It’s high summer, when music lovers find many of the best musical offerings played in the great out-of-doors, where Bach, Beethoven and Bizet can compete with barks, beetle buzz and bees (not to mention sirens, planes and horns).
For two special Sunday matinees, head for the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park at 3 p.m., July 27 and Aug. 10. The July program is a tremendously diverse concert by Midwest Young Artists, a nationally known youth orchestra that will cover Bernstein, Copland and Beethoven as well as jazz artists Basie and Rich. Midwest Young Artists is a leader in providing top-quality ensembles for young students who are passionate about music. The Aug. 10 program will feature gifted Chicago teenage musicians in the After School Matters gallery37 Summer Showcase. The program of music and dance will offer modern and jazz dance, ballet, opera, jazz and musical theatre. Both matinees are free, as part of the City and Park’s Rising Stars Series.
The Ravenswood neighborhood will play host Aug. 3 and 10 to the gifted artists of the intimate VOX 3 vocal ensemble, who will perform Of Fortune and Foolery in the courtyard of the Bethany United Church of Christ, 4250 N. Paulina. Calling themselves a vocal music collective, VOX 3 will perform treacherously challenging selections from the German, French and Italian baroque repertories of Bach, Handel, Rameau, and Monteverdi, accompanied by harpsichord and strings. The concerts are free although donations are welcome. In case of rain, the performances will be in the church.
The first week of August also provides an indoor pleasure: Djamileh, a little-known one-act operatic gem by Georges Bizet, a romance set in the exotic court of a young Egyptian nobleman. The opera stars Katherine Pracht and Cornelius Johnson, and will be performed with members of the New Millennium Orchestra of Chicago under the direction of Francesco Milioto. The sparkling mosaics of Preston Bradley Hall at the Chicago Cultural Center, and its newly restored Tiffany-stained glass dome, serve as the backdrop. Performances are Aug. 3, 3:30 p.m.; and Aug. 5 and 7, 7:30 p.m. They are free, but admission is by ticket only. Tickets must be obtained in person (limit 4 per person) at the Storefront Theater Box Office, 66 E. Randolph, 12-6 p.m., Tue.-Sat. Call first to make sure tickets are available as these city-sponsored opera performances ‘sell-out’ quickly: 312-742-8497.
Of course, the Big Two—the Grant Park and Ravinia festivals—continue to pour it on. The Grant Park Music Festival goes All-American July 29 and 31 (indoors in the Harris Theater) in an all-choral (no-orchestra) concert of works by Barber, Copland, Corigliano, Hovhaness and others before concluding with two weeks of blockbuster favorites: Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto (Aug. 6), Grieg’s Piano Concerto (Aug. 8-9), Act I of Wagner’s Die Walkure (Aug. 13) and a closing program of Great Opera Choruses (Aug. 15-16). All Grand Park Music Festival Programs are free, at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park.
The Ravinia Festival, which is not free, continues considerably longer (well into September), and can offer dazzling international stars Grant Park couldn’t possibly afford. Those who read this in time should rush to Ravinia Sat., July 26, for an all-the-stops-out performance of Gustav Mahler’s titanic masterpiece, the Symphony No. 8 in E-flat Major (Symphony of a Thousand), one of the great and profound joys of all music. Pavilion tickets are $30-$75, and lawn admission is $10. Come back July 30 for something rare at Ravinia: reserved seats for only $25 for an all-Beethoven program featuring pianist Leon Fleischer and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) under Sir Andrew Davis. The Emperor Concerto and the Eroica (Third) Symphony are featured. The CSO completes its 2008 Ravinia residency with a mini-repertory of Mozart operas, performed in the intimate concert setting of Martin Theatre (with just 900 seats) rather than in the multi-thousand-seat outdoor pavilion. The Abduction from the Seraglio is performed Aug. 14 and 16 (with Michael York in a non-singing role), and Don Giovanni Aug. 15 and 17 (with Sam Ramey as Leporello), all under the baton of Ravinia music director James Conlon. It doesn’t get much better, folks.