CSOradio
CSOtv
CSOradio
As another year looms on the horizon, it’s time to look back on the achievements of 2021. At Symphony Center, works by living composers were front and center on the CSO Sessions series, virtual concerts streamed on the CSOtv platform. (CSO Sessions episodes now are available to watch for free, with registration.)
The new works showcased on CSO Sessions include world premieres by Courtney Bryan, Wadada Leo Smith and David Reminick. Once live performances resumed in September, new music also figured prominently on the CSO Main and MusicNOW series, with world premieres by eminent composers such as Magnus Lindberg, Gabriela Lena Frank and Elijah Daniel Smith.
Here are some video highlights:
CSOtv
Jessie Montgomery, Strum for String Quintet: Written in 2006 for string quartet, the expansive work draws upon American folk melodies and the spirit of dance and movement. Its title refers to the guitar-like plucking of the strings that plays many roles: floating hum, earthy groove, rapturous thrum. “I’ve always been interested in trying to find the intersection between different types of music,” Montgomery said. “Music is a meeting place at which all people can converse about their unique differences and common stories.”
Timings: In the complete Episode 15, linked above, Strum begins at 1:20.
Amanda Harberg, Hall of Ghosts: The loss of live performance early in the pandemic, “when the halls [were] all empty and filled with memories and history and ghosts,” inspired this work, Harberg said. She calls the piece, which here features CSO piccolo Jennifer Gunn and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s Alyssa Allen, imagines the dancer as a ghost with the piccolo’s haunting voice as an “invocation calling the music back” to the empty stage.
Timings: In the complete Episode 16, linked above, Hall of Ghosts begins at 2:03.
Missy Mazzoli, Volume for Percussion Duo: This work, which pays homage to the steel-pan drum tradition of Trinidad, calls for unusual instrumentation such as wine bottles tuned to various pitches. In the late 19th century, drumming was banned in Trinidad, because it served as a form of communication among slaves. Forced to improvise, they used whatever materials they could find, including biscuit tins, paint cans and oil drums. Mazzoli describes Volume “as a raucous and joyful work, an homage to the spirit of innovative music-making.”
Timings: In the complete Episode 20, linked above, Volume begins at 1:14.
Wadada Leo Smith, Delta Blues (world premiere): Celebrated as a pioneering voice in jazz and contemporary music, Wadada Leo Smith paints a sonic portrait of revitalizing sunlight stretching over the Mississippi Delta in Delta Blues. The work received its world premiere in CSO Sessions Episode 21, curated by then-CSO Mead Composer-in-Residence Missy Mazzoli. Episode 21 also features the world premiere of Nicole Mitchell’s Cult of Electromagnetic Connectivity, originally commissioned for MusicNOW, the CSO’s new music series. Mazzoli’s own Dark With Excessive Bright rounds out this program.
Timings: In the complete Episode 21, linked above, Delta Blues begins at 1:33, Dark With Excessive Bright at 10:36 and Cult of Electromagnetic Connectivity at 5:06.
David Reminick, The Pub from In Dreams (world premiere): David Reminick’s song cycle sets retellings of dreams by the composer’s friends and family to music; strange and fantastical narratives of the subconscious are woven into a richly textured work for a vocal quartet. CSO Sessions Episode 22 features the world premiere of the cycle’s fourth movement, The Pub, performed by Quince Ensemble, on a program curated by then-CSO Mead Composer-in-Residence Missy Mazzoli. Also on this episode are the world premiere of Courtney Bryan’s Requiem (commissioned for MusicNOW), Gilda Lyons’ Bone Needles and Tomeka Reid’s Prospective Dwellers.
Timings: In the complete episode, linked above, Bone Needles begins at 1:31, The Pub at 10:13, Prospective Dwellers at 19:13 and Requiem at 26:13.
Gabriela Ortiz, Denibée-Yucañana: Inspired by the works of painter Rufino Tamayo, composer Gabriela Ortiz channels the folkloric musical traditions of her native Mexico in her rhythmic, jazz-infused trio Denibée-Yucañana. In this work, Ortiz captures the light and contrasts in Tamayo’s painting of Monte Albán, the sprawling archaeological site on Oaxaca’s Tiger Mountain (or “Denibée” in the Zapotec language). Scored for flute, double bass and percussion, Denibée-Yucañana incorporates an array of novel timbres and moments of high virtuosity. In parts of the first movement, a marimba player uses hands instead of mallets. The toccata-like finale features a plucked bass line and flute pyrotechnics.
Timings: In the complete episode, linked above, Denibée-Yucañana begins at 1:30.
When live concerts resumed in the fall, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra also performed Missy Mazzoli’s These Worlds in Us, Jessie Montgomery’s Coincident Dances and the world premieres of Magnus Lindberg’s Serenades and Gabriela Lena Frank’s Haillí-Serenata.
Meanwhile, the season’s first MusicNOW concert featured the world premiere of Elijah Daniel Smith’s Scions of an Atlas; Jessie Montgomery’s Loisaida, My Love and Lunar Songs; Nathalie Joachim’s Seen, and Ted Hearne’s Authority.
