WYNNE DELACOMA
Wynne Delacoma was not only classical music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1991 to 2006, she is also on the faculty of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and a regular contributor to Ravinia Program Magazine.


Wagner: Overture to The Flying Dutchman
All the orchestral color and surging tension you could wish to evoke a mighty, storm-tossed sailing ship. Cue it up on your iPod the next time you visit Santiago Calatrava’s Milwaukee Art Museum. Your heart will soar at the sound of Wagner’s music and the sight of the museum poised like a glistening, white bird on the Lake Michigan shore.

Mozart: Act I Trio, “Soave sia il vento” (May the wind be gentle), from Così fan tutte Three minutes of tenderly sublime singing as the opera’s two sisters wish Godspeed to the lovers they think are heading off to war. That the lovers and the old gentleman who joins them in the farewell are playing a cruel trick on the young women doesn’t undermine the lustrous moment.

John Adams: Grand Pianola Music
Movement III, “On the Dominant Divide”
Opening with a brassy rustle in the orchestra, it builds to a thrilling outpouring of relentless, glittering arpeggios on the pianos, culminating in what Adams correctly calls a “flag-waving, gaudy tune.’’ It’s impossible to listen to its heroic bombast without wanting to dance grandly across a very large room.

Dvořák: Aria, “O silver moon,’’ from Rusalka
Sometimes one turn of melody or shift in harmony is enough to bring on the goose bumps. Listen to Renée Fleming or the soprano of your choice nestle into the slowly unfolding peak of this folk-tinged love song and feel your heart melt.

J.S. Bach: Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D minor (BWV 1004) for solo violin
Noble, austere, full of rhythmic vitality and endlessly inventive melody, this is Bach at his most profoundly moving.