CSO Audio Program Notes

The season-long celebration of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth opens with a program dedicated entirely to his music. Riccardo Muti, who conducts all nine Beethoven symphonies this season, begins with the ebullient, classically scaled First. Unprecedented in proportion and epic in scope, the groundbreaking Eroica Symphony demonstrates how powerfully Beethoven redefined the musical langua...

Riccardo Muti opens his 10th season as music director with two dramatic Russian works—Alexander Scriabin's haunting first orchestral composition and Shostakovich's pensive Sixth Symphony, written during a time of prewar tension. The brilliant Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, hailed by the Wall Street Journal as "one of the most gifted musicians of his generation," performs Edvard Grieg's treasu...

“For more than 40 years, Riccardo Muti has been the king of Verdi conductors, the one who most makes you feel you are hearing the composer’s operas for the very first time” (The New York Times). Through his tenure as music director, Muti has conducted highly acclaimed CSO performances of Verdi operas, including a landmark presentation of Falstaff in 2016. The maestro now leads a concert performanc...

Riccardo Muti leads Gershwin's cinematic An American in Paris and two piccolo concertos featuring the CSO's own Jennifer Gunn. Also on the program is the world premiere of a bass trombone concerto by James Stephenson, a composer of "straightforward, unabashedly beautiful sounds" (The Boston Herald), featuring Charles Vernon of the world-famous Chicago Symphony Orchestra brass.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and The Joffrey Ballet bring to life neo-classical works by Stravinsky. This electrifying collaboration includes a world premiere ballet set to the Dumbarton Oaks Concerto, a work inspired by J.S. Bach's Brandenburg concertos, and the ballet Commedia by internationally acclaimed choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, set to Stravinsky's Pulcinella Suite.

Including Sibelius’ spirited Violin Concerto with Hilary Hahn, “the epitome of violinist perfection” (Nürnberger Nachrichten), plus Rachmaninov’s strikingly beautiful Second Symphony. Tickets and more info: https://cso.org/ticketsandevents/production-details-2018-19/chicago-symphony-orchestra/hahn-sibelius-violin-concerto/

“Uchida’s remarkable approach to the piano is a given. But the way in which Muti and the Orchestra seemed to be breathing as one with her every second of the way had an astonishing effect, and made the audience fully complicit in the magic” (Chicago Sun-Times). Muti, Uchida and the CSO reunite for Mozart’s dark and urgent Piano Concerto No. 20, followed by a divertimento and suites from two of Str...

Riccardo Muti leads an evening of dramatic and evocative works, pairing Respighi’s captivating Pines of Rome with a rare performance of Bizet’s own portrait of the great city. Celebrated mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato returns for Berlioz’s poignant cantata based on the ill-fated Cleopatra. “The staggering, joyful artistry of Joyce DiDonato—one of the finest singers of our time—compels us to listen a...

Riccardo Muti leads a wide-ranging program featuring music from Rossini’s witty comic opera Il viaggio a Reims and Wagner’s Overture to Tannhäuser. Also on the program are two virtuosic concertos—one baroque and one contemporary—featuring CSO Piccolo Jennifer Gunn, and Beethoven’s cheerful Second Symphony.

David Afkham makes his highly anticipated return to conduct the CSO in Beethoven’s noble Emperor Concerto and Dvořák’s dramatic Seventh Symphony. “Afkham rocked Orchestra Hall with an exciting debut. The audience was up on its feet in an instant, roaring for more” (Chicago Tribune).

Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado leads a program of Russian masterworks including Tchaikovsky's First Symphony, which showcases the composer's sense of drama, orchestral color and melody. Simon Trpčeski brings his “electrifying virtuosity” (The London Times) to Rachmaninov’s formidable Third Piano Concerto.

"In song, you have one of the most amazing diaries of any generation's culture at a given time," states Thomas Hampson. The esteemed baritone joins Bramwell Tovey for a concert of American music and songs, followed by Elgar's portraits of his own circle of friends in the Enigma Variations.

