CSO Audio Program Notes

Welcome to this digital edition of Phillip Huscher's Program Notes for upcoming concerts by the CSO February 20-25. In the first of two programs created by Pierre Boulez, Cristian Macelaru conducts works by Stravinsky, Ravel and Debussy spanning a wide range of textures and ensemble sizes, from solo clarinet pieces to the full orchestra in the colorful and teasingly elusive ballet, Jeux.

Welcome to this digital edition of Phillip Huscher's Program Notes for upcoming concerts by the CSO February 13-18. Acclaimed American coloratura mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux sings a selection of fiery and virtuosic arias, supported by leading Baroque specialist Nicholas McGegan.

Welcome to this digital edition of Phillip Huscher's Program Notes for upcoming concerts by the CSO February 6-8. Schubert's Mass in A-flat is one of his most ambitious works, mixing moments of mystery and grandeur with the sublime. The Chicago Symphony Chorus joins Riccardo Muti and the CSO for this epic vocal work from a master of song. Legendary Italian film composer Ennio Morricone responded to the 9/11 attacks with his cantata, Voices from the Silence, to give voice "to all those innocent victims of violence."

Welcome to this digital edition of Phillip Huscher's Program Notes for upcoming concerts by the CSO Feb 5-8. The opening "ba-ba-ba-BAH" of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is among the most recognizable moments in symphonic music. Hear this thrilling and immensely treasured work as masterfully played by the CSO under the baton of maestro Jaap van Zweden. "Today's foremost interpreter of German art song" (Chicago Tribune), acclaimed baritone Matthias Goerne joins the CSO to perform some of the greatest Romantic songs by Richard Strauss and Franz Schubert.

Welcome to this digital edition of Phillip Huscher's Program Notes for upcoming concerts by the CSO January 30-February 1. Riccardo Muti launches his exploration of the complete Schubert symphonies with the composer's self-titled Tragic, in which Schubert's sunny disposition shines through despite the brooding introduction and minor key coloration. CSO Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant Yo-Yo Ma joins fellow cellist and Silk Road collaborator Giovanni Sollima to premiere his newly commissioned Concerto for Two Cellos.

Welcome to this digital edition of Phillip Huscher's Program Notes for upcoming concerts by the CSO December 19-21. Christoph Eschenbach, renowned conductor and former Ravinia Festival music director, leads Bruckner's Ninth Symphony, surely the composer's most impressive achievement. Its opening's intense lyricism and brooding leads into the unforgettable hammering of the ferocious Scherzo and a final Adagio with sustained chords like streams of brilliant light.

Welcome to this digital edition of Phillip Huscher's Program Notes for upcoming concerts by the CSO Jan 27. Scriabin's highly dramatic symphony The Divine Poem is lavishly orchestrated with an exuberant sense of heroic striving. Riccardo Muti, a masterful Scriabin interpreter, combines this luscious piece with two portraits of the sea: Mendelssohn's illustrative overture Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage and Debussy's lustrous La mer, which captures the sea's moods from mist-shrouded dawn through sun-dappled waves to the fury of a storm.

Welcome to this digital edition of Phillip Huscher's Program Notes for upcoming concerts by the CSO Jan 22-24. Riccardo Muti conducts works by two Russian composers for whom he has a remarkable affinity. Scriabin's First Symphony is a glorious six-movement work that culminates in a triumphant chorus, yet it also holds much tender lyricism. Prokofiev's cantata Alexander Nevsky, by contrast, is full of fire and steel, its imaginative orchestration and rousing choruses evoking Russia's medieval victory over invading Teutonic knights.

Welcome to this digital edition of Phillip Huscher's Program Notes for upcoming concerts by the CSO Jan 15-17. Yefim Bronfman plays the sunniest of Brahms' Piano Concertos, a massive work that showcases Brahms' full compositional mastery. Bronfman is joined by Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, who continue this season's Tchaikovsky cycle with the haunting First Symphony, Winter Daydreams.

Welcome to this digital edition of Phillip Huscher's Program Notes for upcoming concerts by the CSO December 12-17. Ravel's brilliant orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures from an Exhibition, from its stirring trumpet theme to the spine-tingling finale depicting the Great Gate of Kiev, anchors a colorful program celebrating the national identities of three composers.

Welcome to this digital edition of Phillip Huscher's Program Notes for upcoming concerts by the CSO December 5-7. Shostakovich's powerful First Violin Concerto, which was composed in secrecy during the final years of Stalin's tyranny, expresses the fear and fury of a composer suffering pervasive repression by Soviet authority. Its imaginative character is more than matched by Berlioz's extraordinary Symphonie fantastique, from its sumptuous ball-scene with a haunting waltz melody to the evil howls and cackles of its witches' Sabbath.

Welcome to this digital edition of Phillip Huscher's Program Notes for upcoming concerts by the CSO November 21 through November 24. Opening with a faint, pulsing rhythm in the cellos--possibly an echo of Mahler's faltering heartbeat, as conductor Leonard Bernstein once suggested--Mahler's last completed Symphony has often been described as his farewell to life.

Welcome to this digital edition of Phillip Huscher's Program Notes for upcoming concerts by the CSO November 14 through November 16. With choruses ranging from the brassy splendor of the "Sanctus" to the phantasmagorical hysteria of the "Libera me," Britten's War Requiem is a moving and monumental achievement. But what raises the work to an even greater level is Britten's inspired combination of the traditional Latin Mass with poems by Wilfred Owen, whose modern poetry illuminates the ancient liturgical text.

Welcome to this digital edition of Phillip Huscher's Program Notes for upcoming concerts by the CSO October 31 through November 3. Pianist Emanuel Ax joins Bernard Haitink in performing Mozart's beloved Piano Concerto No. 27, one of his most charming and an audience favorite. This prefaces Bruckner's warm-hearted Fourth Symphony, nicknamed the Romantic by the composer himself.

Welcome to this digital edition of Phillip Huscher's Program Notes for upcoming concerts by the CSO October 24 through October 26. Prokofiev's penetrating Second Piano Concerto breathlessly accelerates to its astonishing finale, while Walton's First Symphony overflows with bombastic power, sensuous desolation and arrogant swagger.