Lang Lang featured at weekend gala concert as CSO returns

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is back in town after another triumphant tour to Europe, highlighted by stops at the BBC Proms at London's Royal Albert Hall, Amsterdam's acoustically resplendent Concertgebouw and the magnificent new concert hall in Lucerne, Switzerland.

This weekend, the CSO opens its "home" season at Symphony Center/Orchestra Hall with a subscription concert at 8 p.m. Friday, conducted by Charles Dutoit, with CSO concertmaster Robert Chen, the soloist in Edouard Lalo's "Symfonie espagnole" for Violin and Orchestra, with the program also including Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony and Gioachino Rossini's "La gazza ladra" Overture.

That program will be repeated at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 25, and 1:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 26, when the 2008-09 season begins in earnest.

Celebrating the CSO's 118th season will be Saturday's annual gala concert, featuring pianist Lang Lang and conducted by Dutoit. Lang will play Frederic Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor, while Dutoit will also conduct "Finlandia" by Jean Sibelius and Modest Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition."

Following a concert at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the University of Illinois' Krannert Center in Urbana (repeating Friday's Symphony Center program), the orchestra will host its annual "Macy's Day of Music," a free marathon of orchestral, chamber music, jazz, folk and world music performed on stages throughout Symphony Center. The CSO's concert will be at 2 p.m., midway through the all-day event.

The CSO's critically acclaimed "Beyond the Score" interactive audience series will begin at 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 28, with the featured work "Pictures at an Exhibition," a score that has been a signature work throughout the CSO's history. Dutoit will conduct, and CSO artistic programming adviser Gerard McBurney will host the program which, like the other two "Beyond the Score" programs May 17 and June 7, will be tied to the CSO's artistic theme for the season, "Echoes of Nations."

The 2008-09 subscription season will conclude with three weeks of concerts devoted to the music of Czech composer Antonin Dvorak, conducted by Mark Elder. This mini-festival, part of the "Echoes of Nations" initiative, will include Dvorak's Symphonies Nos. 3, 7, 8 and 9; the "Te Deum" (with the CSO Chorus), opera selections sung by soprano Patricia Racette, solo violin works played by Rachel Barton Pine and Janine Jansen and cellist Alisa Weilerstein, and the season's final "Beyond the Score" program, featuring Dvorak's Ninth ("New World") Symphony.

For ticket information, call (312) 294-3000 or (800) 223-7114 during normal business hours. You can also order tickets 24 hours on line by visiting cso.org. Single-concert tickets and various subscription packages (for savings up to 36 percent over single tickets) are available.

Ravinia's 2009 CSO season: Virtually on the eve of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Orchestra Hall subscription season, the Ravinia Festival on Thursday released first details of the orchestra's 2009 summer residency.

The CSO will be a participant in Ravinia's celebration of the Lincoln Bicentennial, including the annual Gala Benefit Evening on July 18, when music director James Conlon conducts Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait." The concert also includes Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with four vocal soloists and the Chicago Symphony Chorus.

Next summer's 17 CSO concerts at Ravinia will feature only two conductors: Conlon, who will be on the podium for 11 nights; and Christoph Eschenbach, his predecessor as Ravinia music director, conducting six concerts.

Conlon will continue his survey of the Mahler symphonies with the Ninth Symphony and "Song of the Earth," the latter with mezzo-soprano Michelle DeYoung and tenor Stuart Skelton.

Conlon will offer the fifth chapter in his "Breaking the Silence" series, honoring composers who, along with their music, were suppressed by the Third Reich before and during World War II. This year's composer is Kurt Weill, who emigrated to the United States and created a widely respected body of music for the stage, including "Street Scene" and "The Threepenny Opera."

Following his highly praised Mozart Operas last month in the Martin Theatre, Conlon will follow up on Aug. 15 with a concert performance in the pavilion of Giuseppe Verdi's "Rigoletto." The title role will be sung by Dmitri Hvorostovsky, with soprano Eglise Gutierrez as Gilda.

Eschenbach's concerts will include programs July 26 and 28, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Ravinia debut of pianist Lang Lang as a last-minute gala concert substitute. That 1999 concert is credited as the launching point of the then-teenage Lang's international career. He will play Sergei Prokofiev's Concerto No. 3 on July 26, with works to be announced for the concert of July 28 in which Lang will collaborate with jazz pianist Herbie Hancock.

Additional details of the 2009 CSO Ravinia residency will be released in coming months.