Thoughts from the Artistic Director: British Folk Songs

Of all musical collaborations involving the piano, the art song is one of my favorites. The combination of “tunes and words” is arresting for me; and Benjamin Britten‘s Folksong Arrangements have kept me in captive bliss for several decades! I recently came across some of Britten’s observations on folk songs from his native land: “The chief attractions of English folksongs are the sweetness of the melodies, the close connection between words and music, and the quiet, uneventful charm of the atmosphere…. Like much of the English countryside, they creep into the affections rather than take them by storm.”

 Today’s program illustrates the collaborative roles of the voice (or instrument in the case of the Vaughan Williams) and the piano in the art song. In Vaughan Williams’s musings on the folk song, you will experience the overall atmosphere the composer creates with both the clarinet and piano. Note how the piano writing weaves around the song tunes in the clarinet, at times filling them out with harmony; at other moments, working in canon with melodies of its own; and at still others, creating a landscape sound-canvas. (I can almost smell the salt mists off the British coastline in Study no. 4!)

In Britten’s Folksong Arrangements, the singer combines the sentiment of the melody with the meaning of the word/text. The piano accompaniment complements the voice in setting the atmosphere of the song. Whether it be a tender melancholy created under the voice in “The Salley Gardens,” the broad, virile landscape of “The Bonny Earl o’Moray” or the whistling fancy of the blond-headed youth in “The Plough Boy,” the voice and piano work together to create a sound image that immediately draws the listener deep into the experience. (For more information on Britten’s use of the piano in these arrangements, please take a look at our Program Notes for June 26.)

People say the human voice was the very first instrument. The stories shared in the folk song are timeless in their common humanity, regardless of era or geography. They will always have a place in our shared human experience. Enjoy!

—Deborah Sobol

Thoughts from the Artistic Director: Listening objectives

I often hear the comment among Rush Hour audiences that things are “always different, yet the same” – they can rely on the user-friendly format to be the same level of excellence weekly, and yet, each week is somehow different from the next.

The June 19 program was born almost a year ago, over dinner after a Rush Hour concert. Brant Taylor, Ken Olsen and I talked about the possibility of doing a multiple cello concert – and here we are, with both the same user-friendly format and a program you would rarely hear elsewhere!

There are many ways to listen to live classical music in concert. As a graduate student in Vienna, I explored several on a weekly basis – often going to the same concert program three or four times with different objectives. I’ll suggest a few here today:

1. Focus on the performers as they bring the music to life – how they are playing their instruments, how they are getting sound from their instruments; how they play individually and how the group works together.

2. Focus on how the composer wrote for those particular instruments, as compared with other composers.

3. Focus on the particular piece of the composer being performed, as it fits in the that composer’s creative timeline, and/or the historical timeline of the era.

4. Or…finally, sit back, open yourself to the magic of the music and allow it to take you, your inner ear, your imagination, all of you – somewhere else, on a broader timeline!

There are many more ways to listen, and I’m sure you’ll discover them throughout the summer. Let me know if you find something interesting or discover something for the first-time in your listening experience.

– Deborah Sobol

Thoughts from the Artistic Director: Orchestral Music vs. Chamber Music

It gives me great pleasure to welcome Stephen Burns and colleagues from Fulcrum Point New Music Project to Tuesday’s Rush Hour. “Fulcrum Point,” as it’s known among musicians in Chicago, has gifted our city with extraordinary concert productions featuring musicians and creators from around the world. Tuesday, we are in for a treat!

A program of brass quintet music brings several things to mind, beginning with a question I was asked in a recent television interview: “What is the difference between orchestral music and chamber music?” It’s a legitimate question, as both belong to the world of classical music. While there are many subtle differences, the principal ones, I think, are ones of “size” and “scope” from both the composer and listener perspective.

Orchestral music is meant to be large – it’s written for a group of people numbering anywhere from around 30 to 100, and sometimes even far beyond that. It is meant for large spaces and large audiences (numbering in the four digits, as opposed to the three digit count). For the most part, when a composer writes an orchestral piece, she or he has proportions in mind similar to a novel or epic in the literary world. Because of the size of an orchestra, one person is needed to organize the sound – all members of the orchestra are required to follow the direction and musical interpretation of the conductor.

Gustav Mahler‘s 8th Symphony received its American premiere in 1916, featuring the Philadelphia Orchestra, choruses, soloists and one fearless conductor Leopold Stokowski – totalling no less than 1,068 performers on stage at the same time. This symphony has since been aptly dubbed “Symphony of a Thousand”.

Chamber music, though its message can often be of epic proportions, is more in the novella or short story genre (check out Beethoven‘s passionate ninth sonata for violin and piano, which Leo Tolstoy uses as a dramatic catalyst in his novella Kreutzer Sonata, or Czech composer Leos Janacek‘s string quartets Kreutzer and Intimate Letters, the first of which was based on Tolstoy’s novella, and second based on episodes from Janacek’s own life).

