CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA / RICCARDO MUTI ZELL MUSIC DIRECTOR

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2019, AT 7:00 / LANE TECH COLLEGE PREP HIGH SCHOOL

COMMUNITY CONCERT

2 ONE HUNDR ED T W ENT Y-NINTH SE A S ON

The members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and I are pleased to present our tenth annual community concert here, at Lane Tech College Prep High School. I am especially glad to conduct this concert here because I believe in the development of young musicians and students, and that everyone should have access to music and culture.

I work with talented young musicians both in Chicago and in my native Italy, passing on lessons that I was fortunate to receive from my own teachers. I am increasingly conscious of the need to support young artists, for they are the hope for the preservation of our culture. A great orchestra, like the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, represents how best to keep our culture alive. It is comprised of very

talented and experienced musicians, each individually skilled on his or her instrument. When musicians come together as an orchestra—a community—they achieve the most impact, bringing us beauty as well as inspiration. An orchestra strives to create the highest form of artistic expression and, in so doing, serves as an example of what we can aspire to when we come together as a society.

Thank you for joining us tonight and for supporting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, one of the finest in the world. I hope you will continue to do so. As you have welcomed us to your home, we also welcome you to ours in Orchestra Hall at Symphony Center in downtown Chicago.

Riccardo Muti Zell Music Director, Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Thank you for welcoming the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to Lane Tech College Prep High School for our tenth-annual fall community concert led by Zell Music Director Riccardo Muti. We are grateful to Lane Tech for its hospitality and its ongo-ing commitment to arts education. The music program here has taught many fine musicians, several of whom have become members of this orchestra, making each opportunity to perform here particularly meaningful to the CSO.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra began a tradition of performing a free concert near the start of each season in 2010 as a way to introduce Riccardo Muti to the citi-zens of Chicago and to celebrate the beginning of his tenure. Now in his tenth season as music director, Muti has continued to encourage the Orchestra to share a message of the transformative power of music and its ability to bring people closer together—music is a language that unites us. The tradition of these concerts demonstrates the Orchestra’s appreciation for Chicagoans and their support of the city’s cultural insti-tutions as well as its own commitment to serving the community.

Tonight’s concert is a project of the Negaunee Music Institute at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra’s education and outreach division. We encour-age you to visit cso.org/institute to find out more about the CSO’s other concerts in the community and educational programs.

We hope you enjoy tonight’s performance and invite you to hear the CSO again throughout the year at Symphony Center at 220 South Michigan Avenue.

Helen Zell Chair, Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association Board of Trustees

Jeff Alexander President, Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association

P H OTO S BY TO D D R O S E N B E R G

C S O.ORG 3

Welcome to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra!We are so fortunate to host a visit from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

for an outreach program that enriches our community through the power of art. Music creates a human experience that aids memory, moves emotions, and allows us to gather as an audience to participate in a shared event. Music pro-duces harmonies and rhythms that can bring us to tears or lift us with joy. Music is so important to being human that we have always found a way to include it in our lives. On behalf of our local school council and our community of students and staff, welcome to Lane Tech.

Sincerely,Brian TennisonPrincipalLane Tech College Prep High School

19

LAN

E TECH COLLEGE PREP

SC

H

OOL OF CHAMPIO

NS

08

For information on the cover artwork, Homage to the Arts by Mitchell Siporin (1937–39), four of the sixty-seven murals on display at Lane Tech College Prep High School, please see page 8.

4 ONE HUNDR ED T W ENT Y-NINTH SE A S ON

ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-NINTH SEASON CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRARICCARDO MUTI Zell Music Director

Tuesday, September 24, 2019, at 7:00Lane Tech College Prep High School

Riccardo Muti Conductor

music by sergei prokofiev

Suite from Romeo and JulietMontagues and CapuletsJuliet the Young GirlMadrigalMinuetMasksRomeo and JulietDeath of TybaltFriar LaurenceRomeo and Juliet before PartingRomeo at Juliet’s Tomb

intermission

Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 44ModeratoAndanteAllegro agitatoAndante mosso—Allegro moderato

This concert is a project of the Negaunee Music Institute of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.Bank of America is the Maestro Residency Presenter.United Airlines is the Official Airline of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is grateful to WBBM Newsradio 780 and 105.9 FM and Chicago Tribune for their generous support as media sponsors of this performance.This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

