Bringing the Music from the Inside Out

Since Andrew Grams took over as Music Director in 2013, the Elgin Symphony Orchestra has been systematically updating its programming by reaching outward from all areas of the organization, not the least of which being the stage of the Hemmens Cultural Center.

Some people have always regarded a classical music concert as a test of etiquette governed by special rules known only to highly cultured individuals. Like wine appreciation, it was considered a game for snobs. But in recent years, just as the wine business has expanded through a populist outreach centered around consumer education, a similar approach is being skillfully and intentionally employed by the ESO.

It started when Maestro Grams brought his unrestrained conducting style to the podium, and his personal accessibility to the Elgin social scene. Numerous appearances at local club meetings, in the media, at hospitals and libraries, and at casual mixers like the post-concert "Mingle with the Musicians" offered exposure for his outgoing personality and gift of gab.

Inevitably this style found its way into the concert hall, where Grams developed a warm, witty rapport with audiences on a par with any professional emcee. Seen from the stage, the main auditorium at the Hemmens looks like a university lecture hall, and perhaps this contributed to his increasing tendency to indulge in colorful remarks on composers and their music.

Having relaxed almost all stiffness out of the concert experience, the next logical step was to demystify the music itself. The ESO Listeners Club, pre-concert chats and program notes have always served that purpose, but they appeal to listeners who are already engaged, loyal patrons.

With the help of visual aids, Music Director Andrew Grams explains the historical context of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7.

In order to reach a larger public, the ESO created the "Inside the Music" format to apply Grams' knowledge and charisma to the task of audience education. The result is a hybrid event consisting of a music appreciation class complete with multimedia and live orchestral excerpts, followed by a full performance of a major work from the classical repertoire. The latest in this series featured Beethoven's Symphony No. 7.

"He was not just some mysterious brooding genius," Grams said of Beethoven the man. "He worked for a living; he fell madly in love; he was a human being." The orchestra patiently demonstrated short passages, melodies, rhythms and even single notes to illustrate Grams' analysis of the symphony's building blocks. His message was that the music wasn't so much superhuman in its origin, but simply a product of superb craftsmanship of a kind that anyone with a talent or skill can understand.

The Elgin Symphony Orchestra performs Beethoven's Symphony No. 7.

Beethoven seems to bring out the best in an orchestra, and Grams in his shirt sleeves was joyously animated in conducting the four-part masterpiece after intermission. The audience didn't just clap after the allegro, they actually chortled at the Maestro's jests.

In some future or parallel universe, the symphony players themselves might expand their direct contact with the concert hall audience, but for now it's the sparkle and glow of the conductor that influences how we feel about these performances. Grams seems to love working in this informal atmosphere, and honestly, when the music is this good, it doesn't need any added ritual to enhance its quality or importance.

The next "Inside the Music" event is set for Friday, March 23, 2018 at 8pm, featuring Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations. For tickets and more information, go to www.elginsymphony.org.

Grams and Elgin Symphony Making Their Point

Some in the audience may not have expected a noisy, expository dialogue with the conductor in the middle of the concert Saturday, but that is now common during performances by the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, even on the most sophisticated of programs.

When viewed from the stage, the utilitarian design of the main auditorium at the Hemmens Cultural Center looks like a public university lecture hall, and the person with the microphone will be tempted to start a discussion. It could very well explain the chemistry between the naturally loquacious Music Director Andrew Grams and an audience that loves to listen. 

Roughly a thousand people braved the cold temperatures and applauded freely between movements of three classics from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

A chamber ensemble sat in a half-circle to begin the concert with Octet (1923) by Igor Stravinsky, a landmark piece that signaled a return to composing music that stood as "art for art's sake." The outstanding eight-piece wind ensemble (with no alto voices) gave it a suitably cerebral reading, unfazed by its metrical changeups, tumbling scales and dissonances.

Afterwards, Grams offered perspective on the piece and invited reaction from the audience. Serving as a five-minute music appreciation class while the stage was reset, the brief exchange revealed how large a part of the audience was actually paying close attention to the music and the excellent program notes.

Grams' remarks introduced Violin Concerto No. 1 (1923) by Sergei Prokofiev, which had premiered at the same Paris concert as Octet. Soloist Angelo Xiang Yu displayed amazing scope of technique on an instrument with tone so sweet it could imitate the breath through a woodwind.

