Reviews
July 30, 2010
A Rare Stravinsky Kiss 
In the case of the Grant Park Music Festival this summer, there has rarely been that one sure bet for comfort-food programming. Instead, each week is more like a collective civic discovery, and such was the case more...
July 30, 2010
Lintu Brings Bracing Energy
A program that began with adapted Tchaikovsky ended with authentic Tchaikovsky, his tone poem "Capriccio italien." If nothing else, Lintu proved there's life in this pops potboiler yet. more...
July 19, 2010
Grant Park Debut Smacks of Child's Play
It generally succeeded in entertaining a contemporary audience in a way that was common a half century or more ago. more...
July 17, 2010
Grant Park Orchestra Offers Taste of Sophisticated Whimsy
Young families thronged to Millennium Park's Great Lawn as the Grant Park Orchestra performed whimsical works by Respighi, Britten and Brahms....the Grant Park Music Festival has engaged its mass audiences without forsaking creativity. more...
July 15, 2010
Cellist Gerhardt Sparks Russian Program at Grant Park
There was outstanding playing by the Grant Park musicians throughout with especially inspired work from trumpeter David Gordon, pianist Andrea Swan, and flutist Mary Stolper. more...
July 11, 2010
A Woman Conductor on The Grant Park Podium? Yes, and A Most Talented One
The gifted Chinese-American conductor, Xian Zhang, made an impressive debut with the Grant Park Orchestra at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park more...
July 10, 2010
Xian Zhang Sharp with Buoyant Music
The dynamic young Chinese conductor Xian Zhang on the podium meant that things moved quickly and with precision and excitement as well...Second Symphony of Sibelius, was perhaps pushed too briskly, but still served as a showcase for the excellence of the Grant Park Orchestra including the extended parts for strings, horns, brass, and percussion. more...
July 09, 2010
Mexican History Plays Out Somewhat Awkwardly in Grant Park Concert
A sharper focus on the music and a better sense of organization would have made these points more clearly, and the evening more coherent, with or without a rainstorm. more...
July 09, 2010
Sibelius Soars On A Glorious Evening with The Grant Park Orchestra
The performance gathered in assurance and dramatic power as it unfolded. The orchestra played superbly, and Zhang was mostly responsive to the score’s colorful effects. more...
July 08, 2010
Grant Park Orchestra Provides Rousing If Chaotic Latin Program On Rainy Night
The evening got off to a rousing start with Arturo Rodriguez’s Mosaico Mexicano, full of sparkling brass and infectious, dancing rhythms. As tales of gruesome massacres unfolded, the orchestra groaned with the agony of a massive, wounded beast. more...
July 01, 2010
Chopin, Police Choppers, and an Impressive Podium Debut at Grant Park’s Polish Night
This is extraordinarily difficult and challenging music to perform and it is a mark of the Grant Park players’ abilities that they can deliver such a gleaming and well-played account on limited rehearsal time. more...
June 26, 2010
Indoor Setting Suits Grant Park Performance of Pulitzer Winners
But both pieces were full of bombast, the full-throated chorus and blazing brass too often pummeling us with heavy-handed evocations of joyful troops or divine power. more...
June 25, 2010
Pink Martini Lifts Spirits with Powerful Vocals
Zealous fans of Pink Martini will apparently wait out a tornado warning, lighting, thunder and torrential rain fall just to hear pianist-founder Thomas Lauderdale and singer China Forbes work a song or two. more...
June 18, 2010
Grant Park Season of Music Gets off to A Rousing Start
The halcyon conditions suggested that Mother Nature was smiling on what promises to be an exceptionally enticing 76th season of free symphonic concerts presented by the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus under the summer stars. more...
June 18, 2010
Carlos Kalmar Is On A Mission
Grant Park remains committed to its core missions, which include presenting American works and neglected repertoire, and showcasing its accomplished professional chorus. more...
June 17, 2010
Elina Vähälä Lights Up a Spirited Opening to Grant Park Music Festival’s Summer Season
Thousands of people found their way to Millennium Park to hear the Grant Park Orchestra play Berlioz, Vivaldi and Respighi. more...
June 09, 2010
Grant Park Promises A Summer Rich In Musical Adventure
In terms of musical depth and variety, the 2010 Grant Park season is the strongest I've encountered in more than 30 years of attending concerts at the nation's only remaining free, municipally sponsored, outdoor summer classical music festival. more...
May 28, 2010
Classical Warfare: Grant Park Music Festival vs. Ravinia
Which venue is worth your time and money? We're coming down on the side of the Grant Park Music Festival. more...
