Blogging the Art of the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra: A Report on the Open House

I thought I would report on the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra open house today (Sunday the 26th of August) introducing David Danzmayr to the Southland. First, I would say that it was an overwhelming success. Previous open houses--where we had introduced the Lincoln-Way North Performing Arts Center as our new venue as well as previous piano solo performances to introduce our program--were very wonderful and informative events. But they never much about 200 attendees. We were hoping for about 300 and thought that 400 would be a rousing success. Well, about 500 attended!

After the opening introductions and thank-yous to Superintendent Lawrence Wylie and District 210 for their generosity in providing the venue for the event, there was a performance of the opening movement of the Mozart G-minor Piano Quartet with new music director David Danzmayr (sounds like we're all going to call him DAY vid--not dah VEED) at the piano with IPO concertmaster Hal Grossman; IPO principal viola, Matthew Mantell; and IPO principal cello, Emily Mantell. This performance showed great balance and passion with very pleasing touch by Maestro Danzmayr who really has given up playing the piano except for this special event. Here is a Youtube recording of the piece (with less precise piano playing than what we experienced). An audience member asked if he was going to conduct any Mozart concertos from the piano and, while not ruling it out forever, David made it seem like this would be the last time we would hear him play the piano for a while because he really is concentrating all his time and energies to conducting. Still there was one more piano treat. David played the Chopin Waltz in A-flat major op 69 No. 1. It was very touching and—very clean in the elaborate runs that ornament the simple line. Here's a Youtube recording of Valentina Lisitsa playing this.

There followed a discussion between David and new IPO executive director, Andrew Bradford, where David told of starting conducting at age 18 with Dennis Russell Davies. Davies later told David's father that David initially knew nothing about conducting when he started, but that DRD liked David's energy so he took him on the basis of that. David felt that musicians were unlikely to respect a conductor unless they knew that the conductor has mastered an instrument in performance. (I remember showing David my poster signed by Dennis Russell Davies, and David confirmed that the signature was authentic.) David felt that he always wanted to be a conductor—much to the distress of his mother who wanted him to remain a pianist.

David had other offers to take up conducting posts in the USA, but was very happy to take the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra position because the orchestra plays so well and several other facors that made the decision relatively easy. There followed questions about children's concerts—David is very fond of them including concerts geared toward 3-5 year olds! Plans are in the works for youth concerts. In addition, there has been some discussion about having David conduct rehearsals of several of the high-school orchestras in the area.

There was a question about whether David would program rarely heard works or modern works. He was happy to report that there was a new plan to perform on February's IPO concert the Divertimento for Small Orchestra by Lee Actor (see his website for examples of his works here).

After a performance of the first movement of the Haydn Quartet Op. 64 No. 6 where Hal, Matt and Emily were joined by Linda Veleckis Nussbaum, IPO principal second violin,(click here for a Youtube performance of the whole quartet), we all went to the cafeteria for cookies from Sweet Annie's of Flossmoor and great conversation with the musicians, David, and Andrew.

You will soon be able to see photos of the event by visitng Ned the Photographer's website. You can see the photos from other previous IPO events by clicking here.

A great start to the IPO season. We look forward to seeing David again in November. Get your Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra tickets, now, by visiting the website or calling (708) 481-7774.