Gina DiBello

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra recently announced Riccardo Muti‘s appointment of Gina DiBello to the Orchestra’s first violin section. She previously had served as principal second violin of the Minnesota Orchestra and as section first violin with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, following studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music and The Juilliard School in New York.

Joseph DiBello (©Todd Rosenberg Photography)

Gina is a Chicago native and has a deep connection to the Orchestra, as she also is the daughter of CSO bass Joseph DiBello (and Lyric Opera of Chicago violin Bonita DiBello), marking only the second father-daughter combination in our history.

Joseph originally studied the bass but initially pursued a career as a pharmacist. He later resumed his musical studies and from 1969 until 1973, he served as principal bass of Philadelphia Lyric Opera and the Delaware Symphony Orchestra. In 1973, he was appointed to the bass section of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and in 1976 Sir Georg Solti invited him to join the bass section of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Lynne Turner (©Todd Rosenberg Photography)

Lynne Turner—currently in her fifty-first season as second harp—also is a CSO legacy, as she is the daughter of former CSO violin Sol Turner (1905–1979). At the age of twenty-one, Lynne was appointed in 1962 by then-music director Fritz Reiner, following her studies with Alberto Salvi in Chicago and with Pierre Jamet at the Paris Conservatory.

Sol Turner

Joseph Vito

But we also have to mention the father-daughter combination of Joseph Vito (1887–1970) and Geraldine Vito Weicher (1915–2006). Joseph served as principal harp from 1927 until 1957, and Geraldine was second harp from 1940 until 1957. However, during that time the position of second harp was hired only on an as-needed basis and was not a fully rostered position until the beginning of the 1957-58 season.

Joseph began his career as a harpist at the age of nine, and at twenty, debuted with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under Emil Paur. He regularly performed with both the San Francisco and Cincinnati symphony orchestras before Frederick Stock hired him as principal harp for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1927.

Geraldine Vito Weicher

Geraldine studied with her father, and she was a member of the Civic Orchestra from 1935 until 1938. She was also married to John Weicher (1904–1969), who spent forty-six years with the Orchestra from 1923 until 1969, serving as concertmaster, assistant concertmaster, principal second violin, personnel manager, and conductor of the Civic Orchestra.

Fathers and sons? Sisters? Brothers? Stay tuned . . .

Walter Liberace in 1943

There are conflicting accounts regarding the details of Liberace’s initial contact with Frederick Stock and the CSO (some of them conflicted by Liberace himself), but the most detailed account for which we have documentation appeared in a December 1977 interview in Jackson, Mississippi’s Clarion-Ledger:

“[Liberace] talked about the huge boost his career got when he performed with the late Frederick Stock, conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. ‘He was a great man and very kind to me. I literally walked off the street into his orchestra. It was 1939 [he would have turned twenty on May 16 of that year], and I was passing by Orchestra Hall, the home of the Chicago Symphony. Out front was a sign that said, “Orchestra in rehearsal—auditions.” I thought that meant they were giving auditions, so I walked in.

“‘Stock was in the middle of a rehearsal. I was discovered by the manager of the orchestra [perhaps Henry E. Voegeli] and immediately invited to leave. A commotion started when I tried to explain why I was there. Dr. Stock turned around and asked the manager what was going on. The manager said, “It’s just some kid who plays the piano and thought you were holding auditions. He only wants to play with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.”

“‘Dr. Stock was amused and asked me what I could play. I told him I could play Liszt’s Piano Concerto in A major, and he said, “Let’s hear it.” Pretty soon, he started singing the orchestra parts, and then, halfway through the concerto, he stopped me. He asked the librarian for the score for the entire orchestra, and while it was being passed out, he asked me about my teacher, my family, and my interest in music. Then I sat down and played the concerto with the whole orchestra. I couldn’t believe it was happening! Later, Dr. Stock booked me to perform in Rochester, Milwaukee, and Chicago.’”

Walter Liberace’s only performance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Twenty-year-old Walter Liberace was soloist with the Orchestra in Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto on January 15, 1940, under the baton of CSO associate conductor Hans Lange. The concert was given at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee, in Liberace’s native Wisconsin. (There is no evidence that Liberace performed with the CSO in Rochester or Chicago.)

