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Alsop today, leading a performance by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra,
which she has been music director of since 2007 and is tenured with until 2021.
Concert Series. Titled
Leonard Bernstein: 100 Years Young
, the
morning event features conductor George Stelluto and the
Peoria Symphony Orchestra, soprano Michelle Areyzaga (an
alumna of the Steans Music Institute, Ravinia’s conservatory
for professional musicians), and young student clarinet, violin,
and piano soloists.
“We want people to feel like they’ve gained insight into
this person,” Alsop says, “that they’ve seen the true Leonard
Bernstein and what his huge contributions were on all of these
levels, but also feel entertained. So it’s really trying to balance
things—how much talking as opposed to how much music.
Welz is open to all kinds of crazy ideas, so it’s been fun to work
with him.”
The only disputed side of Bernstein’s legacy has been his
standing a composer. At the time of his death, many critics
were willing to concede his stellar accomplishments in the
realm of musical theater with works like
West Side Story
, but
some of his classical pieces were downplayed or dismissed alto-
gether. But all that has changed in the quarter-century since his
death. Perhaps no creation is more indicative of these changing
perceptions than Bernstein’s
Mass
, a cross-genre theatrical
work commissioned for the 1971 opening of the Kennedy
Center in Washington, DC. It was derided at its debut by
New
York Times
music critic Harold Schonberg as a “pseudo-serious
effort” that was “cheap and vulgar.” But
Mass
is more and more
seen as a masterpiece, a work decades ahead of its time with its
inventive fusion of musical styles.
“When Bernstein was alive,” Alsop says, “it was very
difficult for people to separate Bernstein, the bigger-than-life
persona, from the Bernstein, the composer. Almost impossible.
With time having passed, his music can be listened to and per-
haps assessed without any baggage—just for pure music’s sake.
I think when one can do that, one sees the absolute genius
in this composer. I’ve felt this from the minute I got to know
his music, particularly his ‘serious’ music, that it’s some of the
greatest stuff ever written.”
The first thing Alsop and Kauffman agreed on was present-
ing the rarely heard
Mass
as the centerpiece of this summer’s
Bernstein tribute at Ravinia, and everything else followed
from that. The 1¾-hour work will be showcased July 28, with
Alsop shepherding 275 singers and musicians, including the
100-voice adult choir Vocality. Completing the headcount will
be the CSO, Chicago Children’s Choir, Highland Park High
School Marching Band, and baritone Paulo Szot in the central
role of the Celebrant plus a cast of 22 as the Street Chorus.
Alsop calls Bernstein her “hero.” She first connected with
him in 1987 as a student at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik
Festival in northern Germany, and subsequently was chosen
as a conducting fellow in the summers of 1988 and 1989 at the
Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, MA. In the months in
between, she studied with him privately, and in 1990, he asked
her to go with him to Japan for the opening of the Pacific Mu-
sic Festival in Sapporo. “So, I was with him until right before
he passed away,” she says.
Among the lessons Alsop carries with her from her time
with Bernstein is his “unbelievable commitment” to the
composer. He saw conductors as “mere messengers” who are
responsible for understanding a musical narrative and com-
municating it to listeners. “His music is all about exploring
this concept of faith, whether its faith in humanity or faith
in spirituality,” she says. “And for him, often in his music, it’s
a simplistic idea, but the way he executes it is anything but
simplistic—this idea of tonality versus atonality, which was
so prevalent and so topical when he was at the height of his
composing career. And it becomes a symbol for a crisis of faith.
Knowing him really enhances that narrative for me.”
But she tries to bring that same responsibility she feels
toward Bernstein’s music to every other composer as well, just
as he would have wanted. “People sometimes thought, he’s too
flamboyant or too this or too that,” she says. “But I understood
that Bernstein was actually channeling the composer he was
conducting always. When he was conducting Mahler’s Ninth
[Symphony], he felt he was Mahler. He was really feeling it.
And that was an incredible inspiration to watch as a young
conductor.”
Although future plans have not been announced, Alsop’s
curatorship is open-ended. Ravinia intends to continue its
Bernstein celebration at least a few more years because of the
wealth of his accomplishments in so many spheres. Alsop
noted that this year’s schedule does not allow her time to work
with the artists at Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, something
she intends to do in 2019. Future looks at Bernstein might
explore his wider work in musical theater, for example, or tie
into other anniversaries.
“I don’t think it’s going to be as opulent as this summer ev-
ery single year, but it could be,” Kauffman says. “Who knows?
There’s certainly plenty of work to do.”
Kyle MacMillan served as classical music critic for the
Denver Post
from 2000
through 2011. He currently freelances in Chicago, writing for such publications
and websites as the
Chicago Sun-Times
,
Wall Street Journal
,
Opera News
, and
Classical Voice of North America
.
BRUNO VESSIEZ
RAVINIA MAGAZINE | JULY 9 – JULY 22, 2018
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