CSO players encourage students: 'Try it yourself'

October 9, 2012

GUANAJUATO, Mexico — Oto Carrillo asked, in Spanish, if anyone in the assembly of some 800 teenage students knew the name of the composer whose music he and colleagues from the Chicago Symphony Orchestrahad just played.

CSO battles hot, dry hall but basks in warmth of audience

October 9, 2012

GUANAJUATO, Mexico — I joked with Riccardo Muti after the concert here Monday night that if he had won one more award before the Chicago Symphony Orchestraconcludes its tour on Wednesday, the CSO will have to add another trunk to its 15 tons of cargo.

Chicago Symphony arrives in Mexico

October 8, 2012

GUANAJUATO — The Old World charm is palpable almost the minute you arrive in this 16th Century Spanish colonial city tucked in the mountains of central Mexico.

CSO concludes Carnegie Hall trifecta, leaving cheers in its wake

October 6, 2012

NEW YORK – With the final blasts of brass and percussion at the end of Respighi's "Feste Romane" rattling Carnegie Hall to its foundation, Riccardo Muti ended the American leg of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's October tour in triumph Friday night.

Mason Bates crowd-pleaser gives second CSO concert at Carnegie an 'Energy' boost

October 5, 2012

NEW YORK – Riccardo Muti has observed that touring exposes the weaknesses of a mediocre orchestra while bringing out what makes a superior orchestra sound superior. The maestro’s axiom certainly has proven true in the case of his Chicago Symphony Orchestra as it approaches the end of its three-concert residency at Carnegie Hall here this week.

Curtain rises on Lyric Opera with love, thrills and a food fight

October 4, 2012

There truly will be something for everyone at Lyric Opera of Chicago this season. Let me count the ways.

Muti, CSO open tour with lusty 'Carmina Burana' at Carnegie Hall

October 4, 2012

NEW YORK – It wasn't the tumultuous ovation that went on into the night following the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's first Carnegie Hall concert under then-music director Georg Solti back in 1970, but it was loud and it was instantaneous.

Strike in rearview mirror as CSO starts New York tour

October 3, 2012

NEW YORK — While much of the nation was focused on the first presidential debate Wednesday night, there was no debate among Manhattan's classical music cognoscenti over who the most prestigious musical visitors of the week were, and are.

Vocal crisis behind her, Christine Goerke takes on the murderous (in all senses) role of Elektra at Lyric

October 2, 2012

Christine Goerke is flying high in the opera world, but not so long ago a catastrophic vocal crisis threatened to send the world she knew crashing down around her.

Claire Chase forges a new arts model

October 1, 2012

Claire Chase learned she was one of the recipients of this year's MacArthur Awards last week during a sound check for a solo performance that the 34-year-old flutist gave in Guangzhou, China.

Jubilation, relief mingle at no-frills CSO gala

September 30, 2012

"Stay close to this orchestra," Riccardo Muti enjoined the audience at the end of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Symphony Ball gala on Saturday night, "because it represents Chicago to the world."

Novel programming sets Northbrook Symphony apart from the pack

September 25, 2012

It has become a running joke at Northbrook Symphony Orchestra concerts. Before each performance, Lawrence Rapchak comes out on stage and tells the audience, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is going to be our best concert ever."

CSO strike also has national overtone

September 23, 2012

No sooner had a weeklong strike by Chicago public school teachers been settled than a walkout by musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra over the weekend again focused national attention on labor matters in the city.

Before strike, it's 'singing in the rain' at Millennium Park for CSO

September 22, 2012

Undeterred by drenching rains, a crowd of several thousand began milling around the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park hours before the start of the free Chicago Symphony Orchestraconcert Friday evening. Nobody knew at the time, of course, that within 24 hours the orchestra musicians would be on strike, having failed to reach agreement with management on a new labor contract to replace the one that expired Sept. 16. But on Friday the only dark clouds were the ones over the park.