C S O.ORG 5

comments by phillip huscher

sergei prokofievBorn April 23, 1891; Sontsovka, UkraineDied March 5, 1953; Moscow, Russia

Suite from Romeo and Julietc o m p o s e d1935 (complete ballet)

1936 (two suites for orchestra)

f i r s t p e r f o r m a n c eDecember 30, 1938; Brno, Czechoslovakia (complete ballet)

i n s t r u m e n tat i o ntwo flutes and piccolo, two oboes and english horn, two clarinets and bass clarinet, tenor saxophone, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets and piccolo trumpet, three trombones and tuba, timpani, percussion, two harps, piano, celesta, strings

a p p rox i m at e p e r f o r m a n c e t i m e48 minutes

During Sergei Prokofiev’s last trip to Chicago, in January 1937, he led the Chicago Symphony in selections from his new, still-unstaged ballet, Romeo and Juliet. This was the

composer’s fifth visit to Chicago, and he clearly felt at home: shortly after he arrived in town, he sat down with a Tribune reporter and talked freely while eating apple pie at a downtown luncheonette. He was staying in the same hotel room where he had lived for several months during his Chicago visit in 1921, when he presided over preparations for the world premiere of his opera The Love for Three Oranges. He told the Tribune that his Romeo and Juliet featured the kind of “new melodic line”

that he thought would prove to be the salvation of modern music—one, he said, that would have immediate appeal, yet sound like nothing written before. “Of all the moderns,” the Herald Examiner critic wrote after hearing Romeo and Juliet later in the week, “this tall and boyish Russian has the most definite gift of melody, the most authentic contrapuntal technic [sic], and displays the subtlest and most imaginative use of dissonance.”

Chicago was the first American city to hear music from Romeo and Juliet (fol-lowing recent performances in Moscow and Paris), and, not for the only time in Prokofiev’s career, orchestral excerpts were premiered before the ballet itself had been staged. The idea for a ballet version of the Shakespeare play came from the director Sergei Radlov, who was a friend of Prokofiev and had mounted the first Russian production of The Love for Three Oranges. He and Prokofiev worked together to flesh out a scenario early in 1935, and the composer began to write the music that summer. But the Kirov Ballet, which had commissioned the work, unexpectedly backed out, and the Bolshoi Theater took over the proj-ect. There were further problems with the score itself, including Prokofiev’s initial insistence on a happy ending—“Liv-ing people can dance,” he later wrote in defense of the decision, “but the dead cannot dance lying down.” The end was ultimately changed to match Shakespeare’s, but then the Bolshoi staff pronounced Prokofiev’s music “unsuitable to dance” and dropped out as well. The premiere of Romeo and Juliet eventually was given in Brno, Czechoslovakia, without Prokofiev’s participation (he didn’t attend the opening in December 1938) and the ballet wasn’t staged in Russia until January 1940. In the meantime, Prokofiev made two orchestral

suites of seven excerpts each, and it was the first of these that he conducted in Chicago. (For this evening’s concert, Riccardo Muti conducts selections from both of these suites.)

Although no other play by Shakespeare has inspired as many musical treatments as Romeo and Juliet, including more than twenty operas (Gounod’s, which the teen-age Prokofiev saw in Saint Petersburg, is the most enduring), Prokofiev’s is the first large-scale ballet. It’s one of his most important works, merging the primitive style of his radical earlier music, a new-found classicism, and the sumptuous lyri-cism of which he was so proud.

This evening’s excerpts begin with Montagues and Capulets—menacing music to depict the warring families, intro-duced by the prince’s powerful order to preserve peace. The opening chords, which

l e f t to r i g h tProkofiev ca. 1936

Zora Šemberová (1913–2012) as Juliet for the premiere of Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet, choreographed by Ivo Váňa Psota (1908–1952), who also appeared as Romeo. National Theatre; Brno, Czechoslovakia, 1938. Photograph from the private archive of Zora Šemberová

6 ONE HUNDR ED T W ENT Y-NINTH SE A S ON

COMMENTS

seem to grow in intensity to the breaking point, set a tone of sorrow and inevitable tragedy. The big ominous marching theme, later discovered by the television advertis-ing industry, was originally the Dance of the Knights from the act 2 ballroom scene. The centerpiece of the movement, with its lovely flute solo, is Juliet’s dance with Paris—the moment Romeo catches his first glimpse of the girl who will quickly steal his heart. In the more fully sketched portrait of the young girl that follows, we are reminded that she is an innocent thirteen-year-old, capricious and playful, and (in the midsection flute duet) eager for romance.