Several years ago, the Liberace Museum contacted us to confirm the details of his appearance with the CSO. Unfortunately due to the declining attendance and a poor economy, in October 2010 the museum closed. However, the board of directors for the Liberace Foundation—whose mission is to “help talented students in Southern Nevada pursue careers in the performing and creative arts through scholarship assistance and artistic exposure”—announced in January 2013 that the extensive collection of costumes, cars, jewelry, pianos, and citations for philanthropic acts may once again soon be on public display.

A portion of the Liszt concerto—as performed by Liberace on his television show in 1969—is available here:

First concert of the 20th Ann Arbor May Festival on May 14, 1913

During the 2012-13 season, the University of Michigan celebrates the centennial of Hill Auditorium, which was inaugurated by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on May 14, 1913, in the first of five concerts for the Ann Arbor May Festival that year. CSO music director Frederick Stock and Albert A. Stanley, director of the University Musical Society, shared the podium for that first concert, which featured soprano Marie Rappold singing Wagner and Bruch.

To commemorate the anniversary, the University Musical Society has produced an hourlong documentary, which premiered on Detroit Public Television last week. From the university’s website: “Designed by the renowned architect Albert Kahn and boasting one of the world’s finest acoustical designs, Hill Auditorium has been a true cultural incubator for the arts community in southeast Michigan for the past 100 years. . . . Through concert recordings, news articles, and anecdotal interviews, A Space for Music, A Seat for Everyone: 100 Years of UMS Performances in Hill Auditorium provides historical context for the auditorium’s role as UMS’s primary concert venue and highlights its evolving community function.”

The documentary is here:

The Thursday, May 15, 1913, concert featured a performance of Verdi’s Requiem with Florence Hinkle, Ernestine Schumann-Heink, Lambert Murphy, Henri Scott, and the Choral Union. Stanley conducted.

Stanley and Stock shared the podium on Friday afternoon, May 16 for a children’s concert, also with Schumann-Heink and the Children’s Chorus. That evening, Stock led a “Miscellaneous Concert” of popular concert favorites, featuring baritone Pasquale Amato.

Fifth concert of the festival on May 17, 1913

Stock and Stanley again shared the podium for the fifth concert of the festival—an all-Wagner concert, that included the first act of Lohengrin, selections from Götterdämmerung (with Siegfried’s Funeral March performed in memory of Arthur Hill, a regent of the university from 1901 to 1909 who bequeathed $200,000 for the auditorium’s construction), and the finale from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Singers on hand that night included Marie Rappold, Rosalie Wirthlin, Lambert Murphy, William Hinshaw, Frederick A. Munson, and Henri Scott.

Earlier this season, the CSO under music director Riccardo Muti helped to inaugurate Hill Auditorium’s centennial season with a concert on September 27, 2012. The program included Wagner’s Overture to The Flying Dutchman, Bates‘s Alternative Energy, and Franck’s Symphony in D minor. And for an encore, the Orchestra played the university’s fight song, The Victors, arranged by CSO violist, Max Raimi.

Congratulations to our friends at the University of Michigan and happy anniversary!

Yuja Wang as soloist in Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on April 3, 2013. Sakari Oramo conducts. (Todd Rosenberg photo)

A crew from Euronews‘s Musica program was in town this past April, filming a segment on the remarkable Chinese pianist Yuja Wang. Wang was in town for performances of Sergei Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto with Sakari Oramo conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Wang visited the Rosenthal Archives during her visit and had a chance to see materials relating to Prokofiev’s many visits with the CSO, including the world premiere performances of his Third Piano Concerto in December 1921. And in the Musica segment, several archival images are used and Wang gives the Archives a nice little shout-out.

The program for the world premiere of Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto with the composer as soloist and Frederick Stock conducting. The composer also conducted the first Chicago performances of his First Symphony.

Sergei Prokofiev’s program biography for the world premiere of his Third Piano Concerto in December 1921.

