Salonen Piano Concerto: CSO and Bronfman

For my money, the Chicago Symphony has kept its place at the top of the heap of American orchestras, as much by changing as by retaining its strongest elements. It’s the typical American orchestra, a kind of chameleon, very professional, kind of faceless, kind of a blank slate – until a strong-willed conductor puts his stamp on it and harnesses its virtuosity to his requirements. Americans are hybrids and at our best we reflect and refract the multitudes of cultural influences around us, and maybe focus them, clarify, de-mystify them.

These thoughts are provoked by the current concerts conducted by the eminent Finnish maestro, Esa-Pekka Salonen. In a rambling pre-concert “conversation,” Salonen told of his 16-year sojourn in remote California, and of how his relocation changed his Euro-centric attitudes, and his musical allegiances.

The journey he travels in his Piano Concerto clearly reflects his experience. Made-up Finnish folk music, mechanical birds, minimalism, Jazz, yes, even Gershwin – all figure in the fabric of this massively ambitious piece. There are wonderful stretches of orchestration, solos, ensembles and dramatic outbursts -- music that would test the limits of any orchestra.

But the CSO is up to most any challenge, and with the composer on the podium, they gave a rousing performance of this dense but not congested piece. Salonen is a masterful conductor, and he cleanly dissected his own music so that the pieces revealed their facets in sharp relief.

It was a work of many fragments, though. It didn’t cohere as a whole, and this was it’s downfall for me. It was exciting in places, even romantic in some other places, but basically an intellectual construction that reveals Salonen as the rebellious stepson of the Boulez school of modernism.

I have left the best part for last. Yefim Bronfman is a giant of the keyboard. The price of admission was more than paid off by seeing his almost superhuman pianism. Fighting the eternal battle of the keyboard versus the full orchestra, and winning it hands down, he negotiated mountains of notes with amazing dexterity and power.

If this concerto is flawed as a composition, it certainly does give two great virtuosos, the orchestra and the soloist, many opportunities to enhance their fame..

Anderszewski Beethoven on Virgin Classics

Piotr Anderszewski, conductor and pianist: Beethoven Bagatelles Op. 126; Piano Concerto # 1. (Virgin Classics).

Gerry: This was an album that I actually bought, Bryant, do you think I spent my money wisely?

Bryant: Probably not. You could've saved at least $5 had you chosen iTunes.

Gerry: Do you think any of this music is dainty?

Bryant: Some of those early sonatas are; even the second concerto has bars of horse and buggy daintiness. But no, dainty doesn't come to mind in this recording.

Piotr Anderszewski is a Pole. Do you think he's more at home in the Chopin recordings or in these German works?

Gerry: Well, his first recording was of the Diabelli Variations, then Bach, so obviously he regards these as important. He was a student of Perahia & Brendel as well and the whole Marlboro school is in his background. That said I think the Chopin disc he produced came from the soul, so obviously he's got the blood. I think the mixture is what makes him somewhat unique. Used to be artists didn't mix the two.

Bryant: In regards to Perahia, he's gone back to Bach and now wants to play little else. He just a released a disc on Sony of the Partitas 2-4. What do you think of veteran pianists going back to well-worn repertoire when they could be recording some other composer's latest work? Are they obligated to find balance?

Gerry: I don't obligate any performer to any course of action...that said, I am not convinced his Bach performances are driven by great passion or originality. Maybe he needs this time to lie fallow and he'll go into the French repertoire or maybe some underperformed German school composer like Wainberg or Reger -- which is where Rudolf Serkin went in his later years. I contrast Perahia with Peter Serkin, who is always exploring unusual repertoire, and yet coming back to the standards with renewed insight. Maybe some artists just lose their curiosity with age. But they do have to follow their own muse and not pay any nevermind to folks like us who inhabit different skins.

Sleeping Beauty : ABT

A.B.T. 's Sleeping Beauty in Chicago

Main floor free seat, major American company, full-length Sleeping Beauty; Good opportunity?But I had just seen a full-length Swan Lake by a sterling Russian troupe weeks ago and the images and sensations lingered on. This was quite different.

The first thing I noticed were the absolute rigidity of pose the secondary performers adopted; not just still but statue-like; or like painted figures in a child's story book. Every minimal move clearly determined; the stage a picture; no messy life-like behavior. And so what? Isn't this a fairy tale? Even more than Swan Lake this is clearly an elite child's box of dolls come to life. 1890 was the debut in Petersburg and I'm sure the Czar's lovely daughters were among the audience, or the lovely daughters of some other aristocratic family who were living a doomed life of fantasy with terror ready to break in at any time. Tchaikovsky's ballets all have a sense of that underlying horror that lurks outside.

In this odd production, the lurkers -- the evil fairy and her bug-like minions have all the scariness required to disrupt and threaten. I came to life when they arrived. Maybe this was going to be fun after all. It was.

The bugs did their work and the sleepy head was carried off, and the cardboard figures mimed incomprehesibly and danced quite well, all said.

Really, in these overlong dramas it's just about enjoying the set pieces as they unroll; the high point for me was the entry of the male dancers and Sid Smith got it right in his Tribune review, so I'll just quote him:

The charismatic Carreno remains a sure-footed, comfortable star, a study in soft landings, clean technique and effortless control. He and the hunters, in their romp that opens Act II, take over the stage with an exhilarating rush.

There was a lot more to enjoy in this production, and the company just got better as time went by, so there were grand, gay, and sweet moments throughout. And a lot of misfires as well -- literally with a bizarre rocket blast that seemed strangely disconnected to the actual witch it was meant to transport...

I can't really say I was enlightened by the quirks of staging. I think choreography by committee is not usually successful. How does anyone interpret the switching of period costumes back and forth -- yes, I read the note that said it was the hundred-year sleep of the beauty, but it was just a device to get a different costume theme going as far as I could see...

But I am not a cranky purist, and I like attending performances that are vital and exhilarating. This A.B.T. show was energetic from start to finish. If I didn't get much of a sense of coherence in the action, and if it was more about technique than about the shadings, i enjoyed watching this first class dancing machine give us their (almost) best.

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Sangre de mi Sangre or Padre Nuestro a Masterpiece?

Sometimes a film with certain narrative or structural weaknesses has so much excellence in its content that you are well rewarded if you just throw out your criticisms and enjoy the moments as they unfold.

"Sangre de mi Sangre" (the better title is the original "Padre Nuestro") was just given two showings at the Chicago Latino Film Festival. It's a film that deserves wider distribution. Perhaps overlong, and with a plot that is rather too complex and relies on coincidence a bit too much, this movie nevertheless sucks you emotionally into the lives of its characters, Mexican immigrants living at the margins in New York City. The core of the movie is the story of the two young Mexicans trying in their separate ways to survive in an alien environment. The plot revolves around stolen identity and personal interconnections as the two protagonists try to gain security through money or through relationships. The story recalls another masterpiece of ambivalence, "The Son", and I'll say no more, except to indicate that the conclusion of the action is richly satisfying, if harsh. Just a word about the performances: the director is clearly a genius at handling actors. The leads give virtuoso turns to their characterizations, and the cast throughout shows never a false note.