“Riccardo Muti has signed a new contract with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association that will extend his tenure as CSO music director through the 2021-22 season,” writes John von Rhein in Tuesday’s (1/30) Chicago Tribune. “The CSO’s 128th season, Muti’s ninth as music director, will … commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armistice that ended World War I [with] Requiem settings of Verdi and Mozart, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13 (‘Babi Yar’) and William Schuman’s Symphony No. 9 (‘The Ardeatine Caves’), a response to a massacre of Italian civilians by Nazi soldiers…. The world premiere of French composer Bruno Mantovani’s ‘Threnos,’ a CSO commission conducted by Marin Alsop, will be the focal point of various other Armistice centennial-related programs…. The CSO also will collaborate for the first time with the Joffrey Ballet, in works set to Stravinsky’s music. Muti will … lead the CSO and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago in a side-by-side community concert Sept. 20 at Millennium Park, marking the centennial of the CSO’s pre-professional youth training ensemble…. The CSO’s Charles Vernon will premiere a CSO-commissioned Bass Trombone Concerto by Chicago composer James Stephenson. The CSO at the Movies series will include screenings … with live orchestral accompaniment.”
Posted January 31, 2018
