John Williams and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (November 10th, 2013)

[igger6 953]

AMAZING show on Sunday! I saw him with the CSO in 2007, which was much more of a "Greatest Hits" program, I thought, as opposed to the selection of comparatively "deep" tracks he played today. There were a higher proportion of classic crowd-pleasers in '07, but I didn't enjoy this one any less. I was in the upper balcony, and with my trusty pair of binoculars, I had the best seat in the house, with clear views of everyone but the trumpets and some of the percussion, who were camped out behind the screen. (Can't the CSO afford a retractable screen? There's an awfully long donor list in the program...) I'd say the standout section of the ensemble was the trombones, who lit up all the up-tempo selections with bold and melodic lines. I'm an orchestral layperson if ever there were one, so time after time I would sweep my viewfinder from one end of the brass to the other, seeking the source of that righteous racket, and it was almost always the trombones. Big kudos as well to the flute and piccolo players, who popped in and out precisely at the appointed times to dress up or punctuate the big melodies with long or short runs, as well as nailing key solos in the slower material. And of course, the hardest-rocking man on stage, the timpani player, brought every crescendo section over the top.

The program followed what was posted exactly, with the addition of a salute to Hollywood leading ladies set to the theme from Laura, which Gil Shaham stuck around to play as a "personal favor" to the Maestro before the intermission. The encores were the same as reported above, too. The Cowboys overture was a thrilling and energetic opener; I've never heard the full overture live—certainly never under Williams' baton—and it's really a gorgeous, cohesive piece of music, one of those film suites that seems to tell a story in and of itself. The same is even truer of Close Encounters, and speaking as one who's immune to the charms of the film, I loved seeing what amounted to a highlight reel of the movie's few memorable scenes on the projector screen, accompanied by a blessedly short summary of the score's menacing suspense material and a full rendering of its transcendent climax. (I don't use that word loosely, but the ending of that suite really embodies it for me.) Jaws was pleasant, as always, though I'm too young for this to be one of my favorites. (That was, I think, the only outright repeat from 2007 in the main program, and, now as then, I couldn't find the demarcation point between "Out to Sea" and "The Shark Cage Fugue.") I find it curious that, in two concerts, Williams has included selections from this score without touching the concert suite of the main theme (not that I miss it; these pieces are more enjoyable).

Shaham's section was next, and I actually found this section less engaging than the rest, partly because it consisted mostly of non-Williams compositions, and partly because Shaham—a formidable player who really seems to enjoy himself—was a bit poorly amplified. Still, it was a pleasant surprise to hear Williams' orchestral arrangement of "Por Una Cabeza" from Scent of a Woman, which is a treasure I'd only recently unearthed, and the Fiddler medley, which was masterfully arranged, with melodies bouncing all over the orchestra. (I wonder how long it's been since JW conducted that one. I can't imagine it's been at the top of his concert playlists since...well, probably before he gave concerts.) Schindler's List was moving, of course, and quite powerful live (another one I'd never experienced that way). Several concertgoers in my section of the house were moved to a spontaneous standing ovation at the end. This is as good a time as any to note that on every single selection, the CSO was tighter than shrink-wrap. Close your eyes, and they might as well have been blaring the CD versions of any of these selections (with a few pleasant exceptions below).

The Laura starlet montage brought us to the intermission. I always love catching snatches of upcoming selections from rehearsing musicians before and between shows, and I heard a horn player limbering up for "Flight to Neverland" once the musicians started to return. That was the first selection of the second half, another I hadn't heard live from the Maestro, and another knockout. This one featured the flying montage that I've read about before. As it began, I was begrudging the presence of the screen, because it always means lowered lights on the stage and less attention on the musicians. After a minute or so, though, I was won over by the sheer quality of the montage. Someone must have slaved over licensing, sequencing, and synchronizing the clips, which covered a wide swath of decades, studios, and genres. And kudos to Williams and the musicians, who—aided by a scrolling metronome/monitor in front of the conductor's stand—kept the music on track with only a few missed beats.

