'Planets' align as CSO chorus continues 50th anniversary celebration

This has been a season of celebration for the Chicago Symphony Chorus, founded by the late Margaret Hillis at the invitation of then-music director Fritz Reiner in 1957.

Throughout the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's current subscription season at Symphony Center/Orchestra Hall, the chorus' 50th anniversary has been a major programming focus.

Last week, the women of the chorus performed the atmospheric final movement from Gustav Holst's symphonic suite, "The Planets," and at 8 p.m. Saturday, the full chorus will take part in Hector Berlioz' "Romeo and Juliet," with three guest soloists: soprano Isabel Leonard, tenor Michael Shade and bass Laurent Naouri. The guest conductor will be Valery Gergiev.

Then, the chorus will really have an opportunity to display its virtuosity in a wide range of music when its director, Duain Wolfe, leads a 50th anniversary celebration concert at 8 p.m. April 12.

Wolfe will conduct the chorus (along with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra) in some 10 works, many very well-known and others off the beaten path, covering more than three centuries of music. Included will be pieces by J.S. Bach, George Frideric Handel, Johannes Brahms, and the British romantic masters Sir Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Anton Bruckner will be represented by his "Psalm 150," and Giuseppe Verdi by the "Te Deum" from his "Four Sacred Pieces."

The first half of the program will be devoted to intimate a cappella works, with the CSO joining in following intermission with Handel's dramatic coronation anthem, "Zadok the Priest," along with Vaughan Williams' "Serenade to Music" and the Verdi and Bruckner works.

Now in his 14th season as Hillis' successor, Wolfe has maintained her high standards of musicianship. Over the years, the chorus has won nine Grammy awards.

The chorus has also made several tours to Europe and to New York's Carnegie Hall.

The legacy of the chorus has been preserved in recordings from the CSO's Rosenthal Archives, the first two-CD set issued in the 1997-98 season as a 40th anniversary tribute.

If you missed that recording, you now have a chance to own the CSO's 50th anniversary album, which will be made available Sunday, April 13 as a donation premium for "Symphonython 2008," the annual fund-raiser organized by the CSO women's association and broadcast over WFMT 98.7-FM.

In fact, this year's Symphonython is titled "Lift Your Voice!" in honor of the chorus' golden anniversary.

The two-CD set, yours for a pledge of $60, contains nearly 2½ hours of music, including several important choral works not recorded commercially by the CSO.

Pledges can be made by phone during the April 13 broadcast by calling 1-877-CSO-THON or (312) 294-3222 between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Major credit cards will be accepted. You can also pledge online at cso.org/symphonython.

A brochure listing pledge premiums is available by calling (312) 294-3141. All premiums will be mailed with no shipping charge.