King’s dream lives in orchestra’s diversity

Pioneer Press
By Dorothy Andries
January 16, 2011
original link

Real genius is difficult to define but impossible to miss, as the Chicago Sinfonietta reminded listeners Saturday night at Wentz Concert Hall in Naperville.

For any program that spotlights George Gershwin’s greatest score, “Porgy and Bess,” and the ragtime masterworks of Chicago pianist Reginald Robinson practically sums up the meaning of musical genius. Gershwin redefined American music before his tragic death at age 38; Robinson, 38, has done more to revivify the art of ragtime than any composer now working.

Both Gershwin and Robinson emerged as iconoclastic, self-taught visionaries inspired by African-American musical culture. For that reason, and others, their music was quite naturally paired for this program, “A Dream Unfolds: Tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr.” Though the concert had its rough spots, they seemed manageable enough to fix by Monday night’s repeat performance at Symphony Center.

Robinson’s contribution was the most intensely anticipated, for this would be the first time he would revisit the “Concerto for a Genius” that Chicago trumpeter-composer Orbert Davis created for him in 2007. Davis built its four movements on ragtime compositions by Robinson, who won a MacArthur “genius grant” in 2004. So the concerto amounts to an unusual joint effort by Robinson and Davis, one that merged ragtime, jazz and classical impulses in a sweeping, four-movement piece.

For these performances, Davis expanded the orchestra from the 2007 version, added instrumental detail, changed the order of the middle two movements and gave Robinson an expanded role at the piano. These efforts paid off significantly, for the orchestra sounded more lush than before, but also more intriguing in its instrumental character. By adding motifs that reappear throughout the concerto, Davis made it a substantially more cohesive work.

Guest conductor Leslie B. Dunner understood the sonic beauty and rhythmic snap of Davis’ orchestration and encouraged the Sinfonietta to play it to the hilt. This resulted in an instrumental accompaniment that captivated the ear but, alas, often drowned out the soloist.

Robinson, performing the revised concerto for the first time, played with silvery delicacy but not enough power or rigor to stand up to the orchestra. When his part rang out, as in the thrilling last movement, “The 19th Galaxy,” there was no question that a modern-day ragtime wizard was in our midst. The combination of Robinson’s fleet virtuosity and Davis’ intricate orchestration made this the fitting climax of a work that gained expressive power with each movement.

Yet one yearned to hear the piano’s raunchy dissonance in the opening segment, “Mr. Murphy’s Blues”; its soaring lyricism in the nocturnal “Janet”; its exotic harmonies and darkly brooding themes in “Ansaar.”

If this concerto is to make full impact, conductor Dunner needs to bring down the sound of the orchestra and Robinson must dig more deeply into the keys. He’s the genius of the concerto’s title, after all – we want to hear him thunder.

Robert Russell Bennett’s adaptation of “Porgy and Bess” just glances on the work’s main themes, but the suite rarely has sounded more persuasive in concert than under Dunner’s direction. The rare conductor who can capture both the classical precision and jazz pulse of this music, Dunner drew dramatically charged performances from the Sinfonietta, the rousing Chicago Community Chorus and three beguiling soloists. Baritone Donnie Ray Albert and soprano Lisa Daltirus duetted sublimely in “Bess, You Is My Woman Now”; tenor Chauncey Packer wasn’t afraid to get gritty with “It Ain’t Necessarily So.”

Throughout, conductor Dunner achieved some of the most idiomatic phrasing one could hope to hear in this music; yet here, too, Dunner sometimes allowed the orchestra to overwhelm the soloists.

Sinfonietta founder and music director Paul Freeman opened the evening conducting Ulysses Kay’s overture to “Theater Set” and George Walker’s “Lyric for Strings,” poetic curtain-raisers for the major works yet to come.