Classical Monday--Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex live performance at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Have I been hibernating since my last posting on December 14? Well, I haven't seen any live performances since then, so I may have been sleeping.

This weekend I attended an all-Stravinsky concert by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with the largest piece on the program being the opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex. I had never heard of this work, so was very curious about it. It is scored for strings, winds, percussion, piano, male chorus, six soloists and a narrator.

The most recognizable name among the guest artists was Sir Patrick Stewart. He was an amenable and communicative narrator, as you would expect from and RSC-trained actor. I was told after the event that he was amplified; it was very subtly done, and I heard every word and nuance. There were three primary singers--tenor William Burden, mezzo Michelle DeYoung, and bass-baritone Ryan McKinny (pictured). I have heard Ms. DeYoung sing live at the Lyric Opera; Mr. Burden has sung there often as well. Mr. McKinny was a new name for he, but he's clearly an up-and-comer--an attractive and dark-voiced singer who is just entering his thirties. These soloists performed well, although at times I thought they were over-powered by the orchestra. At times even the male chorus of 100 was over-powered by the orchestra. Did no one sit in the house during rehearsals to check the balance? Perhaps these were choices by conductor Michael Tilson Thomas; if so they did a disservice to the soloists in particular and the work in general.

The first half of the concert was also works by Stavinsky--a three-part Ode that was written as a memorial to Serge Koussevitsky's wife, and the music from the ballet Apollon musagete. Only bits of either of these pieces had ever been programmed on a CSO concert before, except when Tilson Thomas had conducted the Apollon music back in the early 80s. The works don't deserve to be repeated even that often.

Perhaps I'm proving my bourgeois background, but I have never understood the programming of ballet music on a orchestra concert. Isn't that like showing a film on the radio? Certainly there are many ballets where the music deserves to be heard outside the dance world--many Stravinsky ballets in particular--but Apollon is not on that list.

Oedipus Rex

Music by Igor Stravinsky

Text in Latin by Stravinsky and Jean Cocteau

First performed in 1927

Soloists: Michelle DeYoung, Ryan McKinny, William Burden, Patrick Stewart, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas