Articles in Classical + Opera
Edo de Waart will replace ailing Riccardo Muti in Chicago Symphony’s Beethoven fare
Report: Flu sidelines CSO maestro
Laughter storms the high C’s as Second City, Fleming and Stewart skewer opera at the Lyric
Update: Show inspires June spin-off
Lyric Opera’s gingerly, droll ‘Hänsel & Gretel’ offers dreamy – and scary – fun for families
Review: ★★★★
‘Rite of Spring’ and a young piano sensation sparkle in CSO concert ablaze with surprises
Review: There was the ice-cracking shock of a sudden Russian spring at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall on Wednesday night, and I am not solely referring to Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring,” which was on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s program. Freshness abounded in the performance of 21-year-old Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov. ★★★★★
Conjuring ghosts and dreams, Lyric Opera’s new ‘Werther’ lifts the spirit of a melodrama
Review: One is so torn watching tenor Matthew Polenzani’s vocally resplendent performance in the title role of a new production of Massenet’s “Werther” at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. While you’re sitting there beguiled by Polenzani’s authoritative, richly modulated sound, something deep inside is spurring you to bolt from your seat, rush onto the stage and just shake that determinedly miserable character he’s playing. ★★★★
Decidedly duo recital by Weilerstein, Barnatan launches Symphony Center chamber series
Preview: Ask cellist Alisa Weilerstein about the recital she plays Oct. 28 at Orchestra Hall, and she will quickly note that the best thing about the program is that it’s actually a duo recital for two equally important voices – and that she’s lucky to be teamed up with Israeli pianist and longtime collaborator Inon Barnatan. Their concert opens the chamber music portion of this season’s Symphony Center Presents series, which also offers four more chamber concerts, nine solo piano recitals and two performances by visiting orchestras.
Lyric to present first opera in mariachi style, tale of the Mexican experience in America
“To Cross the Face of the Moon”
Orchestra for Peace honors Solti centenary; conductor left a prodigious recording legacy
An Appreciation: The birth centenary of any great contributor to human affairs gives us pause. But the Oct. 21 concert by the World Orchestra for Peace at Orchestra Hall, honoring the 100th anniversary of Sir Georg Solti’s birth, has personal relevance for me. At the same time Solti commenced his musical directorship of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, in September 1969, I began my professional career as a music critic, at The Milwaukee Sentinel. There’s more to that connection than mere coincidence.
Osmo Vänskä, subbing for Haitink, leads CSO in radiant Brahms symphony, Double Concerto
Review: Orchestra Hall was packed for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s all-Brahms concert Thursday night, and one had to believe much of that audience had signed up because the scheduled conductor was favorite guest maestro Bernard Haitink. But when Haitink became “indisposed,” Minnesota Orchestra music director Osmo Vänskä stepped in – and, with two brilliant soloists and the CSO at peak form, delivered an evening of Brahms to remember. ★★★★★
CSO extends consultancy with Yo-Yo Ma; cites record gifts and ticket sales, but higher costs
Report: Yo-Yo Ma’s high profile creative consultancy with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra has been extended another two years through 2015, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association (CSOA) announced Oct. 17 at the organization’s annual meeting at Symphony Center. In its financial tally for fiscal 2012, the CSOA reported that contributions rose a record 11.6 percent to $28.2 million, but total expenses outpaced that growth slightly.
Global opera fans, your elixir awaits: The Met launches seventh season of live HD
Preview: I’ll take mine with popcorn
BREAKING NEWS: Haitink cancels CSO concerts; Minnesota maestro Osmo Vänskä subs
Haitink “indisposed,” program same
Lyric Opera thriller: Christine Goerke probes the battered soul of Strauss’ vengeful Elektra
Review: ★★★★
The New Season: With Logan Center opening and fresh vision, UC Presents spreads wings
16th in a series of season previews: It’s shaping up as a banner season for the University of Chicago Presents, with many of its 2012-13 concerts slated for the new Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts and the Chicago premiere of Andre Previn’s Piano Trio No. 2 coming up in a series strewn with ensemble debuts.
Opening Carnegie Hall season, Muti and CSO match the celebrity sparkle of a packed house
Report from NYC: “Carmina Burana”
CSO and musicians reach tentative agreement; 3-year pact secures concerts, October tours
Report: CSO board’s approval due soon.