The Madrigal—a mixture of serenade and lilting party music—sets the scene in the Capulets’ ballroom; the Minuet is stately entrance music for their guests. With the furtive, shifty Masks, Romeo appears at the Capulets (with his fellow Montagues, Mercutio and Benvolio) in full

masquerade. The music perfectly captures both the nervousness and boldness of their entry into hostile territory. Next comes the balcony scene—passionate and tender, richly lyrical, and one of the most raptur-ous moments in all ballet. This is spacious, magically scored night music, underlined by the melancholy cut of Prokofiev’s grand, floating melodies.

The Death of Tybalt, by contrast, is tightly packed with incident and action, almost cinematic in the way it compresses events into a short time. In comments written in his score, Prokofiev character-ized both the high-bravado duel between Tybalt and Mercutio (“they look at each other like two fighting bulls; blood is boiling”) and the subsequent encounter between Romeo and Tybalt, who “fight wildly, to the death.” Fifteen powerful, hammering chords tell of Tybalt’s fate. Prokofiev concludes with Tybalt’s funeral procession over a pounding ostinato.

Friar Laurence, waiting to marry the lovers in his cell, is depicted by a solo bassoon with strings. A haunting flute solo over shimmering strings—“It was the lark, the herald of the morn,” in Shakespeare (act 3, scene 5)—introduces Romeo and Juliet’s final moments together. This scene recapitulates the many facets of their romance, and it is filled not only with recollected passion but also, in its oddly halting final pages, with the inevitability of their parting.

Romeo at Juliet’s Tomb is a lament— a tragic march of power and intensity, and, when it’s overpowered by the lovers’ theme, great poignancy. This is the music that was played at Prokofiev’s funeral (oddly paralleling the fate of Fauré and Melisande’s death scene) on a tape recorder because all of Moscow’s musicians had been tapped for the funeral of Stalin, who had died at the same hour on the same day as the composer.

sergei prokofiev

Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 44c o m p o s e d1928

f i r s t p e r f o r m a n c eMay 17, 1929; Paris, France

i n s t r u m e n tat i o ntwo flutes and piccolo, two oboes and english horn, two clarinets and bass clarinet, two bassoons and contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones and tuba, timpani, side drum, bass drum, tambourine, cymbals, castanets, bells, tam-tam, two harps, strings

a p p rox i m at e p e r f o r m a n c e t i m e35 minutes

In the summer of 1917, Chicago businessman Cyrus McCormick, Jr., the farm machine magnate, met the twenty-six-year-old composer Serge Prokofiev while on a business trip to

Russia. Prokofiev was unknown to McCormick, but the composer recognized the distinguished American’s name at once, because the estate his father had managed owned several impressive International Harvester machines. McCormick expressed an interest in the composer’s new music and encouraged Prokofiev to come to the United States. He also asked him to prepare a package of his scores for Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director Frederick Stock to look at.

McCormick wrote to Stock at once, saying that Prokofiev “would be glad to come to Chicago and bring some of his symphonies if his expenses were paid. But not knowing myself the value of his music, I did not feel justified in taking the risk of bringing him here.” After Stock received Prokofiev’s scores, he replied to McCormick: “There is no question in my mind as to the talent of young Serge.” Although Stock at first doubted that it was feasible to bring the Russian composer to the United States right away, Prokofiev (or Prokofieff, as the U.S. press spelled his name at the time) made his debut with the Chicago Symphony the following season, playing his First Piano Concerto under Stock’s baton, and conducting the Orchestra himself in the American pre-miere of his Scythian Suite in Orchestra Hall in December 1918.

r i g h tProkofiev, from a drawing by Henri Matisse (1869–1954) included in the 1921 program brochure of the fourteenth season of the Ballets Russes. Bibliothèque nationale; Paris, France

C S O.ORG 7

COMMENTS

“The appearance here of the young Russian, Serge Prokofieff, at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra con-cert was the most startling and, in a sense, import-ant musical event that has happened in this town for a long time,” wrote Henriette Weber in the Herald and Examiner. “Personally he is middle-sized and blond, somewhat gangling about the arms and shoulders, and entirely business-like in demeanor,” reported the Journal. “His business is his music, while he is on the stage, and he would seem to resent even the time that it takes to bow.” The music itself caused quite a stir. “Russian Genius Displays Weird Harmonies” was the head-line in the American. “The music was of such savagery, so brutally barbaric,” Weber wrote, “that it seemed almost grotesque to see civilized men, in modern dress with modern instruments performing it. By the same token it was big, sincere, true.” The public loved it. “Every man and woman there reacted to it,” Weber continued, “and Prokofieff was given a thundering ovation that at least in a slight degree expressed the tumultuous emotions he inspired.”

