Back last year, when the powers-that-be in Chicago were trying to get the 2016 Olympics, local cultural organizations got on board with various promotions. The Chicago Symphony sold tickets to select concerts for a short period of time with a price of $20.16. How could I pass that up, despite my views on the Olympics?
So last night, I sat in the fourth row of Orchestra Hall and listened to an absolutely stupendous performance of Bach's St. John Passion. The Chicago Symphony Chorus is one of the best in the world, the soloists included counter-tenor David Daniels (whom you all know I adore), and David Schrader, a local treasure, played harpsichord. There was a pre-concert lecture, which I was glad to have attended, as the Passion is structurally complex, and I enjoyed, too, learning about the circumstances under which it was originally written and performed. (Whoever started this trend of pre-concert lectures deserves a prize.) It occurs to me that it would be interesting to hear it done as it would have been heard in Leipzig, with a small chorus and boy sopranos.
Yesterday morning, I attended the annual Clarence Darrow Commemorative Ceremony at the Darrow Bridge behind the Museum of Science and Industry. Very few words were spoken, as it was a damp, chilly morning and everyone was anxious to get inside. The story goes that Darrow said that if there were an afterlife, he'd come back to that spot. So every year on the anniversary of his death, there's an event, but, as far as anyone knows, he hasn't shown up yet. Gary Anderson, who portrays Darrow in a one-man show (and who presented at the IACDL event the night before) was there, and we were kidding him that he should have dressed like Darrow and appeared out of the mist! That would have been pretty amusing.
