The tempo accelerates and the volume increases as the chorus sings of sleep’s effects on the body. The second part (“Dreamers”) sets brief, blankly literal descriptions of seven people’s dreams, from humorous to melancholy and disturbing.Ĭurrier’s 22-minute work begins with an eerie wordless choral vocalise against mysterious swells and ebbs in the orchestra. The first (“Sleepers”) looks at sleep from an objective, at times clinical perspective, with an evocative text by poet Sarah Manguso that examines its physiological effects.
Sleepers and Dreamers is cast in two sections, played without pause. Currier goes in a completely different direction, ignoring the city and the occasion of the commission (to his credit) and instead creating a strange and compelling nocturnal landscape for chorus and orchestra centered on dreams. This summer’s other festival commission, Michael Gandolfi’s Only Converge: An Exaltation of Place, which was unveiled last month, tried too hard to create a civic paean to Chicago. (Saturday’s repeat should come with more bearable temperatures and will hopefully draw the audience this successful premiere deserves.) Still, the oppressive weather kept the usual large crowds away, which was a shame since the program offered a significant world premiere with Sebastian Currier’s Sleepers and Dreamers, commissioned for this 50th anniversary season of the Grant Park Chorus. Friday’s 103 temperature descended to a comparatively balmy 99 degrees by concert time at the Pritzker Pavilion.
Neither raging tempest nor godless heat prevents the show from going on at the Grant Park Music Festival.
Sebastian Currier's "Sleepers and Dreamers" received its world premiere Friday night at the Grant Park Music Festival.
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