SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Sibelius, Szymanowski, Tchaikovsky: Soloists,  Grant Park Chorus (Christopher Bell Chorus Director) Grant Park Orchestra, Hannu Lintu, conductor,  Chicago, 11.7. 2008 (JLZ)

Jonita Lattimore, soprano

Susan Platts, mezzo-soprano

Quinn Kelsey, baritone  

Sibelius: The Captive Queen, Ballad for Chorus and Orchestra, Op. 48
Szymanowski: Stabat Mater for Soprano, Mezzo-Soprano, and Baritone Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra, Op. 53
Tchaikovsky: Symphony no. 6 in B minor, Op. 74 "Pathétique"


Congratulations to the Grant Park Festival for successful programming that combines familiar and unfamiliar works. Over the weekend, Chicago audiences were treated to a fine concert that included two works that are rarely performed in the United States, Sibelius's The Captive Queen, a work for orchestra and chorus that conveys its story both accessibly and with model concision. A Finnish tale with romantic overtones, the three-part work involves a description of the tower in which the queen is held prisoner, the encounter with a bard, who decided to tell her story, and the queen's rescue through the efforts of a heroic knight. Calling to mind the legend of Richard the Lionheart in Dürnstein, whose rescue was effected by his minstrel, this setting is a demanding work for the chorus, which sets the scene, relates the bard's discovery, and paints the picture of the rescue. Not only was the chorus remarkably effective in singing the Finnish text, but it brought character and nuance to each part of the work. As much as it was possible to hear Sibelius's distinctive sound in the instrumental introduction, the choral sound defines the piece, which offered a satisfying opening to the Friday evening concert.

At the core of the program was the Stabat Mater, Op. 53 by Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937), which dates from 1925. While audiences may be more familiar with Antonin Dvořak's setting of the same text which was premiered in 1880, they will find in Szymanowski's Stabat Mater a more concise work. Rooted in a tonal structure, Szymanowski made use of expressive dissonances that underscored his interpretation of the text. Standing apart from the conventional Latin text, Szymanowski allowed performers the option of singing his work in Polish, which contributes a personal dimension to the work as a result of using the vernacular.

In the opening section of the work, the American soprano Jonita Lattimore set the tone of the work with her reverent and distinctive tone. She is known to Grant Park audiences from her previous performances in Vaughan Williams' Dona nobis pacem and the same composer's Sea Symphony during the inaugural season in Millennium Park. Her return this season was welcome, for the attention she gave to the solo passages, and her fine enunciation of the Polish text.  The opening "Stabat Mater dolorosa" makes use of the contrast between the solo soprano and the chorus, and Szymanowski made use of similar contrasts throughout the work.

The second portion of the work makes use of the solo baritone and chorus, and Quinn Kelsey delivered a powerful reading of the music. His commanding sound worked well with the extroverted chorus, which reinforced the passionate setting of the text. Known to Chicago audiences as a member of Lyric Opera, Kelsey demonstrated his facility in the powerful passages that Szymanowski gave the baritone in this work.

With the third section, "O eja  Mater," the mezzo soprano Susan Platts was impressive with her clear and articulate lower register. A dark, almost contralto sound in some passages, Platts blended well with Lattimore in the duet sections in which the two soloists worked together in the next portion of the text, "Fac me tecum." The contrapuntal passages were clearly rendered by both singers, whose parts intersected the deft chorus.

The latter piece made use of the a capella chorus, which delivered an ethereal sound that was at once rich and solid. The intonation was secure and rich in texture in a movement that brought out further contrasts in timbre by allowing the text to emerge clearly through a strictly vocal sound. The chamber-like sound fits this portion of the text as it offers a personal interpretation of the Virgin at the side of her crucified son.

In the fifth movement, a powerful piece for baritone and chorus, Szymanowski was, perhaps, at his most modern in scoring and musical effects. Lintu commanded the forces skilfully, and in maintaining the intensity demonstrated the power in this piece. Kelsey gave full voice to the demanding passages that were reminiscent of a Dies irae setting, with heaven-storming prayerfulness. The chorus not only supported the solo lines, but offered a commentary on the baritone's lines with a Sprechstimme reading of the text. Here Szymanowski is almost operatic in using the musical forces dramatically to render a prayer to the Virgin herself for salvation. The prayer continues in the sixth and final section, in which the solo soprano has a more personal conclusion to the work, and Lattimore made the lines soar in bringing the Stabat Mater to its conclusion. Notable, too, are the passages that involve the women of the chorus, which continue the exceptionally fine work of this chorus. This was a remarkable performance that deserves attention for its accomplished delivery of what is both an important choral work of the early twentieth century and one of the signal works by Szymanowski.

Continuing the eastern European style, the second half of the program was devoted to a fine reading of Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony. Lintu gave the work the extroverted romantic reading it deserves and in drawing out the expressive gestures in the strings with which the first movement opens, Littu set the stage for the complementary responses in the brass. This was a welcome study in contrasts that worked well.

With the second movement, the delicacy of the waltz in five emerged easily through the fluid tempo and solid ensemble. If the first movement was outwardly expressive, the more intimate sounds of the waltz differed strikingly.

Another kind of expressiveness was part of the third-movement march, with its over-the-top optimism. Here the Orchestra responded well to Littu's leadership in the misplaced triumph within the structure and if the audience responded with conclusive applause, it is understandable. And yet the softer, quieter gestures that open the final movement seem to resolve the excesses that preceded it. Lintu gave the Finale a dignified shape that matched all the intensity that came before it, and the hushed awe at the ending of the concert, an open arena in the center of Chicago, said much about the music-making that occurred in this concert.

James L Zychowicz


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