Violin soloist Angelo Xiang Yu performs Prokofiev's Violin Concert No. 1 with
the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andrew Grams.

The full orchestra was in excellent form after a busy holiday concert season and played a precise score to Yu's vivid protagonism. He delivered confident glances to the audience between impossibly high lyrical passages, scorching fiddle chords, flying spiccato and echoes of a plucked guzheng.

The accompaniment surged with a colorful narrative in the finale as Yu carried off trills and runs like single note melodies into a standing ovation. The audience was rewarded with an unaccompanied solo as an encore.

Many had come to hear Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, "Eroica" (1805), widely regarded as a turning point in the historic evolution of symphonic style. And they were not disappointed, some saying it was the best rendition they'd ever heard.

From the subliminal string tremolos to crashing chords, Maestro Grams kept the ESO's forces in balance for 47 minutes with eloquent physicality, mouthing the melodies and never missing a cue.

At his direction, the wind choir shone brilliantly against Beethoven's restless eighths, and solos were clear and precise. The tuttis were always tightly synchronized, and the dynamic contrasts achieved by the 65-voice ensemble were breathtaking. With these artists speaking for him, Beethoven has lost none of his persuasive power after more than two centuries.

More and more, the ESO is taking a service-oriented approach, making the music accessible through affordable ticket prices, programming variety, community outreach, and not least of all, education. You can find no better place to enrich your quality of life than in this audience.

"The Poetry of Music" at Elgin Art Showcase

After a weekend of amazing live chamber music performances at the Hemmens Cultural Center and Elgin Community College, two other groups joined forces at the Elgin Art Showcase to perform "The Poetry of Music" presented by Chamber Music on the Fox.

The 20-voice Chamber Singers of Elgin Master Chorale (EMC) were accompanied by the Elgin Chamber Players string quartet in Beethoven's "Elegischer Gesang" (1814) to open the death poetry-themed program. The choir made the room sound like a much bigger hall, especially faithful to the upper registers and more than honest with sibilant German consonants. Displaying tremendous dynamic range, the choir was capable of well-balanced fortes that could almost wake the dead.

The singers' gaze rarely left EMC Music Director Andrew Lewis, whose lucid conducting revealed the depth of their skill and preparation. No less a communicator with words, Lewis the educator shared insights on the evening's vocal works in impromptu remarks, for which the audience was overheard to whisper their gratitude during intermission.

The highlight of the choral performance was "Dark Night of the Soul," (2010) by living Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo, an expansive work that opens with a minimalist piano accompaniment played by Jon Warfel, known locally as the Choirmaster of Elgin's First Congregational Church.

Long, sustained vowels and modern harmonies evoked the mood of long Scandinavian nights, combined with the mysticism of the text by St. John of the Cross (1542-1592). Moments of powerful musical rapture fueled by lyrics like "love's urgent longings" were almost too big for the room, as complex chords gushed out overtones like a North Sea gale. "Dark Night" is a beautiful piece whose only critic was the hard surfaces of the Showcase.

Franz Schubert's String Quartet No. 14 in D Minor ("Death and the Maiden") offered a chance to witness the talents of area musicians Tarn Travers, Eleanor Bartsch (violins), Aurelien Pederzoli (viola) and Sara Sitzer (cello), who is also co-founder of Chamber Music on the Fox.

Despite its nickname, the piece is neither frail nor morose. A better understanding of its subject comes from the medieval "dance of death," understood for centuries as a pushing and pulling between mortals and the Grim Reaper.

The four players traveled a wide range of emotions and musical postures throughout the work's four movements, matching each other's phrasing, dynamic changes and rubatos as if they have played together for a long time. Schubert's startling shifts in key, rhythm and register never put these pros off their game.

The room made it difficult to play soft enough at times, but they are few and far between in this nearly 50-minute masterpiece of the quartet repertoire. Displaying the stamina to match their talents, the players rallied through a dramatic and tumultuous finale with aplomb.

Equally astonishing is the mere fact that performances of this quality are now appearing regularly in venues throughout Elgin, creating critical mass for the arts here, in the middle of what was once viewed as a lifeless suburban cultural desert.

