One of those admirable coincidences in institutional programming happens in early March, when Fulcrum Point gives the Chicago premiere of George Antheil’s Ballet Mécanique, the same night the Chicago Symphony is performing Varèse’s Ionisation and Amériques, avec Pierre Boulez. An American in Paris creates sounds similar to those dreamt up by a Parisian in America. Listen and discuss. Both lean on the use of machines; Antheil the airplane propeller and Varèse the siren. Has this thesis been written yet?
And you’d better act now to get the few remaining tickets to Music of the Baroque’s performance of the B Minor Mass in the Harris Theater. I will be there in the balcony, $47.50 poorer, but so much more the richer, spiritually speaking. I would send you to the concert in Evanston’s First United Methodist Church, but that’s already sold out. In times of strife and woe, what the people clearly want is insanely intricate counterpoint. Music organizations take note.
Below, Boulez conducts Ionisation, Antonio Pappano conducts the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (I think) in Amériques, and Marc Minkowski discusses and leads the B Minor Mass. That’s one haunting Kyrie, and tasty trumpet-playing in Amériques.