CSO Audio Program Notes

Oct 30 2024 162 ep. 16 mins 560
CSO Audio Program Notes Podcast artwork

Founded in 1891, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is consistently hailed as one of the greatest orchestras in the world. In collaboration with the best conductors and guest artists on the international music scene, the CSO performs well over one hundred concerts each year at its downtown home, Symphony Center, and at the Ravinia Festival on Chicago’s North Shore, where it is in residency each summer. Music lovers outside Chicago enjoy the sounds of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra through best-selling recordings and frequent sold-out tour performances in the United States and around the globe. Visit cso.org for tickets and information.

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CSO Program Notes: Muti & the CSO

Oct 30 2024 14 mins  
Be transported to the landscapes of southern Spain with vivacious, dance-inspired works by Falla and Chabrier. The journey begins in Riccardo Muti’s native Italy with a boisterous overture by Donizetti and sumptuous ballet music by Verdi. Golijov’s Megalopolis Suite features music from his score to the 2024 release of Francis Ford Coppola’s epic film, in which the fate of Anc

CSO Program Notes: Muti, Uchida, Emperor & Eroica

Oct 25 2024 14 mins  
Music Director Emeritus for Life Riccardo Muti returns with Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony, a work that shattered the symphonic conventions of its day, with themes of heroism, struggle and triumph. Beethoven’s majestic Emperor Concerto features Mitsuko Uchida, who brings “the unaffected wisdom and clarity that comes with decades of interpretive rigor and commitment” (The New Y

CSO Program Notes: Mozart Coronation Mass

Oct 14 2024 10 mins  
Join Nicholas Kraemer and four preeminent singers for a selection of Handel’s brilliant and soul-stirring vocal numbers, which explore the full spectrum of human emotions — from utmost sorrow to joy and sensuality. Plus, enjoy music fit for a king with Handel’s Water Music, composed for the royal court of George I, and Mozart’s grand Coronation Mass. Learn more: cso.org/pe

CSO Program Notes: Alsop & Vondráček

Oct 07 2024 16 mins  
With his Fifth Symphony, Shostakovich outwitted Soviet authorities with the finesse of a double agent. Threatened by Stalin’s regime, the composer skillfully appeased Soviet officials with this gripping work packed with triumphant Russian themes, but also subversive satire and daring irony. Chief conductor of the Ravinia Festival Marin Alsop also leads the CSO in a captivating wo

CSO Program Notes: Eschenbach with Lucas & Arthur Jussen

Sep 16 2024 13 mins  
Lose yourself in the idyllic landscapes of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony. Inspired by the composer’s country hikes, the piece summons rippling streams, a raging thunderstorm and plenty of warmth. Mozart’s double piano concerto showcases the deft teamwork of Dutch brothers Lucas and Arthur Jussen, who make two pianos “sound for all the world like a single instrument” (Gram

CSO Program Notes: Tchaikovsky 4

Sep 16 2024 15 mins  
Starting with a ferocious fanfare representing fate, Tchaikovsky pours his soul into his Fourth Symphony, a fearless musical autobiography packed with surging melodies and dazzling colors. Antoine Tamestit brings his “gorgeous smoky sound” (The Guardian) to Walton’s Viola Concerto, a work of wistful beauty and quicksilver energy. Learn more: cso.org/performances/24-25/cso-cl

CSO Program Notes: Orozco-Estrada Conducts Romeo and Juliet

Sep 16 2024 14 mins  
Forbidden love is in the air as Andrés Orozco-Estrada takes listeners from the streets of Bernstein’s New York to Tchaikovsky’s fantasy on Shakespearean Verona. The Argentine Pampas region is the setting of Ginastera’s vibrant ballet about a city boy who wins the heart of a rancher’s daughter. Barber’s lush and virtuosic Violin Concerto features Benjamin Beilman, whose

CSO Program Notes: Tchaikovsky Pathétique & Trifonov

Jun 14 2024 17 mins  
Lahav Shani conducts Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique, a symphony that the composer premiered less than a week before his death and was later nicknamed for the passion and suffering it expresses. Daniil Trifonov takes the spotlight in a piano concerto composed for him by former CSO Mead Composer-in-Residence Mason Bates, which “shows off the pianist’s virtuosity first and foremost,

CSO Program Notes: The Elements with Joshua Bell

Jun 10 2024 13 mins  
Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell presents The Elements, a suite of five works for violin and orchestra, commissioned by Bell and written by leading American composers Kevin Puts (Earth), Edgar Meyer (Water), Jake Heggie (Fire), Jennifer Higdon (Air), and CSO Mead Composer-in-Residence Jessie Montgomery (Space). Conductor Juraj Valčuha frames the program with Weber’s Ob

CSO Program Notes: Ravel Boléro

Jun 04 2024 13 mins  
Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet brings his customary joie de vivre to Saint-Saëns’ Egyptian Concerto, inspired by a trip down the Nile in 1896. Conductor Stéphane Denève unpacks the French fascination with Spanish culture in Debussy’s sultry Ibéria and Ravel’s ever-popular Boléro, with its sensuously hypnotic theme building to a volcanic climax. Learn more: cso.org/performa