CSO begins summer residency at Ravinia
Today you can enjoy the Independence Day holiday at home with family and friends, because it's the one scheduled "dark day" at the Ravinia Festival this summer.
That means you can eagerly look forward to Wednesday, when the Chicago Symphony Orchestra begins its 72nd annual summer residency with an 8 p.m. concert featuring acclaimed American violinist Joshua Bell and conductor Leonard Slatkin.
The concert, the first of 18 by the CSO over the following six weeks, will feature Bell playing Jean Sibelius' Violin Concerto in D Minor, with Slatkin also conducting Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 and Georges Enescu's Romanian Rhapsody No. 1.
Bell, an Indiana native, made his major orchestral debut with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra at age 14. He is a Grammy Award winner, and was the featured soloist for the film "The Red Violin," with music by John Corigliano. The composer subsequently arranged his score into a virtuoso concerto especially for Bell, recently recorded with conductor Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. An exclusive artist for the Sony Classical label, Bell has more than 30 CDs to his credit, the first made when he was 18.
Slatkin, the longtime music director of the St. Louis Symphony (1976-96), also served as the National Symphony Orchestra's music director and was recently named music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Slatkin has guest-conducted the CSO on many occasions over the past three decades at Orchestra Hall and Ravinia.
Student musicians from Ravinia's Steans Institute will present a free preview concert in Bennett- Gordon Hall at 5:45 p.m., and following the CSO concert, Bell will autograph his CDs in front of the Ravinia gift shop.
Slatkin will again be on the podium at 8 p.m. Thursday, joining pianist Denis Matsuev, 1998 winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, for Sergei Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 3. The all-Rachmaninov concert will also include the "Vocalise" in E Minor and the Symphonic Dances.
And, here's an early reminder that the following Wednesday (July 16), Chicago Symphony principal conductor Bernard Haitink will make his Ravinia debut with one of his signature works: Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 6 in A Minor ("Tragic").
Tickets for these and most CSO Pavilion concerts are $20, $40 and $60, with lawn admission $10.
Also, a special event will take place at 8 p.m. Tuesday in the Martin Theatre, when pianist Misha Dichter returns to celebrate the 40th anniversary of his Ravinia Festival debut in 1968. He will play a recital with his wife, pianist Cipa Dichter, in a program that will include works by Mozart, Shostakovich, Brahms, Bartˆ½k and Liszt. Tickets are $30 and $50, with lawn tickets $10.
The most convenient way to order tickets (subject to availability) is to visit ravinia.com, using a major credit card. In addition to alerts on sellouts, the Web site also provides weather and traffic updates. To order tickets by phone, call (847) 266-5100 between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. daily and 1-6 p.m. Sundays. Note that the box office is closed today for the July 4 holiday. If buying tickets in person at Ravinia Park, the box office is at the west (Tyler) gate, a few steps east of the Metra tracks. Enter the main parking entrance off Green Bay Road, just north of Lake-Cook Road.