SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Grant Park Music Festival 2008 (2) : Vaughan Williams, Britten, and Bartok Karina Gauvinl, soprano, Grant Park Orchestra, Carlos Kalmar (conductor) Chicago 28.6.2008 (JLZ)


The Grant Park Music Festival continued its fine season with a concert of works that reflect its emphasis on twentieth-century masters. For this programme, like others this week, the Grant Park Orchestra performed in the Harris Theater, which is just inside the Pritzker Pavilion, where most concerts take place. This indoor venue, the home of Chicago Opera Theater and other ensembles, lends itself well to the specific works chosen for this concert, since some of the intimate timbres of the Variations on a Theme by Thomas Tallis by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Les Illuminations by Benjamin Britten and the Concerto for Orchestra by Bela Bartok, may be lost to street noises and other ambient noises in the outdoor setting.

At the core of this program, which was performed on both Friday and Saturday evenings, is the string section, and the piece that opened the concert, Vaughan Williams' Variations on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, showed off the Grant Park strings to fine effect. The blocks of sound that are critical to the structure of Vaughan Williams' piece were solid and articulated by clearcut entrances. Such tonal planing was even more impressive when juxtaposed by the solo passages in the piece, which were executed well by the principal viola, Kerri van Kalkinburgh and concertmaster Jeremy Black. Later in the piece, the chamber-music-like writing involving both soloists demonstrated the strengths that  each performer brought to the Orchestra. Kalmar gave this work the clarity that arrives with some organ music, with the sections of the string orchestra retaining  their individual colours when called for, but arriving at a balanced ensemble for the tutti sections.

While smaller, the string orchestra required by  Britten's Les Illuminations was equally strong especially in the subdued passages supporting the soloist, with concertante-like writing interacting with the vocal line, and with  wholly orchestral interludes that were distinctive without being out of place. A setting of poetry by Rimbaud, this orchestral song cycle is a tightly conceived piece that represents a kind of urban music, with its direct references to cities and their inhabitants as a metaphor for modern society.

The Canadian soprano Karina Gauvin gave an impressive performance of the work. Her engagement with the music was evident throughout the piece, as she gave shape and nuance to each phrase of the text. Throughout the piece, her tone was even, including passages that called for demanding changes of vocal register. Gauvin's articulation of declamatory French in the lower part of her range was clear, just as the sustained passages in the high range never gave way to shrill, indistinct sounds. At the same time Gauvin demonstrated her immersion in the text with facial expressions  underscoring the meaning. Without overtly acting the songs, Gauvin gave a knowing performance, bringing out the popular-sounding elements of "Royauté" ("Royalty") without lapsing into caricature, and she made the intricate rhythms of "Marine" ("Seascape") pliable.

Of the various songs in this cycle, the intimacy of "Phrase" and "Antique" contrasted with the more overt expression of the opening "Villes," a tour-de-force for Gauvin. The motto of Les Illuminations is the text "J'ai seul la clef de cette parade, de cette parade sauvage" ("Only I have the key to this parade, to this savage parade"), which occurs several times in the cycle, and Gauvin gave the verse wholly appropriate expression whenever it occured. It was particularly effective in the conclusion of the penultimate song "Parade," which ends with the "J'ai seul la clef...." text yet again  which Gauvin emphasised with  outstretched arms. In this song, the various images come together into an amalgam of modern life, with colours,textures and nationalities blending together in the 'savage parade' of humanity. As Rimbaud's text has it, "ils transforment le lieu et les personnes et usent de la comédie magnétique" ("they transform the place and the people and make use of magnetic comedy"), and Gauvin gave this part of the song truly memorable expression, as she brought the work to its conclusion.

The second half of the program was devoted to Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, in which Kalmar delivered a lively performance and a  solid interpretation. By its nature the Concerto demands a balanced and seasoned ensemble, and can be challenging for festival performances like this. This Concerto for Orchestra worked out well, with the string section offering a solid core of sound enhanced by fine work in the winds, brass and percussion.

While giving due  definition to the various sections of the opening movement, Kalmar's awareness of the overall structure was solidly behind his choices of tempo and dynamics. The large-scale structure of the opening stood in contrast to the more chamber-like sounds that are essentially to the movement that follows, the "Game of Pairs." The delicate scorings of the second movement emerged clearly in this indoor performance, with the somewhat dry acoustics of the Harris Theater allowing the syncopations to be rendered with welcome clarity. Yet the strings made the middle movement, the "Elegy", memorable, and the eastern-European idioms had proper resonance in this performance. Without making too much of the "Elegy",  Kalmar gave it appropriate and also  allowed the "Interrupted Intermezzo" the humour it requires, with the quotation from Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony deftly phrased. The work moved almost seamlessly into a Finale that was full of energy, yet never rushed.

Every episode was distinct, with the lighter, more elegiac nature of the inner sections juxtaposing the more dramatic music that frames them. Kalmar led the Grant Park Orchestra forward with a relaxed hand, and the audience seemed as engaged as the players by the time the work came to its conclusion.

All in all, this performance demonstrated yet again the high level of musicianship that is so typical of the Grant Park Festival.

James L. Zychowicz


Back to Top                                                    Cumulative Index Page