Chicago Sinfonietta ends its concert season with Rightness in the Rhythm
Chicago Sinfonietta ends its concert season with Rightness in the Rhythm - by Natalia Dagenhart
"True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time. My people are Americans and my time is today," said world-renowned American composer and pianist George Gershwin. His music, which is going to be presented at the Chicago Sinfonietta's Rightness in the Rhythm concert, reflects this statement. Chicago Sinfonietta, "the city's hippest orchestra", will give the two final performances of its 2016-2017 concert season at 8 p.m. on Friday, May 12 at Wentz Concert Hall in Naperville and at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, May 15 at Symphony Center in Chicago.
This concert program called Rightness in the Rhythm will celebrate one hundred years of jazz and symphony by presenting the most favorite and outstanding compositions that include both jazz and classical features. Syncope, bouncing, swinging and swirling will become the main characteristics of the evening. Chicago Sinfonietta is ready to finish its 2016-2017 concert season in a brilliant manner with a high level of thoughtful and colorful energy.
It all will start with Overture from the opera called "Treemonisha" by Scott Joplin, one of the most popular and ambitious ragtime American composers. He completed this opera in 1910, but unfortunately it was never fully staged in Joplin's lifetime. It had only one performance that was a concert read-through in 1915 at the Lincoln Theater in Harlem, where Joplin played the piano. After that, "Treemonisha" was forgotten for decades and was rediscovered only in 1970. Finally, the world premiere in 1972 brought this great composition back to full and well-deserved life. Chicago Sinfonietta is happy to perform the overture to this opera that is now well received by critics and audiences in different countries.
For Deanna Tham, a special guest conductor and a 2016-2017 Chicago Sinfonietta assistant conductor, it will be her Wentz Concert Hall and Symphony Center debut on the podium with Chicago Sinfonietta. Tham, an extremely talented and experienced professional, will demonstrate her brilliant skills conducting Overture from "Treemonisha". She gained a lot of experience working with numerous American orchestras and world-renowned conductors including some of the top professional musicians and teachers from around the world. Her professionalism and creative spirit combined with the talent of the Chicago Sinfonietta musicians will give the audience a chance to fully enjoy this unique composition.
Overture from "Treemonisha" will be followed by "Variations on Swing Low Sweet Chariot" by modern American composer Michael Abels. Houston Chronicle described him as a composer who possesses a "keen ear and a deft ability to adapt structural elements from popular music into the symphonic idiom." Abels created a new way of understanding classical style by combining it with popular idioms and rhythms. He wrote this piece in 1993 and soon it was premiered by Doc Severinsen and the Phoenix Symphony. Chicago Sinfonietta is happy to present this composition to its audience and to feature its musicians John Floeter, Jeff Handley, and Matt Lee in Abels' "Variations on Swing Low, Sweet Chariot".
What comes next? A well-known work by George Gershwin called "An American in Paris" will please the audience with its inspiring sounds and a combination of energetic rhythm and sensitive melodies. George Gershwin is known for bringing jazz to the concert stage and for borrowing elements and characteristics of jazz to compose symphonic music. He makes jazz more easy to understand for classic music lovers and also helps classic music to be perceived with a greater enthusiasm by jazz lovers.
The audience will hear the notes of humor in Leonard Bernstein's musical comedy called "On the Town: Three Dance Episodes". This piece is based on a story of three sailors during World War II who are on their twenty four hour leave in New York and are looking for love and fun. "On the Town: Three Dance Episodes" was successfully premiered in 1944 on Broadway and demonstrated the strong influence of the urban rhythms of jazz on Bernstein's music. Chicago Sinfonietta is happy to present this unique piece to its audience and to take them on a fun musical adventure with three energetic sailors.
The culmination of this concert program will be "Rhapsody in Blue", one of the most famous melodies created by George Gershwin. This beautiful work is referred to as "rhapsodic work for 'piano and jazz band' incorporating elements of European symphonic music and American jazz with his inimitable melodic gift and keyboard facility". It is already considered to be a landmark in American music and a masterpiece full of unique beat, rhythm and syncope.
Seems like it is impossible to make this piece even better than it already is, but the Marcus Roberts Trio will put it on a completely new level. This brilliant jazz trio will join the orchestra in performance of this composition to demonstrate a completely new and unique version of this masterpiece. Roberts' trio and soloists from the orchestra will present their own improvised variations on Gershwin's theme, conjuring the spirits of Armstrong, Morton and even Ellington. "Rhapsody in Blue" will spin and shake, dance and swirl, roll and swing, and it is always pretty unpredictable which way the eminent jazz pianist Marcus Roberts will take it.
Do you want to know what will happen and how maestro will choose to play "Rhapsody in Blue" this time? Come to one of the Rightness in Rhythm concerts of the Chicago Sinfonietta and find out. Join this energetic adventure and bring back home a few notes of jazz, inner freedom and improvisation. As maestro Roberts noted once, "Nobody shows up for (a concert) expecting it to be dull and boring. They want to hear something exciting. You'd better be better today than you were yesterday. That keeps the people coming back for more year after year." These words explain everything. His life is an improvisation. And it never ends.
For more information, please go to http://www.chicagosinfonietta.org/1617season/rightness-in-the-rhythm/ or call at 312-284-1554. Also, tickets are available at the North Central College Box Office 630-637-SHOW (7469). They range from $10 to $60 at Wentz Concert Hall in Naperville and from $10 to $99 at Symphony Center in Chicago.
Natalia Dagenhart