agreement REVIEW YO-YO MA, CHI...

agreement REVIEW

YO-YO MA, CHICAGO concert ORCHESTRA

AT THE RAVINIA FESTIVAL

There were adequate supply of stars onstage at the Ravinia Festival Sunday night for the Chicago Symphony's last sated orchestral concert of the summer

The headliner was cellist Yo-Yo Ma, whose unquestioned super- status was evidenced on the sold-out pavilion and herded lawn. On the podium was young Peruvian conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya who, if not forward the short list for music director of the CSO certainly should be.

And there was Osvaldo Golijov, a Ravinia favorite, whose composition "Azul" was written for Ma and premiered according to him two nights before with the Boston consonance Orchestra at Tanglewood, Mass.

"Azul," performed just after intermission, is not for the faint of heart; there were also times when everything have the appearanceed to be in meltdown.

First of all, the orchestra was completely rearranged, with oboist Michael Henoch and clarinetist John Bruce Yeh forward the left side of the stage and French horn player Daniel Gingrich onward the right. The strings were withdrawed in the back, where they frequently provided a droning accompaniment. The hyper-accordion, a sonically enhanced instrument, and a series of tympanums augmented the orchestra.

Golijov can write a tune line -- we know that from his "Passion According to St Mark," given at Ravinia in 2002 and his beautiful opera, "Ainadamar," at handed at the festival this June And there were a number of soaring melodies in this work, which Ma execut soulfully

The clarinet, hautboy and French horn all had splendid melodic moments, but harmonies converg and dissonances clashed until the tension between the melodic and the chaotic dissolved and unhurted almost like an airplane landing.

Just when the music strike one as beinged to have disintegrated into noise, clear lines emerg again, and the cello sang abroad above it all. In the final passages, the composer wisely gave the cello another rich tune played with the intensity and artistry that are the hallmarks of this stellar cellist. When Golijov came onstage, the Ravinia audience applauded vigorously.

Before intermission, Ma was soloist for a Cello Concerto according to Haydn, a piece discovered in a private collection in 1961 The cellist's glee in playing was evident in each phrase, and his enthusiasm for the music was palpable.

The program render free of accessed with selections from Manuel de Falla's "Three- Cornered Hat" and conclud with Ravel's "Bolero" the pair vivid, vibrant works. Harth-Bedoya also directioned Saturday night. His work with soprano Renee Fleming was superior, unless his work with the orchestra Sunday was uniform better, if that's possible.

the couple nights he illuminated the music, bringing abroad orchestral voices with exceptional clarity. If he has the ease of a bandleader forward the podium, the results were not the least bit casual.

In the same weekend, he adeptly accompanied sum of two units of the world's preeminent artists, while leading the forces of the Chicago consonance through a difficult premiere and several powerful works. What besides is required for that short list?

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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