Cellist Ifetayo Ali-Landing, 15, makes a stunning downtown Chicago
Sinfonietta debut at Orchestra Hall on May 14, 2018.
(Nuccio DiNuzzo /
Chicago Tribune)
By Howard Reich
May 15, 2018
More than three decades ago, a conductor I’d admired from afar called to ask if we could get together over lunch.
I recognized Paul Freeman’s
name immediately, because he had served as conductor of the landmark
“Black Composers Series,” a boxed set of recordings documenting the work
of William Grant Still, George Walker, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Olly
Wilson and others who had been underrepresented in a white, Eurocentric
music world.
But when we met, it wasn’t the “Black Composers
Series” that Freeman wanted to discuss. Having led the Grant Park
Orchestra in an evening of music by black composers and a “Symphony in
Black” concert in Orchestra Hall, Freeman dreamed of creating an
ensemble that would bring sorely needed diversity to our concert life.
“Chicago
does not yet have an ensemble comparable to what the Chicago
Sinfonietta is going to be,” Freeman told me. “I’m not trying to rap any
other groups, but Chicago does not have a midsize symphony with as big a
season and as broad plans as we have for the Chicago Sinfonietta.”
***
Though Freeman already was music director of the Victoria (British
Columbia) Symphony and busily conducted around the world, he was
determined to bring his vision to Chicago. In October 1987 he did just
that, leading the sinfonietta in a program featuring the Chicago bow of
soprano Wilhelmenia Fernandez, who played the title role of Jean-Jacques
Beineix’s film masterpiece “Diva.”
The sinfonietta’s performance
that night proved technically unsure, but by the next season it sounded
transformed, finessing Walker’s intricate “Antiphonies for Chamber
Orchestra” and other repertoire. In coming years, the sinfonietta
redefined what a classical orchestra can be, collaborating with the
Modern Jazz Quartet, pianist Ramsey Lewis, the Apostolic Church of God Sanctuary Choir, actor Danny Glover reading poetry of Langston Hughes, and other genre-stretching attractions.
Freeman
died in 2015, at age 79, but the import of what he created was palpably
clear Monday night in Orchestra Hall, where the sinfonietta celebrated
the finale of its 30th season. Though the program ranged from sublime
to silly (intentionally so), the high points were unforgettable.
Most
inspiring by far was the work of 15-year-old cellist Ifetayo
Ali-Landing, who played alongside violinist Melissa White in
Saint-Saens’ “La Muse
et le Poete” (“The Muse and the Poet”) with sinfonietta assistant
conductor Kellen Gray leading the orchestra. Judging by this
performance, it would be unjust to call Ali-Landing a prodigy, for she
offered none of the annoyingly precocious ostentation that word
connotes. Instead, Ali-Landing showed poise, restraint, control and
interpretive insight.
For starters, Ali-Landing produced a darkly burnished
tone that elegantly complemented violinist White’s brightly cast timbre
in duet passages. In cadenzas, Ali-Landing chose to emphasize musical
content over technical bravura, though she negotiated gnarly passages
with apparent ease. Better still, Ali-Landing expressed an obvious
understanding of the chordal and thematic structure of the Saint-Saens,
essentially a compact double concerto with an emphasis on long, lyric
lines. White’s tightly focused vibrato and soaring phrases provided
welcome counterpoint to Ali-Landing’s downtown sinfonietta debut.
Accompanying
both soloists in the orchestra was violinist Lucinda Ali-Landing, the
cellist’s mother. Can you imagine a more rewarding Mother’s Day gift
than her daughter’s lustrous performance?
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