While he was in the United States, Prokofiev came across The Fiery Angel, a symbolist novel by Valery Bryusov about a nun who is haunted by visions of an angel, and later by the conviction that the angel has come to earth in the form of a count. Prokofiev soon began sketching the out-lines of an opera based on the 1908 novel. Work was well underway on the score when he returned to Chicago three years

later to oversee the world premieres of his Piano Concerto no. 3, which he played in Orchestra Hall on December 16, and his opera, The Love for Three Oranges, which was staged by the Chicago Opera at the Auditorium Theatre on December 30. (The Chicago Symphony also played Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony for the first time that month.) Both new works were public successes, and both are now among the composer’s most highly regarded pieces. The next spring, Prokofiev carved time out of his busy performing schedule to retreat to the Bavarian Alps, where he could devote himself to The Fiery Angel. A piano score was completed the following year, but the opera wasn’t finished until 1927. Serge Koussevitzky conducted a concert performance of an abridged act 2 in Paris that year, but it was poorly received and dismissed as old-fashioned. “Apparently they are obsessed with deciding what can be called modern, the latest thing, and the very latest thing,” Prokofiev said, surprised and deflated by the reaction. Bruno Walter was scheduled to lead a full production later that year at the Berlin Staatsoper, but that was canceled, allegedly because of delays in copying the parts. (Prokofiev didn’t buy Walter’s excuse, and called the cancellation despicable.) By then, Prokofiev must have begun to suspect that he would never see the opera produced

during his lifetime, and he began to make other plans for the music:

I was sorry the opera had not been staged and that the score lay gathering dust on the shelf. I was about to make a suite out of it when I remembered that for one of the entr’actes I had used the development of themes in the preceding scene, and it occurred to me that this might serve as the kernel for a symphony. I examined the themes and found that they would make a good exposition for a sonata-allegro. I found the same themes in other parts of the opera differently expressed and quite suit-able for the recapitulation. In this way, the plan for the first movement of the symphony worked out quite simply. The material for the scherzo and for the Andante was also found without difficulty. The finale took a little lon-ger. I spent far more time whipping the thing into final shape, tying up all the loose ends, and doing the orches-tration. But the result—the Third Symphony—I consider to be one of my best compositions.

Prokofiev was adamant that his new score be judged only on its symphonic merits, despite its operatic origins.

l e f t to r i g h tProkofiev, walking southbound along Michigan Avenue in Chicago, 1919. The Art Institute can be seen in the distance, right.

Comical sketch of Prokofiev leading a rehearsal of The Love for Three Oranges, drawn by bass Edouard Cotreuil, who sang the role of Tchelio in the production. Chicago Daily Tribune, December 30, 1921

8 ONE HUNDR ED T W ENT Y-NINTH SE A S ON

COMMENTS

I do not like it to be called the “Fiery Angel” Symphony. The main the-matic material was composed quite independently of the opera. Used in the opera, it naturally acquired its coloring from the plot, but being transferred from the opera to the symphony, it lost that coloring, I believe, and I should therefore prefer the Third Symphony to be regarded as pure “symphony.”

Ironically, given the Paris reaction to The Fiery Angel, the Third Symphony is one of Prokofiev’s most intensely mod-ern works. It begins at a fever pitch, with some of the noisiest and most searing

music Prokofiev ever wrote, and although the opening slowly dissolves into a big, richly melodic theme, there are more loud, obsessively repetitive, and dissonant pas-sages to follow.

