Live, Video: Kritiken zu klassischen Konzerten, Opern, Ballett und Tanz finden | Duain Wolfe

For the final week of the CSO season, Muti led a stirring program of operatic excerpts by Verdi, Puccini and Mascagni, along with a rarity by Boito.

A religious-themed program made for a particularly moving Easter weekend concert from Dutoit and the CSO, highlighted by the serenity of Fauré’s Requiem.

The CSO’s season-long celebration of Prokofiev’s 125th birthday had its watershed moment with the composer’s monumental score to Ivan the Terrible.

Nicholas Kraemer led the Chicago Symphony in a spirited program of Handel that included some rarely heard vocal works with the chorus and soprano Amanda Forsythe.

Jaap van Zweden returned to the CSO with a probing account of Brahms’ German Requiem, along with shorter but no less moving works of Mozart and Wagner.

James Levine returned to Ravinia to conduct the Chicago Symphony for the first time since stepping down as music director in 1993 in a monumental performance of Mahler’s Second Symphony – the same piece with which he debuted in 1971.

In the final weekend of season, Muti led the CSO in a divinely inspired Bruckner Ninth, fittingly paired with the Te Deum.

The Chicago Symphony and Riccardo Muti celebrate Shakespeare's Anniversary.

After being absent since December, music director Riccardo Muti returned to Chicago Symphony in a passionate account of the epic Roméo et Juliette by Berlioz.

Labadie made a noteworthy return to the Chicago Symphony in a satisfying performance of Handel's Messiah.

Mixed results in the 20th century portion of the program are remedied with some very fine Beethoven playing. 

In James Conlon's final performance as music director of Ravinia, he presented a magnificent Flying Dutchman with a stellar cast.

Whimsical program of French symphonic and operatic works opens the CSO's "French Reveries and Passions" festival.

According to Riccardo Muti in a recent interview for Chicago Classical Review, the cardinal sins of modern conductors when interpreting Verdi are over-aggression and vulgarity. He also notes in an interview included in the concert program that one of the most unique aspects of Macbeth is its use of expressively soft dynamics, even going as far to call the technique avant-garde.