CSO Audio Program Notes

CSO Audio Program Notes

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CSO Audio Program Notes episodes

  • CSO Program Notes: Muti, Herbert & Pines of Rome
    Riccardo Muti conducts two of Respighi’s vibrant orchestral tapestries: his sumptuous homage to Rome’s iconic neighborhoods and pine groves and his masterful evocation of Renaissance lute music. The program includes the vivid First Concerto for Timpani by American composer William Kraft, featuring CSO Principal Timpani David Herbert.
    Learn more: cso.org/performances/22-23/cso-classical/muti-herbert-and-pines-of-rome
    20 min
  • CSO Program Notes: Muti, Chen & Mozart Gran Partita
    In his Gran Partita for 13 instruments, Mozart achieves a sublime combination of grandeur, complexity and sunny charm. CSO Concertmaster Robert Chen presents the composer’s stately and rustic Violin Concerto No. 4, a product of his Salzburg years. Riccardo Muti opens the concert with Cimarosa’s overture, which echoes Mozart’s comic vein and abounds in freshness and invention.
    Learn more: cso.org/performances/22-23/cso-classical/muti-chen-and-mozart-gran-partita
    16 min
  • CSO Program Notes: Muti, Montgomery & Rachmaninov 2
    Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony marked a personal comeback after a debilitating crisis of confidence. In the spring of 2023, a century and a half after the composer’s birth, Riccardo Muti conducts this sumptuous score, along with the world premiere of Transfigure to Grace by Mead Composer-in-Residence Jessie Montgomery, who writes with “a Technicolor brilliance and harmonic plushness perfect for the CSO’s own heart-on-its-sleeve proclivities” (Chicago Tribune).
    Learn more: cso.org/performances/22-23/cso-classical/muti-montgomery-and-rachmaninov-2
    18 min
  • CSO Program Notes: Vivaldi Gloria
    Experience the uplifting power of Antonio Vivaldi’s joyous Gloria, with its gleaming vocal fireworks and richly embroidered orchestral passages. Early-music specialist Giovanni Antonini conducts this and other Vivaldi treasures, including the Magnificat, in all its variety and invention; the luminous nobility of La Senna festeggiante, and the poignant Kyrie.
    Learn more: cso.org/performances/22-23/cso-classical/vivaldi-gloria/
    12 min
  • CSO Program Notes: Jurowski, Helmchen & Shostakovich 8
    Vladimir Jurowski marks his return to Symphony Center with Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 8. In this immense wartime symphony, Shostakovich searches for hope and renewal beyond the anguish of violence and honors the ordinary people who contributed — and suffered — away from the frontlines. Celebrated pianist Martin Helmchen brings his “powerful yet refined approach” (The New York Times) to Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25. This late Mozart masterwork navigates a fascinating series of twists and turns — from its expansive first movement and tranquil second to its triumphant finale.
    Learn more: cso.org/performances/22-23/cso-classical/jurowski-helmchen-shostakovich-8
    17 min
  • CSO Program Notes: Trifonov Plays Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 3
    “Peerless today as a Rachmaninov interpreter” (The Guardian) and in possession of “monstrous technique and lustrous tone” (The New Yorker), pianist Daniil Trifonov performs Rachmaninov’s electrifying Third Piano Concerto. Russian folklore animates Stravinsky's magical world of Petrushka and Liadov’s dark and fantastical Kikimora.
    Learn more: cso.org/performances/22-23/cso-classical/trifonov-plays-rachmaninov-piano-concerto-no-3
    17 min
  • CSO Program Notes: Hilary Hahn Plays Carmen Fantasy
    CSO Artist-in-Residence Hilary Hahn returns for Sarasate’s brilliant and sultry arrangement of Bizet’s Carmen and two beguiling serenades by the late Finnish master Einojuhani Rautavaara. Returning conductor Thomas Adès frames the program with Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier Suite — a loving and graceful tribute to the Viennese waltz — and the profoundly stirring and vivid Night Ride and Sunrise by Sibelius.
    Please note: Conductor Thomas Adès will step in for Mikko Franck, who had to withdraw due to a knee injury, and lead the Orchestra in this program.
    Learn more: cso.org/performances/22-23/cso-classical/hilary-hahn-carmen-fantasy
    17 min
  • CSO Program Notes: Adès Conducts Adès with Gerstein
    Come along for an engrossing program of musical storytelling as Thomas Adès conducts Liszt’s swirling treatment of the Faust legend, Janáček’s depiction of a 17th-century Cossack warrior and Sibelius’ incidental music to Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Kirill Gerstein presents Adès’ own Piano Concerto, “an affectionate, joyous, remarkably uncomplicated tribute to tradition” (The New York Times).
    Learn more: cso.org/performances/22-23/cso-classical/ades-conducts-ades-with-gerstein
    17 min
  • CSO Program Notes: Boccherini, Vivaldi & Mozart 40
    In his 2019 CSO debut, Spanish guitarist Pablo Sáinz-Villegas thrilled with “the profundities of his art,” along with “the sheen of his tone and the nobility of his rhythms,” wrote the Chicago Tribune. Sáinz-Villegas joins the ensemble in two pieces with bright Mediterranean character. Bernard Labadie, making a welcome return to the CSO, conducts the program, which also features dark-hued symphonies by Mozart and Boccherini.
    Learn more: cso.org/performances/22-23/cso-classical/boccherini-vivaldi-and-mozart-40
    11 min
  • CSO Program Notes: Coleridge-Taylor, Copland & Dvořák 9
    Thomas Wilkins conducts three works featuring unique musical visions of America, capped with Dvořák’s majestic New World Symphony, which draws on African American and Native American source materials. Coleridge-Taylor’s ballet suite captures the spirit of Longfellow’s epic poem The Song of Hiawatha. CSO Principal Clarinet Stephen Williamson performs Copland’s Clarinet Concerto, premiered by Benny Goodman, which features a rollicking blend of jazz and classical sounds.
    Learn more: cso.org/performances/22-23/cso-classical/coleridge-taylor-copland-and-dvorak-9
    24 min

About CSO Audio Program Notes

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Founded in 1891, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is consistently hailed as one of the greatest orchestras in the world. In collaboration with the best conductors and guest artists on the international music scene, the CSO performs well over one hundred concerts each year at its downtown home, Symphony Center, and at the Ravinia Festival on Chicago’s North Shore, where it is in residency each summer. Music lovers outside Chicago enjoy the sounds of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra through best-selling recordings and frequent sold-out tour performances in the United States and around the globe.

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