This was a wonderful, eclectic concert: great music and a (somewhat unexpectedly) fantastic performance.

I don't know if many people know where Rockford is. It's about two hours to the west of Chicago, and as far as population goes it's a pretty big city. But it's a strange place to wander around. My two friends and I arrived a couple hours early for the concert and figured we'd be able to find something to do in a large city on a Saturday night. I hadn't been to Rockford since I was very small (there's a fantastic water park there), so I didn't really remember what it was like. We quickly found out it's actually just a really, really big suburb. Every store closed at 5 PM on week days and wasn't open at all on the weekends. Even the Quizno's was closed. Maybe it was just the area of town we were in, but many places looked very run-down and old. We walked by an abandoned, deteriorating old theatre which on one side of the marquee said "THE MOST CORRUPT AND PREJUDICED CITY IN THE USA" and on the other side said "I'D RATHER DIE ON MY FEET THAN LIVE ON MY KNEES."

The point is that I had no idea what to expect, on any level, this night. The Rockford Symphony is certainly not an A-list orchestra, and they're probably not a B-list orchestra either. They perform in an exquisitely beautiful old movie theatre which has been wonderfully restored and converted into a concert hall. The theatre still has a working organ, and I suppose they decided to put it to good use by co-commissioning the Daugherty piece.

Conductor Steven Larsen came out after the warm up to introduce himself, the orchestra, and the first piece of the evening. The poor guy was trying desperately to be amusing, but the biggest laugh he got was when he told the audience that some of the orchestra would be playing wine glasses by the end of the piece, and that wasn't supposed to be funny. Frankly, I would have liked no introduction at all. I don't like it when the conductor turns around to tell me what I'm going to here; if I'm going to hear it, why not just let me hear it?

Anyway, the concert opened with blue cathedral by Jennifer Higdon. I've heard Higdon before, a fabulous chamber piece called wissahickon poeTrees at a concert in Chicago (where I also met her). She's a very talented composer who's work (judging from these two pieces) is rather more romantic than many other contemporary composers. At times her music reminds me of Bruce Broughton. While blue cathedral is not quite as good as wissahickon poeTrees, it's still quite beautiful, with some gorgeous string writing, unique orchestration and excellent use of percussion. Higdon says to her the piece is meant to evoke feelings of walking through an enormous glass cathedral in the sky, and indeed the piece is very dreamy and delicate. It's not as haunting or memorable as wissahickon poeTrees (whose recording I felt compelled to buy immediately after hearing it), but it was still moving.

It also made me excited about the rest of the night, because the orchestra's performance was simply astounding. Like many smaller orchestras, they could have used a few more strings, but their precision and expression was very surprising. I really wasn't expecting much, but this was a first-class performance.

I found it rather strange that after the excruciatingly length introduction Larsen gave to blue cathedral he said absolutely nothing about Daugherty's work, despite the fact that this orchestra was one of the commissioners. Luckily, Daugherty's program notes were very forthcoming. His piece, a concerto for theatre organ and orchestra, is called Once Upon a Castle, and the castle the title refers to is Hearst Castle, the enormous estate that William Randolph Hearst had built for himself in California.

The first movement is called "The Road to San Simeon," inspired by the drive down to the castle itself. It opens with the organ playing some foreboding chords clearly intended as a nod to the opening of Bernard Herrmann's score to Citizen Kane. The orchestra comes in gradually with the piece rising to a fantastic crescendo symbolizing the view of the Pacific ocean.

The second movement, "Silent Movies" is a comical but somewhat sad portrait of Marion Davies, with some virtuoso exchanges between the organ and a solo violin. it's fun, but not too substantial. Also mostly filler is the third movement, "Neptune Pool," which honestly I don't remember very specifically, except that it was rather calm and reflective, but not particularly interesting.

But in the fourth movement, "Rosebud," Daugherty pulls out all the stops for one of the most infectious, energetic and spectacular pieces I've ever heard from him. It starts off as an insane sleigh ride, joyous but chaotic and disconcerting with racing strings and sprawling percussion. It's a huge, manic chase that you can't help but get caught up in. The piece then slows down and returns to the slow, brooding Kane-esque music that opened the concerto, only this time it rises to immensely epic Herrmannian heights, paying tribute, I suspect, to Citizen Kane's final shots of smoke rising into the night sky (in which Herrmann also reprised his own opening music in a much larger, more dramatic way). You'd think this would be the end, but Daugherty thankfully couldn't help himself and he returns to the infectious sleigh ride music, only he makes it even crazier, more chaotic, and even more fun. It's a superb finale.

The Rachmaninov piece probably doesn't need any explanation. It's a typically fantastic Rachmaninov symphony, full of some of the most beautiful music ever written, switching unpredictably between moments of exquisite rapture and moments of deep tragedy, and bound together with that unmatchable orchestration technique that every Russian composer seems to be born with. This was where the Rockford Symphony's slightly smaller string section was really something of a disadvantage, but it was nevertheless an admirable performance. It never meandered, never got dull or uninteresting; the orchestra never faltered on a single note. Once again, I was extremely surprised that a "second-class" (maybe even "third-class") orchestra delivered such a wonderful, staggering performance. I'll have to keep it in mind when their next season is announced.

I really, really hope that this Daugherty piece eventually gets a recording. It's an incredibly enjoyable piece that I would greatly regret never hearing again. It definitely deserves a wider audience, and I think Bernard Herrmann buffs would especially enjoy it. Keep your eyes peeled on those release schedules; if this concerto ever shows itself on CD, don't hesitate to pick it up right away. And if you get the chance to hear it live, don't miss it.

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Originally posted by James:
I really, really hope that this Daugherty piece eventually gets a recording. It's an incredibly enjoyable piece that I would greatly regret never hearing again.

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Argo put out a few albums devoted entirely to his work before they went under, including the Metropolis Symphony, his opera Jackie O, and an album of shorter works called American Icons.

The Kronos Quartet have also recorded a couple of his works. On Howl, USA you'll find "Sing Sing: J. Edgar Hoover," a fantastic piece set to recordings of Hoover's speeches, and their compilation Released: 1985-1995 includes (on the bonus "unreleased" CD) the really bizarre "Elvis Everywhere" for string quartet, saxophone, and three Elvis impersonators.

There have been quite a few others, and Hell's Angels was actually recorded by the Oregon Symphony on a CD called American Contrast on Delos.

You can visit this page for even more, as well as Michael Daugherty's official web site, though unfortunately it hasn't been updated in over a year.

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Originally posted by James:
There have been quite a few others, and Hell's Angels was actually recorded by the Oregon Symphony on a CD called American Contrast on Delos.

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I need this!

Thanks for the info. When I have some money, I'll get that Orgeon CD, and if I enjoy the other Daugherty piece on it, I'll come back to your list.

What an incredible, beautifully written review. I wish I would've attended, it sounds like a wonderful performance. I can't believe nobody else has responded besides Marian and myself, you're glowing concert review was a joy to read.