CSO Audio Program Notes

CSO Audio Program Notes

By Chicago Symphony Orchestra AssociationSociety & CultureMusicHistory
Download on the App Store

CSO Audio Program Notes episodes

  • CSO Program Notes: A Night in Vienna
    Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck leads a program of richly melodic dance music by the Strauss family and Mozart’s virtuosic Piano Concerto No. 21 featuring Jan Lisiecki, whose “pristine, lyrical and intelligent playing shows uncommon maturity” (The New York Times). Former Mead Composer-in-Residence Mason Bates calls his new work, written in honor of Manfred Honeck’s 60th birthday, “a theatrical and fast-paced conjuring of the classic Resurrection narrative.”
    11 min
  • CSO Program Notes: Higdon & Tchaikovsky 4
    Taking inspiration from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, Tchaikovsky’s Fourth explores fate, progressing from dark despair to defiant triumph. John Storgårds leads this powerfully expressive work, along with the first CSO performance of the deeply moving blue cathedral by Jennifer Higdon, winner of the 2018 Nemmers Prize in Music Composition. The dazzling Ray Chen, making his CSO subscription series debut, brings his “liquid tone that carries with it emotional depth of great intimacy” (The Huffington Post) to the youthful bravura of Wieniawski’s First Violin Concerto.
    Tickets and more info: https://order.cso.org/9945/
    16 min
  • CSO Program Notes: Holst The Planets
    Juanjo Mena conducts the CSO in a program featuring Holst’s powerful and haunting The Planets. Sally Matthews, a soprano of “incandescent verve” (The Times, London), performs two scenes from Barber’s 1966 opera that opened the Metropolitan Opera's new house at Lincoln Center. Detroit-based composer James Lee III’s celebratory Sukkot Through Orion’s Nebula illustrates an ancient Hebrew harvest festival refracted through the lens of the Book of Revelation.
    16 min
  • CSO Program Notes: Brahms Double Concerto
    Brahms' final orchestral composition calls for deep lyricism and virtuosic technique from its soloists to create the illusion of a single instrument. CSO Associate Concertmaster Stephanie Jeong and Assistant Principal Cello Kenneth Olsen take center stage for this exhilarating work. Riccardo Muti concludes the program with Schumann's Third Symphony, inspired by the composer's journey to the Rhineland.
    19 min
  • CSO Program Notes: Muti, Kavakos and Beethoven Violin Concerto
    A season-long Beethoven celebration continues with the composer’s dazzling Violin Concerto performed by the renowned Leonidas Kavakos, “the most deeply satisfying violinist performing today” (Philadelphia Inquirer). Riccardo Muti conducts this towering work along with a world premiere by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Bernard Rands.
    18 min
  • CSO Program Notes: Brahms 3
    Following a "blistering" (Chicago Tribune) CSO podium debut, David Afkham returns to lead a diverse program featuring Haydn's emotionally charged Mourning Symphony, Strauss' tone poem portraying a man's journey through death and Brahms' radiant Third Symphony, which Clara Schumann described as "one beat of the heart, every movement a jewel!"
    15 min
  • Oct 24-26 - The Four Seasons
    Welcome to this digital edition of Phillip Huscher's Program Notes for upcoming concerts by the CSO Oct 24-26. A captivating program of music by Vivaldi, Mozart and Piazzolla features the CSO conducting debut of Julian Rachlin, a violinist of "brilliant high-octane technique" (The New York Times). Rachlin conducts and performs on two vastly different incarnations of The Four Seasons—Vivaldi’s pictorial baroque masterpiece and Piazzolla's tango-inspired take.
    13 min
  • CSO Program Notes: The Four Seasons
    A captivating program of music by Vivaldi, Mozart and Piazzolla features the CSO conducting debut of Julian Rachlin, a
    violinist of "brilliant high-octane technique" (The New York Times). Rachlin conducts and performs on two vastly
    different incarnations of The Four Seasons—Vivaldi’s pictorial baroque masterpiece and Piazzolla's tango-inspired take.
    13 min
  • Oct 10-12 - Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No. 1
    Welcome to this digital edition of Phillip Huscher's Program Notes for upcoming concerts by the CSO Oct 10-12. The sensational young Korean pianist Sunwook Kim, acclaimed for his "ability to shift from fantasy to fireworks and back in a gasp" (The News, Portsmouth), makes his CSO debut with two vivacious works by Mendelssohn—the glittering Piano Concerto No. 1 and virtuosic Capriccio brillant. Ukrainian conductor Kirill Karabits, in his CSO subscription series debut, leads Lutoslawski's melodic, folklore-inspired Concerto for Orchestra.
    15 min
  • CSO Program Notes: Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No. 1
    The sensational young Korean pianist Sunwook Kim, acclaimed for his "ability to shift from fantasy to fireworks and back in a gasp" (The News, Portsmouth), makes his CSO debut with two vivacious works by Mendelssohn—the glittering Piano Concerto No. 1 and virtuosic Capriccio brillant. Ukrainian conductor Kirill Karabits, in his CSO subscription series debut, leads Lutoslawski's melodic, folklore-inspired Concerto for Orchestra.
    15 min

About CSO Audio Program Notes

From the publisher's feed

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.

More shows like CSO Audio Program Notes

Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast by Joshua Weilerstein

Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast

2,182 Listeners

The Bulwark Daily by The Bulwark

The Bulwark Daily

12,507 Listeners