August 20, 2009
Grant Park Orchestra Closes Season with ‘Freude’
I must pay tribute to the total dedication of the Grant Park players and the skillful shaping and total control over both pieces by Kalmar, now in his ninth season. more...
August 17, 2009
Beethoven's Ninth is a Joyous End to Grant Park Season
The Grant Park Symphony has long been the de facto vehicle for grand celebrations, but conductor Carlos Kalmar's reading also provided many moments for subtlety and reflection amid the grandeur. more...
August 15, 2009
Grant Park Festival Storms the Heavens in Beethoven Finale
The Grant Park Orchestra offered an equally stirring experience, closing its 75th anniversary season with that mightiest of symphonies, Beethoven’s Ninth. more...
August 15, 2009
A Ligurian, a Brit, and a Bavarian walk into a peninsula — Grant Park’s ‘Italian Variations’
Works of three composers, British, Italian, and Bavarian, drew inspiration from Europe’s southern peninsula. more...
August 13, 2009
Kalmar, Grant Park Orchestra Take Trip to Italy on Second-Class Fare
Carlos Kalmar and the Grant Park Orchestra spotlight three composers’ individual retakes on Italian predecessors. more...
August 10, 2009
Grant Park's Mahler Solid, Cautious
From the urgent opening bars to the frail, poignant farewell, the Grant Park Orchestra strings have rarely sounded better. more...
August 10, 2009
Carlos Kalmar and Mahler 9—Close to a Miracle at Grant Park
Lighting struck this weekend when Kalmar led the orchestra in performances of one of the most challenging works in the repertoire, Mahler's 9th Symphony. more...
August 08, 2009
Mahler's Farewell Given Gleaming Advocacy by Kalmar and the Grant Park Orchestra
Kalmar and the Grant Park players deserve the highest accolades for this performance, with first-class playing in all departments. more...
August 01, 2009
Kalmar, Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus Scale The Heavens in Elgar’s “Gerontius”
Program a challenging work new to the festival and allow the conductor and the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus to supply the richly inspired performance. more...
July 30, 2009
Finnish Conductor Makes Impressive Lakefront Debut in Music of his Homeland
A huge audience at the Grant Park Music Festival heard one of Finland’s youngest conducting stars, Pietari Inkinen, and Sibelius' well-loved Symphony No. 1. more...
July 27, 2009
Opera Provides Nice Lead-in to Venetian Night
The program shone the spotlight on two compelling young singers -- tenor Russell Thomas and soprano Nicole Cabell, an alumna of Lyric's training program who is forging a stellar international career for herself. more...
July 26, 2009
Grant Park Chorus Lifts Voices in Praise
The 80-voice Grant Park Chorus has been a standout ensemble since its founding by Thomas Peck in 1962. It is fully professional; many of its members teach music, sing with ensembles like Music of the Baroque or belong to the Lyric Opera or Chicago Symphony choruses. more...
July 26, 2009
Cabell and Thomas Prove a Charismatic Operatic Duo at Grant Park
Opera in general and Cabell in particular were Saturday’s expected pleasures. But the night also included the thrill of discovering a vibrant new talent, tenor Russell Thomas, a young man with a confident, stirring voice. more...
July 20, 2009
Stirring Beethoven at Ravinia, Sizzling Shostakovich at Grant Park
Friday night's Grant Park Music Festival concert at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park brought a host of debuts, and thrilling debuts they were. more...
July 18, 2009
Violinist Strikes Sparks with Belated Shostakovich Premiere at Grant Park
Gomyo brought a laser-like concentration to her playing that made up for the lack of volume, sailing through the technical challenges, with the composer’s DSCH motif given emphatic bite in the Scherzo. more...
July 16, 2009
Photo Preview: Sounds of Chicago’s Lakefront
The beauty of the book is the visual material, which includes old concert posters, cartoons from the 1930s depicting audience members, and early conceptual sketches Frank Gehry. more...
July 11, 2009
A Grant Park Evening Mostly Sublime with Gilbert and Sullivan
This year’s program...provided a lively and enjoyable evening, aided enormously by Christopher Bell’s spirited and idiomatic conducting and the fine contributions of the Grant Park Chorus. more...
July 10, 2009
Graf, Grant Park Orchestra Brings Out Best in Bruckner
That the Grant Park Orchestra, which has not played this almost-impossible and so-often-improbable music in years, rose to the occasion with a performance on the level of some of the world's great Bruckner ensembles was big news. more...
