“The Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert opened with Jessie Montgomery’s Strum, a short piece that the composer – a violinist herself – orchestrated for a small string orchestra after envisioning it as a cello quintet. Beginning with an angular pizzicato statement from the viola, the piece then unfolded with fluid rhythms that passed pleasantly among the violins, cellos and basses. Montgomery leaned into folk flourishes, in both the American and English traditions – you could imagine some of the passages playing near a maypole. Although individual musicians made distinctive contributions – especially cellist John Sharp and Stephanie Jeong, the evening’s concertmaster – the work’s beauty resided in Alsop’s precise textural layering and rapid forward momentum.”