Distinguished violinist joins Andrew Grams for ESO's opening weekend
Local audiences are in for a treat this weekend, according to Elgin Symphony Orchestra music director Andrew Grams. Why? Because they'll have the chance to hear 19-year-old soloist Simone Porter, one of America's most distinguished young violinists, headline the ESO's season-opening concerts under the direction of Grams at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday at the Hemmens Cultural Center.
"The first time I worked with her was out in California, and she was a dynamite soloist," he said. "We played Max Bruch's G-minor concerto, and she showed such a great sense of pulse. She listened to the orchestra and had such a command of the instrument and that rare gift of being able to connect with the audience from the stage. I knew that I wanted to have her open our new season here, and we were very fortunate to be able to work it out. She'll knock your socks off. I have no doubt she has a great career underway."
Grams, who begins his fourth season at the helm of the ESO, will conduct Porter and the orchestra in one of the landmarks of the romantic violin repertory, Tchaikovsky's Concerto in D Major, which had its first performance in Vienna, Austria, in 1881.
The all-Russian program will open with Dmitri Shostakovich's "Festive Overture" and conclude with the "Symphonic Dances" by Sergei Rachmaninoff.
A native of Seattle, Simone Porter made her professional debut at age 10 with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and her international debut at 13 with the Royal Philharmonic of London. She has also appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic, and in March 2015 she received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant. She is a student of Robert Lipsett, holder of the Jascha Heifetz Distinguished Chair at Los Angeles' Colburn Conservatory of Music.
Of the major romantic violin concertos, the Tchaikovsky is certainly the most famous, and it places very high technical demands on the soloist.
"It's got that big Russian romantic expansiveness, and 'pow!'" Grams said. "The Tchaikovsky is still the audience favorite of all the big, well-known violin concertos, including those by Brahms, Beethoven, Bruch, Saint-Saëns and Sibelius."
Grams chose the upbeat Shostakovich "Festive Overture" to open the concert for obvious reasons. "To start off any season you want to have a festive-type piece, and this begins with a nice, big A-major trumpet fanfare," he said. "We've played such dark Shostakovich here recently, last year the 11th Symphony and a couple of years before that, the 10th Symphony, so this is a nice change of pace."
Rachmaninoff's "Symphonic Dances," which close the program, was the great Russian composer's last completed work, dating from 1940 while the composer was living out his final years in the United States.
"Interesting enough, when I was living in New York, each day on the way to the subway I would pass by a particular apartment building that had a plaque on the outside, noting that Rachmaninoff once lived there and that was where he composed the 'Paganini Rhapsody,' 'Symphonic Dances' and other pieces," Grams said.
This season also launches a new ESO artistic initiative titled "Inside the Music With Andrew Grams," a pair of special Friday concerts Nov. 4 and March 31 for which he has chosen Igor Stravinsky's 1947 ballet "Petrushka" and Johannes Brahms' Fourth Symphony, respectively. The first half of each concert will feature a discussion of the background and structure of the piece, with the ESO playing musical examples. Following intermission, Grams will conduct a complete performance of the work.
"When I look at a score that really speaks to me and I think 'That passage is magnificent ... really genius, I want the opportunity to share that with the public,'" Grams said. "You know, 'What makes this piece a masterpiece?' At a regular concert, you can briefly describe certain qualities of a piece, but you don't have time to break down the different elements of the score."
On the "Inside the Music" weekends, the regular Saturday and Sunday concerts will be expanded. On Nov. 5-6, Grams will fill out an all-ballet music program with Tchaikovsky's suites from "Sleeping Beauty" and "Swan Lake." On April 1-2, 2017, he will pair the Brahms symphony with Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto with soloist Natasha Paremski.
Other concerts in the fall include Charlie Chaplin's silent film "City Lights," with orchestral accompaniment (Stephen Squires conducting) on Oct. 7-9 with the Friday concert at the Schaumburg Prairie Center for the Arts and Saturday and Sunday at the Hemmens.
The annual holiday concerts, on Dec. 10-11, will include two performances on Saturday and the traditional Sunday matinee, all conducted by Squires. The full season will conclude May 6-7, 2017.
Each of the seven Grams-conducted Saturday-Sunday programs will feature his "Musically Speaking With the Maestro" audience chats one hour prior to the concert in Hemmens' main theater. Admission is free with concert ticket.
For a schedule of the full season or to purchase tickets, see elginsymphony.org or call (847) 888-4000. Single concert tickets start at $30.