CSO welcomes Branford Marsalis to start home season
Its European tour just concluded, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is ready to settle in for the season at Symphony Center/Orchestra Hall.
Although the CSO nominally opened last month with a handful of subscription concerts under the baton of guest conductor Riccardo Muti (who also led the tour), the home season begins for real tonight when David Robertson conducts a program of French and American music, featuring saxophone soloist Branford Marsalis.
And the traditional kickoff event, the free Macy's Day of Music, is set for noon to 10 p.m. Saturday.
Things are looking up for the CSO, which last season posted a modest profit after several seasons of slippage in ticket sales. This has been accomplished, in part, as a result of several artistic initiatives that have helped make classical music matter to new audience members as well as more than just a weekly obligation to subscribers attending concerts for up to 30 years.
These initiatives include "Beyond the Score," the Sunday afternoon series entering its third year; the "Classical Encounter" lecture series (sixth year) and "Afterwork Masterworks" rush hour concert series and "Classical Tapestry" audience diversity program, both in their fourth year.
"I think all of these initiatives are about being really in contact and connection with our audience, and we've really seen some nice upside in ticket sales in general," said CSO vice president for artistic administration Martha Gilmer.
This season's three "Beyond the Score" concerts (all at 3 p.m. Sundays) will be Jan. 13, when conductor Myung-Whun Chung leads Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony; March 30, when Charles Dutoit conducts Gustav Holst's "The Planets"; and May 25, when early music specialist Harry Bicket explores Antonio Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons," with violin soloist Yuan-Qing Yu.
Gilmer points to two major themes for the 2007-08 season: a focus on the French-Russian musical connection, and the CSO's ongoing commitment to bringing the world's leading conductors to Orchestra Hall.
"The French composer Hector Berlioz, for example, became hugely popular in Russia," Gilmer said. "His music influenced a whole generation of composers. We'll be exploring that throughout the season, including the CSO subscription concerts, 'Symphony Center Presents' and chamber music. The interesting part about French and Russian music is the sort of arch that crosses over the central core of Austrian-Germanic repertoire, so it's an interesting time to be able to explore that connection."
The Berlioz works on this season's schedule include the dramatic symphony "Romeo and Juliet," featuring the Chicago Symphony Chorus as part of its season-long 50th anniversary celebration; the song cycle "Les nuits d'ete," ("Summer nights") with mezzo-soprano Susan Graham; and "Harold in Italy," with viola soloist Pinchas Zukerman.
The Russian repertoire will be represented by such composers as Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Rachmaninioff, Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky.
"The list of guest conductors is almost unprecedented," Gilmer said. "On our podium this year we have Riccardo Muti, Bernard Haitink, Pierre Boulez, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Von Dohnanyi, Valery Gergiev, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas and several others. It's really an incredible list of conductors, and we're very proud of that."
Haitink, the CSO's principal conductor, will begin his fall residency next week with Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 6 in A Minor, and the renowned Dutch maestro will also lead music by Mozart, Brahms and Ravel (the complete "Daphnis and Chloe") along with Francis Poulenc's "Gloria" (both with the CSO Chorus). On Oct. 25-27, Haitink will conduct a newly commissioned work by composer-in-residence Mark Anthony Turnage, with a Chicago theme based on texts by Carl Sandburg.
The CSO's other composer-in-residence, Osvaldo Golijov, will in February see the CSO premiere of his Grammy Award-winning "Ainadamar" ("Fountain of Tears"), featuring American soprano Dawn Upshaw, who made the premiere recording and performed it with the Atlanta Symphony in 2006 at Ravinia.
The 50th anniversary celebration of the Chicago Symphony Chorus will also include "Romeo and Juliet" by Berlioz and Poulenc "Gloria," along with Mozart's C Minor Mass, the latter to be conducted in late January by Esa-Pekka Salonen, who will also be taking over the concerts in mid-April originally to be conducted by the late Mstislav Rostropovich.
Macy's Day of Music: If you intend to attend Saturday's free extravaganza, you will have a choice of some two dozen events scheduled throughout Symphony Center beginning at noon.
Two programs of special interest will be the annual free CSO concert at 2 p.m. under the baton of David Robertson; and a showing of F.W. Murnau's silent film "Nosferatu" at 8 p.m., with musical accompaniment by the Tortoise ensemble.