Grams Continues to Invigorate Elgin Symphony

After Sunday's concert of classical chestnuts, one thing is clear: Elgin Symphony Music Director Andrew Grams continues to reinvigorate the orchestra's repertoire, and reset the baseline for a concert hall experience.

Ever at ease with a microphone, Grams introduced William Bolcom's satirical Commedia for (Almost) 18th-Century Orchestra (1972) with lengthy and unabashed remarks. However, the effect of serious musicians playing half-serious music was delightful, and the amusing pantomimes from the podium set the tone for a friendly and captivating matinee.

At the opposite end of the program and its pathos was Beethoven's late String Quartet in F Major Op. 135 (1826) arranged for string orchestra by Leonard Bernstein (1979). Along with the other works, this piece enjoyed its Elgin debut this weekend.

The quartet's four parts, scaled tenfold, added volume and mass to Beethoven's thematic contemplations, and the ESO strings provided depth and sheen to their transparent beauty. Often described as music ahead of its time, the work's moments of abstraction, its daring adaptation and infrequent performance made it a treat for connoisseurs. 

Isabella Lippi performs Mozart's Adagio in E Major
for Violin & Orchestra, K.261

ESO concertmaster Isabella Lippi appeared as the guest artist in Mozart's Adagio in E Major for Violin & Orchestra K.261 (1776). Against a tactile and affectionate orchestral brocade, Ms. Lippi laid out strands of melody with precise shape and proportion, projecting clarity of tone and purity of style.

Yet Andrew Grams was the star of this concert. Recently named Illinois Conductor of the Year, Grams is the kind of maestro audiences love to watch as he telegraphs every musical affect through his fluid movements. He "plays" the orchestra as if it were a single magnificent instrument, boldly breaking from conventional technique at will.

Having embraced his role as Music Director, he is now comfortable engaging the audience in direct dialog, both inside and outside the concert hall.  Audiences are growing more comfortable as well, so much that even seasoned listeners spontaneously applauded after the first movement of Mozart's Symphony No. 36 in C Major K.425 (1783), to which Grams responded with a gracious bow.

While it's possible to become too comfortable in any relationship, softening the boundaries between the artists and the audience exalts the experience of the art. The ESO has been transforming its relationship with Elgin in numerous ways this season, and to this community the stage now seems closer than ever.

Grams Returns to Launch Elgin Symphony Season

Music Director Andrew Grams greets the audience at The Hemmens.

The Elgin Symphony Orchestra began its 2014-2015 season Saturday and Sunday at The Hemmens, led by Music Director Andrew Grams whose numerous appearances elsewhere last season prompted the opening weekend's title: "Andrew Grams is Back!"

The audience rose with the orchestra for the National Anthem, featuring a guest cymbalist—none other than ESO Board Chairperson Karen Schock.

Following a friendly introduction to the all-German program, Grams cued the first of three pieces written as introductory movements of landmark romantic operas. The "Overture to Der Freischutz" (1821) by Carl Maria von Weber and the beautiful "Prelude to Act I, Lohengrin" (1850) by Richard Wagner were given exquisite treatment, but both are a bit slow-developing to kick off a "homecoming" season premiere.

Wagner's ebullient masterpiece "Prelude to Die Meistersinger" (1868) eventually delivered the panache and fanfare to match the hall's enthusiasm for their beloved orchestra and returning maestro.

Beethoven's famous Symphony No. 5 in C Minor (1808) concluded the 90-minute performance. Players even deep within sections were physically animated as Grams masterfully articulated the dramatic phrases and pauses of the work's four movements, accentuating as Beethoven would, aesthetics over technical detail.

Roars of approval from the audience were rewarded with a rousing encore performance of Wagner's "Prelude to Act III, Lohengrin" (1850).

The ESO's world-class guest artists have shown us that great performances rely on an artist's deep knowledge—even memorization—of the music. This concert excelled in part because Maestro Grams never needed his score.

Some say the best time to visit a fine restaurant is when a talented young chef sets out to make a name for himself, since it promises exceptional quality and variety. Likewise, the best time to hear an orchestra is when a new music director plans his first few seasons, and for the ESO that time is now.

Elgin Symphony Expands Repertoire in "Beethoven Inspired" Concert

An orchestra of smaller, eighteenth century proportions anchored last weekend's eclectic program of classic, sacred and contemporary works — all first performances by the ESO — conducted by Chicago Maestro Andrew Lewis.

