CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Yet it’s an underappreciated art, if the sparsely attended (though heavily papered) concert at Ravinia on Friday night is any indication. Those who did attend were privileged to hear the Chicago Symphony Chorus in outstanding form in three choral works set to religious texts: two Stabat Maters, by Verdi and Rossini, and Verdi’s Te Deum.
The short first half of the concert consisted of two of Verdi’s Quattro pezzi sacri (“Four Sacred Pieces”), the Stabat Mater and the Te Deum. Verdi is of course known primarily as an opera composer; even his famous Requiem is essentially a theatrical work, not something designed to be integrated into even the highest of funeral masses. But the pezzi sacri are different, the output of a more reflective man nearing the end of his life. Being works of thoughtfulness, they’re very low on bombast, concentrating instead on creating a highly spiritual atmosphere, particularly at the end of the Te Deum–a breathtaking prayer whose score Verdi requested be buried with him.
I overheard some complaints that the program seemed “too heavy” for an outdoor summer festival. “Too risky” would have been more accurate, since these works, particularly the Verdi, depend for much of their effect on absolute silence as a backdrop, and absolute silence is a rare commodity in your average alfresco setting. The noise level was worse than usual on Friday night; along with the inevitable trains and seemingly inevitable fretful infants, a sadistic pilot persisted in flying his light aircraft above the festival grounds, turning up every time there was an a cappella or pianissimo section. Where’s the FAA when you need it?
