Shostakovich's Seventh: CSO shows that war is hell

By John Dorhauer, 25 May 2014

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Reviewed at Chicago Symphony Center, Chicago on 23 May 2014

Britten, Peter Grimes, Op.33: Four Sea Interludes and Passacaglia

Shostakovich, Symphony no. 7 in C major, "Leningrad" Op.60

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Jaap van Zweden, Conductor

Chicago Symphony Orchestra music on death: whimper then bang

Graham Meyer, 9th April

Jakub Hrůša leads the CSO in pedestrian Janáček and Rachmaninov, but Strauss's Four Last Songs and Wagner's Tristan excerpts send audiences home deeply touched.

***11

Klaus Mäkelä is speaking... Chicago is listening

Graham Meyer, 19th February

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.

****1

Matthew Aucoin’s Song of the Reappeared premieres in Chicago

Graham Meyer, 4th December

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.

*****

Manfred Honeck brings his über-dramatic Mozart Requiem to Chicago

Graham Meyer, 20th November

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.

****1

Daniela Candillari makes her Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut

Graham Meyer, 3rd October

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.

****1

Polished Ravel x 2 from Alice Sara Ott with the Chicago Symphony

Graham Meyer, 25th September

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.

****1

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John Dorhauer

Aside from writing reviews for Bachtrack, John Dorhauer is a composer, arranger, educator, and performer. He has a Master’s degree in Music Composition from Roosevelt University and is adjunct faculty at Elmhurst College and Roosevelt University. John also writes for his own blog, and you can read this and find out more about his music at his website.