Music to Feed the Spirit

When Deborah Sobol and I had our first conversation last summer about my joining the Rush Hour team, I told her about my love of chamber music— and that’s the point at which we really clicked. It’s not just that I like chamber music in the more traditional sense, although I have a particular fondness for piano trios. It is the immediacy and intimacy of being in the presence of people creating art, and of knowing that as an audience member you are critical to the success of the performance. You are close enough to feel the vibrations of the lower instruments, and the musicians can see firsthand their effect on you. It is powerful. I’ve laughed, wept, and hurt my hands applauding at concerts. I leave with the melodies and memories very much in focus, and I often turn to recordings to recreate the feelings I’ve just experienced.

As we are approaching the holidays I’ve given some thought to the soundtrack of my life. We all have one, don’t we? I would like to tell you that my soundtrack is filled with exquisite and peaceful Mozart and Bach recordings, but the truth is that much of what I listen to depends on what I need in that moment spiritually and emotionally.

I have different music for cooking, studying, driving and relaxing. If I need to perk up, I play Paul Simon’s “Negotiations and Love Songs.” Who can remain in a bad mood while listening to “Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard”? There’s no shame in singing along with my kids to their Disney and Veggie Tales recordings, although I confess to leaving my husband and friends slack-jawed with my ability to remember and “sell” such dubious masterpieces as “The Yodeling Veterinarian of the Alps.”

But my meditative music right now is Eva Cassidy’s “Songbird.” I could listen to this recording in almost any setting and get a great deal out of it. I’ve found myself both dancing and weeping along with it. It is not spiritual in the sense of a higher being, but in the sense of being at peace with and taking time for my spirit.

As Thanksgiving and all of the various winter holidays approach, I am taking time to be mindful and nourish my spirit with the music that speaks to me. We here at Rush Hour wish you a peaceful holiday next week.

If you get a moment, please leave a comment below and tell us your favorite recording for “feeding the spirit.”

- Megan Balderston

Recommendations from the Artistic Director: November and Early December Concerts

After a rather beautifully extended Indian summer, it seems as though the colder months will soon be upon us. Scottish poet and physician John Armstrong (1709-79) in The Art of Preserving Health (1744), writes of the healing quality of music. I share it with you as an additional boost to your flu shots:

Music exults each joy, allays each grief,
Expels diseases, softens every pain,
Subdues the rage of poison and the plague.

There are four concerts I’d like to recommend in the coming weeks to our Rush Hour audiences:

This Sunday, November 18th at 4 p.m., pianist Mark Valenti will be featured on St. James’ Cathedral Concert Series. Mark is an artist whose performances, especially on the Dame Myra Hess Series, have placed him among the young artists in Chicago to watch — and hear!

A few hours later, and again on Monday evening, November 19th, (Pick-Staiger Hall, Evanston, and Gottlieb Hall, Chicago) you can hear the world premiere of Dana Wilson’s trio for horn, violin and piano, commissioned by Chicago Chamber Musicians’ hornist, Gail Williams. Mr. Wilson’s trio will be joined by works of Beethoven, Richard Strauss and Schubert.

I’m very pleased to share with you news of Quintet Attacca, who appeared on our ’07 Rush Hour series. You can hear them again on November 30th at the Dame Myra Hess noontime concert series (Chicago Cultural Center) in a woodwind program of music from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. This concert will be broadcast live on WFMT 98.7 and is free of charge.

And, on December 3rd, return to the Chicago Cultural Center, for CCM’s First Monday series (also free of charge) to hear CCM ensemble artist and Chicago Symphony Orchestra principal flutist Mathieu Dufour joined by CSO assistant principal cellist Kenneth Olsen and pianist Kuang-Hao Huang in a program of trios for flute, cello and piano. You will remember Mathieu, Ken and Kuang-Hao from RH’s ’07 series as well.

As I bid you happy listening this month, a note of humor from Austrian-Canadian pianist Anton Kuerti (b. 1938), in defining Muzak (the sounds we hear around us daily in elevators, grocery stores, malls, etc. – often confused by some as “music”!):

“Musak goes in one ear and out some other opening.”

Cheers!

- Deborah Sobol