For CSO opener, Muti explores some unfamiliar corners of the repertory

September 21, 2012

There was good news to come out of Symphony Center on Thursday night. Riccardo Muti was back to open the new season, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra musicians are playing while talking. All's right with the world, or at least the CSO's corner of it.

Dame Myra Hess classical concert series celebrates 35th birthday

September 18, 2012

It's heartening when a musical organization that's central to the city emerges from a fiscal crisis in stronger shape than before. Such an organization is the weekly Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts series, the most valuable freebie in downtown Chicago music this side of the Grant Park Music Festival.

Dickie era at COT ends with minimalist Mozart

September 16, 2012

Sitting through three different productions of "The Magic Flute" ("Die Zauberflote") in Chicago within only 10 months could leave even the most devout Mozartian with a bad case of musical indigestion.

Lyric Opera to audition ensemble singers, dancers for 'Oklahoma!'

September 13, 2012

Lyric Opera will hold auditions next month for ensemble singers and singing dancers for its May production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” Auditions are scheduled to take place Oct. 8-16 at the Civic Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Drive. Candidates should enter at the stage door on Washington Street and Wacker Drive.

Richly stocked Beethoven Fest is city's best-kept cultural secret, so far

September 11, 2012

Although the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven's birth won't arrive until 2020, George Lepauw isn't about to wait eight years to celebrate the German composer's titanic musical achievement, or the profound influence his music has exerted on the evolution of Western classical music.

Divas Goerke, Wagner knock Lyric concert out of the park

September 9, 2012

Under general director Anthony Freud, Lyric Opera is going all out this season to persuade the uninitiated that opera can entertain as well as edify. Several out-of-the-box events have been announced beyond the mainstage season, including the company's first collaboration with The Second City comedy troupe, in January.

10 classic reasons to look forward to fall

September 7, 2012

You would never guess the economy is still struggling, given the quantity, quality and diversity of classical music events being offered in the Chicago area between now and the end of the year. Following are 10 major classical events you won't want to miss between now and Thanksgiving.

Taking opera places it has never been

September 7, 2012

"People in Chicago no longer will have to deal with an opera company director with an English accent," jokes Andreas Mitisek. "Now all they will have to adjust to is dealing with one with an Austrian accent!"

Fall music preview: Getting a sound classical education

September 6, 2012

Savoring the delights of Handel's Arcadian glade

September 2, 2012

Now that Chicago Opera Theater appears to have given up on Baroque opera, and Lyric Opera is taking a pass on anything Baroque next season, the field is wide open. Fortunately we have the enterprising early music enthusiasts of the Haymarket Opera Company filling the breach with their charming production of Handel's rarely heard "Clori, Tirsi e Fileno." The work had its belated Chicago premiere over the weekend at the Mayne Stage in the city's Rogers Park neighborhood.

Mother Nature makes local premiere of 'Inuksuit' a soggy walk in the park

August 28, 2012

So far I have had trouble connecting with the minimal-mystical music of the Alaskan composer John Luther Adams, although colleagues I respect, such as New Yorker music critic Alex Ross, have heaped rapturous praise on it.

Message to symphony orchestras in troubled times: Think positive

August 22, 2012

Fifty years ago, a group of 30 musicians from a dozen different orchestras in the U.S. and Canada met at Roosevelt University here to discuss how they could save their beleaguered profession.

'Idomeneo' brings CSO residency to impressive close at Ravinia

August 18, 2012

Surely it was asking too much to expect James Conlon's concert performance of Mozart's "Idomeneo" on Friday night at Ravinia to measure up to the high standards set by his Mozart "Magic Flute" the previous evening. But no: The music director wound up his weekend mini-festival of early and late Mozart operas with a memorable performance of this seldom-heard masterpiece, cast with some of today's foremost Mozart singers and played by a chamber orchestra drawn from the ranks of the Chicago Symphony.

CSO's first 'Magic Flute' at Ravinia puts the sing in singspiel

August 17, 2012

For classical music lovers, the most civilized pleasures of a Ravinia summer arrive every other year, when James Conlon turns the 850-seat Martin Theatre into the Ravinia opera house, a suitably intimate home for semi-staged concert performances of the great Mozart operas.

Even in twilight of Te Kanawa's career, soprano remains a regal presence

August 15, 2012

For many classical artists, the road to retirement is paved with lingering glances back to past glories, calculated to stir sentimental memories in their fans. The beloved operatic and concert singer Kiri Te Kanawa has been plying that route since giving what she announced would be her operatic swan song, in her touchstone role of the Marschallin in Richard Strauss' "Der Rosenkavalier," in Cologne, Germany, in 2009.

Ravinia lineup suggests the death of classical recitals is greatly exaggerated

August 14, 2012

Solo classical and chamber music recitals may be on life support in many parts of the concert world, but not at Ravinia. The festival is presenting more such concerts than ever this summer – 43 – including master classes and other events involving participants in Ravinia's artists development wing, the Steans Music Institute.

Chorus, orchestra deliver a satisfying Haydn 'Seasons' at Grant Park

August 13, 2012

Franz Joseph Haydn's last major work, the oratorio "Die Jahreszeiten" ("The Seasons"), is a paean to the industrious Austrian peasantry, happily toiling in the fields of an idealized, bucolic countryside in which God's presence is everywhere felt. The aged composer complained about the banality of his friend Gottfried van Swieten's text (based on a poem by the Scotsman James Thomson) but indulged him with a score replete with literal-minded evocations of nature -- twittering birds, chirping crickets, croaking frogs, mooing cows, droning bagpipes and the like.

Chorus, orchestra deliver a satisfying Haydn 'Seasons' at Grant Park

August 11, 2012

Franz Joseph Haydn's last major work, the oratorio "Die Jahreszeiten" ("The Seasons"), is a paean to the industrious Austrian peasantry, happily toiling in the fields of an idealized, bucolic countryside in which God's presence is everywhere felt. The aged composer complained about the banality of his friend Gottfried van Swieten's text (based on a poem by the Scotsman James Thomson) but indulged him with a score replete with literal-minded evocations of nature -- twittering birds, chirping crickets, croaking frogs, mooing cows, droning bagpipes and the like.

Baritone Finley wins crowd at Ravinia debut

August 10, 2012

Few elements in the Ravinia program scheme better qualify it for comparison with the leading European summer music festivals than its attention to vocal recitals. That the Chicago Symphony's hot-weather home continues to champion concerts of song at a time when the genre has all but disappeared from our downtown cultural citadels is praiseworthy. So are the festival's efforts to develop and refine the skills of young, pre-professional artists through its Steans Music Institute Program for Singers.

A summer's night with Ravel and Debussy

August 8, 2012

Ravinia on a muggy midsummer's night is not the first place you would expect to find cool and debonair, but those are the qualities that informed Jean-Yves Thibaudet's performances of both Ravel piano concertos there on Tuesday night with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under James Conlon.

Two operatic rarities make Santa Fe pilgrimage worthwhile

August 7, 2012

SANTA FE, N.M. — One of the things that keeps opera lovers flocking season after season to the Santa Fe Opera's unique mesa-top aerie is the chance to discover rarely performed works from the fringes of the repertory. Another is the chance to hear familiar artists in unfamiliar operas. The company's new production of Karol Szymanowski's "King Roger" satisfies both categories.

Battles rage, a heroine suffers, under the stormy skies of Santa Fe

August 4, 2012

SANTA FE – Talk about life imitating art. As if on cue, powerful winds, accompanied by dramatic bursts of thunder and lightning, invaded Santa Fe Opera's open-sided mountaintop amphitheater just as the women's chorus was warning Anna, the deeply conflicted heroine of Rossini's "Maometto II," that "only flight from the approaching storm will save you." The gifted young American soprano Leah Crocetto, making her company debut in this formidable bel canto role, took the turbulence in stride, throwing back her head as if defying the elements to ruin her extended scena. And she scored a triumph.

In Santa Fe, a strong 'Pearl Fishers' and a misguided 'Tosca'

August 3, 2012

SANTA FE – Now in its 56th season as one of the nation's major opera producers, the Santa Fe Opera has long prided itself on combining unusual repertory with unconventional productions of standard repertory. The formula is adhered to by the current lineup of five operas presented at the company's spectacular open-sided theater, perched on a hilltop in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of northern New Mexico. All are given in new productions.

Two pianists sub for Denis Matsuev at Ravinia

July 27, 2012

Russian pianist Denis Matsuev has canceled his concert appearances Sunday and Monday at Ravinia because of illness. Replacing him will be pianists Vladimir Feltsman and Jon Kimura Parker.

James Gaffigan turns on the heat in impressive Grant Park debut

July 26, 2012

As if anticipating the stifling heat that reduced Millennium Park to one big frying pan on Wednesday evening, the Grant Park Music Festival gave audience members a symbolic distraction in the form of – get ready for the irony -- Avner Dorman's "Frozen in Time." The piece received its first local hearing courtesy of the Grant Park Orchestra under guest conductor James Gaffigan, who was making his festival debut.

Victor Aitay dies, was a leader with CSO for 50 years

July 24, 2012

Of the numerous gifted violinists who have held the position of concertmaster with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, few have done so with greater grace or distinction than Victor Aitay.

John Axelrod busy building podium outposts in Europe

July 24, 2012

"Don't live the life you've planned," John Axelrod is fond of saying, "live the life that's waiting for you." If the respect his podium work has been garnering lately in high-profile European posts is any prognosticator, it should be just a matter of time before the busy American conductor is living that life on his native shores.

Rossini's sacred masterpiece brings out the best in Grant Park Chorus

July 21, 2012

Gioacchino Rossini was a staunch man of the operatic theater through most of his composing life, and, like Giuseppe Verdi, had no particular religious convictions that would draw him to the church. Indeed, for years he was believed to have written only two sacred works, the "Petite Messe Solenelle" and the "Stabat Mater." Recent scholarly discoveries reveal that in fact he composed sacred music throughout his career.

Ravinia premiere of lost Kurt Weill work short on magic

July 21, 2012

The American premiere of the critical edition of Kurt Weill's "Zaubernacht" ("Magical Night") Thursday evening at Ravinia came freighted with such noble intentions and high expectations that one regretted all the more the presentation's failure to live up to them more fully.

Ravinia premiere of lost Kurt Weill work short on magic

July 20, 2012

The American premiere of the critical edition of Kurt Weill's "Zaubernacht" ("Magical Night") Thursday evening at Ravinia came freighted with such noble intentions and high expectations that one regretted all the more the presentation's failure to live up to them more fully.

Lyric Opera to work with Second City for first time next season

July 18, 2012

The very notion of Lyric Opera and The Second City performing together, even for a one-night stand, would strike most folks in Chicago as slightly absurd. The city's venerable impresario of grand opera making beautiful music with the town's famous factory of funny?

Goerne's mastery of song shines through Ravinia program snafu

July 17, 2012

No song recitalist of his generation approaches the art of lieder singing with greater seriousness of purpose than Matthias Goerne. Which made the snafus that attended the superb program of German Romantic art songs the German baritone and his close colleague, pianist Christoph Eschenbach, gave Monday night in Ravinia's Martin Theatre all the more unconscionable.

Before 'Toy Story,' there was Kurt Weill's 'Magical Night'

July 17, 2012

Nothing James Conlon has done so far as music director of the Ravinia Festival has carried quite the impact of his "Breaking the Silence" series of works suppressed by the Third Reich during the 1930s and '40s, and largely forgotten in the wake of the Second World War. Who knew so much interesting, valuable and historically important music fell beneath the Nazis' jackboots?

Eschenbach leads CSO, gifted young soloists, in Brahms bonanza at Ravinia

July 14, 2012

Much as one laments the plethora of standard symphonic repertory that fills the summer schedules of big commercial festivals such as Ravinia, criticism is muted when that repertory is dispatched with the beauty and edge-of-seat intensity the Chicago Symphony Orchestra brought to it over the weekend at Ravinia under Christoph Eschenbach's direction.