July 09, 2009
Magnificent Bruckner by Graf, Grant Park Orchestra Warms a Chilly Night
Graf made no concessions to the challenges of al fresco music-making, drawing uncommonly detailed and nuanced playing from the Grant Park musicians in a refined, powerful performance that provided one of the finest events of the summer. more...
July 05, 2009
75 Seasons of Allegro Al Fresco
The Grant Park Music Festival marks a milestone as something of an urban miracle — an open-air concert series that's free and fabulous. more...
July 02, 2009
GPMF Marks 75th Season with Blast from the Past
The evening offered a fascinating snapshot of what was considered standard concert fare three-quarters of a century ago. more...
July 01, 2009
Grant Park Chorus Soars in American Program
It was an enlightening experience to hear the Grant Park Chorus sans symphony, as the singers took the spotlight Tuesday night at the Harris Theater. more...
June 29, 2009
GPMF focuses on America in the 1930s
Grant Park Music Festival tightened the focus on its American lens to look back exclusively on the 1930s more...
June 27, 2009
Kalmar, Grant Park Musicians Give Strong and Eloquent Advocacy to American Music, Circa 1935
At a time when few American conductors seem interested in excavating the vast riches of our musical past, all credit to Carlos Kalmar for his consistent and eloquent dedication to American music, which was shown again Friday night at the Harris Theater. more...
June 22, 2009
Rains Fail to Dampen Fervor of Grant Park's Burnham Premiere
World premiere marks Burnham Plan centennial and Grant Park Music Festival's 75th anniversary more...
June 20, 2009
With Unplanned Weather, Torke’s “Plans” Receives Ardent If Soggy Premiere
“Plans” is an appealing, melodic, and smartly crafted work that deserves a concert life beyond the local interest and ceremonial occasion of its Chicago premiere. more...
June 12, 2009
For Grant Park, Milestone Festival Opener Under Fair Skies
A milestone 75th season for Grant Park Music Festival starts out strong. more...
June 12, 2009
Grant Park Music Festival Opener Doesn't Miss a Beat
With Hough at the piano, orchestra gives every sign of memorable summer to come. more...
June 11, 2009
Teaching Russian Warhorses New Tricks at Grant Park's 75th Season Opener
Rather than treat the work as a virtuoso showpiece for piano with the orchestra merely along for the ride, Hough and his willing collaborator Kalmar set out to show us an entirely new side of the piece. more...
July 19, 2008
Grant Park’s ‘Big Sur’ Concerto Captures the West Coast
On Wednesday, the Grant Park Orchestra under former principal conductor Hugh Wolff gave an estimated 13,000 listeners at Millennium Park a bracing shot of new American music that included the Chicago premiere of John Adams' “The Dharma at Big Sur,” a wondrous concerto for amplified violin and orchestra. more...
July 11, 2008
Seldom-Heard Gems Sparkle Under Hanna Lintu's Direction
Wednesday evening at the Pritzker Pavilion, the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus once again assembled a provocative program of the novel and the familiar, this time under the baton of the promising young Finnish maestro Hannu Lintu. more...
July 04, 2008
Classical Mission Brings Radio Host Out of the Studio
Bill McGlaughlin's folksy but informed manner as host of the popular radio series “Exploring Music” has pulled thousands of listeners into the classical experience. more...
June 18, 2008
Chorus of Praise for Grant Park Effort
Felix Mendelssohn went to the grave lamenting his operatic failures. But who needs sets, props and other trappings of the stage given the dramatic wallop of his grand oratorio “Elijah,” especially when presented with the passion of Carlos Kalmar's stirring account Friday at Millennium Park? more...
June 16, 2008
Grant Park Music Fest Begins in High Style
To judge from the large, eager crowds that turned out for the opening week's concerts of the 74th Grant Park Music Festival at Millennium Park, patrons have come to appreciate the bargain they are getting at this last of the nation's free municipally-sponsored summer outdoor music festivals. more...
August 20, 2007
Festival Finale Centers on War & Peace
The Grant Park Music Festival could hardly have come up with a symphonic program more thoughtfully conceived or as capably presented as the one that closed the 73rd season of these free, municipally sponsored concerts over the weekend at Millennium Park. more...
August 17, 2007
Electrifying Fliter Takes Music Fest by Storm
The brilliant young Argentine pianist Ingrid Fliter had the misfortune of making her Chicago recital debut last April playing on a bad piano in an oppressively hot Mandel Hall. more...
July 02, 2007
Larmore Adds Glamor
The Grant Park Orchestra and Grant Park Chorus led a nomadic life last week, as they are obliged to do whenever they are displaced from their summer home by the Taste of Chicago's hungry hordes. more...