Since its premiere in 1742, Handel’s Messiah has brought audiences to their feet with its triumphant choruses and dazzling arias. Witness this glorious oratorio—performed by the combined forces of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and an exceptional cast of soloists—as part of a stirring holiday celebration.

"Music is life, and, like life, inextinguishable" wrote Danish composer Carl Nielsen of his Fourth Symphony, written during the early years of World War I. His life-affirming composition is preceded by Strauss' poignant Four Last Songs, which has been called "the most beautifully delivered farewell in all of music."

CSO Concertmaster Robert Chen leads his fellow orchestra members in a delightful all-Mozart program featuring some of the composer’s most popular music. Chen and CSO Principal Flute Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson will each be featured in one of the composer’s brilliant early concertos. Tickets and more info: https://cso.org/ticketsandevents/production-details-2018-19/chicago-symphony-orchestra/chen-lea...

Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård leads two Russian masterpieces: Rachmaninov's powerful First Symphony, imbued with heroism and pathos, and Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto. Alexander Gavrylyuk, a pianist who "enchants with his incredible virtuosity and thought-provoking playing" (De Telegraaf), makes his CSO debut with this monumental work.

Daniel Barenboim makes his highly anticipated return to the Orchestra Hall podium. He conducts Smetana's landmark set of six symphonic poems that weave a rich tapestry celebrating the composer's native Bohemia. https://cso.org/barenboimconductssmetana

“There could be no more impressive demonstration of modern orchestral virtuosity at its committed best than the pairing of Haitink and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra” (Chicago Tribune). Former principal conductor Bernard Haitink, renowned for his transformative interpretations of symphonic masterworks with the CSO, returns to lead Bruckner’s rich, kaleidoscopic Sixth Symphony. These performances a...

Brahms' lively Hungarian Dances are paired with Hindemith's symphony Mathis der Maler (Matthias the Painter), a work that explores the role of an artist in society. David Fray performs Beethoven's dramatic Third Piano Concerto.

Riccardo Muti leads two of Mozart's most popular works, followed by Rimsky-Korsakov's mesmerizing tone poem inspired by The Arabian Nights. Experience an evening of dramatic masterpieces, filled with vivid orchestral color and memorable themes that highlight Maestro Muti’s assertion that "the essence of our spirit is melody."

"If one function of art is to make us ponder difficult questions, there could not be a more potent example than Shostakovich's 13th" (The Guardian). Zell Music Director Riccardo Muti opens a season of reflection with Shostakovich's gripping setting of poetry by Yevgeny Yevtushenko condemning anti-Semitism and the barbarous acts that took place near Kiev in September 1941.

"Rossini's Stabat mater is a longstanding specialty of Mr. Muti's. It moves in several directions at once: the arias are as operatic as can be, yet the two unaccompanied choruses are sublimely devotional. The music is unquestionably dramatic: not the extroverted drama of a costumed operatic pageant, but of a prayerful supplicant's interior passion" (The New York Times). Riccardo Muti leads the CSO...

When Riccardo Muti and Yo-Yo Ma join forces, it is "music-making at the highest level" (Chicago Tribune). The incomparable cellist, renowned for his "technical command, purity of tone and generosity of spirit" (Chicago Sun-Times), collaborates with Muti and the CSO in Shostakovich's introspective and dark-hued Second Cello Concerto. This program of works by 20th-century Russian masters also featur...

"Superstar mandolinist" (The New York Times) Avi Avital and Italian conductor Giovanni Antonini make their CSO debuts with an exceptional program featuring rarely heard Baroque masterpieces, including the first CSO performances of mandolin concertos by Bach and Vivaldi. "Avital's mandolin breathes captivating new life into Vivaldi's music, giving it a luminous performance with a lovely lyrical jeu...

Conductor Marek Janowski and the CSO, both great masters of music from the Austro-German tradition, perform a program of works by Weber, Beethoven and Wagner. Janowski, in his subscription series debut, leads the CSO in glorious orchestral excerpts from two of Wagner's grandest operas. Also on the program is Beethoven's sunny Fourth Symphony, a work imbued with romantic pathos.