CSO opens season with a light, eclectic program
The curtains rose on the 2024-25 season this past week at three of Chicago’s classical institutions. Lyric Opera opened with a largely commendable Rigoletto last Saturday, and Music of the Baroque offered a superb account of Haydn’s The Creation at the Harris Theater on Tuesday.
Thursday night was the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s turn to kick things off with an eclectic if decidedly lightweight program at Orchestra Hall under the baton of visiting maestro Andrés Orozco-Estrada.
It was heartening to see the hometown band open with American music. After regally rendering the customary first-concert “The Star-Spangled Banner,” Orozco-Estrada led the orchestra in its first performances of Michael Tilson Thomas’s Agnegram.
Thomas composed Agnegram in 1998 to honor the 90th birthday of stalwart San Francisco Symphony patron Agnes Albert. The work is a jazzy, boisterous march for large orchestra in which Thomas toys with the musical spelling of A-G-N-E-S (as Bach, Shostakovich, and others did with their own names), generating an unexpected series of pitches he uses as melodic material. Orozco-Estrada, new principal conductor of the RAI Orchestra, led a swaggering performance, the orchestra projecting the score’s zaniness and capturing Thomas’s clever manipulations.
Hilary Hahn was originally billed as the soloist in Barber’s Violin Concerto, but was forced to withdraw over the summer after suffering a double-pinched nerve that required sustained rest. The early cancellation allowed enough time to replace her with young phenom Benjamin Beilman, who was able to stand in with no alteration to the program.
From the Allegro’s opening measures, Beilman was sensitively attuned to Barber’s searching lyricism. The violinist sustained the movement’s seemingly endless lines, and the more agitated moments always felt within the context of its inward aesthetic.
The Andante began with a luminous oboe solo from William Welter, and Beilman expertly charted the movement, from his delicate entrance to the central turbulence, ultimately offering his own glowing G-string rendition of the main theme near the end.
There was a nervous moment in the closing Presto in moto perpetuo where Beilman’s bow appeared to slip off the strings, risking disaster in this breakneck closer. The soloist recovered in remarkable fashion, emphasizing the longer lines hidden in Barber’s flurry of notes. Orozco-Estrada presided over a supple accompaniment that was responsive to his soloist’s interpretation, even if the final exclamation mark was not entirely together.
As an encore Beilman gave the Gavotte en Rondeau from Bach’s Partita No. 3 in E Major, BWV 1006. Beilman’s Bach felt like Baroque Barber, tending in a more Romantically inflected direction. While there is a case to be made for this approach, it did not feel entirely idiomatic or convincing Thursday, with some of Beilman’s ornamentation drawing chuckles from the lower balcony.
The second half had something of the feel of a Pops concert, with three familiar crowd-pleasing works following one after the other, and Orozco-Estrada announcing a slight shift in their order from the stage (a matter of his own preference). A loose theme of love stories connected the selections.
First up was Tchaikovsky’s inescapable Romeo and Juliet. Orozco-Estrada led an atmospheric wind chorale that set the stage for the ensuing drama, and the B Minor battle sequences went with conflictual vehemence. The love theme passed organically from English horn and violas to the high winds, and had euphoric sweep in its delayed big return. The coda began with a sepulchral air that Orozco-Estrada built to its final apotheosis.
Bernstein’s Overture to West Side Story followed (in the concert version arranged by Maurice Peress). This is the music that plays during the opening credits of the 1961 film, and is a compact highlight reel, like an abbreviated Symphonic Dances, that includes the gang music, “Tonight,” and “Mambo.” Orozco-Estrada brought out the music’s infectious high-stepping, turning toward the audience to join the second shout of “Mambo!” and continuing the informal feel of the evening.
The evening closed with Ginastera’s Four Dances from Estancia. The rustic “Land Workers” characteristically swirled between 6/8 and 3/4, balanced by Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson’s spacious flute solo to open the “Wheat Dance.” The final two dances had an almost primal energy under Orozco-Estrada’s enthusiastic direction—one heard echoes of Rite of Spring—with the “Final Dance (Malambo)” surging with precipitous abandon to close the night.
The program will be repeated 1:30 p.m. Friday. cso.org
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2 Responses to “CSO opens season with a light, eclectic program”
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Posted Sep 20, 2024 at 4:34 pm by Frank Monnelly
I attended the Friday afternoon performance.What struck me was how the orchestra was completely authentic in its playing of each piece. From a romantic reading of the Barber and Tchaikovsky to a Broadway pit band for the Bernstein and the Latin Ginastera. Not to mention the quirkiness of the Thomas.
A virtuoso performance by the orchestra and conductor.
Posted Sep 23, 2024 at 1:05 am by Peppo
Beautifully written, this was a joy to read after attending the concert with my wife.