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Brooklyn Rider
Fri., Jan. 25, 7:30 p.m.Classical
It’s no longer unusual for a classical group to have a name that doesn’t include a word like “quartet” or “ensemble,” or for it to focus on new compositions or on music that draws on pop, jazz, electronica, and the like. All of which means New York string quartet Brooklyn Rider isn’t an oddity these days—but it’s one of the best of this new generation. Violinists Johnny Gandelsman and Colin Jacobsen, violist Nicholas Cords, and cellist Eric Jacobsen (Colin’s brother) formed the quartet in 2006, while playing together in Yo-Yo Ma’s expansive Silk Road Project. In Ma’s group they adapt music from all over Asia, and in Brooklyn Rider they’ve done likewise—for the excellent 2008 album Silent City (World Village), they collaborated with Iranian kamancheh virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor. That’s not to say Brooklyn Rider restricts itself to Asian music: last year they released a double CD collecting the complete string quartets of Philip Glass, plus an album called Seven Steps (In a Circle) that collides a dramatic rendering of Beethoven’s meticulous String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp Minor (with heavy use of glissando and less vibrato than is traditional) with the dense 2008 work Together Into This Unknowable Night by New York composer Christopher Tignor (who leads the rock-flavored new-music group Slow Six). The real oddity on the album, though, is the title track, a response to the Beethoven quartet composed collectively by all four members of Brooklyn Rider, who write in the liner notes that they were “guided by a spirit of free play rather than the heavy hand of the auteur’s pen.” It’s just 12 minutes long, in contrast with the 40-minute Beethoven quartet, but its scratchy textures, extended techniques, and rapid-fire movement make up for in impact what’s missing in duration and exposition. For tonight’s concert the group will play Seven Steps, but the centerpiece of the program isn’t the Beethoven but rather another classical warhorse, Felix Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 1 in E-flat. Also included are John Zorn’s The Alchemist, Colin Jacobsen’s “Three Persian Miniatures,” and works by Christina Courtin, Dana Lyn, and Vijay Iyer, all from a series of commissions called the Brooklyn Rider Almanac, for which the group asks composers to use any artist from the past 50 years as an inspiration. —Peter Margasak
$35, $5 students
A Painting Show in Two Parts: Part II
Through 1/27:Galleries
The second installment of paintings by Paul Bloodgood and Michael Byron. Reception 12/16, 4-6 PM.
Modest Livelihood
Through 1/31Galleries
Brian Jungen and Duane Linklater's collaborative film project, displayed in a continuous loop constructed of original super 16mm material.
Has Beens & Wannabes
Through 2/9:Galleries
Longtime Chicago artists present their urban artwork in this group show. Reception Fri 1/18, 7-10 PM.
Style Bombing
Through 2/9:Galleries
Mixed media urban art by Chicago native and graffiti writer Mario Gonzalez Jr. Reception Fri 1/18, 7-10 PM.
Skylight
Through 2/10: Wed-Thu 7:30 PM, Fri 8 PM, Sat 3 and 8 PM, Sun 2:30 and 7:30 PMTheater & Performance
There's at least an hour's worth of terrific drama sprinkled throughout Court Theatre's meticulous revival of the 1995 play by David Hare. Trouble is, the show lasts for two and a half hours. Ex-lovers Kyra and Tom spend the night in Kyra's shabby London flat, reminiscing and arguing about their affair gone awry. Laura Rook and Philip Earl Johnson throw off sparks as the couple, coming at each other with a convincing mix of wit, tenderness, and naked hostility. But Hare's long stretches of droll exposition feel like dutiful busy work, and director William Brown tends to dote on the script rather than bring it to life. Todd Rosenthal's elaborate set--Kyra's entire flat, minus the walls--is fittingly realistic inasmuch as Hare requires Kyra to cook spaghetti onstage. --Keith Griffith $45-$65
Passing Through The Opposite of What It Approaches, Chapter 25
Through 2/17:Galleries
Abstract paintings by R.H. Quaytman.
R.H. Quaytman
Through 2/17:Galleries
A retrospective of work by Quaytman, including notable painted panels that challenge grammatical notions of photo-based imagery. Recetpion Sun 1/6, 5 PM.
Cosmic Consciousness
Through 2/20:Galleries: Openings & Receptions
Andy Plioplys his photo collages that explore the ways our "cosmic existence" intersects with out "cultural roots." Reception Fri 1/25, 4-7 PM.
University of Chicago, 5850 S. Woodlawn Ave.
Hyde Park
773-702-8069Wine in the Wilderness and Florence
Through 3/3: Fri-Sat 8 PM, Sun 3 and 7 PMTheater & Performance
African-American playwright Alice Childress wrote these two one-acts 20 years apart, and it shows in the evolving sophistication they demonstrate. The 1949 Florence—Childress's first play—depicts a fraught conversation between a poor black woman and an affluent, condescending white one in a segregated train station. It makes an historically interesting, if not greatly enlightening, warm-up for Wine in the Wilderness—a layered 1969 work that similarly but more provocatively questions the signifiers of black identity. Mignon McPherson Stewart directs both, but only Wine manages to come across as more than an academic exercise, thanks to Alicia Ivy White's humorous performance as an artist's muse. —Dan Jakes $15-$30
Mambomountain
Through 3/24:Galleries
New paintings by SAIC professor Candida Alvarez. Reception Sun 12/2, 2-5 PM.
Fearsome Fable - Tolerable Truth
Through 4/28:Galleries
Tom Torluemke's latest acrylic work suggests what the future holds if the political, environmental, and social status quo is maintained. Reception Sun 1/20, 3-5 PM.
