Mixing ceremonial pomp with pastoral splendor, this survey of British classics features Haydn’s last and grandest symphonic statement, the London Symphony; exquisite gems by Elgar and Britten, and the soaring beauty of Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending with violinist Stella Chen, winner of the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition and Gramophone’s 2023 Young Artist of the Year. Marking the 150th anniversary of Ravel’s birth, the program crosses the English Channel for the composer’s beguiling Tzigane. CSO Concertmaster Robert Chen has withdrawn from his planned solo appearances in these performances due to rotator cuff tendinitis symptoms. Learn more: cso.org/performances/24-25/cso-classical/glover-and-english-classics
Mixing ceremonial pomp with pastoral splendor, this survey of British classics features Haydn’s last and grandest symphonic statement, the London Symphony; exquisite gems by Elgar and Britten, and the soaring beauty of Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending with violinist Stella Chen, winner of the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition and Gramophone’s 2023 Young Artist of the Year. Marking the 150th anniversary of Ravel’s birth, the program crosses the English Channel for the composer’s beguiling Tzigane. CSO Concertmaster Robert Chen has withdrawn from his planned solo appearances in these performances due to rotator cuff tendinitis symptoms. Learn more: cso.org/performances/24-25/cso-classical/glover-and-english-classics
Verdi’s Requiem Mass, in its fervent quest for eternal rest, stands as a powerful demonstration of the composer’s ability to harness the human voice. Hailed by NPR as “simply magnificent” for their two-time Grammy Award-winning CSO Resound recording of this work, Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus are joined by a thrilling quartet of international singers to once again deliver a masterful blend of passion and precision. Please note: This program replaces Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust. Learn more: cso.org/performances/24-25/cso-classical/muti-verdi-requiem…
Esteban Batallán, the CSO’s principal trumpet since 2019, makes his much-anticipated debut as a soloist with the Orchestra in a pair of brilliant, high-flying concertos. Riccardo Muti frames the program with Joseph Haydn’s tempestuous Symphony No. 48 and Schubert’s Haydn-inspired Tragic Symphony. Learn more: cso.org/performances/24-25/cso-classical/muti-and-esteban-batallan…
In Randall Goosby, the pioneering American composer Florence Price “has her ideal champion,” writes The Guardian, “his playing full of old-school warmth and breadth but never schmaltzy.” Price’s beguiling violin concerto shares a program with Prokofiev’s enchanting Seventh Symphony, composed for a children’s radio broadcast. The suite from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg gathers stirring moments from Wagner’s opera. Learn more: cso.org/performances/24-25/cso-classical/elder-goosby-and-price…
Dvořák’s radiant salute to the New World kicks off an American road trip with James Gaffigan at the wheel. Take in poignant selections from Gershwin’s landmark opera — sung by Janai Brugger — and the composer’s urbane and nostalgic love letter to Paris. Chicago native Florence Price sets two American poems to song, and a pair of symphonic showstoppers by Bernstein transports audiences to “New York, New York” and beyond. Learn more: cso.org/performances/24-25/cso-classical/an-american-suite…
The CSO brings the soaring emotional peaks and valleys of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony to Chicago audiences before performing it on Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw stage. The “hammer blows of fate” in the finale seem to foreshadow the tragedies in Mahler’s life, including his own fatal illness. But the symphony brims with life’s pleasures, too, from memories of mountain pastures (listen for the cowbells) to a rapturous portrait of the composer’s wife, Alma. Learn more: cso.org/performances/24-25/cso-classical/mahler-6-with-jaap-van-zweden…
CSO Artist-in-Residence Daniil Trifonov, “without question the most astounding pianist of our age” (The Times of London), takes on Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto, as remarkable for its rich orchestral writing as for its simultaneously glittering and muscular piano part. Dvořák’s turbulent Seventh Symphony is both an expression of the composer’s personal crises and a lyrical tribute to the Czech spirit. Learn more: cso.org/performances/24-25/cso-classical/makela-and-trifonov…
In his Third Symphony, Mahler portrays the whole of earthly existence. Its six movements — written for a massive orchestra, two choruses and a contralto soloist — explore humanity’s relationship with nature using fanfares, marches, folk dances and bird calls. Children’s voices portray angels while the sixth movement is a pantheistic love song to all of creation. Learn more: cso.org/performances/24-25/cso-classical/makela-conducts-mahler-3…
Dancers from Chicago’s world-renowned Joffrey Ballet join the CSO with newly commissioned choreographies. Symphonies by Haydn and the Chevalier de Saint-Georges abound in witty and joyful melodies while two 20th-century works are full of popular influences: Perkinson’s jazz-tinted Sinfonietta No. 1 and Milhaud’s rollicking Brazilian postcard, The Ox on the Roof. Learn more: cso.org/performances/24-25/cso-classical/cso-and-the-joffrey-ballet…
Earth, in all its marvelous vitality and fragility, has inspired generations of composers. In The Oceanides, Sibelius conjures the water nymphs of Greek mythology and the broad majesty of the sea. Dvořák’s The Wild Dove is based on a dark folktale about a dove’s prophetic song. Childhood memories shape Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances, his sumptuous masterpiece. Learn more: cso.org/performances/24-25/cso-classical/canellakis-and-rachmaninov…
Journey up the Rhine River, as lovingly portrayed in Robert Schumann’s Rhenish Symphony. Listen for the flowing water and contemplate the majesty of the Cologne Cathedral. To begin, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider leads and performs the rich and alluring melodies of Bruch’s First Violin Concerto. Pierre Boulez’s iridescent Livre pour cordes marks the centenary of the composer’s birth. This program will also be performed at Wheaton College on Friday, March 28. Learn more: cso.org/performances/24-25/cso-classical/bruch-and-schumann-rhenish…
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