The cover of Balakirev’s Tamara, from the Theodore Thomas Collection

One of Rimsky-Korsakov’s influences for Sheherazade was a composition by fellow Russian Mily Alexeivich Balakirev, entitled Tamara. Considered by many to be Balakirev’s greatest work, this symphonic poem is also a hallmark example of Orientalism in music. Theodore Thomas led the Orchestra in the United States premiere of Tamara on October 23, 1896, and a first edition of the score (with a spectacular cover) is in the Thomas collection, here in the Rosenthal Archives.

Arthur Mees’s program note for the first performances is here, and on October 24, 1896, the Chicago Daily Tribune offered the following review:

“The program opened with one of the many novelties by young composers to be played this season, Paul Gilson’s Fanfare Inaugurale, and comprised in the second part Balakireff’s symphonic poem Thamar. The latter, naturally of main importance, is first of all an intellectual piece of writing. The poem upon which it is founded—the myth of the cruel Queen of the Georgians, Thamar—is followed in an impressionistic way. There is the wealth of fancy almost Eastern, which seems a possession of Russian writers generally, and an instrumentation bizarre to the point of barbaric crudeness.

The first subscription concerts of the Chicago Orchestra’s sixth season – October 23 and 24, 1896

“Yet in this example of Balakireff’s art there is restraint in this final trait: the restraint emanating from thorough intelligence. There it is that there is evidenced the advantage of an early training in a widely opposite direction than music, and while the spontaneity of born musical genius may not shine forth in Thamar, there is the next best thing to it, an intelligence sufficient to greatly disguise the fact. It is above all interesting and unique. There are serious deviations and lack of directness in the following of the story, which it purports to convey, but it is nevertheless characteristic.”

Legendary cellist and teacher János Starker, principal cello (1953–1958) and frequent soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, died on April 28, 2013, in Bloomington, Indiana. He was 88.

János Starker was born in Budapest, Hungary to Russian émigré parents. He began cello studies at age six, taught his first lesson at age eight, and gave his first public performance at age ten. He studied at the Franz Liszt Royal Academy, where faculty included Béla Bartók, Zoltan Kodály, Ernst von Dohnányi, and Leo Weiner. It was also at the Liszt Academy where he met his lifelong friend and future CSO concertmaster, Victor Aitay.

After imprisonment in a internment camp (on Csepel Island, in the Danube next to Budapest) during World War II, Starker became principal cello of the Budapest Opera and Philharmonic orchestras. With Aitay, he left Hungary in 1946 for Vienna, performing as soloist and in Aitay’s string quartet. Starker immigrated to the United States in 1948 and joined the Dallas Symphony Orchestra as principal cello at the invitation of Antal Doráti. The next year, he occupied the same position in New York City’s Metropolitan Opera under the direction of fellow Hungarian Fritz Reiner. With Reiner, Starker came to Chicago and became principal cello of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1953. He became an American citizen in 1954.

Fritz Reiner and the newest members of the Orchestra in 1953: Nathan Snader, violin; Juan Cuneo, violin; Joseph Golan, violin; Alan Fuchs, horn; Sheppard Lehnhoff, viola; Ray Still, oboe; and Starker.

In 1958, Starker left Chicago and resumed his career as an international soloist and for the next five decades, he appeared in recitals and as soloist with the world’s leading orchestras. In addition to performing all the major works from the cello repertoire, he performed concertos written for him by David Baker, Doráti, Bernhard Heiden, Jean Martinon, Miklós Rózsa, Robert Starer, and Chou Wen-chung. Starker was the subject of countless news articles, magazine profiles, and television documentaries, and his performances have been broadcast on radio and television around the world.

Starker’s discography includes more than 270 recordings of over 180 pieces, many of which have become landmark records of cello literature. He made an unprecedented five recordings of J.S. Bach’s Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello; the final album received the 1997 Grammy Award for best instrumental soloist performance (without orchestra). Starker’s first recording of Kodály’s Sonata for Unaccompanied Cello received France’s Grand prix du disque in 1948.

Starker was equally renowned as a teacher. He joined the faculty of Indiana University in 1958 and was named a distinguished professor in 1962. He taught at the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada for seventeen years and at the Hochschule für Musik in Essen, Germany for five years, and many of his students (including the CSO’s own Brant Taylor) have won prestigious awards and occupy prominent positions in chamber ensembles and major orchestras. Starker published and recorded a series of studies entitled An Organized Method of String Playing which remains an important piece of cello instruction. He published or edited numerous musical scores and articles, and developed the Starker Bridge designed to enhance the acoustics of stringed instruments. His autobiography, The World of Music According to Starker, was published by Indiana University Press in 2004.

