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News Mon Sep 24 2007
Vivaldi meets global warming?
Tickets to the Chicago Humanities Festival are on sale to the public starting today (members of the CHF were able to start buying two weeks ago) and the program includes a few musical events that relate -- or kind of relate -- to the grand theme of global climate change.
November 10, early music ensemble Ars Antigua will perform the Four Seasons by Vivaldi despite, as they confess on the CHF website, to the piece being “occasionally overexposed." November 11, another early music ensemble, Ars Musica Chicago, will perform a program of works “in the key of H20” by various renaissance composers. And October 29 at orchestra hall, the Chicago Sinfonietta performs an interesting-looking program of music supposedly relating to the environment.
This program includes Beethoven’s 5th, a Native America flute concerto, and a piece called “Global Warming” by Michael Abels. The Sinfonietta provides an explanation on their website as to why the pieces relate to the environment, in case you're not sure how the first two fit into the theme. Explanation for the first piece: Beethoven experienced troubles perpetuated by his environment. Ok? For your convenience, they also provide some “ponderings” – not unlike junior high teachers' discussion guide questions found in textbooks – including a biggie: “can a person’s philosophical experience with the environment change the way music is conceived or understood?” Um...if by "philosophical experience" they mean this, then yes -- absolutely.
Finally, December 9 Lyric Opera of Chicago presents an all-star panel discussion on John Adams's "Dr. Atomic" moderated by retired Sun-Times classical critic Wynne Delacoma and host of "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me" Peter Sagal. In attendance will be: Composer Adams, Director Peter Sellars, the Nobelist Norman Ramsey who worked with Robert Oppenheimer, recent Pullitzer prize-winning author and professor Martin Sherwin who wrote Oppenheimer's biography, physicist and teacher Henry Frisch, whose parents worked on the Manhattan Project, and Art Institute CEO James Cuno. Pheew! Tickets for this one should go fast.
Tickets for the first two are five bucks -- like most CHF events -- but the Sinfonietta is charging $40 and the Lyric $30. If the latter two seem too steep and you prefer more indie-ish intellectual fare, then for $35 bucks each and a plane ticket, you could head over to the similar New Yorker Festival, where Sigur Ros, Yo La Tengo, and Fiona Apple will be making appearances. But don't gripe -- we have a humanities festival and better music festivals. So take that, New Yorker!