An excellent case for contemporary music was laid out by three concise, aptly-named movements from Brick (2005), a suite composed by Lewis' UIC colleague, Marc Mellits. "Red Hammer" joined slabs of complex rhythm and texture, and launched splinters of woodwind like a carpenter's chisel, while the duets of "Refrigerator Wisdom" were as sweet as a mother's voice, embraced by dense, cool and warm string passages that were beautifully harmonized and evocative. 

The playful, perpetual motion of "Jacob's Ladder" shimmered with iridescent colors over a fascinating boogie bass line. A gracious Mr. Mellits bowed at the hall's applause for a very refreshing, listenable, and American-sounding concert opener.

Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 (1802) was given a respectful revival, almost compelling enough to distract us from the 150 empty chairs looming upstage. Lewis' conducting was never indecorous, and the playing was rarely imprecise throughout this less-played work, whose generally upbeat tenor is colored by just a few prescient moments of restless worry that would later become a larger part of Beethoven's famous musical palette.

Elgin Choral Union, the UIC Symphonic Choir and Elgin
Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andrew Lewis

Once those empty chairs were filled with the vocalists of the Elgin Choral Union joined by the UIC Symphonic Choir, the magnificent sight was surpassed only by the sound of Cherubini's revered Requiem in C Minor (1816). The solemn score and homophonic singing blended superbly, the conducting was cogent, and the delivery by the three combined ensembles was sincere and expressive. Beethoven and Brahms were so moved by Cherubini's music, they all but imitated it; we have but to rejoice at the chance to hear it just as they heard it: in a live performance.

Although this program seemed a bit transparent, the impressive Requiem was well worth planning around, and the inclusion of contemporary music like Brick is encouraging. The ESO continues to be an amazing arts value, unique in Chicagoland, and distinctive, high-quality performances like these deserve to be heard.

Star Performances Light Up Elgin Symphony Concert at Prairie Center

Classic works in three movements, on a three-part program featuring three soloists: this is one way to describe the musical trifecta presented by the ESO this weekend. But "five stars" is another.  Returning guest artists Inon Barnatan, Chee-Yun, and Alisa Weilerstein are joined by conductor Kazem Abdullah and the ESO in an exceptional combination of talent rarely seen on any stage. Repeat performances are scheduled for 8:00 p.m. Saturday, April 30 and 3:30 p.m. Sunday, May 1 at the Hemmens in Elgin.

Every fan of the ESO should, at least once, see and hear them at Schaumburg's Prairie Center for the Arts. Less than half the size of the Hemmens (which itself is small by some standards), this venue is designed so that every seat is within 15 rows of its protruding stage, of which the orchestra uses every inch. The effect is like a private recital by the sort of artists who would have played in the palaces of royalty.

Beethoven's "Overture to Egmont, Op. 84" (1810) set the tone for the all-German program. It's the Beethoven we know and love, with tense thematic statements punctuated by complex inverted chords and tripled octaves. This man's music animates string players like no other, and entire sections could be seen digging into the notes, wrestling with it, as if to join the ancient Flemish resistance against Spain which was the subject of the piece. At other times, all forty could play so softly that the voice of a single reed could speak easily to the four hundred listeners.

The historic Isenheim Altarpiece, a series of sacred Renaissance panel paintings from the monastery of St. Anthony were the inspiration for Paul Hindemith's Symphony, Mathis der Mahler ("Matthias the Painter," 1933). Its three movements refer to three scenes from Matthias Grunewald's masterpiece: "Angelic Concert" (the Annunciation), "Entombment" (the Crucifixion), and "Temptation of St. Anthony." Mixing elements of the beautiful and the grotesque, the music features elegant flute solos and deep-throated brass in a depiction that combines quotes of sacred hymns alongside modern turns of phrase, music which eventually separated Hindemith from the Nazi regime and his native Germany. 

Maestro Kazem Abdullah is relaxed and confident, and his rapport with the musicians is evident in his interpretation of Hindemith's complex score. The backdrop of the Prairie Center stage, awash in colorful light, looked like a canvas upon which Abdullah painted with the sound, using fluent and expressive movement like brush strokes, filling the entire space with hue, texture and detail.

