Events
Reviews from Tim Sawyier
The Music of Hong Kong Arrives in Chicago
On Thursday night the Windpipe Chinese Ensemble gave its North American debut at Northwestern’s Thorne Auditorium. The one night only concert was the product of a collaboration between the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office of New York (HKETO), and Chicago’s own Fulcrum New Music Project, in celebration of the Chinese New Year.
As people were filing into Thorne before the performance began, footage of the Windpipe Ensemble doing presentations at two Chicago public schools was projected on the back wall of the stage. (The obviously tireless group did these despite having a total of 36 hours in Chicago.) The students looked engaged and impressed, though perhaps a little mystified, which mirrored my own reaction to the beginning of the concert.
A Lovely Evening with the Chicago Chamber Musicians
So I’m a sucker for great wind playing; I guess almost a band geek. But the first half of last night’s Chicago Chamber Musicians’ concert at Gottlieb Hall was proof (not that any was needed) that a bunch of wind players have as much a place on a beautiful concert stage as on a football field. The program opened with Franz Krommer’s B-Flat Partita. A renowned oboist once said of this work specifically, “It’s the kind of music that, you know, needs a little help.” Well, the CCM players gave it that and a lot more. I was “blown” over by the nuances and emphatic attention to detail the group displayed. Pitch perfect, wide dynamic range, all that good stuff. Charles Geyer’s trumpet playing added flair to the ensemble (as did, I suppose, Krommer’s instrumentation), and Dennis Michel showed off his superb technique and tone in some virtuosic passages in the closing rondo.
Ill Philharmonic
The music of Richard Wagner comes with plenty of problems and ifs. Depending on whom you talk to, you might hear it’s too long or boring, or weird, or genocide-inducing. One stigma less frequently associated with it is that it’s exceptionally difficult to play, and it was of that stigma I was most reminded at Saturday night’s Illinois Philharmonic Concert. 
Superlative Singing in the West Loop
Singing in the West Loop? Nope, not Lyric this time! This afternoon the St. Charles Singers put on a splendid concert at Old St. Pat’s. I’m not much of a crier or much of a churchgoer, but this concert made me one of each. The moving program was a sampling of works from Mozart’s early years. 
The Lapidary Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet
On an episode of the BBC’s hit show “QI,” host Stephen Fry remarks, “There’s something so camp about modern German.” Well, there’s also something so camp about woodwind quintet music, so it’s no surprise five modern Germans put on a superlative woodwind quintet concert last night. (I mean, seriously, how can a group called the Philharmonisches Bläserquintett Berlin NOT be at home with coquettish music?)
Jennifer Koh Shines in Recent Solo Violin Works (But Why?)
“I wonder what you have to do to live until 101?” a friend of mine recently wondered of Elliot Carter (via Facebook). “Eh, apparently not a lot,” I replied; I guess “commented.” Hearing Carter’s “Four Lauds” on the Cedille Records release “Rhapsodic Musings” confirmed my suspicion. The CD is subtitled "21st Century Works for Solo Violin"--I don’t get this music; I’m not sure that I care I don’t. However, Carter is world-famous, and I’m ranting on a blog.
Lucy Shelton and eighth blackbird Present Sufficiently Bizarre "Pierrot"
Arnold Schoenberg’s 1912 “Pierrot lunaire” is a morbid work. 
The 21 poems that comprise its text address a number of cheery topics, from vampiric moths and the regurgitated blood of consumptives, to more light-hearted fare like black masses and how to smoke tobacco out of a skull. (Poem 19 relates a spectacle probably more familiar to modern listeners, that is, a clown playing the viola.)
Recent Compositions Inform, if not Redeem Billy Collins' Poetry
Cedille Records’ recent release “The Billy Collins Suite; Songs Inspired by His Poetry” is a well-recorded example of how a single basic influence can evoke very different musical responses.
While sure, Collins’ poems address many topics, his language and style are uniform, while the works presented on this CD are anything but. (To editorialize unnecessarily: “Songs” is a misnomer—only two of the pieces are actual sets of songs, while the rest are composed for narrator and chamber ensemble.