We just aren’t able to listen to them because the particles are so spread out, and the resulting sound waves are of such a low frequency, that they’re beyond the capabilities of human hearing. But does that also make them beyond the capabilities of human sight, like ultraviolet light, for those with synesthesia? Should someone with synesthesia wear sunscreen, even at night, when listening to music?

I was troubled, but still able to enjoy the concert.

Grant Park Music Festival – July 23, 2021

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The program said “Blow, Fly, Pop!!’s orchestration is unlike any other. “ That, my friends, is truth in advertising. It looked like a kids’ party (sans scary clown) gone terribly wrong, with the string section starting the piece by waving plastic pencil boards through the air.

And yet, though the sound of the gym ball being thumped didn’t have quite the gravitas of that of a bass drum, and the third balloon the percussionist popped was out of tune (perhaps suffering from an inflation problem, like the economy), the selection wasn’t terrible.

So I got over any disappointment that the piece was not, as I had wrongly anticipated from a too quick reading of the website, “Pop the Cherry” by Blowfly.

The evening moved from a selection reminiscent of minors to two classical pieces in minor keys, Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1, and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 (New World Symphony), which is familiar to movie fans, perhaps for its use in films like Clear and Present Danger and The Departed, but more likely for its place in Killer Tomatoes Eat France!, the fourth sequel to Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.

Grant Park Music Festival – July 16, 2021

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Part of the crowd started leaving during a fine rendition of Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5. (I stayed all the way through the Finnish.) Their departure would have been understandable earlier in the evening during Brouwer’s Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, which was forgettable, hopefully.

It wasn’t raining. Three different weather services told me so. And yet, I and the other attendees were getting wet.

What I hadn’t taken into account was the definition of rain.

Rain is composed of water drops with diameters greater than 0.02 inches (.5 mm), whereas drizzle is defined as water drops with diameters less than 0.02 inches. Who knew. I didn’t have anything with me to measure the drops, in either the metric or imperial system, but they apparently didn’t rise to the necessary level to be predicted by any local or national bureaus.

So It didn’t rain. It drizzled. But I still got wet.

 

 

Grant Park Music Festival – July 14, 2021

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Once again I skipped the first half of the concert, and the correctness of my decision was supported by others telling me upon my arrival that what I had missed had been “painfully awful.“ Then they left.

No matter. I then had the pleasure of listening to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1. Unfortunately I also had the displeasure of listening to Beethoven’s biggest fan, an obnoxious guy, with the lungs of an opera singer, sitting a few rows behind me.

Mr. X, as I will call him, apparently was a drop-in (and, I’m guessing, a dropout) who didn’t know ahead of time what the program was, as suggested by his war whoop, ala an over-served soccer (excuse me, football) hooligan who was far less civilized than the Geico Neanderthal-like cavemen who were offended by their characterization in the 2004 commercials, when the conductor introduced the piece and then again after the first movement.

I then quickly moved to the other side of the seating bowl, as I fully expected him to shout out “let’s get ready to rumble” before the next movement started, which might make sense at the next concert, given that the program includes three dance episodes by Leonard Bernstein, albeit not from West Side Story, but rather On the Town, (the play, not the movie, so I will be able to visualize real dancers, not Frank Sinatra).

Grant Park Music Festival – July 9, 2021

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I timed it perfectly to arrive at a seat just as the chorus was departing its upstage loft after the first piece, as I saw no reason to have their voices interfere with the pleasure of listening to the symphony, just as I don’t like it when people in the theater talk during a performance.

I did get to see that the departing singers were masked, though not in the style of those on the television show, such as Nick Lachey as the winner Piglet in the recent finale, and probably not, unfortunately for the purpose of muting their voices like one of the brass players, whose current “normal’ placement on stage is in the same loft, so that they won’t spew viral particles on the rest of the orchestra.

I still got to listen to Barber and Brahms, without a hint of rain or the siren accompaniments of two days earlier, replaced this time by the off-key sound of overhead helicopters, and also without the hint of a cicada chorus, Chicago seemingly having been spared this year despite the fact that we have reached, per Climate Central, the necessary ground temperature and rainfall to cue their emergence.

On the way home I saw a sign for a psychic, with walk-ins welcome, and considered it for a moment, but, after peeking in the doorway, I dismissed it as a scam, as a real psychic would know that no one would want to climb two flights of steep stairs for a reading.

Grant Park Music Festival – July 7, 2021

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The Grant Park Music Festival reopened its figurative doors after over a year off, and though I chose not to attend the Fourth of July concert, which quixotically took place on July 2nd and 3rd, I declared my independence from Covid incarceration by wending my way to the park for the first “real” concert , which featured Joyce Yang entrancing the audience with her masterful rendition of Grieg’s popular Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16, which even I attempted, fairly unsuccessfully, to play as a child, though, for years I would pound out the first three bars, and only that, whenever I had the opportunity, as a way of pretending, for anyone within earshot, that I might actually know what I was doing. (I take the preceding 123-word sentence as evidence that my brain has not completely atrophied during my forced layoff, though not necessarily evidence of any writing skills.)

