Critic’s Choice

Tue Jun 11, 2013 at 11:46 am

By Lawrence A. Johnson

Violinist Stefan Jackiw will perform Mozart in the Grant Park Music Festival’s opening concert Wednesday night.

The Grant Park Music Festival kicks off its 79th season this week with Carlos Kalmar leading two characteristically eclectic programs.

The lakefront festival opens 6:30 p.m. Wednesday with Stefan Jackiw making his Grant Park debut in Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5, and Kalmar leading the orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. The program will open with Andrew Norman’s Drip, hopefully not a predictor of the night’s weather. (The subtle full title is Drip Blip Sparkle Spin Glint Glide Glow Float Flop Chop Pop Shatter Splash.)

Grant Park’s first weekend program of the summer is an American-Russian mix, leading off with Medea’s Meditation and Dance of Vengeance by Samuel Barber, followed by Copland’s suite from the ballet, Billy the Kid. The Grant Park Chorus will make its first appearance of the summer in the evening’s closer, Prokofiev’s cantata Alexander Nevsky, a score drawn from his soundtrack for the Sergei Eisenstein film.

Performances are 6:30 p.m. Wednesday and Friday and 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Pritzker Pavilion. Admission is free. grantparkmusicfestival.com.

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