As CSO contract talks break down, musicians’ strike forces last-minute concert cancellation
Update: Talks resume with mediator.
Muti and the CSO launch season with a bang sparked by off-beat, over-the-top mix of works
Review: Symphony orchestra seasons typical open with some form of sizzle, maybe a mix of warhorse masterwork and superstar soloist. But music director Riccardo Muti went the opposite direction, kicking off the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s new season Thursday night with a complete sleeper of a program, an evening of little-known works and with no soloist at all. It was terrific. ****
Chicago Opera’s stage magic is a bit rough, but fine singing delivers a charming ‘Flute’
Review: The Chicago Opera Theater production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” leaves one with two distinct impressions. For the most part, its young cast sings with stylistic savvy, fetching beauty and engaging spirit – all shaped with unfailing sensibility by conductor Steuart Bedford.★★★
CSO resident composer Mason Bates receives $250,000 Heinz award in arts and humanities
He receives prize Oct. 11 in Pittsburgh.
Chicago Opera picks another Queen for ‘Flute’ after visa flap dethrones new Irish sensation
Even queens get caught in red tape.
Ravinia favorite Misha Dichter’s double life revealed: The pianist’s a serious cartoonist
Report: Pianist Misha Dichter, who celebrates his 45th consecutive season with the Ravinia Festival on July 29, shares his passion for sketching in a new e-book.
Free outdoor simulcast of Paris Opéra Ballet proves Harris Theater, Pritzker dynamic duo
Review: The best antidote to Chicago temperatures in the nineties is this surpassingly cool prospect — free Millennium Park concerts at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, where the sound is superb and the ceiling’s a canopy of stars. Cooler still was the addition of big screen video to this outdoor mix that a huge crowd enjoyed June 27, when the Paris Opéra Ballet’s exquisite production of “Giselle” was projected live via the big screen, from inside the Harris Theater, to the traditional classical-loving audience of the Grant Park Orchestra. ****
With a winning smile and no visible effort, violinist heats Glass like a modern Paganini
Review: No doubt the large crowd gathered June 23 at the Ravinia Festival’s Martin Recital Hall was drawn mainly by the prospect of seeing 75-year-old composer-pianist Philip Glass perform a program of his own music. And no doubt they came away delighted by the 90-minute sampler of Glass’ music through the decades and his affable flair for story-telling. But the brightest light on this evening was cast by the youthful, California-born violinist Tim Fain, who played – among other things — one prodigious movement from an unaccompanied suite that Glass has written for him. *****
With Muti again managing the house, CSO’s Bruckner Sixth becomes one splendid edifice
Review: One of the fascinations of this Chicago Symphony Orchestra season — which drew toward its close Sunday with the final performance of Bruckner’s Sixth in its sumptuous glory — has been to hear various conductors come into the same acoustical space of Orchestra Hall, stand in the same spot where music director Riccardo Muti stands, and ply their art with the same band of a hundred-plus that Muti conducts. ****
Capping second CSO season with Bruckner, Muti pledges Austrian-accented 6th Symphony
Exclusive Interview: When conductor Riccardo Muti recorded Bruckner’s Symphony No. 6 in A Major with the Berlin Philharmonic 25 years ago, he came to the task steeped in the Bruckner tradition of the Vienna Philharmonic – a distinctively Austrian way of looking at this thoroughly Austrian Late-Romantic composer. Now, to close out his second season as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Muti says he will bring that perspective to the Bruckner Sixth on June 22-24.
Sir Andrew Davis, Lyric Opera music director, adds the Melbourne Symphony to duties
Will shuttle between continents.
In lightning-quick Beethoven 7th Symphony, van Zweden and CSO deliver a poetic thriller
Review: It’s one thing to hear a hair-raising orchestra performance on a CD, and quite another to experience it happening right in front of you, live, in the splendorous acoustics of a concert space. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s rocket-sled finale in Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony on May 15 at Orchestra Hall, with conductor Jaap van Zweden, was one to send a writer combing his thesaurus for a higher form of wow. *****
Chicago Symphony nabs key player from Detroit to helm bass
Alexander Hanna, 26, was groomed at Curtis, Tanglewood and Verbier.
