SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Grant Park Music Festival 2008: Beethoven, Missa Solemnis : Soloists Grant Park Carlos Kalmar (conductor) Orchestra and Chorus,  Chicago 14.6.2008 (JLZ)

Erin Wall, soprano
Anita Krause, mezzo soprano
James Taylor, tenor
Nathan Berg, bass


The Grant Park Music Festival is one of the highlights of summer in Chicago, with an impressive series of concerts on most weekends, along with some performances in the middle of the week. While this seventy-four year tradition started in Grant Park and was associated for generations with the Petrillo Music Shell near Buckingham Fountain -- the place where Queen Elizabeth entered Chicago during an historic visit decades ago -- the Festival is in its fifth season at Millennium Park, which is the portion of Grant Park between the Art Institute of Chicago (on the south) and Pritzker Pavilion (on the north). The concert space fits well into the park, with landscaping to the east and west which lines the various pathways that intersect the area. The space itself looks compact, but the seating area holds about four thousand people, and the lawn behind it could comfortably hold several thousand more. Given such capacity, this is a public venue that brings music to a wide audience, who attend these concerts enthusiastically. As much as it may be difficult for some to imagine Beethoven's Missa solemnis performed essentially out of doors, it nonetheless succeeded in this venue, both sonically and, more importantly, at an incredibly effective social level.

The Grant Park Chorus helped to set the tone, with its crisp delivery and blended tone. The opening Kyrie was distinctive, without being iconoclastic, and credit is due to Christopher Bell, the Chorus Director. The articulation was consistent throughout the Kyrie, and it led well into the passages that involved the vocal quartet, Erin Wall's soaring tone contributing to the overall effect of the movement.

In fact, this set the tone for the Gloria that followed. If Carlos Kalmar's tempos at the opening were a bit brisk, it was not at the expense of his interpretation, which resulted in a finely unified conception of this movement. The "Et in terra pax" section was also commendable, along with the "Glorificamus te," that echoed the bold gesture of the "Gloria in excelsis Deo" that opening the movement. The following movement, the Credo, is an equally expansive piece, which Kalmar kept moving.

The chorus was, again, notable in various passages, and details, like the concentrated tone of "in unum Deo" (after the iteration of "Credo") added a dimension of text-painting to the performance. Other passages were well executed, especially the "et homo factus est" by tenor James Taylor, who made this and other solo passages sound effortless.

In the Sanctus Nathan Berg and Erin Wall gave some well-thought shape to their respective solo passages, which emerged clearly and without distortion. If one would be cautious about the violin solo in Sanctus in this out-of-doors setting, it was hardly problematic in this performance. Given that the performances are amplified, the result is an enriched, rather than distorted, sound. In this particular movement, the violin solo by Laura Park Chen had a nice shape that supported the vocal textures appropriately. At times prominent, elsewhere supportive, the solo violin part was tastefully rendered. In some ways, this somewhat more intimate Sanctus emerged as distinctively as the more extroverted movements that preceded it.

With the Agnus Dei, Nathan Berg gave the movement a solid opening. His rich and full sound rang well into the concert space, with his diction enhancing his elegant phrasing. Each soloist emerged nicely in this movement, with Anita Krause giving her solo part welcome intensity.  As the culmination of the Missa solemnis, the Agnus Dei requires a deft hand, and this movement may have been less unified in concept than the others in this performance. Kalmar succeeded in articulating each section clearly, but this somehow separated the final "Dona nobis pacem" from the rest of the Agnus Dei. The trumpets and timpani that suggest the threat of war were, perhaps, a bit understated in this venue, and blended into the accompaniment. While each section of the Agnus Dei was performed well, the movement did not seem to come together as a whole in the same way as the Credo and Gloria. As demanding as this work can be, the performers, including the conductor, were tireless in their efforts. In fact, the concluding portion of the Agnus Dei was moving. The iterations of "pacem" by the chorus at the conclusion of the movement were as well articulated as the Kyrie that opened the performance. The audience responded enthusiastically at the end, with an appropriately extended ovation for this monumental work.

The Grant Park Festival brings some fine music-making to the public in concerts like this. In fact, the level of performance is impressive. This Festival is to be commended for bringing us concerts like this one, which was as memorable as the fine performance of Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony several years ago.

Granted, the urban setting sometimes challenges the intensity of concerts, with the sound of sirens and noises from passers-by sometimes intruding on the performance. Yet the setting for these performances offers some views of the city of Chicago that can be as memorable as the music. As dusk arrives, lights from the surrounding skyscrapers reflect nicely on Frank Gehry's angular sculpture that protrudes from the area above the stage and over the audience.

It is promising when the season opens with concerts like this one, and the weeks ahead include some intriguing programs and involve internationally recognized soloists. Apart from attending concerts at this festival, visitors to Chicago can also attend performances at the Ravinia Festival, just north of the city. If the quality of this Missa solemnis, one of the early concerts in this year's Grant Park Festival, is an indicator, it should prove to be an outstanding season.

James L. Zychowicz