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.

Elgin Symphony Stars in "A Night at the Oscars"

The Hemmens auditorium was packed like a movie theater on a blockbuster opening weekend, but this audience had come to hear a program of movie music performed by the Elgin Symphony Orchestra on Sunday afternoon before the Academy Awards telecast.

The modern era of sound and picture recording has had a major impact on the arts, and many people's primary exposure to symphonic music today is through movie and television scores, which could explain the huge turnout for this Oscar weekend concert.

An enormous ensemble of players reprised excerpts of memorable soundtracks by John Williams (Star Wars), James Horner (Titanic), and Bernard Herrmann (Psycho). Seven other film scores spanning five decades showcased the incredible variety and detail in the music of award-winning composers from around the world.

ESO violinist Isabella Lippi was the audience's favorite leading lady, performing solos with a dramatic palette of emotions from films The Red Violin and Schindler's List. Expanded brass and percussion sections and a myriad of string techniques were employed in recreating sounds from Ben Hur and Dances With Wolves.

During a seating change between works, charismatic Music Director Andrew Grams highlighted the ESO's ongoing support of Food for Greater Elgin with onstage theatrics of his own: pushing a shopping cart filled with groceries that represents the value of a twenty dollar donation to the cause.

ESO announces its 2015-2016 with a movie during "A Night at the Oscars"

Following intermission, the silver screen itself made an appearance during "A Night at the Oscars" as the 2015-2016 concert season was introduced in a short movie.

In part, the idiomatic use of previews before movie showings has conditioned today's audiences to expect promotional messages to accompany their arts, entertainment, and even worship experiences. It's even possible that some people feel uncomfortable without them.

The ESO has effectively and tastefully integrated their own messaging (and now charitable appeals) into the concert hall experience, and the attendance increases would suggest it just might be working.

"Russian Spectacular" Lives Up To Its Billing

The ESO launched its 2011-2012 season at The Hemmens on Friday with a well-conceived program of magnificent surprises. The lobby was enlivened by excited patrons of all ages, caterers, vendors and new procedures at the hall doors. For the first time in years, an image of now retired Music Director Robert Hanson was missing from the program cover, though he received a generous full-page tribute inside for his exceptional contributions to the organization.

The concert opened with a performance by the audience: singing the National Anthem accompanied by the entire orchestra, standing along with guest conductor Ignat Solzhenitsyn in an inspiring and unexpected gesture of patriotism before the start of a program of classics entitled "Love & War: A Russian Spectacular."

For an opener, the internationally-acclaimed maestro led the ESO through a colorful, flowing interpretation of Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, eliciting a moving performance of the famous love themes with generous and expressive cues and body language. Despite an occasional staggered entrance, the ensemble was impressively synchronized through long sections of afterbeats and a series of final chords. Near the end, a sequence of choralic woodwind "amens" foreshadowed the concert finale. 

Perhaps more moving than the tragic end of Romeo and Juliet are the forces of love and loyalty that impelled them, and this was the perfect prelude to Alexander Glazunov's Concerto in A Minor for Violin and Orchestra, featuring ESO concertmaster and violin soloist Isabella Lippi. Throughout the piece, you get the distinct feeling that you are listening to a group of people who truly respect and care about each other, coming together to work at something they love. Ms. Lippi's playing was strong and focused, displaying both the skill of an artisan and the passion of an artist, laid out in textures and timings that suggest not merely sound or movement, but also thought. After a long, abstract and technically dazzling cadenza, the piece concludes with spirited allegro in which the orchestra and soloist take turns with joyful, dance-like phrases that hint at the sounds of Russian music that would emerge over the next thirty years. 

After the intermission, remarks by Principal Trumpet Ross Beacraft echoed the themes of love and loyalty between the ESO and its audience, as he announced their plans for a worldwide search for a Music Director.

The symphonic poem The Rock by a young Sergei Rachmaninov completed this program's artistic trajectory of Russian composers, but the concert finale was reserved for one of the most popular concert works ever written: Tchaikovsky's overture 1812. The orchestra was joined by the Elgin Choral Union for a seldom-heard arrangement of the piece in which the chorus sings sacred Russian lyrics to the hymn-like sections at the beginning and near the end of the piece. Add to this the inspiring subtitles projected overhead, effects of cannon fire and church bells, stirring performances by percussion and brass, and you have an exhilarating Russian spectacle that still brings a teardrop and a chill no matter how many times you may have heard it. Cheers arose before the last note even ended, and the audience followed with a standing ovation so vigorous that it brought smiles to the faces of every musician on stage. Clearly, this is the "concert" they come to hear: the applause of a loyal, adoring, and grateful audience.

If you haven't heard the ESO lately, this is an exciting time to become reacquainted, and the "Russsian Spectacular" is just the beginning. For tickets to the Saturday (8 p.m.) or Sunday (3:30 p.m.) concerts go to http://www.elginsymphony.org