Next came the "Three Pieces from Indiana Jones," which opened with the "Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra." That's a sentimental favorite for me, as it was one of the Williams "gateway drugs" on the Greatest Hits 1969-1999 album that took adolescent me from "casual fan" to "casualty of fanaticism." (I actually credit "Scherzo" with awakening me to the power of a well-crafted instrumental piece. It was that track that showed me there was more to John Williams, and film music, and orchestral music, than trumpets and theme songs.) This was the first of several pieces where the precision of the musicians really shone. Pizzicato strings gave way to horn bursts, which led back to bowed string lines and fleeting flute runs without a millisecond of overlap or delay. I also could swear I heard a slight modification to the ending of the piece, but there are already discrepancies between the OST, end credits, and concert versions, so it might just have been one of those that I was less familiar with. The middle piece was "Marion's Theme," in what I assume is the 2008 concert version, because it featured a beautiful and unfamiliar woodwind counter-melody here and there, plus some new transitional material. Bloody gorgeous. He closed the suite with "The Adventures of Mutt," a piece I used to find derivative and boring, but which has grown on me a lot in five years. It sounded positively joyous, and it's got to be one of the Maestro's most fun recent compositions outside of the Tintin score. I was surprised that this suite didn't include the "Raiders March," apart from its quotations in "Mutt," but I was just as happy to get to explore these three underplayed gems. (Still waiting for a recording of "Marion's Theme," aren't we?)

A spoken intro from Williams led to the Lincoln triptych, wherein "Elegy" and "With Malice Toward None" were a sandwich of gorgeous wallpaper. (Sorry, I acknowledge the quality there, but do not combine the Lincoln soundtrack with driving or operating heavy machinery. Also, points lost for excluding "The People's House," which is the belle of that ball in my book.) "Getting Out the Vote," though, which featured concertmaster Robert Chen, was fantastic. What remains a small-ensemble piece of pseudo-source music on the album was rejiggered and (I think) expanded here to let the whole orchestra in on the fun. By the finale, I was tapping my foot and grinning to a piece that had only ever mildly amused me before. This is the kind of arrangement that makes me think Williams could permanently retire tomorrow, and musicians of sufficient caliber would still be able to spend decades finding new and hidden delights in his existing compositions.

He closed out the main program with "Adventures on Earth," a piece I'd only ever dreamed of hearing live someday, and good God, what a marvel. I never knew that those jubilant shrieks that open the concert suite come mainly from the violins. (The woodwinds have to be somewhere in there, too, but I wasn't fast enough with my binoculars to tell for sure.) Every note and beat was spot-on, and this moves me a long way toward naming the climactic moments of E.T. as Williams' absolute zenith in terms of sheer musical majesty and joy. (I felt the same way hearing Erich Kunzel lead the CSO in the shorter E.T. suite at Ravinia some years back.) Incidentally, the Maestro made a point of specifying that the lack of film footage for this piece allowed the orchestra's contribution to the film to really shine, particularly with an ensemble as world-class as the CSO. I couldn't agree more (though, again, it would have been nice to lift the screen out of the way when it wasn't being used so we could see the back players).

That was it for the main program, and honestly, I could have walked out right then and been more than satisfied. But all that flying hadn't quite taken us to another galaxy yet, so a three-part, all-Star Wars encore was in order. Williams led with "Yoda's Theme," which I never expected to hear live—ever, ever, at all, ever—and which brought a huge smile to my face, though I imagine a good chunk of the crowd might have been scratching its collective head. Gorgeous, buttery strings, especially the cellos, dominated this piece. Then came the last surprise of the night: the Star Wars Main Title/End Title suite (no surprise there), accompanied by a fantastic, new-to-me film montage that was, once again, brilliantly edited and synchronized to the music, even in the tiniest of details. (My favorite was a minor cymbal crash that perfectly punctuated a minor onscreen explosion or lightsaber ignition; I forget which.) This beat the tar out of the Lucas/Spielberg montage that Williams was shopping around in 2007, a barely synchronized hodgepodge of famous shots from the original trilogy. This montage, by contrast, gave every major and secondary character a shot at the spotlight, touched on all six films, for better or worse, worked in some comedy, and found ways to reference everything in melodically appropriate places in the music from Episode IV. I had written off film montages as a distraction for those who can't appreciate watching the orchestra; this one really proved me wrong. One more roof-shaking rendition of "The Imperial March," and Williams was ready for his sleepy-time cape routine.

