Chicago Sinfonietta at 23; true ‘fusion’ music

By Dwight Casimere
October 6, 2009

“Who told you to stop,” Maestro Paul Freeman said, responding in mock arrogance to the thunderous ovation that greeted him as he mounted the podium on the Armour Stage for the opening concert of the Chicago Sinfonietta’s 23rd season at Chicago’s Symphony Center.

“23 years,” he marveled. “It’s hard to believe that we’ve been here that long.”

What’s even more remarkable is that the Sinfonietta has remained true to its original mission statement; to present innovative programming that reflects the city’s rich cultural landscape. The orchestra is also one of the few in the country to present imaginative new works by composers and soloists of color.

That objective was borne out in the evening’s program, which featured 20 year old African American piano virtuoso Jeremy Jordan in Sergei Rachmaninoff’s spirited Piano Concerto No. 1. Jordan, a product of Chicago’s Walter Payton Preparatory High School and a winner of the Steinway Piano Concerto Competition at the age of 15, is currently studying on full scholarship with renowned recording pianist Matti Raekallio at Julliard in New York.

Jordan arrives to the concert stage with considerable pedigree. He has appeared in master classes with the famed Andre Watts, the first African American pianist to storm the concert stage in 1963 at the age of 16. (Watts was chosen by the late, great Leonard Bernstein to debut with the New York Philharmonic in his landmark CBS-TV series, Young People’s Concerts. Bernstein later enlisted him to replace ailing pianist Glenn Gould, who was to perform as soloist with the Philharmonic in the Franz Liszt E- flat Concerto, which Watts had performed so brilliantly with the orchestra in the Young People’s Concert two weeks hence. So mesmerizing was Watt’s performance, that the entire orchestra joined with the audience in a standing ovation. History had been made!) Jordan’s singing tone and thunderous cadenzas were reminiscent of the fire generated by Watts at the peak of his youthful powers.

Maestro Freeman shared the podium with Taiwan native Mei-Ann Chen, the first woman to win the Malko International Conductor’s Competition (2005) and one of America’s most promising young conductors. She recently concluded a one-year appointment as Assistant Conductor of the Atlanta Symphony. She has just become the Assistant Conductor of the Baltimore Symphony.

As Founding Music Director, Maestro Freeman has honed the Chicago Sinfonietta into a well-tuned Ferrari of an ensemble. The orchestra members have become extensions of his baton, responding musically to the minutest of gestures. That made the podium craftsmanship of Mei-Ann Chen that much more remarkable. Her conducting of Maurice Ravel’s Ma Mere l’Oye (Mother Goose) was a revelation.

Maurice Ravel was one of the most avant-garde of the composers to come out of France’s Belle Epoch, when the French Impressionist painters, later joined by the likes of Edgar Degas, Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso, ushered in the Age of Modernism in the early 20th Century. Ravel alternately shocked, outraged and thrilled audiences with his lush, complex compositions, many of which incorporated elements of Asian musical forms. That fact was brought home with stunning clarity in Chen’s interpretations.

In addition to maintaining control over tempos that served to heighten the underlying drama of the music, she was able to bring out the subtle tonal colors of Ravel’s masterpiece. The complexity of the music totally belies its benign disguise as a musical nursery rhyme for children. There are passages of exquisite beauty, as fine as anything Mozart or Hadyn ever wrote. Witness the achingly beautiful violin solo by Concertmaster Paul Zafer in the final movement, Le Jardin feerique (The Enchanted Garden). Chen takes us on a musical journey through this magical place where dreams arise like mist from the forest floor. She then transports the audience to the lofty Gates of Heaven with a carefully constrained crescendo that unleashes the full power and glory of Ravel’s imaginings. It was a rapturous moment.

Jeremy Jordan is a true ‘Wunderkind.’ Anyone attending this season inaugural concert can truly say they witnessed the ascendancy of the next Andre Watts. Jordan opened Rachmaninoff’s showy piano Concerto No. 1 with thunderous force. His precision attack brought lightning sparks from the keyboard. Maestro Freeman kept the tension building with calculated restraint that allowed Jordan’s lithe hands to send the composer’s lofty themes soaring. Jordan’s speed and clarity served the composer’s intent well in the difficult arpeggios in the Steinway’s upper register. Jordan’s brilliant playing brought out the true orchestral majesty of the Steinway and the singular genius of Rachmaninoff’s composing. It’s no wonder that Jordan won the Steinway’s namesake competition at such an early age!

The concert concluded with The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto, featuring Chicago-based Erhu (Chinese violin) soloist Betti Xiang. The concerto is a musical tone poem that re-imagines an ancient Chinese folk tale of two star-crossed lovers, driven apart by social convention and caste, only to be finally united in death, reincarnated as butterflies. The fable’s storyline eerily mirrors the fate of the two composers, Shanghai Conservatory of Music students Gang Chen and Zhan-Hao He. The work premiered to critical acclaim in 1959, only to be declared culturally decadent five years later by the Culture Revolution, resulting in both composers being carted off to prison. The composer’s expressed ‘crime’ was that of fusing Western instrumentation and tonality with traditional Chinese melodies.

Presentation of this landmark composition on the Sinfonietta’s 23rd Season Inaugural Concert program is idiomatic of the exact mission of this groundbreaking ensemble.

Chicago Sinfonietta concerts are more than an exercise in musical performance, they make an important cultural and social statement. Fortunately, through the orchestra’s community outreach programs and the generous sponsorship of Bettiann Gardner, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, Sara Lee Foundation and ABC7 Chicago, the concerts are attended by hundreds of students, educators and community members, free of charge, thus making this great music available to all. For more information on Chicago Sinfonietta and upcoming programs, visit www.chicagosinfonietta.org.