Starker received five honorary degrees and numerous awards including the Kodály Commemorative Medallion from the Government of Hungary in 1983 and the Chevalier de l’Order des Arts et des Lettres from the French Republic in 1997. He played the Lord Aylesford Stradivarius cello between 1950 and 1964, and he also played a 1705 Matteo Goffriller cello throughout his career.

Starker was soloist in the United States premiere of Martinon’s Cello Concerto at the Ravinia Festival on July 31, 1965. Seiji Ozawa, the Festival’s music director, conducted.

A complete list of János Starker’s solo appearances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra are below (subscription concerts at Orchestra Hall, unless otherwise noted):

November 19 and 20, 1953
DVOŘÁK Cello Concerto in B Minor, Op. 104
Fritz Reiner, conductor

November 24, 1953
SCHUBERT/Cassadó Cello Concerto in A Minor
Fritz Reiner, conductor

February 4 and 5, 1954
BEETHOVEN Triple Concerto in C Major, Op. 56
Bruno Walter, conductor
George Schick, piano
John Weicher, violin

January 6 and 7, 1955
BRAHMS Double Concerto in A Minor, Op. 102
Bruno Walter, conductor
John Weicher, violin

April 14 and 15, 1955
PROKOFIEV Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 58
Fritz Reiner, conductor

October 6, 7, and 11, 1955
STRAUSS Don Quixote, Op. 35
Fritz Reiner, conductor
John Weicher, violin
Milton Preves, viola

January 5 and 6, 1956
SCHUMANN Cello Concerto in A Minor, Op. 129
Fritz Reiner, conductor

February 28, March 1, and 12, 1957
BRAHMS Double Concerto in A Minor, Op. 102
Fritz Reiner, conductor
John Weicher, violin

March 14 and 15, 1957
SAINT-SAËNS Cello Concerto in A Minor, Op. 33
Fritz Reiner, conductor

June 28, 1957 (Ravinia Festival)
DVOŘÁK Cello Concerto in B Minor, Op. 104
Igor Markevitch, conductor

December 5 and 6, 1957
HINDEMITH Cello Concerto
Fritz Reiner, conductor

March 20, 21, and 25, 1958
STRAUSS Don Quixote, Op. 35
Fritz Reiner, conductor
John Weicher, violin
Milton Preves, viola

October 19 and 20, 1961
PROKOFIEV Symphony-Concerto for Cello, Op. 125
Erich Leinsdorf, conductor

July 23, 1963 (Ravinia Festival)
DVOŘÁK Cello Concerto in B Minor, Op. 104
Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, conductor

July 30, 1963 (Ravinia Festival)
WALTON Cello Concerto
Sir William Walton, conductor

December 3 and 4, 1964
HAYDN Cello Concerto in C Major
TCHAIKOVSKY Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33
Jean Martinon, conductor

July 31, 1965 (Ravinia Festival)
MARTINON Cello Concerto, Op. 52
Seiji Ozawa, conductor

July 29, 1967 (Ravinia Festival)
LALO Cello Concerto in D Minor
Jean Martinon, conductor

May 9 and 10, 1968
HINDEMITH Cello Concerto
Jean Martinon, conductor

July 18, 1970 (Ravinia Festival)
DVOŘÁK Cello Concerto in B Minor, Op. 104
István Kertész, conductor

November 4 and 5, 1971
RÓZSA Cello Concerto, Op. 32
Georg Solti, conductor

July 15, 1972 (Ravinia Festival)
HAYDN Cello Concerto in C Major
István Kertész, conductor

July 21, 1973 (Ravinia Festival)
BEETHOVEN Triple Concerto in C Major, Op. 56
BRAHMS Double Concerto in A Minor, Op. 102
Sergiu Comissiona, conductor
Rudolf Buchbinder, piano
Franco Gulli, violin