The slow second movement, magically colored and delicately orchestrated, brings music of restraint and relief (it is derived from the scene in the opera when the nun returns to the convent to escape her obsessions). The third movement is a gro-tesque scherzo, filled with special effects (the violin glissandos are particularly spooky). This is wild and untamed music that is, nevertheless, constructed with great care. “I worked a great deal on the scherzo between rehearsals,” Prokofiev wrote in

his autobiography, “increasing or decreas-ing the number of bars and trying to find the correct proportion.” A slower, dreamy, waltz-like trio does not dispel a sense of the bizarre and other-worldly. The finale begins tragically, builds through a series of increasingly frantic climaxes, relaxes just long enough to showcase Prokofiev’s melodic flair—and his penchant for imagi-native orchestral color—and then lets loose with music of a sheer barbaric splendor that even Prokofiev, among the noisiest of the “moderns,” rarely surpassed.

Phillip Huscher is the program annotator for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

ON THE COVER: HOMAGE TO THE ARTS BY MITCHELL SIPORIN1937–1939

Mitchell Siporin was one of several artists employed by the Works Project Administration during the Great Depression. Known for his commitment to social justice shown through his social realist paintings, Siporin became part of the Illinois Art Project in the 1930s, and later became highly successful in the Midwest.

Found in the foyer to the auditorium and Lane Tech College Prep High School, Homage to the Arts is a four-panel mural that celebrates the teaching of the arts: theater, art, literature, and music. The panel illustrating drama shows two actors in costume, one a teacher and the other a student, performing a Shakespeare play, as indicated by the portrait of William Shakespeare in a loop of rope that holds the curtain. The panel of the arts shows another teacher, now thought to be Siporin, looking over the canvas of a young student. The still life in the foreground and the stone bust in the background exemplify the subjects and creations of the visual artist. In the panel honoring literature, a boy holds a copy of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass while standing alongside the poet. Whitman guides the young boy through nature as they note their surroundings. The panel illustrating music shows a young boy playing the violin and a girl playing the piano. The first and last panels show cur-tains opposite each other that do not close. This is believed to signify that the arts are available to everyone at all times.

After being installed in the auditorium foyer, where they have been displayed for decades, and collecting years of dust and grime, the murals underwent a restoration in 2000 by the Chicago Conservation Center.

CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA / RICCARDO MUTI ZELL MUSIC DIRECTOR

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2019, AT 7:00 / LANE TECH COLLEGE PREP HIGH SCHOOL

COMMUNITY CONCERT

C S O.ORG 9

profiles

Riccardo Muti Conductor

Born in Naples, Italy, Riccardo Muti is one of the preeminent conductors of our day. In 2010, when he became the tenth music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), he

had more than forty years of experience at the helm of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (1968–80), the Philharmonia Orchestra (1973–82), the Philadelphia Orchestra (1980–92), and Teatro alla Scala (1986–2005).

Muti studied piano under Vincenzo Vitale at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella in his hometown of Naples, graduating with distinction. He subse-quently received a diploma in composition and conducting from the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan, also graduating with distinction. His principal teachers were Bruno Bettinelli and Antonino Votto, principal assistant to Arturo Toscanini at La Scala. After he won the Guido Cantelli Conducting Competition—by unanimous vote of the jury—in Milan in 1967, Muti’s career developed quickly. In 1968, he became principal conductor of Florence’s Maggio Musicale, a position that he held until 1980.

Herbert von Karajan invited him to conduct at the Salzburg Festival in Austria in 1971, and Muti has maintained a close relationship with the summer festival and with its great orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic, for more than forty-five years. When he conducted the philhar-monic’s 150th anniversary concert in 1992, he was presented with the Golden Ring, a special sign of esteem and affection, and in 2001, his outstanding artistic contributions to the orchestra were further recognized with the Otto Nicolai Gold Medal. He is also a recipient of a silver medal from

the Salzburg Mozarteum for his contri-bution to the music of W.A. Mozart and the Golden Johann Strauss Award by the Johann Strauss Society of Vienna. He is an honorary member of Vienna’s Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Society of the Friends of Music), the Vienna Hofmusikkapelle, the Vienna Philharmonic, and the Vienna State Opera.

Muti succeeded Otto Klemperer as chief conductor and music director of London’s Philharmonia Orchestra in 1973, holding that position until 1982. From 1980 to 1992, he was music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and in 1986, he became music director of Milan’s Teatro alla Scala. During his nineteen-year tenure, Muti conducted operatic and symphonic repertoire ranging from the baroque to the contemporary, also leading hundreds of concerts with the Filarmonica della Scala and touring the world with both the opera company and the orchestra. His tenure as music director, the longest of any in La Scala’s history, culminated in the trium-phant reopening of the restored opera house with Antonio Salieri’s Europa rico-nosciuta, originally commissioned for La Scala’s inaugural performance in 1778.

