Cso Audio Program Notes

An exuberant melding of jazz, blues and classical styles, Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F is an ideal vehicle for Illinois native Conrad Tao, “a personality-plus pianist with a fearless technique” (Chicago Classical Review). Bernstein’s beloved West Side Story dances include themes from the songs “Somewhere” and “Maria.” Barber’s soulful overture and Revueltas’ joyfully raucous Sensemayá frame the program. Learn more: cso.org/performances/23-24/cso-classical/gershwin-and-bernstein-west-side-story

From its commanding four-note opening to its blazing finish, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony remains the unrivaled expression of struggle and triumph in orchestral music. German baritone Christian Gerhaher, “the foremost art song singer of our time” (The New York Times), performs selections from Mahler’s The Youth’s Magic Horn. Inspired by Hindustani classical music, Nina Shekhar’s shimmering Lumina explores the contrast of light and dark. Learn more: cso.org/performances/23-24/cso-classical/jaap-van-zweden-conducts-beethoven-5

Join Riccardo Muti and the CSO for a sensuous journey to Italy. Richard Strauss’ Aus Italien whisks the listener through the sun-soaked countryside, past Roman ruins and on to sites in Sorrento and Naples. Mendelssohn’s sparkling Italian Symphony gathers impressions of Mediterranean warmth and traditional dances. A world premiere by the venerable American composer Philip Glass opens the program. Learn more: cso.org/performances/23-24/cso-classical/muti-glass-and-mendelssohn-italian

Riccardo Muti and the CSO open the 2023/24 Season with two pieces capturing the fairy-tale splendor of Russian music. Stravinsky’s suite from The Firebird uses a dynamic orchestral palette to depict infernal dances and a haunting lullaby. Liadov’s The Enchanted Lake is a softly iridescent portrait of a moonlit night. Composed at an Austrian lakeside resort, Brahms’ Second Symphony captivates with its warm, sunny melodies. Learn more: cso.org/performances/23-24/cso-classical/muti-conducts-the-firebird

Few mass settings pose more questions of listeners than Beethoven’s Missa solemnis. A fervent meditation on faith and doubt, the piece spans moments of ecstasy and angst, soaring beauty and near-operatic theatricality. Riccardo Muti leads this rarely performed score with a thrilling quartet of international singers and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Learn more: cso.org/performances/22-23/cso-classical/muti-conducts-beethoven-missa-solemnis

Schubert's magnificent final symphony and J. Strauss Jr.'s Overture to Indigo and the Forty Thieves bookend this program with distinctive Viennese touches. CSO Principal Tuba Gene Pokorny takes the spotlight in a concerto written for him by Lalo Schifrin (best known for his Mission: Impossible theme), which incorporates Baroque and jazz influences. Learn more: cso.org/performances/22-23/cso-classical/muti-pokorny-and-schubert-9

Mahler “peacefully bids farewell to the world” is how the composer’s protégé Bruno Walter described the finale to his Ninth Symphony. This valedictory score contains the many hallmarks of Mahler’s symphonies — their grand scale, profound emotions and folk dance themes — capped by an ethereal finale that achieves a sense of transcendent rapture. Learn more: cso.org/performances/22-23/cso-classical/hrusa-conducts-mahler-9

David Afkham conducts landmarks of early 20th-century French music, including Debussy’s La mer, a shimmering depiction of the sea and its many moods, and Ravel’s La valse, in which a misty waltz morphs into a delirious portrait of a vanished age. Turning to Russia, Israeli violinist Vadim Gluzman takes on Shostakovich’s alternately biting and poignant First Violin Concerto. Learn more: cso.org/performances/22-23/cso-classical/debussy-la-mer-and-ravel-la-valse

Riccardo Muti conducts two of Respighi’s vibrant orchestral tapestries: his sumptuous homage to Rome’s iconic neighborhoods and pine groves and his masterful evocation of Renaissance lute music. The program includes the vivid First Concerto for Timpani by American composer William Kraft, featuring CSO Principal Timpani David Herbert. Learn more: cso.org/performances/22-23/cso-classical/muti-herbert-and-pines-of-rome

In his Gran Partita for 13 instruments, Mozart achieves a sublime combination of grandeur, complexity and sunny charm. CSO Concertmaster Robert Chen presents the composer’s stately and rustic Violin Concerto No. 4, a product of his Salzburg years. Riccardo Muti opens the concert with Cimarosa’s overture, which echoes Mozart’s comic vein and abounds in freshness and invention. Learn more: cso.org/performances/22-23/cso-classical/muti-chen-and-mozart-gran-partita

Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony marked a personal comeback after a debilitating crisis of confidence. In the spring of 2023, a century and a half after the composer’s birth, Riccardo Muti conducts this sumptuous score, along with the world premiere of Transfigure to Grace by Mead Composer-in-Residence Jessie Montgomery, who writes with “a Technicolor brilliance and harmonic plushness perfect for the CSO’s own heart-on-its-sleeve proclivities” (Chicago Tribune). Learn more: cso.org/performances/22-23/cso-classical/muti-montgomery-and-rachmaninov-2

