Hedy Weiss: Theater Reviews
Shostakovich, Chopin and a Celebration of Abolitionist Harriet Tubman at the CSO: Review
Composer James Lee III introduces a CSO-first performance of his work, “Chuphshah! Harriet's Drive to Canaan,” with conductor Marin Alsop and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. (Todd Rosenberg Photography)
To start, here is a highly condensed description of this past Thursday evening’s concert at Orchestra Hall: It was another knockout performance by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and it marked the brief return of conductor Marin Alsop, who clearly adores the CSO. It also was a program comprised of three radically different but splendid pieces of music. And it featured a brilliant performance by Lukas Vondracek, a pianist I heard for the first time.
Opening the concert was “Chuphshah! Harriet’s Drive to Canaan,” the work of composer James Lee III. (Like Jessie Montgomery, the CSO’s recent Mead composer-in-residence, Lee was supported early on by the Sphinx Organization, which was founded to help young Black and Latino classical musicians.)
Lee arrived on stage to give a brief introduction to “Chuphshah” (which, as I learned, was the biblical Hebrew word for freedom). His richly dramatic work, dating from 2011, captured the spirit and historical time of Harriet Tubman (1822-1913), the woman who escaped slavery, rescued other slaves via the Underground Railroad and later became a force in the women’s suffrage movement.
The piece opened with a big blast, including the sound of the xylophone, many other percussion instruments and the winds. And it captured a sense of agitation and frenzy at high speed that then moved into a state of calm with the strings, harp and other instruments. Along the way Lee deftly inserted brief takes from familiar songs of the period including “Dixie Land” and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Alternately loud and at high speed and at moments dreamily quiet, the work ended with a big bang. Think of it as history explored via music.
Next up was Frederic Chopin’s lushly beautiful and mood-shifting “Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor” (from 1830) featuring a bravura performance by Vondracek, a phenomenal Czech-born pianist who made his debut at the age of 4 and is now 37. He was richly backed by the orchestra.
The concerto began with an intensely dramatic build, and with a lyrical riff from the winds and strings. Then came a thrilling keyboard entrance with an intense and rapid-fire spirit that shifted to a delicately lyrical piano solo, the return of the strings and Vondracek’s beautifully fluid moves — from speed and lightness, to rapid-fire fingering, to a big blast. His uncanny speed and fluidity on the keyboard were breathtaking, and he made the piano speak in a wide range — from pensive and dreamy to highly emotional.
The work’s final Allegro vivace movement took the form of a spirited dance, with shifting moods and with Vondracek’s dazzling, rapid-fire sweep across the keyboard. An encore was then in high demand. And in another superb turn, Vondracek performed Rachmaninoff’s “Prelude in C-Sharp Minor.”
Pianist Lukáš Vondráček in a performance of Chopin’s “Piano Concerto No. 2” with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conductor Marin Alsop. (Todd Rosenberg Photography)
The concert’s second half was devoted to that Russian genius Shostakovich’s “Symphony No. 5 in D Minor,” a monumental work composed in 1937 (and subject to a complex history). The piece requires an immense orchestra and, according to Phillip Huscher’s forever superb program notes, the composer’s description of the theme of his symphony was “the making of a man … with all his experiences in the center of the composition … and the tragically tense impulses of the earlier movements resolved in optimism and joy of living.”
The first of the work’s four movements begins with an intense riff by the strings that then shifts into quietude, dreaminess and introspection before building to the sound of French horns and shifting from tense to dreamy moods. Something is brewing as the work suggests a darkness and nervous energy. And there is a stormy, grand-scale burst of timpani and percussion, brass and more. Something is certainly brewing, but then comes a mysterious, subtly dreamy end.
The second movement is awash in mood shifts, with a lovely violin melody and plucked strings, along with winds and brass, timpani and a big blast of sound. The third movement opens with the strings suggesting interior emotions and a certain dreaminess that gradually builds — at once lyrical and agitated and full of mood shifts that include a harp and strings.
Then it’s on to the fourth and final movement that opens with a big blast of sound and high-speed urgency and excitement. The mood shifts are many and varied, with the powerhouse orchestra working toward a grand finale in this richly emotional collection of what was clearly the composer’s complex life as both a Soviet citizen and an audacious artist.
Note: Coming up soon at the CSO is a program featuring the music of Handel, Beethoven and Mozart’s grand-scale “Mass in C Major (Coronation)” featuring the Chicago Symphony Chorus and four soloists, conducted by Nicholas Kraemer (Oct. 17-19); as well as Richard Strauss’ “Don Quixote,” along with fairytale works by Beethoven and Humperdinck, with guest cellist John Sharp and conductor Sir Donald Runnicles (Oct. 24-26).
Next up will be two different concerts marking a return visit by Maestro Riccardo Muti, now the CSO’s music director emeritus. The program on Oct. 31 and Nov. 2-3 will feature two works by Beethoven — his “Piano Concerto No. 5” (featuring Mitsuko Uchida) and his “Symphony No. 5 (Eroica).” Then, on Nov. 8-9, he will conduct a wonderfully mixed bill including Osvaldo Golijov’s “Megalopolis Suite” (a world premiere CSO commission), Donizetti’s “Overture to ‘Don Pasqual,’” Verdi’s “The Four Seasons,” Chabrier’s “España” and Falla’s “Suite No. 2” from “The Three-Cornered Hat.”
For tickets, visit CSO.org or call 312-294-3000.
Follow Hedy Weiss on Twitter: @HedyWeissCritic