Muti has received innumerable inter-national honors. He is a Cavaliere di Gran Croce of the Italian Republic, Officer of the French Legion of Honor, and a recipient of the German Verdienstkreuz. Queen Elizabeth II bestowed on him the title of honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded him the Order of Friendship, and Pope Benedict XVI made him a Knight of the Grand Cross First Class of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great—the highest papal honor. Muti also has received Israel’s Wolf Prize in Music, Sweden’s prestigious Birgit Nilsson Prize, Spain’s Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts, from Japan the Order of the Rising Sun Gold and Silver Star and most recently the Praemium Imperiale,

and the gold medal from Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for his promotion of Italian culture abroad as well as the prestigious “Presidente della Repubblica” award from the Italian government. Muti has received more than twenty honor-ary degrees from universities around the world.

Passionate about teaching young musi-cians, Muti founded the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra in 2004 and the Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy in 2015. Through Le vie dell’Amicizia (The roads of friendship), a project of the Ravenna Festival in Italy, he has conducted in many of the world’s most troubled areas in order to bring attention to civic and social issues.

Riccardo Muti’s vast catalog of record-ings, numbering in the hundreds, ranges from the traditional symphonic and operatic repertoires to contemporary works. He also has written three books, Verdi, l’italiano and Riccardo Muti: An Autobiography: First the Music, Then the Words, both of which have been pub-lished in several languages, as well as Infinity Between the Notes: My Journey Into Music, published May 2019 and avail-able in Italian.

During his time with the CSO, Muti has won over audiences in greater Chicago and across the globe through his music making as well as his demon-strated commitment to sharing classical music. His first annual free concert as CSO music director attracted more than 25,000 people to Millennium Park. He regularly invites subscribers, students, seniors, and people of low incomes to attend, at no charge, his CSO rehearsals. Muti’s commitment to artistic excellence and to creating a strong bond between an orchestra and its communities con-tinues to bring the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to ever higher levels of achievement and renown.

riccardomutimusic.com

P H OTO BY TO D D R O S E N B E R G

10 ONE HUNDR ED T W ENT Y-NINTH SE A S ON

chicago symphony orchestra

Now celebrating its 129th season, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is consis-tently hailed as one of the world’s leading orchestras. In September 2010, renowned Italian conductor Riccardo Muti became its tenth music director. His vision for the Orchestra—to deepen its engagement with the Chicago community, to nurture its legacy while supporting a new genera-tion of musicians, and to collaborate with visionary artists—signals a new era for the institution.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s distinguished history began in 1889, when Theodore Thomas, then the leading con-ductor in America and a recognized music pioneer, was invited by Chicago business-man Charles Norman Fay to establish a symphony orchestra here. Thomas’s aim to establish a permanent orchestra with performance capabilities of the highest quality was realized at the first concerts in October 1891. Thomas served as music director until his death in 1905—just three weeks after the dedication of Orchestra Hall, the Orchestra’s permanent home designed by Daniel Burnham.

Frederick Stock, recruited by Thomas to the viola section in 1895, became assis-tant conductor in 1899, and succeeded the Orchestra’s founder. His tenure lasted thirty-seven years, from 1905 to 1942—the longest of the Orchestra’s music directors. Dynamic and innovative, the Stock years saw the founding of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the first training orchestra in the United States affiliated with a major symphony orchestra, in 1919. Stock also established youth auditions, organized

the first subscription concerts espe-cially for children, and began a series of popular concerts.

Three distinguished conductors headed the Orchestra during the following decade: Désiré Defauw was music director from 1943 to 1947; Artur Rodzinski assumed the post in 1947–48; and Rafael Kubelík led the ensemble for three seasons from 1950 to 1953. The next ten years belonged to Fritz Reiner, whose recordings with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra are still considered performance hallmarks. It was Reiner who invited Margaret Hillis to form the Chicago Symphony Chorus in 1957. For the five sea-sons from 1963 to 1968, Jean Martinon held the position of music director.

Sir Georg Solti, the Orchestra’s eighth music director, served from 1969 until 1991. He then held the title of music direc-tor laureate and returned to conduct the Orchestra for several weeks each season until his death in September 1997. Solti’s arrival launched one of the most successful musical partnerships of our time, and the CSO made its first overseas tour to Europe in 1971 under his direction, along with numerous award-winning recordings.