Experience the uplifting power of Antonio Vivaldi’s joyous Gloria, with its gleaming vocal fireworks and richly embroidered orchestral passages. Early-music specialist Giovanni Antonini conducts this and other Vivaldi treasures, including the Magnificat, in all its variety and invention; the luminous nobility of La Senna festeggiante, and the poignant Kyrie. Learn more: cso.org/performances/22-23/cso-classical/vivaldi-gloria/

Vladimir Jurowski marks his return to Symphony Center with Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 8. In this immense wartime symphony, Shostakovich searches for hope and renewal beyond the anguish of violence and honors the ordinary people who contributed — and suffered — away from the frontlines. Celebrated pianist Martin Helmchen brings his “powerful yet refined approach” (The New York Times) to Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25. This late Mozart masterwork navigates a fascinating series of twists and turns — from its expansive first movement and tranquil second to its triumphant finale. Learn more: cso.org/performances/22-23/cso-classical/jurowski-helmchen-shostakovich-8

“Peerless today as a Rachmaninov interpreter” (The Guardian) and in possession of “monstrous technique and lustrous tone” (The New Yorker), pianist Daniil Trifonov performs Rachmaninov’s electrifying Third Piano Concerto. Russian folklore animates Stravinsky's magical world of Petrushka and Liadov’s dark and fantastical Kikimora. Learn more: cso.org/performances/22-23/cso-classical/trifonov-plays-rachmaninov-piano-concerto-no-3

CSO Artist-in-Residence Hilary Hahn returns for Sarasate’s brilliant and sultry arrangement of Bizet’s Carmen and two beguiling serenades by the late Finnish master Einojuhani Rautavaara. Returning conductor Thomas Adès frames the program with Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier Suite — a loving and graceful tribute to the Viennese waltz — and the profoundly stirring and vivid Night Ride and Sunrise by Sibelius. Please note: Conductor Thomas Adès will step in for Mikko Franck, who had to withdraw due to a knee injury, and lead the Orchestra in this program. Learn more: cso.org/performances/22-23/cso-classical/hilary-hahn-carmen-fantasy

Come along for an engrossing program of musical storytelling as Thomas Adès conducts Liszt’s swirling treatment of the Faust legend, Janáček’s depiction of a 17th-century Cossack warrior and Sibelius’ incidental music to Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Kirill Gerstein presents Adès’ own Piano Concerto, “an affectionate, joyous, remarkably uncomplicated tribute to tradition” (The New York Times). Learn more: cso.org/performances/22-23/cso-classical/ades-conducts-ades-with-gerstein

In his 2019 CSO debut, Spanish guitarist Pablo Sáinz-Villegas thrilled with “the profundities of his art,” along with “the sheen of his tone and the nobility of his rhythms,” wrote the Chicago Tribune. Sáinz-Villegas joins the ensemble in two pieces with bright Mediterranean character. Bernard Labadie, making a welcome return to the CSO, conducts the program, which also features dark-hued symphonies by Mozart and Boccherini. Learn more: cso.org/performances/22-23/cso-classical/boccherini-vivaldi-and-mozart-40

Thomas Wilkins conducts three works featuring unique musical visions of America, capped with Dvořák’s majestic New World Symphony, which draws on African American and Native American source materials. Coleridge-Taylor’s ballet suite captures the spirit of Longfellow’s epic poem The Song of Hiawatha. CSO Principal Clarinet Stephen Williamson performs Copland’s Clarinet Concerto, premiered by Benny Goodman, which features a rollicking blend of jazz and classical sounds. Learn more: cso.org/performances/22-23/cso-classical/coleridge-taylor-copland-and-dvorak-9

Carl Orff’s choral celebration of love, lust and youthful excess in medieval times is as iconic as ever — at once gloriously bawdy and touchingly beautiful. Rautavaara’s ethereal “concerto for birds and orchestra” features bird calls recorded in arctic Finland. Banner, by CSO Mead Composer-in-Residence Jessie Montgomery, is a vibrant rhapsody on The Star-Spangled Banner. Learn more: cso.org/performances/22-23/cso-classical/carmina-burana

Eminent Swedish American conductor Herbert Blomstedt leads two Dvořák landmarks — the restless, bucolic Eighth Symphony and the impassioned Cello Concerto — each imbued with the composer’s hallmark warmth and Bohemian charm. Joining the CSO is the young Romanian Andrei Ioniţă, “one of the most exciting cellists to have emerged for a decade” (The Times of London). Explore the music in the free preconcert conversation featuring Carl Grapentine in Orchestra Hall 75 minutes before the performance. The conversation will last approximately 30 minutes. No additional tickets are needed. Learn more: cso.org/performances/22-23/cso-classical/blomstedt-conducts-dvorak-8