Chicago Symphony’s Principal Trumpet makes local solo debut

Esteban Batallán and the Chicago Symphony

Riccardo Muti conducts the Chicago Symphony

By Graham Meyer, 13 June 2025

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“culminating in one of the highest notes a trumpeter can ever produce”

Reviewed at Chicago Symphony Center, Chicago on 12 June 2025

Haydn, Symphony no. 48 in C major "Maria Theresia"

Telemann, Trumpet concerto In D major, TWV 51:D7 (arr. Grebe)

Haydn, Trumpet Concerto no. 2 in D major, MH 104

Schubert, Symphony no. 4 in C minor, "Tragic", D 417

Esteban Batallán, Trumpet

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Riccardo Muti, 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.

*****

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

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

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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.

Chicago Symphony’s Principal Trumpet makes an unusual “picc” for his local solo debut