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ORCHESTRA CONCERTS
26
R A V I N I A F A M I L Y F U N G U I D E
Tonight’s movie,
Vertigo
, is about
a former policeman who becomes
afraid of heights and even feels sick
and gets dizzy when he looks down
from something high up (that feel-
ing is called “vertigo”!). Because that
dizzy feeling can make it seem like
the world is spinning, and because
the story has to do with the main
character visiting people and places
multiple times and having different
experiences, the composer for the
movie, Bernard Herrmann, wrote
music that also feels like it’s swirling
around.
7:30 p.m. Saturday, August 18
Pavilion
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop,
conductor
Igor Levit,
piano
Leonard Bernstein:
Slava!
(A Political Overture)
Maurice Ravel:
Piano Concerto
Dmitri Shostakovich:
Symphony No. 5
There are a lot of different types of
connections to Leonard Bernstein on
this concert. The first piece, of course,
is one that he wrote himself, in honor
of his friend Mstislav Rostropovich,
who was becoming the new direc-
tor of the United States’ National
Symphony Orchestra. His nickname
was “Slava” (which is also the Russian
word for “glory”), so, naturally,
Bernstein titled the piece
Slava!
And
Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto was
another favorite performance piece
for Bernstein as a piano soloist. It’s
very jazzy, like George Gershwin’s
Rhapsody in Blue
, because Ravel
wrote it shortly after he made a con-
cert tour of the United States in areas
where jazz was popular, and jazz was
also becoming popular in his home-
land of France. Ravel even got his first
ideas for the concerto while riding a
train, just like Gershwin did!
Bernstein had a very special rela-
tionship with Dmitri Shostakovich’s
Fifth Symphony. Shortly after he
became the director of the New York
Philharmonic, he took the orchestra
on a tour of Russia, and that piece
was on the program. Bernstein was
known for being very energetic on
the conductor’s platform, earning
the nickname “Leaping Lenny,” so