Georg Solti tribute program set for Symphony Center

July 14, 2012

The program and guest artists have been announced for the World Orchestra for Peace tribute to former Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director Georg Solti on what would have been the maestro's 100th birthday, Oct. 21, at Symphony Center. Solti died in 1997.

Mellon Foundation gives Lyric $2 million grant

July 11, 2012

Lyric Opera of Chicago announced Wednesday it has received a $2 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support expanded community engagement and new artistic initiatives.

Boxed CD anthology celebrates the return of Mercury Living Presence

July 10, 2012

No set of recordings that's come my way so far this year has given me greater pleasure – on both the musical and nostalgia fronts – than Decca's hefty, 51-CD boxed anthology, "Mercury Living Presence: The Collector's Edition."

CSO eyes adding concerts in DuPage County

June 7, 2012

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has confirmed a report in Crain’s Chicago Business that it is in serious discussions with DuPage County officials about possibly presenting a permanent, multi-week concert season there, pitched to west suburban patrons.

Big-top operetta that time forgot will receive its Chicago premiere

June 5, 2012

As the young daughter of an internationally celebrated composer, Yvonne Kalman delighted in eavesdropping on conversations her father, Emmerich Kalman, had with other famed European emigres as they gathered around plates of freshly prepared Hungarian delicacies in the kitchen of the Kalmans' New York home, before the platters of food were brought out to the other party guests.

With multiple chamber partners, pianist Jeremy Denk proves his versatility

June 4, 2012

So omnivorous is Jeremy Denk's musical appetite, that one can easily imagine how confined this searching American pianist must sometimes feel when forced to box his wide-ranging sympathies within the narrow bounds of a conventional piano recital.

CSO conductor Riccardo Muti gets American Academy prize

May 31, 2012

Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director Riccardo Muti has added yet another honor to his long list of awards.

Lyric Opera draws on fiscal reserves to break even for year

May 14, 2012

Compared with just about every other company in the business, Lyric Opera of Chicago continues to ride above the economic turbulence that is buffeting so many of the nation's other not-for-profit performing arts organizations. Not soaring, but riding.

CSO names Alexander Hanna principal bass

May 14, 2012

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has appointed Alexander Hanna as its new principal bass player, effective June 4. He succeeds Joseph Guastafeste, who retired in 2010 after 49 years in the orchestra.

CSO, Muti announce tours of Far East, Mexico in 2012-13

May 8, 2012

No sooner have the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Riccardo Muti unpacked their bags from their successful tour of Russia and Italylast month than they are making plans for two more foreign trips together next season.

Yo-Yo Ma, CSO give fresh account of Dvorak

May 7, 2012

The recent triumphs of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Russia and Italy were all, I'm sure, well earned. But the roaring reception that greeted the CSO musicians Saturday night at the first subscription concert since their latest overseas tour reminded one that any accolades an orchestra may garner around the world begin with its achievements back home.

Ferris Chorale celebrates 40 years of service to living composers

April 24, 2012

To be around long enough to celebrate one's 40th birthday must seem like an impossible dream for many a fledgling Chicago music group. For the William Ferris Chorale, which wraps up its 40th anniversary season this weekend with concerts in Chicago and LaGrange, it is a bench mark in a singular saga of glory, decline and rebirth.

Evgeny Kissin's range, lyricism prove his piano mastery

April 23, 2012

It has been fascinating to chart the various stations through which Evgeny Kissin has passed on his rise to becoming one of the supreme piano masters of his generation.

Lyric sets world premiere of new opera based on Ann Patchett novel for 2015-16 season

February 28, 2012

Lyric Opera of Chicago has shied away from commissioning any new operas over the last decade, at a time when other major American opera companies such as the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera and Los Angeles Opera have actively cultivated new stage works from inception to premiere.

Lyric Opera goes to nine productions for upcoming season

January 17, 2012

Chicago opera lovers impatient to learn what innovations Anthony Freud will put into place now that he is well and truly ensconced as general director of Lyric Opera of Chicago, will have to cool their heels.