Brian Hieggelke

Musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Cliff Colnot, Conductor
Tony Arnold, Soprano
Julia Bentley, Mezzo-soprano

Augusta Read Thomas is the Composer-in-Residence at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In that that role, she plays a leading part in the programming of "new music" at the CSO. We spoke at length this winter about her career so far, and especially about the Music NOW series, which features the work of living composers. This Friday marks the final concert in the series this season, and I asked Thomas to share her thoughts. Remarkably, she simply picked up the scores, and gave extemporaneous expression to the works. More of this interview will be posted in the future, but for now, enjoy Thomas's thoughts on these pieces. I hope you already have tickets, because the concert is sold out.

Augusta Read Thomas (ART): The April 26 concert has four pieces in it: Anders Nordentoft is about 45, I think he's living in Amsterdam. Matthias Pintscher is German, about 30 years old, living in Paris. Mario Davidovsky is about 70 years old, living in Boston now but he's been forever at Columbia University. He's a Pulitzer Prize-winner, famous, runs the Guggenheim -- sort of an older statesman -- from Argentina originally. And Simon Bainbridge is British, 55 years old. So you have like a 30, a 40, a 50 and almost 70 -- a wide age range, and several countries and musical styles represented.

MARIO DAVIDOVSKY
Romancero (1983)

Morenica a mi me llaman
¡Arriba canes arriba!
Seguidillas
Triste estaba el Rey David

Tony Arnold, Soprano

ART: I really feel voice is so humanizing. You have a singer standing there. And you've got a text. This Mario Davidovsky is a very well-made piece. Very crafted. Truly beautiful in places, then in other places, it's really like popcorn going off in all directions. Pizzicati come flying out, wonderful intricate little dances of sounds between the instruments. It's very lively. It's in four short movements based on Spanish texts. It's very likable and yet also it's a very serious piece. You smile at times -- it's fun, a Spanish folklore kind of thing. Then at other times, it's very intricate and more academic. But it's a very well proportioned 12 minutes: very colorful, really nicely made, good rhythmically.

MATTHIAS PINTSCHER Figura II / Frammento (1997) and Figura IV / Passaggio (2000), for String Quartet

ART: We're having two little quartets which go together in different ways: one's about three minutes, one's about six minutes. One is very Webernesque. It says a lot -- three minutes and it's like the whole universe is in there. Lots of color -- for example, hitting the strings with your bows, slaps, all these kinds of sound. Double stops, it's like the whole night sky lifting, and it's only four strings. You can just see, everyone's doing different things. Very colorful. One piece is very orchestrally oriented, and the other is more intimate chamber music with lots and lots of color. It comes out of a certain tradition of music being written in Germany, but it has a big French overlay because it is so ornamented. Quite difficult, you know. It's got some elbow grease, that one.

SIMON BAINBRIDGE
Four Primo Levi Settings (1996)

25 febbraio 1944
Attesa
La strega
Da R.M. Rilke

Julia Bentley, Mezzo-soprano

ART: This piece by the British 55-year-old is four Primo Levi Settings, about the Holocaust, a very intense piece. It's about 20 minutes long, for mezzo-soprano, viola, clarinet and piano. It takes the whole world to start -- little by little the voice creeps out, and it's quite dark, autumnal, serious. The whole second movement is just the viola and the voice. Most people don't hear the viola that much. You have a violist just there , with a voice. It's quite beautiful -- just this long duo. It's very sensitively made; it's well-built. I would say in general terms more calm, stasis, with a hushed quality, centered, not flashy. I don't know if understated is the right word. It's got a whole world of its own.

ANDERS NORDENTOFT
Entgegen (1985)

Allegro, molto ritmico e ben articolato
Un poco sostenuto

ART: It is in two movements; I think it is a dazzling piece. It's colorful and electric, sounds coming at you, and lines that are intersecting all the time and fracturing apart. It's like a roller coaster water ride or something. Very colorful and florid, very good notes. Good harmony, good sense of rhythm. Beautifully orchestrated. It's kind of French in the sense that it's very colorful. The first movement really kind of rocks -- it's punchy -- and the second movement is much shorter. The second movement is so calm, the chords come up and it just ebbs away like that. All the energy's in the front-end, and then it kind of dissipates. It's got a lot of ideas, good quality of thought. It's not Wonder Bread, like bread that is half air, when you eat it, it tastes like rubber. This is like a good piece of whole-wheat bread, with raisins and nuts and it's rich. Quite technically demanding, it will show off the ensemble well. It will be fun to watch.

Newcity is a sponsor of the MuiscNOW series. (2002-04-25)

Also by Brian Hieggelke

TIP OF THE WEEK
In Ann Packer's outstanding debut novel, "The Dive from Clausen's Pier," Carrie Bell is a recent college graduate still working at the University of Wisconsin in the Madison where she grew up.
(2002-04-18)

TIP OF THE WEEK
Joe Kita, a writer for Men's Health magazine, confronted the inevitable surge of regrets and self-doubts brought by the onset of his fortieth birthday by tackling them head-on. He set out to revisit his twenty greatest personal regrets, and chronicled them in "Another Shot: How I Relived my Life in Less than a Year."
(2002-04-11)

TABLE TALK
I was reading the 60th anniversary issue of Gourmet magazine recently, and much was made of the seemingly poor timing of the magazine's launch, coming as it did on the eve of America's entry into World War II. The distance of that time, and the endurance of the magazine, made relics of such ruminations about propriety. Until today.
(2001-09-13)

PLAY WITH FOOD
Unlike New York, the soul of Chicago theater has always been its nonprofits, making all the city a stage for pre-show culinary explorations, depending on which company's production you are taking in on a particular evening.
(2001-09-06)

TABLE TALK
(2001-08-23)

ROADFOOD ESSENTIALS
(2001-06-14)

TOONING JAPANESE
(2001-05-24)

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