Chicago Symphony Orchestra Presents MusicNOW HOMECOMING Review — Newly Accessible

The venue change alone would be enough to merit the moniker Homecoming, but it was also the theme of sorts for the musical selections and/or composers who brought them.      Among others, these included: one time Chicago Children’s Choir member and Pulitzer Prize finalist Composer Ted Hearne; composer and Chicago native Elijah Daniel Smith; Haitian-American composer and Chicago transplant Nathalie Joachim; Chicago-born soprano and alumna of Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center Whitney Morrison; and conducting several works was perhaps one of Chicago’s most famous promoters of new music, the curator of Chicago’s Ear Taxi Festival, Michael Lewanski.

This was also a chance for CSO regulars to meet the new Mead Composer-in-Residence, Jessie Montgomery, who brought a welcome taste of New York to the stage with her deep sense of home, along with a clear devotion to exploring where poetry and music marry.      Soprano Whitney Morrison, clad in brightly colored African style clothing, sang Montgomery’s Loisaida, My Love, a poem by Lower East Side Activist Bimbo Rivas, as well as a tribute poem by      to one of New York’s most famous musical sons, Leonard Bernstein, on his centennial birthday.  Accompanied only by cello, you too might have been struck by how easy it was to understand the words as Morrison sang, and to feel that these were poems.

These two Montgomery pieces were actually the second performance of the evening, following Smith’s well-named Scions of an Atlas, that startled us into attention as the opener.      From the program notes we learn that the atlas in the title refers to the tomes that the composer digested to create this work. This was a compilation of sounds that seemed to defy their source.      Strings were not strings as much as percussion instruments, and similarly every instrument seemed to be played outside of its norm and typical comfort zone.    To this writer, the opener seemed to shout—This is NEW music—listen up!

Joachim explained that her work, Seen, is an invitation to the listener to bring their own sensibilities to hear a story or see a piece of artwork, something perhaps true of any art form—and especially abstract works such as hers. These indeed did strike as a collection of five different musical personalities.      Each instrument in the five-piece ensemble (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn) took a turn at being the lead or driver.  The bassoon seemed to bubble as a new metronome and the oboe inserted clarion calls.

Hearne then explained that his finale Authority was designed to challenge the different musicians in the small orchestra to charge ahead and do their parts without aid of a controlling conductor.      In contrast to the relatively orderly baton hand-offs in Joachim’s work, here we found most predictability when the percussion kicked into a rhythmic pattern that in a less formal situ might have compelled a few to jump up and dance.

CSO MusicNOW Exudes a Welcome

Even with the plush Symphony Center surrounds, the informality of how the works were presented gave a feeling of family and a home-cooked meal. The composers sat among us in the audience and would walk forward when it was their turn, sometimes scrambling to put on/take off their almost forgotten masks.      You may agree with this writer that in comparison, and with 20-20 hindsight, the pre-pandemic MusicNOW had a touch of anomia.      Just like the new Mead Composer-in-Residence, Jessie Montgomery, the evening exuded a welcoming warmth.      Without an iota of pretentiousness, she is simply inviting us to give a good listen.