“Chicago Symphony Orchestra conductor Riccardo Muti abruptly—but briefly—halted a Saturday night performance after a member of the audience coughed loudly,” writes Morgan Green in Monday’s (6/25) Chicago Tribune. “Muti stopped a performance of ‘Chant sur la Mort de Joseph Haydn,’ Luigi Cherubini’s funeral cantata for the Austrian composer, dead in its tracks … ‘This type of situation does not happen often,’ a CSO spokeswoman said in an emailed statement. ‘However, if there is a significant disruption during the performance, a conductor may choose to stop the performance, allowing the musicians and the audience to regain focus.’… About 30 seconds into the Cherubini piece, Muti put his arms down and the orchestra stopped playing, according to audience members…. The beginning of the Cherubini piece requires the musicians to play very softly….The performance also included Rossini’s ‘Stabat Mater’—the first performance of the piece by the orchestra and Chicago Symphony Chorus in nearly 25 years. In the Tribune review of the concert, John von Rhein said, ‘In all, these concerts represent a special event no lover of great sacred music and great choral singing can afford to miss.’ ”
Posted June 26, 2018
