In Tuesday’s (1/26) Chicago Tribune, John Von Rhein writes that during the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s 125th season in 2016-17, “Four world premieres are promised, including a cello concerto written by Esa-Pekka Salonen for Yo-Yo Ma … also a CSO-commissioned orchestral work by composer-in-residence Samuel Adams…. Other new works are promised from American composer Melinda Wagner and Australian composer Carl Vine.” Music Director Riccardo Muti will conduct Prokofiev’s oratorio Ivan the Terrible, “drawn from his score to the unfinished Sergei Eisenstein film from the 1940s … with vocal soloists, narrator Gerard Depardieu and the Chicago Symphony Chorus…. The CSO’s 125th anniversary celebration will culminate with a Symphony Ball program in October recreating the orchestra’s very first concert—including Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, with Daniil Trifonov as soloist.” Also planned are a Brahms symphony cycle, performances at Wheaton College, a Beethoven piano concerto cycle; and a screening of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial with a live performance of the John Williams score. “Muti also is to lead the CSO’s two-week, 11-concert tour to Europe in January and he will direct an all-Beethoven program as the CSO’s free gift to the South Side community in October at the Apostolic Church of God.” The CSO will discontinue the long-running Afterwork Masterworks and Beyond the Score concert series in 2016-17.
Posted January 27, 2016