Written for any combination of two up to about 15,chamber music has no boss, no one person directing the sound and shaping the piece. It is a shared responsibility among all the players, alternating in roles of leadership and support as the music requires. All of the basic decisions in music-making – tempo, shaping of phrases, direction, balance of sound, interpretation of the composer’s score – are made jointly by all members of the ensemble. In the world of professional music, it’s a very big responsibility and a great privilege.

Pacifica Quartet, winner of the 2006 Avery Fisher Grant, is one of many dynamic and youthful chamber ensembles whose members have chosen an intimate musical medium over larger-scale ensembles.

Most people are used to hearing brass players in bands (whether it be the local high school band or the U.S. Marine Corps band) or in large orchestral works (think of the great symphonies of Gustav Mahler or Anton Bruckner and our world-famous Chicago Symphony brass section!). There is, however, a great deal to discover in the world of chamber music involving brass instruments – both in brass quintet and in works of brass and other instruments. I’ll make some suggestions here on the blog later this week of interesting works for those of you who may be interested in exploring this. For those of you who might be experiencing a brass quintet as chamber music for the first time, I invite you to think of its organization along the lines of a string quartet or quintet: the trumpets playing the higher (often “melody-role”) of the violins; the French horn that of the viola; trombone, the cello; and tuba, the double bass.

Brass quintet family photo, dated 1865, from the Henry Meredith Collection. 

There’s much more which can be said about the brass quintet genre. One final thing I can say, though, is this: the genre was meant to be heard in a large, generous space… and the combination of brass music and a cathedral is unforgettable. It is the original “surround sound!” We will, collectively, be taken to a different place of pure, sensory pleasure.

Thoughts from the Artistic Director: Welcoming Summer and the 2007 Season

The Rush Hour staff and I have been hard at work amidst the snow and cold of last winter putting together our most exciting season yet. I am excited to share some of the details of our 07 roster and programs with you… but first, humor me for a few moments as I join the multitude of Chicagoans who muse about the approaching summer months in our fair city:

Mid-May: Folks of all ages are planting their container gardens, washing down the patio/balcony furniture, cheering the Cubs or White Sox in the Cross-Town rivalry, and are reveling in the longer days and gentler breezes off Lake Michigan. Forgotten are the woes of winter in Chicago. And just ahead – on Tuesday, June 5 – Rush Hour Concerts at St. James Cathedral joins other unique-to-Chicago rituals that transform our great city into a Monte Carlo for three wonderful months of the year.

Chicago becomes a resort town with the added bonus of magnificent cultural offerings. Rush Hour Concerts is right there in the middle of it: a weekly open “salon” – a gathering place for the culturally curious, the seasoned veterans to classical music, and the newcomers alike. They come from all backgrounds and many places, but have this in common: the satisfaction of taking an hour at the end of a work day or beginning of a summer evening downtown to experience live the musical pillars of the Western canon presented by some of the best artists in their fields, in a format that is up-close and personal, engaging, and refreshing.

The setting – St. James Episcopal Cathedral – is two blocks west of N. Michigan Avenue at Wabash and Huron. It is a historical landmark: Abe Lincoln worshipped there after his nomination to the Presidency in 1860; its bell tower was the only structure north of the Chicago River to survive the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. This magnificent building welcomes Rush Hour audiences weekly with a quiet and aesthetic beauty that is the antidote to the hubbub of our daily lives. The space, the 30-minute pre-concert reception with the artists and the half-hour of music-making are a wonderful island of calm.

I often hear this comment about Rush Hour: “I love the format – so accessible, so user-friendly, so relevant to people’s busy lifestyles… I can count on the same reception and concert routine every Tuesday throughout the summer… yet, each Tuesday is completely different from the next!” Our 07 season reflects this comment in spades!

A quick glance through the schedule reveals Schubert, Brahms, Bach, Debussy, Benjamin Britten, Ralph Vaughn Williams, music of today, music of 300+ years ago, an exploration of the wonders of the pipa – the ancient Chinese stringed instrument that makes the cello look like the new kid on the block. Did I say cello… ah yes… the “cello-fest” of June 19 – not the Three Tenors, but the Six Cellists! Poets writing to Bach’s Three-Part Inventions, a dynamic percussion quartet, and… let’s not forget the annual Rush Hour honoring of the whimsical: this year, music of P.D.Q. Bach, with vocal quartet and piano 5 hands!

More variety: multi-culturalism abounds in partnerships with the Consulates General of Brazil, China, France, Germany, and Great Britain … receptions highlighting their wonderful cuisine, programs highlighting their music. And, perhaps the most distinctive thing about Rush Hour: the wide diversity of our weekly audiences: all ages, all backgrounds, all levels of exposure to great classical music, all busy, all culturally curious, all engaged listeners. This engagement, this curiosity is palpable to the 40 distinguished artists who grace our 07 roster. It makes for very high-energy performances and memorable Tuesdays throughout the summer.

Speaking of high energy: the Rush Hour staff is now notorious for it. They can’t wait until the doors of St. James Cathedral open at 5:15 on Tuesday, June 5th. We all look forward to greeting you.

Cheers,

Deborah Sobol
Artistic Director