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Radical ideas reap rewards as CSO, Jazz at Lincoln Center mingle
What happens when two great orchestras — one jazz, one classical — share a stage and a score? Previously unencountered sounds can occur, as they did in abundance Friday night in Orchestra Hall at Symphony Center, where the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra appeared en masse. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis and JLCO colleagues swing their own tunes at Symphony Center
We’ve known for a long time that the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra stands as an ensemble of virtuosos. But that term generally refers to the level at which musicians play their instruments. In the case of the JLCO members, though, it also signifies the way they wield their pens. Keep reading »
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Benedetti, CSO give Marsalis premiere impassioned advocacy at Ravinia
It’s a sign of the times that even at a summer escape destination like the Ravinia Festival audience members now get wanded by security as they enter the park. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis’ “Concerto in D” revels in Americana
Wynton Marsalis long ago established his fluency in multiple musical languages, jazz and classical chief among them. But blues, gospel, spirituals, tango, African chant and other idioms also course through Marsalis’ large works, such as the symphonic-choral “All Rise,” the sanctified “In This House, On This Morning” and the vocal-orchestral epic “Blood on the Fields” (the first jazz composition to win a Pulitzer Prize, in 1997). Keep reading »
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Marsalis Muses On His First Concerto (For, Yes, Violin)
HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. — When jazz musicians venture into the world of classical music, such undertakings often get tagged — sometimes pejoratively — as “crossover” projects. But for renowned trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis, the managing and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, working in the classical realm does not mean crossing over to some foreign stylistic territory but rather returning to familiar musical ground, as should be evident when his Concerto in D (for Violin and Orchestra) receives its American premiere July 12 at the Ravinia Festival by violinist Nicola Benedetti, guest conductor Cristian Măcelaru, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Keep reading »
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American premiere of the first violin concerto by Wynton Marsalis
The 2016 CSO residency opens with the American premiere of the first violin concerto by jazz legend Wynton Marsalis, co-commissioned by Ravinia Festival for violinist Nicola Benedetti, who will mark her third Ravinia appearance. Keep reading »
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Wynton Marsalis, violin virtuosa talk about their U.S. premiere work at Ravinia
So what is America’s most prominent and powerful jazzman doing writing a classical violin concerto? In fact, the Violin Concerto that Wynton Marsalis composed for Scottish violin virtuosa Nicola Benedetti, which will receive its American premiere with her as soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on next Tuesday night at Ravinia, is the latest in a series of works that the multi-talented trumpeter, composer, educator and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center has written for classical symphony orchestra. Keep reading »
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CSO thunders gloriously with Marsalis’ `All Rise’
Call it a tonic for troubled times.
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Wynton Marsalis’ “All Rise”—an epic work that addresses fundamental questions of faith, crisis and deliverance—does not go gently into the night. -
Marsalis’ stunning opus transcends race and epochs
The New York Philharmonic messed up rhythms, the singers struggled to find their cues and conductor Kurt Masur begged for last-minute clarifications in a score that never had been performed before.
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Meanwhile, composer Wynton Marsalis paced the stage of Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, attempting to answer 1,001 questions lobbed at him by instrumentalists, singers, technicians and practically everyone else within earshot. -
Jammin’ with the CSO
From the moment Daniel Barenboim stepped up to the podium, it was clear that musical conventions were about to be incinerated. Rather than pick up his baton and signal a downbeat for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as he does each week in Symphony Center, the maestro turned around, faced the audience and began to speak directly to the crowd. Keep reading »