Virtuosic balance of power and delicacy at Ravinia Festival

By Claire Liu, 09 August 2019

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“Matsuev... dazzled with his effortless attacks”

Reviewed at The Pavilion at Ravinia, Highland Park on 7 August 2019

Rachmaninov, Piano Concerto no. 3 in D minor, Op.30

Sibelius, Etude for piano, Op.76 no.2

Grieg, Peer Gynt Suite: In the Hall of the Mountain King

Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade, Op.35

Denis Matsuev, Piano

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Leonard Slatkin, 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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Claire Liu

Hailing from Chicago, Claire is currently a PhD student in biomedical engineering at Northwestern University, developing the next generation of wearable and implantable electronics for health applications. An avid listener of classical music, Claire is particularly interested in the musicology of 19 th century Italian opera, especially those of Giuseppe Verdi. She frequently blogs about her classical music experiences at Le Corso del Destino and can be found on Twitter @theclaireliu.

Virtuosic balance of power and delicacy from Slatkin and Matsuev at Ravinia Festival