Daniel Barenboim was named music director designate in January 1989, and he became the Orchestra’s ninth music director in September 1991, a position he held until June 2006. His tenure was dis-tinguished by the opening of Symphony Center in 1997, highly praised operatic productions at Orchestra Hall, numer-ous appearances with the Orchestra in the dual role of pianist and conductor, twenty-one international tours, and

the appointment of Duain Wolfe as the Chorus’s second director.

From 2006 to 2010, Bernard Haitink held the post of principal conductor, the first in CSO history. Pierre Boulez’s long-standing relationship with the CSO led to his appointment as principal guest conductor in 1995. He was named Helen Regenstein Conductor Emeritus in 2006, a position he held until his death in January 2016. Only two others have served as principal guest conductors: Carlo Maria Giulini, who began to appear in Chicago regularly in the late 1950s, was named to the post in 1969, serving until 1972; Claudio Abbado held the position from 1982 to 1985. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma served as the CSO’s Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant from 2010 to 2019. In this role, he partnered with Riccardo Muti, staff, and musicians to provide development for the Negaunee Music Institute at the CSO.

Mead Composer-in-Residence Missy Mazzoli was appointed by Riccardo Muti and began her two-year term in the fall of 2018. In addition to composing, she curates the contemporary MusicNOW series.

Since 1916, recording has been a sig-nificant part of the Orchestra’s activi-ties. Current releases on CSO Resound, the Orchestra’s independent recording label, include the Grammy Award–winning release of Verdi’s Requiem led by Riccardo Muti. Recordings by the CSO have earned sixty-two Grammy awards from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

cso.org

C S O.ORG 11

Chicago Symphony OrchestraRiccardo Muti Zell Music DirectorDuain Wolfe Chorus Director and ConductorMissy Mazzoli Mead Composer-in-Residence

v i o l i n sRobert Chen Concertmaster

The Louis C. Sudler Chair, endowed by an anonymous benefactor

Stephanie Jeong Associate ConcertmasterThe Cathy and Bill Osborn Chair

David Taylor Yuan-Qing Yu

Assistant Concertmasters*So Young Bae §Cornelius ChiuAlison DaltonGina DiBelloKozue FunakoshiRussell HershowQing HouBlair MiltonPaul Phillips, Jr.Sando ShiaSusan SynnestvedtRong-Yan Tang

Baird Dodge PrincipalSylvia Kim Kilcullen Assistant PrincipalLei HouNi MeiFox FehlingHermine GagnéRachel GoldsteinMihaela IonescuMelanie KupchynskyWendy Koons MeirMatous MichalSimon MichalAiko NodaJoyce NohNancy ParkRonald SatkiewiczFlorence Schwartz

v i o l a sLi-Kuo Chang Acting Principal

The Paul Hindemith Principal Viola Chair, endowed by an anonymous benefactor

John BartholomewCatherine BrubakerYouming ChenSunghee ChoiWei-Ting KuoDanny LaiDiane MuesLawrence NeumanMax RaimiWeijing Wang

c e l lo sJohn Sharp Principal

The Eloise W. Martin ChairKenneth Olsen Assistant Principal

The Adele Gidwitz ChairKaren BasrakLoren BrownRichard HirschlDaniel KatzKatinka KleijnDavid SandersGary StuckaBrant Taylor

b a s s e sAlexander Hanna Principal

The David and Mary Winton Green Principal Bass Chair

Daniel ArmstrongJoseph DiBelloMichael HovnanianRobert KassingerMark KraemerStephen LesterBradley Opland

h a r p sSarah Bullen PrincipalLynne Turner

f l u t e sStefán Ragnar Höskuldsson Principal

The Erika and Dietrich M. Gross Principal Flute Chair

Richard Graef Assistant Principal §Emma GersteinJennifer Gunn

p i c c o loJennifer Gunn

o b o e sWilliam Welter Principal

The Nancy and Larry Fuller Principal Oboe Chair

Michael Henoch Assistant PrincipalThe Gilchrist Foundation Chair

Lora SchaeferScott Hostetler

e n g l i s h h o r nScott Hostetler

c l a r i n e t sStephen Williamson PrincipalJohn Bruce Yeh Assistant PrincipalGregory SmithJ. Lawrie Bloom

