“Iris Unveiled,” by Chinese-born French composer Qigang Chen, with the Grant Park Orchestra and soloists on pipa, erhu and zheng, and sopranos embracing Eastern and Western styles, conducted by Carlos Kalmar, at the Grant Park Music Festival. ★★★★

By Nancy Malitz

Would that the early-twentieth century American composer Charles Ives had been sitting on Chicago’s Millennium Park lawn Saturday during the Grant Park Orchestra concert. Halfway into a piece titled “Iris dévoilée” (“Iris Unveiled” ) by Qigang Chen, there is a movement called “Tender,” which comes across as a lullaby.

As the lulling chords, rocking gently in pairs, swept over the crowd, one could hear children squealing under the water spouts at nearby Crown Fountain, along with all the other sounds of the city night blending into the moment. The Chinese-born composer’s “Iris Unveiled” purports to celebrate the archetypical feminine in “her unfathomable richness,” and among its exotic assortment of movements and their East-West musical colors is this gentle nod to the maternal.

The serendipity of “Tender,” which comingled Chen’s serene chords with the distant sounds of children laughing, was exactly the kind of experience that would have delighted Ives a century earlier. But he would also have been heartily amused by the helicopter flyover during “Libertine,” as the elaborately garbed Chinese soprano Meng Meng, vocalizing in startlingly high-pitched siren sounds, Peking Opera style, sang longingly about “flying away.” And he would have been touched by the extraordinary rise of the huge full moon at its closest in orbit this year, during the prolonged 10-minute finale called “Voluptuous,” which interlaced Meng Meng’s warbling with the Western-style descant of soprano Wu Yanyu.

Something wonderful in music is going on at Millennium Park, where the promise of free classical music concerts on the lawn, the picnic-friendly crowd and the prospect of pleasant lake breezes might suggest an occasion for pops programing. But principal conductor Carlos Kalmar, to his extraordinary credit, has realized that a relaxed crowd is likely to be a receptive one, and the Grant Park Orchestra’s musical nights ahead promise more in the vein of discovery.

Click here for a detailed overview of the festival’s 2013 concert series, which includes Barber’s Piano Concerto, Messiaen’s “Les offrandes oubliées” (“Forgotten Offerings”) and Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring.”  Coming up shortly is Britten’s “War Requiem,” a towering work for enormous vocal and orchestral forces — including a children’s choir — that Kalmar’s other orchestra, the Oregon Symphony, was forced to cancel this season for lack of funds.

“Iris Unveiled” composer Qigang Chen, who was born in 1951, endured three years of ideological re-education during the Cultural Revolution before landing a spot in the first class at the Central Conservatory in Beijing when schools reopened. After graduation, Chen emigrated to France to study with Olivier Messiaen, the brilliant modernist whose own musical language reflected diverse influences of Greek, Hindu, Oriental and Indonesian traditions along with birdsong and the musical nature of color itself – the perfect teacher for a man astride two worlds like Chen.

Some of the most beautiful music in “Iris Unveiled” was created by the dovetailing of East-West equivalents, such as the soaring sound of the solo violin (assistant concertmaster Ilana Setapen) paired in near unison with its Chinese equivalent, the erhu (Wei-Yang Andy Lin). In a central movement, called “Sensitive,” Chen exploited the delicate potential of plucked sounds on the zither-like zheng (Yang Yi) and lute-like pipa (Yang Wei) within a shimmering aura created by bowed cymbals and other delicate percussion effects under Kalmar’s unrushed, expansive command.

The remainder of Kalmar’s program was devoted to French music – Gabriel Fauré’s Suite from “Pelléas et Mélisande” and Ravel’s “La Valse.” The able Grant Park Orchestra, composed of professionals from all over the country, delivered them with a flourish, and yet it was the sound of “Iris Unveiled” that lingered.

Related Links:

• Editor’s picks for Grant Park’s summer season: Go to ChicagoOntheAisle.com
• More about the composer of “Iris dévoilée”: Visit Qigangchen.com
• Listen to “Iris dévoilée”: Go to rhapsody.com

Captions and credits: Home page and top, left to right: Soprano Meng Meng, pipa player Yang Wei, soprano Wu Yanyu are among the Chinese soloists in Qigang Chen’s “Iris dévoilée.” Soprano Meng Meng in traditional Peking Opera costume. Grant Park Music Festival conductor Carlos Kalmar. Composer Qigang Chen. Below: Grant Park Orchestra in Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavilion, designed by Frank Gehry, at night. (Grant Park Music Festival photos by Norman Timonera.)