Highlighting the program was the return of three outstanding soloists in the performance of Beethoven's Triple Concerto (1804). Violinist Chee-Yun, cellist Alisa Weilerstein and pianist Inon Barnatan were warmly welcomed by an admiring audience as they took places close together on the small stage, and as the music started, this reviewer would not have wanted it any other way. The artists began an irresistible musical dialog of eye contact, body language, and of course the most eloquent playing. The two strings led throughout most of the work, exchanging soft staccatos and ebullient fortes in one moment, combining in graceful duets the next. The piano joined in for sections of triple sextuplets, and passages where the unaccompanied trio produced a sound that rivaled the orchestra. 

Throughout sections of unusually light material (for Beethoven), the artists easily moved through various tempos and meters backed by an attentive ensemble and a focused, capable conductor. Weilerstein, Barnatan and Chee-Yun each shared delightful personal glimpses in brief rubatos near the end of the third movement, putting their personal signature on an intimate and moving performance.

Like its debut in the home of Vienna's Prince Lobkowitz, complete with the sounds of breaking horsehairs, page turns, and piano pedals, the Triple Concerto was a delight to hear in the casual confines of the Prairie Center. And just as a certain ESO violinist once told me, "the audience always claps after the allegro."

Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F Major

Beethoven was the eldest of three brothers born into a musical family in Bonn, Germany. Introduced to the piano and music theory by his father, he began composing as a child and became a skilled keyboardist in the court of the Elector of Cologne at Bonn. After seeking instruction from Mozart in Vienna at age 17, he was called home to handle family responsibilities after his father’s illness and mother’s death. While still in Bonn at age 21, he met Joseph Haydn and arranged to study with him in Vienna, where Beethoven arrived in 1792 (the year after Mozart’s passing), and would eventually spend the rest of his life.

For the next ten years, Beethoven steadily developed his career through performing his own piano works, which display the essence of his music: complex and innovative, with heavy textures and focused development of musical themes that evoke a seriousness of style for which he has always been known and admired.

By age thirty, Beethoven’s progressive loss of hearing (of unknown cause or cure) began to have a profound effect on him emotionally as well as artistically, and he sought refuge in the rural village of Heiligenstadt near Vienna. Long solitary walks in the country cheered him, and he wrote “No one can love the country as I do ... my bad hearing does not trouble me here. In the country, every tree seems to speak to me, saying ‘Holy! Holy!’.” The first sketches for his Sixth Symphony were made here in 1802, and he would later finish this symphony, along with the Fifth, in Heiligenstadt in the summers of 1807 and 1808.

Symphonies No. 5 and 6 (cataloged originally in the opposite order) were premiered on December 22nd, 1808 at a single four hour concert of all new music in the Theater an der Wien. Initial enthusiasm for the works was dampened by the unheated hall and under rehearsed orchestra.

Historians suggest Beethoven may have borrowed the idea for his five-movement “pastoral” symphony from his now-forgotten predecessor Justin Knecht, whose “Musical Portrait of Nature” was published in 1784 and also contained five movements (unusual for a classical symphony) bearing similar titles.

Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony is, in the composer’s own words, “a matter more of feeling than of painting in sounds,” a concept that is evident in the names of its five movements (the last three of which are played without intervening pause).

I. “Awakening of cheerful feelings upon arrival in the country,” (Allegro) evoking the rhythms of nature through repetition of short, light melodic themes. 

II. “Scene at the brook,” (Andante) depicting flowing water and calls of the nightingale (flute), quail (oboe) and cuckoo (clarinet). 

III. “Happy gathering of country folk,” (Allegro) a jubilant dance movement, later claimed to have been his impression of a village band. 

IV. “Thunderstorm,” (Allegro) whose bursts of brass and percussion punctuate a dark, dissonant background of strings. 

V. “Shepherd’s song; cheerful and thankful feelings after the storm,” (Allegretto) following familiar form, with moments of harmonious ease and prayer-like whisper.

First titled “Recollections of Country Life,” Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 has become a standard in symphonic literature, and a favorite of orchestras and listeners alike, showing us not the surly, frustrated and eccentric bachelor of popular lore, but a deeply sensitive, observant and joyful artist at home among the natural elements.