Ravinia 2019, Issue 7, Week 14

Classics 2019–20BGH SERIES There may be less sun in the sky, but the light still shines at Ravinia through the fall, winter, and spring with the year-round BGH Classics series. The 2019–20 concert season kicks off with 14 diverse programs from October to May in Ravinia’s most intimate space, Bennett Gordon Hall, perfect for sharing with your musical family and friends or taking in as a personal escape from our fast-paced world. Reserved seats cost less than a movie ticket at $12 each, but the deal gets even better when purchased as a 10-punch pass, which gets you best-available seats for only $9 each at the box office and is also good for any summer 2020 BGH Classics series concerts. “Although Ravinia is most known for its music under the stars,” says Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman, who programs all of Ravinia’s concerts, from solo recitals to massive stage produc- tions, “Bennett Gordon Hall has developed quite a fan club over the past few years because audiences appreciate both the opportunity to experience an array of talented artists up and close and personal, and the enticing ticket price that lets them see an entire year’s worth of concerts for the cost of a single ticket at most other concert halls.” Tickets to the 2019–20 BGH Classics series are on sale now, ex- clusively at Ravinia.org, where you can also find information about ticket-and-dining packages offering a one-stop night out with free parking steps away from Bennett Gordon Hall and dinner at Ravin- ia’s Freehling Room restaurant in the same building. The series begins on October 5 with the return of David Greil- sammer, a pianist who the New York Times characterizes as “one of the most accomplished and adventurous musicians of his gener- ation.” He will bring his consciousness-expanding program “Lab- yrinth,” which follows Janáček’s mystical suite On the Overgrown Path on an exploration of the commonalities between that emotive, folkloric Romantic and his boundary-breaking Baroque brothers Couperin and Froberger (both of whose music adorned Greilsam- mer’s 2012 Ravinia debut) as well as his progressive Classical cous- ins Mozart and C.P.E. Bach. The NYT ’s Anthony Tommasini said, “I came away, to cite one impression, with newfound respect for the audacious inventiveness of C.P.E. Bach.” The program climaxes with a devilish new piece for the pianist by the Norwegian Ofer Pelz juxtaposed around the French Baroque composer Jean-Féry Rebel’s Chaos , depicting primordial energy a full two centuries before Stra- vinsky’s Rite of Spring . Then the electrifying string trio Simply Three makes its Ravinia debut on October 12, bringing an ear for crossover creativity that’s as if George Gershwin were nurtured on the music of Adele, Cold- play, and Ed Sheeran—and they’ve impressed listeners with Gersh- win’s own music too. Sharing the contemporary and classical sensi- bilities that have made such artists as Well-Strung, Lindsey Stirling, and The Piano Guys festival favorites, violinist Glen McDaniel, cel- list Zac Clark, and bassist Nick Villalobos have earned recognition from not just the likes of Rolling Stone but also the artists whose music they have reimagined, including OneRepublic (“Counting Stars”) and Janelle Monáe (“Cold War,” “Tightrope”). The trio has four albums of covers, ranging from “Eleanor Rigby” to “Bohemian Rhapsody” to “Shut Up and Dance,” and its second album of origi- nal music is due out this year. Just two months after taking his last bow of the summer with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia, Robert Chen, the en- semble’s illustrious concertmaster for now nearly 20 years, returns to the festival for a third straight year with a solo concert on Oc- tober 26. “It’s a beautiful-sounding space,” Chen told the Chicago Tribune ahead of last year’s date in Bennett Gordon Hall. “You feel connected to the audience. The closer you feel to them physically, the easier that part becomes.” And both previous audiences were close to him too, filling all 450 seats. Ahead of his 2017 concert, Chen told Ravinia , “In an orchestra, you’re playing with other peo- ple, of course, but with chamber music you get to make musical David Greilsammer, October 5 Simply Three, October 12 Robert Chen, October 26 European Guitar Quartet, November 2 30 RAVINIA MAGAZINE | AUGUST 26, 2019 – MAY 9, 2020