New Elgin Symphony season includes masters, John Williams tribute
The Elgin Symphony Orchestra's 2017-18 season, introduced by Music Director Andrew Grams Thursday night at the Hemmens Cultural Center, will continue his artistic vision for the orchestra when it opens its 67th season in September.
Now in his fourth season as ESO music director, Grams has devoted his programs to include music of all periods and cultures, as well as bringing talented young star soloists to the Hemmens stage. An example is this weekend's George Gershwin ESO concerts (7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday), headlined by Moscow-born pianist Yana Reznik.
The 2017-18 season-opening concerts, Sept. 16 and 17, will feature Ukrainian pianist Dinara Klinton, who will play one of romantic literature's signature pieces, Tchaikovsky's Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Minor.
“I felt there were a few soloists I really wanted to work with next season, starting with Dinara in our opening concerts,” Grams said. “I heard her play the Tchaikovsky First in the finals of the Cleveland International Piano Competition last summer and I knew immediately that we needed to have her play that piece here.”
Other guest soloists next season include Cuban-American cellist Thomas Mesa, who will play Edward Elgar's famous concerto for that instrument in the March 2018 concerts; and violinist Bella Hristova, a native of Bulgaria who will perform Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 next January.
“Thomas Mesa won the Sphinx Competition in Detroit last year by playing the finale of the Elgar, and this young man is such a great artist,” Grams said. “He played that piece so very well, not just from a technical standpoint, but he had a grasp of the emotional content and also the quasi-storytelling aspect of that particular movement.
“Coincidentally, I just worked with Bella Hristova last weekend in Knoxville, Tennessee, where we did the Sibelius concerto together. She's also a great young player. One of our missions at the Elgin Symphony is to present young up-and-coming guest artists.”
Grams will continue his Friday evening “Inside the Music” programs, introduced this season. On Nov. 3, he and the CSO will explore the musical background of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, and on March 23, 2018, they will examine one of British composer Edward Elgar's most personal works, his “Enigma” Variations for Orchestra. Both concerts will feature a discussion/analysis of the music (along with projected visuals) in the first half, and after intermission, a complete performance of the entire work.
Grams will conduct his usual seven concert programs next season. In the season opener, the Tchaikovsky piano concerto will be paired with that composer's Suite No. 3 for Orchestra. On Nov. 4-5, he will conduct the aforementioned Beethoven Seventh Symphony, along with music from Aaron Copland's score for the 1940 film of Thornton Wilder's “Our Town,” and American composer Philip Glass' Saxophone Concerto with soloist Amy Dickson.
The maestro's 2017-18 season will continue Jan. 5-7 (the Friday concert at Schaumburg's Prairie Center for the Arts) and include Hristova's performance of the Mozart Fifth Violin Concerto, along with Antonin Dvorak's Symphony No. 6 and Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. On Jan 27-28, 2018, Grams will lead a program titled “John Williams: A Tribute to Steven Spielberg,” with music from such film scores as “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial,” “Jaws” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
“I am a 'child' of John Williams, growing up with all those great film scores,” Grams said. “Any opportunity to do that music is a no-brainer on my end.”
The all-choral Feb. 10-11 concerts will feature Mozart's Requiem Mass, written during the composer's final illness in 1791 and left unfinished. The concert also includes French composer Francis Poulenc's “Gloria,” dating from 1961. The ESO will be joined by vocal soloists and the Elgin Master Chorale.
“The Mozart Requiem Mass is undoubtedly a masterwork, which because of movies like 'Amadeus' sits in peoples' minds as a very singular piece.” Grams said. “But it's a work that's difficult to put on a symphonic concert program. That is why I am particularly fond of our pairing it with Francis Poulenc's 'Gloria,' which balances the dark nature of the Requiem with a choral work that is the exact opposite in mood and so wonderful in its own right.”
Grams' concluding two programs next season will feature the “Enigma” Variations, joined by Brahms' Haydn Variations for Orchestra, along with Thomas Mesa's performances of the Elgar Cello Concerto, in the concerts of March 24-25; and the season finale on May 5-6, 2018, which holds Gustav Mahler's Fifth Symphony, paired with music from Leonard Bernstein's underrated Voltaire-inspired operetta, “Candide.”
Guest conductor Edwin Outwater will lead the ESO's concerts of March 3-4, 2018, with Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 (featuring soloist William Wolfram) paired with Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 12. ESO resident conductor Stephen Squires will be on the podium for the concerts of Oct. 6-8 (the Friday performance in Schaumburg), titled “I Love a Piano,” with longtime ESO audience favorite Rich Ridenour the guest pianist, joined by his son, Brandon Ridenour, as trumpet soloist. Squires will also conduct the annual holiday concerts on Dec. 9-10, the ESO to be joined by the Elgin Master Chorale.
Complete 2017-18 subscription and single-concert ticket information will be available in coming weeks on elginsymphony.org.