Chicago Symphony Orchestra resumes live concerts
If you know how to live without attending live classical music events, you are a lucky person. I don't. I have to tell you - I have been suffering since I wrote my article about the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's concert featuring Maestro Blomstedt and attended that concert back in March 2020, right before the pandemic. We all had to go through a lot during these months, and not being able to hold and attend live classical music events became a great challenge for the musicians as well as for their audiences.
The news release from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra about its upcoming live concerts was the best news I have received since March 2020. The exchange of energy between the musicians and their audiences is priceless, and I praise Chicago Symphony Orchestra for resuming its live concerts. The orchestra's three distinct programs will open on May 27, June 3 and June 10. They will be presented on consecutive weekends with performances taking place Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 1:30 p.m., Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. at Symphony Center located at 220 S. Michigan Avenue in Chicago.
New "Safe and Sound" measures have been adopted to welcome patrons back to Symphony Center. Patrons and staff are required to follow all the necessary safety measures such as wearing face coverings and observing social distancing guidelines when inside the Symphony Center. The May and June concerts at Symphony Center will be presented for reduced-capacity audiences in Orchestra Hall with safety measures in place in accordance with current state and city COVID-19 guidelines for public events. You can find more information about the new "Safe and Sound" safety measures at Symphony Center here: cso.org/safeandsound.
"We are truly delighted to welcome audiences back to Symphony Center for live concerts this spring," noted CSOA President Jeff Alexander. "Consistent collaboration across the organization, the artistic guidance from Zell Music Director Riccardo Muti and our consultation with city and public health officials have made it possible to begin safely sharing the joy of live music with the community again."
During the 2020/21 season, the CSO musicians were able to safely rehearse and perform a wide variety of digital programs created for https://cso.org/tv thanks to partnership with health care workers from Rush University System for Health during the pandemic. They are invited to attend the orchestra's opening concert on May 27.
"There is no greater joy for us than to share music with our audiences," said CSO Members' Committee Chair James Smelser. "We are extremely grateful to all our loyal patrons and donors, Maestro Muti, and the entire organization for the tremendous support and planning needed to welcome audiences back to our beautiful home, Orchestra Hall."
The three live concert programs prepared by the CSO are truly unique and were carefully selected. They will feature music for brass and percussion, string ensembles and orchestra, and will be led by conductors Michael Mulcahy, Erina Yashima and Edo de Waart, respectively.
The first concert program is called Fanfare and is going to take place on May 27, 28, 29 and 30. Under the baton of Maestro Michael Mulcahy, the CSO's renowned trombonist, soloist, conductor, and teacher, the orchestra will start this concert program with Fanfare for the Common Man by American composer Aaron Copland. This piece was written in 1942 in honor of those engaged in World War II. It's Copland's best known concert opener. It will be followed by Symphony for Brass and Percussion, Op. 16 written by a titan of American music, Gunther Schuller, in 1950. By creating this spectacular piece the composer showed "the brass family are not limited to the stereotypes of expression usually associated with them."
The audience will also have a chance to enjoy Samuel Barber's Mutations from Bach (1968). It is based on "Christe, du Lamm Gottes" (Christ, you Lamb of God), a Lutheran hymn, which is "transformed" or "mutated" by the composer into several contrasting episodes. This concert program will also include Street Song for Symphonic Brass by American conductor and composer Michael Tilson Thomas and Presto Barbaro from On the Waterfront by a significant American cultural personality of the 20th century, Leonard Bernstein, arranged by Frank Erickson.
The second concert program is called Strum and will take place on June 3, 4, 5 and 6. It will start with the touching and sincere music of the prominent composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, who was born in 1875 to an English mother and a father originally from Sierra Leone. He fought against race prejudice with his incredible compositions, and his Novelettes are a great example of that. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra's audiences will have a chance to enjoy the composer's Novelette in A Minor, Op. 52, No. 3 and Novelette in D Major, Op. 52, No. 4.
The program will also include Symphony No. 5 by famous Austrian composer Franz Schubert. He wrote it in 1816 at the age of 19. At that time Schubert was particularly impressed by the music of Mozart, and the audience will hear some similarities between this symphony and the style of Mozart. The next piece, Strum, was written by Jessie Montgomery, a modern American composer.
"Drawing on American folk idioms and the spirit of dance and movement, Strum has a kind of narrative that begins with fleeting nostalgia and transforms into ecstatic celebration," wrote Montgomery about this piece.
Dances of Galánta by prominent composer and authority on Hungarian folk music, Zoltán Kodály, will conclude this concert program.
The third concert program is called Overture and will take place on June 10, 11, 12, and 13. It will start with Overture to Don Giovanni written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He wrote his 2 act opera Don Giovanni in 1787, however it is said the overture was composed the night before the opera's premiere. Needless to say, the proximity of the writing of this composition didn't reflect on the quality of this amazing piece.
It will be followed by a picturesque composition called Siegfried Idyll by German composer Richard Wagner, which he devoted to his wife Cosima and their son. The sounds of one of the most recognizable masterpieces written by Mozart, Symphony No. 40, will conclude this concert program. Although it's one of only two symphonies that he wrote in minor keys and that demonstrates darker and stronger emotions, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's audience will leave the Symphony Center with happy and warm feelings.
The beauty of classical music will save this world. I have been writing about it for years, and especially now I firmly believe it's true. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra musicians can't wait to see you again and to share with you the warmth of their hearts, the sounds of their instruments, and the beauty of classical music.
The three programs presented at Symphony Center May 27-June 13, 2021 will be recorded for possible, future release on https://cso.org/tv. The ticket price varies from $29 to $99. Due to current restrictions on audience capacities for performance venues, ticket availability is limited. Tickets for the CSO's May and June concerts are available at https://cso.org/home/ or by calling 312-294-3000.