e - f l at c l a r i n e tJohn Bruce Yeh

b a s s c l a r i n e tJ. Lawrie Bloom

b a s s o o n sKeith Buncke PrincipalWilliam Buchman Assistant PrincipalDennis MichelMiles Maner

c o n t r a b a s s o o nMiles Maner

h o r n sDavid Cooper PrincipalDaniel GingrichJames SmelserDavid GriffinOto CarrilloSusanna Gaunt

t r u m p e t sMark Ridenour Acting Principal

The Adolph Herseth Principal Trumpet Chair, endowed by an anonymous benefactor

John HagstromTage Larsen

t ro m b o n e sJay Friedman Principal

The Lisa and Paul Wiggin Principal Trombone Chair

Michael MulcahyCharles Vernon

b a s s t ro m b o n eCharles Vernon

t u b aGene Pokorny Principal

The Arnold Jacobs Principal Tuba Chair, endowed by Christine Querfeld

t i m pa n iDavid Herbert Principal

The Clinton Family Fund ChairVadim Karpinos Assistant Principal

p e rc u s s i o nCynthia Yeh PrincipalPatricia DashVadim KarpinosJames Ross

l i b r a r i a n sPeter Conover PrincipalCarole KellerMark Swanson

o rc h e s t r a p e r s o n n e lJohn Deverman DirectorAnne MacQuarrie Manager, CSO

Auditions and Orchestra Personnel

s tag e t e c h n i c i a n sChristopher Lewis Stage ManagerBlair CarlsonPaul ChristopherDave HartgePeter LandryTodd SnickJoe Tucker

CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

* Assistant concertmasters are listed by seniority. ‡ On sabbatical § On leaveThe Louise H. Benton Wagner Chair currently is unoccupied.The Chicago Symphony Orchestra string sections utilize revolving seating. Players behind the first desk (first two desks in the violins) change seats systematically every two weeks and are listed alphabetically. Section percussionists also are listed alphabetically.

ALL-ACCESS Chamber Music Series

Reserve your free tickets at cso.org/allaccess or by calling 312-294-3000.

Sunday, November 3, 3:00south shore cultural centerThe Wabash Avenue Music CollectiveRong-Yan Tang violinMax Raimi violaKaren Basrak celloEmma Gerstein fluteDaniel Paul Horn piano

BEETHOVEN Serenade for Flute, Violin and ViolaRAIMI Havenu Sholem Aleichem: Variations and ThemeMENDELSSOHN Piano Quartet No. 3

Wednesday, February 19, 6:30symphony centerCSO Chamber PlayersRobert Chen violin John Sharp cello Stephen Williamson clarinet Kuang-Hao Huang piano

BARTÓK Contrasts MESSIAEN Quartet for the End of Time

Tuesday, March 10, 6:30senn high schoolThe Addison EnsembleAiko Noda violin Diane Mues viola Loren Brown cello Andrea Swan piano

BEETHOVEN String Trio in D Major, Op. 9, No. 2 BRAHMS Piano Quartet No. 3

Featuring musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Center’s Orchestra Hall and around ChicagoFREE! Wednesday, April 1, 6:30

symphony centerChicago Pro MusicaJennifer Gunn flute Michael Henoch oboe John Bruce Yeh clarinet Oto Carrillo horn William Buchman bassoon

IBERT Trois pièces brèves DEBUSSY Five Pieces transcribed for woodwind quintet by donald draganski RAVEL Le tombeau de Couperin transcribed by mason jones PIERNÉ Pastorale, Op. 14, No. 1 TAFFANEL Quintet for Winds

Wednesday, May 13, 6:30symphony centerPressenda TrioDavid Taylor violin Gary Stucka cello Andrea Swan piano

BEETHOVEN Piano Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 1, No. 1 BRAHMS Piano Trio No. 2

Sunday, June 14, 3:00beverly arts centerLinden EnsembleKozue Funakoshi violin Daniel Katz cello Daniel Gingrich horn Yoko Yamada piano

BEETHOVEN Piano Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 11 BRAHMS Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano

All-Access at South Shore Cultural Center is presented in partnership with The Advisory Council of South Shore Cultural Center and The Chicago Park District.

Presented in partnership with Beverly Arts Center.

The All-Access series is generously underwritten by an anonymous donor.