This was an excellent companion piece to the 2007 concert, and while I might have traded a couple of the violin-centered pieces for a fuller exploration of Williams' oeuvre, the crowd-pleasing Shaham section probably compensated for the omission of Superman, Jurassic Park, and the Raiders March. What surprised me, though, was the neglect of Harry Potter. "Hedwig's Theme" is—inarguably, I think—the Maestro's most popular and influential work of the new millennium, considering its impact on the rest of the Potter film-and-theme-park franchise. I would expect that to be a staple nearly as ubiquitous as Star Wars by this point. But I suppose when you show up as often as Williams does in Chicago, you play whatever you're in the mood for on a given weekend. Again, I can't stress enough the professionalism and precision of the CSO. I'm accustomed to hearing lesser orchestras lack this or that in manpower or tempo when it comes to these familiar compositions, but these musicians acquitted themselves beautifully on every selection. Chicago is truly blessed to have an orchestra like the CSO with such close ties to JW. Rock on, Maestro! Keep composing and come back soon!

[Alejandro 28]

Williams actually performs Fiddler quite often, usually at the Hollywood Bowl.

[crocodile 8,575]

Thanks for the excellent write-up.

Karol

[Jay 39,703]

igger6 thanks for that excellent write-up, it was a pleasure to read!

[crocodile 8,575]

Plagiarist!

Karol

[TownerFan 5,247]

Great little interview with Gil Shaham about the Violin Concerto and his working relationship with JW:

http://blogs.wfmt.com/offmic/2013/11/08/web-exclusive-a-conversation-with-gil-shaham/

I returned home today from Chicago and I'm still digesting the whole experience. These concerts have been one of the most powerful musical experience I've ever had. I'll try to put down more articulate thoughts in the following days, now I'm too jetlagged

[Tom 5,147]

That was a wonderful interview. It is nice to hear professionals talking like us "fanboys."

[nightscape94 966]

Sorry it's taken me so long to write a review, but here it goes:

I attended two concerts; the Friday and Saturday performances (11/8-9). Both had the same program and encores. I had booked this trip to Chicago entirely on the desire to see the Violin Concerto conducted by John Williams. The chance to see one of his concert works does not come up frequently. I was able to catch his Essay for Strings last year so it's nice to see some of these pieces sneak their way onto a billing with his movie scores.

For the Friday concert I was seated on the lower level, left side, looking at the stage with a perfect view of Shaham. On Saturday I was on the second tier, second row back, also on the violin side. Great seats both nights offering nice perspectives of the orchestra, conductor and soloist.

They opened with the standard suite from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I've seen Williams conduct this before, and many performances of this tend to rush through some of those dramatic crescendi and thematic transitions. This time, Williams took those moments with great care and love, with just the right amount of ritardando, rubato, and expressiveness. I always felt that this suite, almost more than any other of the Maestro's, demanded these free musical articulations.

Next was the concerto. I enjoyed this performance more than the recorded version with Shaham. I'm not sure I've ever seen a soloist play with such emotion showing on their face while they play. Most soloists seem polite, stern, serious, concentrated, etc. Shaham ran a gamut; warmth, joy, thrill, despair. Even when he wasn't playing he was watching Williams with a smile on his face, surveying the orchestra, or listening intently to the music. He was extremely present throughout the whole of the performance.

On Friday, between the first and second movements he seemed to have a bit a difficulty either tuning the instrument or keeping it in tune. He was fiddling (excuse the pun) with the pegs and tuners, running his bow over the strings and making chromatic noise, for a noticeably lengthy amount of time to the point where he turned to the audience and said "The second movement is much more beautiful" which got a nice laugh. The very last set of chords in the finale was a bit off too. It has a very syncopated feel anyway, but you could tell they weren't quite together. I have to say, without the intention of sounding nitpicky, and I know that this crowd is not conditioned for a standard orchestral concert, but everyone clapped between every movement, which annoyed me. Thankfully this didn't seem to phase Williams or Shaham. I'm sure they expected it, or prepared themselves for it.

