Manfred Honeck brings his über-dramatic Mozart Requiem to Chicago

Manfred Honeck conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Jeanine De Bique, Avery Amereau, Ben Bliss and Stephano Park

Chicago Symphony Chorus

By Graham Meyer, 23 November 2025

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“the theatrical trappings – the offstage chant, the chimes, the silences – were über-dramatic”

Reviewed at Chicago Symphony Center, Chicago on 20 November 2025

Beethoven, Coriolan Overture, Op.62

Haydn, Symphony no. 93 in D major

Mozart, Requiem in D minor, K626

Mozart, Motet in D major, "Ave verum Corpus", K618

Mozart, Meistermusik (Maurerische Trauermusik), K477 (K479a)

Mozart, Vesperae solennes de confessore in C major, K339: Laudate Dominum

Jeanine De Bique, Soprano

Avery Amereau, Mezzo-soprano

Ben Bliss, Tenor

Stephano Park, Bass

Chicago Symphony Chorus

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Manfred Honeck, Conductor

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.

*****

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

Ravinia Festival opens with bombastic Gershwin, emotional Tchaikovsky

Cameron Kelsall, 12th July

Under Marin Alsop, the Chicago Symphony string players also offered a lyrical reading of Jessie Montgomery’s beguiling Strum.

***11

Chicago Symphony’s Principal Trumpet makes local solo debut

Graham Meyer, 12th June

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.

****1

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Graham Meyer

Graham is a Chicago-based arts and culture journalist, covering all forms of live performance, and specializing in classical music. His work has appeared extensively in Chicago magazine and Crain’s Chicago Business, as well as in The Chicago Tribune and at Chicago Classical Review. He has also covered dining and restaurants, winning a City and Regional Magazine Award for the restaurant newsletter Dish. Semi-professionally, he sings baritone in the choir Vox Venti, plays amateur piano, and composes music, especially choral. Apart from music, he constructs crossword puzzles and plays competitive bridge with his teenage daughter.