The concert closed with a rousing version of Rossini’s Overture to William Tell, the conclusion of which was timed perfectly with the onset of the rain, such that the crowd’s standing ovation began with 20 seconds left in the piece, as the attendees, so unaccustomed to being in such a situation, flailed about, with no direction home, like a group of rolling stones, getting spit upon from on high.

As happy as I am that things are opening up, the timing is somewhat unfortunate, as I have just discovered Netflix’s apparently unlimited number of Turkish soap operas (dizi for the aficionados).

Grant Park Music Festival – Millennium Park – August 8 and 11, 2018

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This week’s guest soloists at the Grant Park Music Festival were pianist George Li, showing off Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1, and cellist Pablo Ferrández, treating us to Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante. But neither could hold a candle, so to speak, from an entertainment, if not talent, viewpoint, to the guest soloist bagpiper on the Michigan Avenue bridge, whose music was so hot that he had flames shooting from his instrument as he played, which apparently is not uncommon for street bagpipers.

I wonder whether the city knew about the fiery nature of his act when they gave him a street license. The application form only seems concerned with noise and congestion, not possible loss of life.

Nevertheless, getting a license to be a street performer, also known as a busker (news to me), can be a challenge, which has led to numerous legal challenges across the country.

It’s unlikely that Li or Ferrández will have to resort to playing in the street for tips, but that doesn’t mean that they are without their challenges. For instance, in particular in regard to a pianist, what about one’s height?  I read that 6 foot, 4 inch Bruce Hornsby hunches over the keyboard. and doesn’t use the pedals.

So what about Li, who, from a distance, appeared rather short. Li’s height, or lack thereof, was a topic of concern when, as a ten-year-old prodigy playing with a trio, he could barely reach the pedals.  I wonder if he used a pedal extender.

This also led me to wonder whether bicycle manufacturers make toe clips for piano pedals, so that you can play faster? Ukrainian Lubomyr Melnyk claims that he is the world’s fastest playing pianist, at 19 piano notes on each hand every second. It strikes me that a tuba player might have trouble keeping up with him.

 

Grant Park Music Festival – Millennium Park – July 27, 2018

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I don’t write about every GPMF concert I see because it would get boring to say I loved the music and the orchestra sounded great. So here’s a twist. The orchestra sounded great throughout the evening, and I loved two of the pieces they played (Ralph Williams’ Norfolk Rhapsody No. 2 and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3), but I hated Andrew Norman’s Switch. It is for moments like this that they should have two overhead signs, one that lights up for Applause for the Orchestra and one that lights up for Applause for the Music, so that we can show our appreciation for the musicians’ efforts and our disdain for the music.

Actually, if you could filter out the sounds created by the guest percussion soloist and just listen to the orchestra’s backup, there was music to be heard. But I thought I was watching a symphonic version of This Is Spinal Tap, with Michael McKean as the percussionist, acting the part by pretentiously parading around the stage in anticipation of the next singular (as in one, not as in special) note he would tap out on a variety of paraphernalia on the front of the stage that blocked our view of half the orchestra.

To be fair (as much as it pains me), of the four of us together at the concert, one appreciated the composer’s efforts. So our group rating was above the musical equivalent of the Mendoza Line. But to me, what I was hearing wasn’t music (much like, I concede, some of our parents thought of rock and roll). Perhaps, however, it could be described as some non-electronic form of noise music (a term I had not heard of before looking up the definition of music).

Project Inclusion String Quartet – July 17 and 26, 2018 – Washington Square Park and Lake Shore Park

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If you didn’t get a chance to see the wonderful Project Inclusion String Quartet this summer at one of their outdoor concerts in various city parks, don’t worry, you can see them next summer, except it will be a whole new quartet, made up of new Fellows.

“Project Inclusion is a unique training opportunity for singers and string players from diverse backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in the symphonic orchestral and choral world.” That description certainly applies to this year’s quartet, one of whom is from Havana, and another of whom, perhaps more impressively, made it to Chicago from rural Texas.

Their last concert, in Lake Shore Park, highlighted a couple of challenges of playing in the elements. First, one always has to deal with the wind. A website I found about playing outdoors notes that “[y]ou can never have too many clothespins for the wind.”

And, indeed, the quartet used the largest clothespins I’ve ever seen to hold their music in place. They could have held Shaquille O’Neal’s clothes out to dry on the line with them. This led me to find a website that lists 15 smart uses for clothespins, none of which involve clothes.

Second, while the music was delightful, the background to the Lake Shore Park performance suggested to me a Fellini movie with a John Cage soundtrack. There were children doing cartwheels on the lawn, runners doing wind sprints on the track, and dogs catching frisbees, while other dogs barked, and buses roared by.

The quartet was exposed to other Chicago ambient sounds as they introduced and performed with the Grant Park Symphony in Millennium Park on July 18. There one has to deal with sirens, cicadas, the occasional helicopter, and, in the audience, the guy sitting behind you who thinks he’s whispering.