Older attendees to the Grant Park Music Festival may recall occasions when lightning and rain cut short or even canceled programs. Wednesday night’s concert was a reminder of those times.
The protection afforded musicians by the Jay Pritzker Pavilion usually means the show goes on no matter what. And always there are diehard listeners who having come out for music choose to get buffeted and soaked rather than to go back in.
Wednesday was different. Bursts of thunder, lightning and rain increased throughout the program, finally cutting it short just after violinist Rachel Barton Pine, guest conductor Michal Nesterowicz and the orchestra completed the second of the evening’s three pieces.
This left the Polish conductor out in the cold, critically speaking. The opening work of his Grant Park debut, Witold Lutoslawski’s “Little Suite,” held really too little to reveal the conductor’s special strengths. The folklike four-movement suite had the tall, lean Nesterowicz, 42, working without a podium to elicit sounds that only in flashes hinted at the mastery of Lutoslawski’s better-known Concerto for Orchestra.
MOST READ ENTERTAINMENT NEWS THIS HOUR
Lightness and delicacy of wind and string playing gave distinct pleasure, though Nesterowicz will have to return to show more of what impressed in his former roles with the Polish Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra in Gdansk and National Symphony Orchestra in Chile.
Max Bruch’s G-minor Violin Concerto followed a template familiar from earlier Pine performances. Young soloists often feel compelled to play such warhorses fast. Pine, 41, does not. Her approach was expansive throughout. This allowed us to luxuriate in rich, dark-brown sonorities, which soothed but didn’t quite give the aural high seriousness Pine seemed to be after.
Bruch marked the first movement “Allegro moderato,” and Wednesday’s account was moderate indeed. Without question, it announced an individual approach that immediately set it apart. And such patient, tranquil unfolding was appropriate to the central Adagio, even if the climax lacked heightened tension.
The composer instructed that the finale, however, be played “energetically fast,” and the speed there is less important than the energy. Pine and Nesterowicz gave, instead, massivity, at least until the final two pages, which are marked “very fast, with force.” There they launched into a sprint more airy than forceful, though successful in getting damp listeners to leap to their feet and shout.
Alan Artner is a freelance critic.
Twitter @chitribent
RELATED STORIES:
Silly-but-tuneful ‘Cousin’ gets a rare staging by Chicago Folks Operetta
More Top Picks Best Amazon Prime Day Bedding Deals 2026 2
At Cincinnati Opera, a gay love story unfolds in the shadows of McCarthy era
.galleries:after {
content: ”;
display: block;
background-color: #144A7C;
margin: 16px auto 0;
height: 5px;
width: 100px;
}
.galleries:before {
content: “Entertainment Photos and Video”;
display: block;
font: 700 20px Georgia,serif;
text-align: center;
color: #1e1e1e;
var playlist = ‘chi_ent_movie_trailers’,
layout = ‘autoblurb’,
iu = ‘%2F4011%2Ftrb.chicagotribune%2Fent’;
Watch the latest movie trailers.