DeLeone brings lively spirit to Illinois Philharmonic return
Carmon DeLeone was the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra’s music director for 25 years. He began his tenure with the southwest suburban ensemble in 1986, and was named conductor laureate upon his retirement from the IPO in 2011.
Saturday night at Trinity Christian College’s Ozinga Chapel in Palos Heights, DeLeone returned to helm the IPO musicians for the first time since his departure, leading a hearty program of Mozart, Rachmaninoff, and Mendelssohn. If there were fitful lapses from the regional group, as a whole the performance was a testament to DeLeone’s steady, sustained, incremental work of building an orchestra that has been continued by his successors David Danzmayr (2012-16) and Stilian Kirov (2017-present).
Indeed, so successful has this work been that from the forceful yet elegant opening of Mozart’s Symphony No. 35, “Haffner,” one could imagine DeLeone feeling he was leading an entirely different orchestra from the one he left 13 years ago. The Allegro con spirito went with infectious esprit, DeLeone conveying his intentions with minimal yet enthusiastic leadership.
Some of the Andante’s subtleties may have been lost at DeLeone’s striding clip, yet he and his colleagues gracefully captured the winking humor of the Menuetto. The concluding Presto was a chance for the IPO strings to show off, and the dramatically improved sections acquitted themselves gamely in Mozart’s fleet passagework.
Pianist Michael Chertock was the soloist in Rachmaninoff’s evergreen Piano Concerto No. 2 (a late substitute for the originally scheduled Fei-Fei). While the chair of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory’s piano department was certainly up to the score’s demands, he seemed to be competing with a particularly unfortunate instrument combined with a challenging acoustic that kept his performance earthbound.
While Chertock created an ominous atmosphere as he built the opening solo bars, throughout the Moderato it seemed he could only generate force by pounding, which created a monochrome impression as he competed with the orchestra, particularly in thicker textures. There were fine wind solos throughout the Adagio sostenuto, particularly from IPO principal clarinet Trevor O’Riordan, but Chertock’s hard attacks robbed this music of much of its warmth, and he struggled to sustain Rachmaninoff’s soaring lines.
The Allegro scherzando, which can tolerate a little banging, went best, and Chertock blazed to the work’s virtuosic conclusion. DeLeone presided over a responsive accompaniment, and the collective effort received an ecstatic response from the packed house.
As an encore Chertock offered Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns” from A Little Night Music in a moving reading that captured the obvious influence that Rachmaninoff’s lyricism had on the titan of American musical theater.
Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4 in A Major, “Italian,” rounded out the evening in a generally accomplished outing but with some undeniable rough edges. The Allegro vivace bubbled spiritedly, though with some unfortunate clams from the wind sections. DeLeone led the Andante con moto with the fitting feel of a distant march, though the Con moto moderato was bedeviled by enough clunkers that its gracious air did not come across. DeLeone and colleagues rallied to end with a swirling Saltarello to punctuate the night, again to avid applause.
DeLeone spoke briefly after the Mendelssohn, thanking Kirov and executive director Christina Salerno for their continued efforts with the orchestra, and introducing an encore: Kurt Sanderling’s string orchestra arrangement of the Rachmaninoff “Vocalise.” The 1915 song received a limpid reading from DeLeone and the IPO strings, though one questioned such a sedate bonus to close an already ample program.
After intermission, Classical Music Chicago received the IPO’s Davee Excellence in the Arts Award. CMC is the organization that emerged from the 2016 merger between the International Music Foundation—the group behind “Do-It-Yourself Messiah” and the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts—and Rush Hour Concerts. Executive director Mark Riggleman was on hand to receive the honor for the organization’s dedication to enriching Chicago’s musical landscape.
The IPO performs Handel’s Messiah under Stilian Kirov, 3 p.m. December 14 at Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights. ipomusic.org.
Posted in Performances
Leave a Comment
Subscribe via RSS.