Excellent music-making within the opening live performance of Chicago’s 2024 Grant Park Music Competition  – Seen and Heard Worldwide

United States Grant Park Music ComPetition – Elgar, Holst: Christian Tetzlaff (violin), Lauren Decker (contralto), Grant Park Music ComPetition Refrain and Orchestra / Carlos Kalmar (conductor). Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park, Chicago, 15.6.2024. (JLZ)

Elgar – Violin Concerto in B minor, Op.61
Holst – The Cloud Messenger, Op.30

The primary Saturday night live performance in Chicago’s Grant Park Music ComPetition had two large-scale Edwardian compositions on this system: Elgar’s Violin Concerto in B minor (1910) and Holst’s The Cloud Messenger (1913).  Christian Tetzlaff was the soloist for the Elgar, and his method blended virtuosic method with stable musicianship in an interpretation that made the piece vivid and thrilling.

The technical particulars of the work had been extraordinarily clear on this out of doors setting. Tetzlaff gave form to the primary motion’s typically sprawling construction with a variety of dynamics and a fair sound all through the registers that Elgar employed. Kalmar’s cautious consideration to element was evident in his responsiveness to each soloist and orchestra as he introduced it to a panoramic conclusion.

The second motion was spectacular for the prominence of the violin’s wealthy decrease register, a characteristic that Tetzlaff used to nice impact. On this efficiency, Kalmar emphasised the lyricism that echoes at instances the ‘Nimrod’ part of Elgar’s Enigma Variations. It was a possibility to take pleasure in Tetzlaff’s mastery of the rating and his instrument. With the third motion, the technical calls for of the piece benefited from the violinist’s note-perfect precision. The depth that he dropped at the finale saved the viewers rapt by the final notice. It was a pleasure to listen to this well-known concerto within the fingers of such a gifted interpreter as Tetzlaff.

The second half of this system introduced Holst’s uncommon The Cloud Messenger to Chicago audiences. This cantata-like piece is a large-scale canvas that has the distinctive place of being the work which Holst accomplished simply earlier than The Planets. Whereas some level to its weaknesses in distinction to the favored enchantment that The Planets achieved, this efficiency gave a stable studying that invitations one to return again to it. The textual content, which is predicated on the composer’s translation of the Hindu poet Kālidāsa’s Meghadūta, describes the efforts of an exiled soul to invoke a cloud to bear a message of affection to his spouse. Inside that premise, Kālidāsa expresses the ability of affection that distance can not hinder. As an alternative, love transcends the truth of exile that the husband and spouse endure, and Holst captured that sentiment nicely on this finely crafted work. Cautious listening to the rating reveals stylistic traits that Holst utilized in The Planets and elsewhere, as within the wordless choral sections which can be widespread to each, or the percussive ostinato passages that enhanced the sung textual content.

Kalmar’s persuasive studying gave full rein to the luxurious chromatic harmonies and wealthy scoring on this uncared for piece. The tutti passages for full orchestra benefited from the cautious voicing that made the textures resound. Within the chamber-music like sections that anticipate, in a way, the method that Mahler would use in some elements of Das Lied von der Erde, the orchestra responded attentively to Kalmar’s path.

The identical could also be mentioned of the Grant Park Competition Refrain. The choral textures had good definition, though at instances the diction might have made extra of Holst’s textual content. It was significantly good to listen to contralto/dramatic mezzo-soprano Lauren Decker within the solo passages. Decker commanded the half with becoming model, from the articulate mid-range passages by the total low notes that sound as in the event that they had been composed expressly for her voice.

All in all, the small print wanted for a profitable revival had been evident all through the Holst efficiency, simply as they had been with Elgar’s Violin Concerto. Through the years, the Grant Park Music ComPetition has grow to be identified for together with commonplace repertoire in addition to for programming new or unfamiliar works, and that was the case this night. It was an evening of excellent music-making, and an distinctive method to open the brand new season as conductor Carlos Kalmar celebrates his twenty-fifth and remaining yr in main the Grant Park Music ComPetition.

James L. Zychowicz