Photo by Bob Benenson
Given what we’ve all been through since the spring of 2020, this seems to be a holiday season for grand-scale musical statements. The number of Chicago orchestras performing George Frideric Handel’s Messiah oratorio this year may have set a record.
Chicago Philharmonic took a much different approach with its Joyeux Noel, presented midday on Sunday at City Winery. Performed by the all-woman ensemble of Jennifer Clippert on flute, Claudia Lasareff-Mironoff on viola and Lauren Hayes on harp, the hour-long program of five pieces was a mellow interlude from the Yuletide bustle.
It was perfect for sitting back with a tall glass of the venue’s house label wine. I had the Rousanne and it was lovely. All the intimate club setting was missing was a fireplace.
Photo by Bob Benenson
It was an unusual Christmastime concert in that three of the pieces performed had nothing to do with Christmas. Written or arranged for the three genteel instruments being played, they all fit the mood, synthesizing with the two seasonal medleys interspersed. Not the Hallelujah Chorus, for sure, but thank goodness not All I Want for Christmas is You either.
The show opened with only Clippert and Hayes on stage, performing the Café 1930 movement from Ástor Piazzolla’s Histoire du Tango. The Argentinian composer dedicated his career to elevating the tango from its roots in the bordellos of Buenos Aires to concert halls around the world. The movement selected for the program evoked an era in which a less sensual version of the tango was performed for listening and not for dancing (little known fact).
Lasareff-Mironoff then joined with her viola and led on a beautiful version of O Holy Night, preceded by traditional carol Bring the Torch and popular tune Winter Wonderland. The medley was arranged by Ken Gist, a Chicago harp virtuoso who died in 2018.
Photo by Bob Benenson
Two rarely performed 20th century chamber pieces followed. The first was Deux Interludes, a 1946 piece by French composer Jacques Ibert. Curiously, the composition was written as incidental music for the play Le Burlador (The Seducer), which the Earsense classical music site describes as “apparently a feminist take on the iconic Don Juan story.” Two short movements derive from dance styles, the first a minuet with poignant viola passages, the second a Spanish folk dance accented by Hayes’ cascading harp notes.
The next piece, Sonatine, was by Maurice Ravel, the most famous of the composers featured, though this 1906 composition came very early in his career. Written for piano, the score played at this concert was arranged by internationally renowned harpist Skaila Kanga, under whom Hayes studied the instrument. The first movement of the 11-minute piece had a moderate tempo; the second was a minuet in which Clippert’s flute took the lead; the third Animé gained a momentum of some urgency but not out of proportion to the mood of the program.
The concert came to a close with a second holiday suite by Gist. The flute again was prominent in I Wonder as I Wander, while Angels We Have Heard on High was a lush harp solo. The Jingle Bells finale encouraged audience participation in the form of shaking keys to emulate the sleigh bells.
There was no snow to dash home through, but it added a quick step in a walk to the bus stop.