For Saturday, the performance was phenomenal and the one that I have frozen in my brain. Flawless from beginning to end. All the kinks were worked out. This concerto is rather sneaky in the sense that it seems modern, which it is, but that it also has a surprising amount of melodic material, especially the second and third movements. That second theme in the last movement is probably my favorite in the entire work. It was neat to see the music played out on Shaham's finger tips. I'm intimately familiar with the concerto so it was a nice treat to see it brought to life both aurally and physically. The difficulty of the work was evident as his fingers raced around the neck of the violin. I was glad that this garnered a huge reception once concluded. It wasn't just a friendly and reserved reaction; it seemed genuine and respectful.

After intermission they started with Flight to Neverland set to film. This was synched up to certain beat points with the film that contained various flying scenes in cinema. It was pretty standard. They brought all the lights down, so it was a bit hard to see the orchestra on Friday when I was down on the main floor. When I was up in the balcony on Saturday I had a better view of everything and had disregarded the film that time around. I was happy that a clip from "The Big Lebowski" received some laughs. The concert piece of these themes brought great energy and excitement. I'm sure this was a welcome change from the concerto for a lot of audience members.

The selections from Indiana Jones included "Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra", "Marion's Theme" and "The Adventures of Mutt". All of these were spot on, but I was very much anticipating the concert version of "Marion's Theme" the most. This was beautifully constructed in that it took one theme and extended it out for about 3 and a half minutes. It never felt repetitive or tedious. On Friday there was a woman to my right, up a couple of rows, sitting with her son. She may have been in her late 40s. She was just about on the verge of tears. You could almost feel the sense of lift this sweeping love theme gave the audience.

The selections from Lincoln were "Elegy", "Getting Out the Vote" and "With Malice Toward None", the last of which was set to film of shots of the Lincoln memorial and scenes of the movie. The main trumpet line was performed by CSO principle Christopher Martin. He was literally in the spotlight. He had a hiccup on the higher notes that first night, but sounded perfect on Saturday. The string writing in these selections was graceful yet stunning. It's typical Williams string writing over the last 15 years or so; very dense with much clarity. He spoke briefly beforehand to set up the three pieces

Adventures on Earth was the cherry on top. When I think of the music from E.T., especially the last portion of the score, I think of how breathtaking it is, how utterly capable the music is of creating awe. Everyone was held spellbound. It's impossible not to feel this. I dare you to try. I loved the performance, although I would have liked some of the middle section to be a bit slower like that heart wrenching part when the strings come in and play that gentle building passage.

The encores were Yoda's Theme, Star Wars main theme (to film), and the Imperial March. Williams played with the audience a bit more on Friday, coming out, leaving, coming back and then putting up his finger for "one more". These are his usual antics and he did this for each additional encore. He had a bit more energy on Friday where he milked this for everything it was worth and the audience loved it. Wild applause when the words "Star War"s exploded on screen simultaneously with an eruption from the orchestra.

Williams conducted with a lot of energy, fluidity and ease; arms raised high and waiving broadly when required. He even hunkered down a bit during some of the quieter moments, especially during his concerto. He was engaged and lively. These are two performances I will not likely soon forget. It was completely worth the plane ticket and hotel stay if I had just seen the concerts, but Chicago is quite picturesque and the Autumn air gave it a magical quality as I walked around the many parks, river bends and cityscape, plus many other activities in the downtown area. I was there for 3 days and it was just enough to gather an experience of a lifetime and make a lasting impression.

Tim

[Code 000. Destruct. 0. 4,260]

Great stuff. Thanks for sharing!

[Jay 39,703]

Thanks for the report Tim, it was a real pleasure to read!

[Incanus 5,818]

A truly wonderful report Tim!

[TownerFan 5,247]

I still have to write mine too. I'll do it soon, guys!

[Incanus 5,818]

I still have to write mine too. I'll do it soon, guys!

And we are still waiting with anticipation!

[crocodile 8,575]

I still have to write mine too. I'll do it soon, guys!

Pull yourself together, Maurizio. We need to set you a deadline, crossing of which will result in eternal ban!

Thanks for your report, Tim. It was a pleasure to read.

Karol

[Thor 8,485]

Nice report, Tim -- and so wellwritten!

[nightscape94 966]

Nice report, Tim -- and so wellwritten!

Thanks!

I wish everyone could have been there!