Live, Video: Kritiken zu klassischen Konzerten, Opern, Ballett und Tanz finden | Chicago Symphony Center

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Music Director Designate juxtaposes his Finnish countryman's music on their shared national epic, the Kalevala, with the heroic life limned in the tone poem of Richard Strauss.

A strong world premiere of Aucoin's evocative and immediate Song of the Reappeared, a concerto for voice written for soprano Julia Bullock which sets vivid imagery by a poet who suffered under authoritarianism.

The Austrian conductor's loudest fortes and softest pianos pull together a dramatic arc from the Requiem, other Mozart works and chant. But it's not really a funeral. 

Without a baton, the contemporary-music specialist showcases the Chicago Symphony strings in an intimate program ranging from music of the last decade all the way back to Pergolesi. 

Three hands for two concertos: Alice Sara Ott joins the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Ravel's Piano Concerto for the left hand and the Piano Concerto in G major.

Esteban Batallán, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's top trumpet, plays piccolo trumpet concertos by Telemann and Michael Haydn with the home team, under former CSO music director Riccardo Muti.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and its future Music Director revel in a Brahms piano concerto with ideal collaborator Daniil Trifonov and an energetic Dvořák 7. 

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Music Director Designate, still two years from taking charge, shows himself in command of the whole toolbox available from a great Mahler orchestra. 

The Finnish conductor drove the orchestra as expertly as a racing champion in Strauss, Bartók and Salonen's own Sinfonia concertante for Organ and Orchestra.

In Chicago, the French pianist used the full toolbox in an impressive traversal of the character-filled pieces, some of his oldest friends.

Bookended by Tchaikovsky, Daniil Trifonov’s powerfully virtuosic recital also visits the music of Chopin and Barber. 

Janowski anchors his Chicago Symphony program with Bruckner’s Third, prefacing with music of Weber and Liszt.

In its Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut, Bell's commission for an all-star lineup of composers boasts some virtuosic violin playing and a shared aesthetic, but not a throughline.

The 37-year-old Hong Kong native brings her calling card, Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, to colorful life during a conducting tour through the United States. 

The Finnish conductor values attention to detail across three disparate 20th-century pieces, highlighting the uniform strength of the Chicago musicians.

Riccardo Muti selects Beethoven’s daunting Missa solemnis for his final performance as Music Director of the Chicago Symphony, a performance that proves worthy of his remarkable tenure.

Jurowski and Martin Helmchen underline how much Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 25 in C major looks forward to the “Jupiter” Symphony and to Beethoven. 

Musicians from the Chicago Symphony showed their mettle as chamber players in a Mozart serenade and a Brahms sextet.

Contrasting Gounod, Mozart and Ravel works were combined into an exhilarating package of technical virtuosity and musical finesse.

Dame Mitsuko Uchida again brought out her outstanding musicality and special charisma in Bartók’s Third Piano Concerto.

A knowledgeable and subtle devotee of Franz Liszt, bring the first two cycles of the Années de pèlerinage to Chicago.

Celebrating its 60th anniversary, the Chicago Symphony Chorus made this evening truly distinctive.

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 new score by Melinda Wagner, concertante pieces for saxophone and orchestra with Branford Marsalis, and works of Bizet and Debussy comprised Susanna Mälkki’s CSO program, intriguing in its eclecticism.

Juraj Valčuha’s CSO debut was an evening of diverse repertoire, from Haydn to Strauss (both Johann II and Richard) to Szymanowski, the latter featuring a memorable performance by Christian Tetzlaff.

Jesús López-Cobos returned to the CSO with works of Turina and Dvořák flanking Gershwin’s Concerto in F with Inon Barnatan.

Murray Perahia’s deeply rewarding recital featured Beethoven’s monolithic Hammerklavier piano sonata, prefaced by works of Bach and Schubert.

CSO concertmaster Robert Chen took the spotlight in two 20th-century works with Neeme Järvi conducting; anchoring the program was Beethoven’s Pastoral.

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.

Dutoit’s CSO program was highlighted by the US première of an intriguing discovery –Stravinsky’s long-lost Chant funèbre – complemented by Prokofiev and Dvořák with Truls Mørk.

James Conlon led the CSO in Schubert’s Unfinished symphony and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Lied.  Mixed fortunes were had for the singers in the latter, but Conlon and the orchestra provided probing performances throughout.

Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Cello Concerto received a successful world première with Yo-Yo Ma and the Chicago Symphony, the composer conducting, richly complemented by works of Adams and Stravinsky.

Esa-Pekka Salonen’s colorful program included the first Chicago performance of John Adams’ Scheherazade.2 with dedicatee Leila Josefowicz, along with works of Debussy and Stravinsky.

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.

The pianist’s ability to easily bring out the melodic qualities, the shifts in mood and color from amidst the swirling pyrotechnics is remarkable for someone so young.

The chemistry between Muti and the CSO continues to sizzle in a Rossini overture, a Mendelssohn symphony, and a Beethoven piano concerto with Yefim Bronfman.

Conductor and violinist Fabio Biondi led the CSO in works of Corelli and Vivaldi, while Vivica Genaux served as an impressive soloist in a selection of Baroque arias.

The Cleveland Orchestra’s Chicago appearance with music director Franz Welser-Möst offered symphonies of Beethoven and Sibelius in performances that exuded both precision and beauty.

MTT and the CSO were energetic partners from Stravinsky's obscure Scènes de ballet to Prokofiev's familiar Romeo and Juliet, and a Saint-Saëns cello concerto with Gautier Capuçon served as a sumptuous interlude.

Neeme Järvi’s authoritative CSO appearance was grounded by two major scores of Sibelius, preceded by a Prokofiev violin concerto with Vadim Gluzman and a rarely heard work of Glazunov.

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.

A Liszt tone poem, a Prokofiev piano concerto, and a Dvořák symphony made for a high-octane CSO program with conductor Emmanuel Krivine and pianist Denis Kozhukhin.

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’s excellent CSO appearance included a first half juxtaposing Mozart and Schoenberg anchored by a memorable Symphonie fantastique, and even a tribute to the victorious Chicago Cubs.

Mixed results in Andrés Orozco-Estrada’s weighty program of Kodály, Ives, and Strauss alongside the Sibelius Violin Concerto with Baiba Skride. 

David Afkham scored a successful CSO debut in Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony and Beethoven First Piano Concerto with Emanuel Ax.

One day short of 125 years to the day, Muti presented the same program the CSO gave on their opening concert, with Daniil Trifonov as soloist in Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto no. 1.

Carl Vine's Five Hallucinations received its world première with dedicatee and CSO trombonist Michael Mulcahy. Gaffigan's diverse program also included a Franck tone poem and Prokofiev's Cinderella.

Joyce DiDonato made her Chicago Symphony debut in a rarely heard song cycle of Giuseppe Martucci, while more familiar territory was to be found in Beethoven's Seventh Symphony.