July 27, 1974 (Ravinia Festival)
SAINT-SAËNS Cello Concerto in A Minor, Op. 33
TCHAIKOVSKY Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33
Kazimierz Kord, conductor

August 2, 1975 (Ravinia Festival)
SHOSTAKOVICH Cello Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major, Op. 107
Lawrence Foster, conductor

October 7, 8, and 9, 1976
SAINT-SAËNS Cello Concerto in A Minor, Op. 33
Sir Georg Solti, conductor

November 22, 24, and 25, 1978
BOCCHERINI Cello Concerto B-flat Major
Sir Georg Solti, conductor

November 25, 27, and 28, 1987
HINDEMITH Cello Concerto
Erich Leinsdorf, conductor

It’s the end of an era.

Adolph “Bud” Herseth, who served the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for fifty-six years as principal trumpet (1948–2001) and principal trumpet emeritus (2001–2004), passed away on April 13, 2013, at home in Oak Park. He was 91.

Born in 1921 in Minnesota, Herseth earned a degree at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. He originally planned to become a teacher but gravitated to performance as a career while in the armed forces. During World War II, Herseth served as a bandsman at the pre-flight school in Iowa and at the U.S. Navy School of Music. He ended his military service with the Commander of the Philippine Sea Frontier in the South Pacific.

In early 1948 while studying for his master’s degree from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Herseth was appointed by Music Director Artur Rodzinski to the post of principal trumpet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He never performed with Rodzinski (whose music directorship ended in April 1948) but would go on to serve under five CSO music directors: Rafael Kubelík, Fritz Reiner, Jean Martinon, Sir Georg Solti, and Daniel Barenboim. Herseth made countless solo appearances and recorded extensively with the Orchestra, including seven recordings of Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures from an Exhibition (under Kubelík, Reiner, Seiji Ozawa, Carlo Maria Giulini, Solti (twice), and Neeme Järvi).

Constantly devoted to the development of the next generation of symphony orchestra musicians, Herseth regularly gave seminars, coaching sessions, and master classes in Chicago and throughout Europe and worked with the European Community Youth Orchestra, the West-Eastern Divan Workshop for Young Musicians, and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

Herseth held honorary doctor of music degrees from DePaul University, Luther College, the New England Conservatory of Music, Rosary College, and Valparaiso University. He received the Living Art of Music Symphonic Musician Award in 1994, was named Instrumentalist of the Year by Musical America in 1995, and was an honorary member of the Royal Danish Guild of Trumpeters. In June 2001, Herseth received the American Symphony Orchestra League’s Gold Baton Award, marking the first time in the League’s history that the award was bestowed on an orchestral player, and he was also awarded an honorary membership from London’s Royal Academy of Music at its commencement exercises. He was accorded a singular honor in 1988, when the principal trumpet chair of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which he continued to occupy until 2001, was named after him.

On June 7, 1998, Herseth’s friends—including Doc Severinsen, Daniel Barenboim, Arnold Jacobs, Frank Crisafulli, Arturo Sandoval, and numerous brass players from around the world—appeared in a tribute performance at Orchestra Hall to celebrate his fiftieth anniversary with the CSO. On January 27, 2000, the CSO’s Women’s Association recognized Herseth for his “one season plus five decades” as the CSO’s principal trumpet.

After the Ravinia Festival season in the summer of 2001, Herseth relinquished the principal trumpet chair and became principal trumpet emeritus. On February 21, 2004, he retired from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra after fifty-six years and received the Theodore Thomas Medallion for Distinguished Service. Following retirement, Herseth was a longtime member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Alumni Association.

Herseth is survived by Avis, his wife of sixty-nine years; their two children Christine Hoefer and Stephen (Mary Jo); and six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. His son Charles (Judith) preceded him in death in 1996. Services will be private and details regarding a memorial will be announced at a later date. Letters of condolence may be sent to the Bud Herseth family (c/o Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 220 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60604). In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Luther College, or the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.

Herseth was interviewed by John von Rhein in the Chicago Tribune in April 2001, shortly after the announcement that he would cede the principal trumpet chair. He said, “for years I’ve been telling people I am lucky to get here, fortunate to still be here and to have had all these marvelous experiences.” And when asked how he would like posterity to remember him, Herseth replied, “as a fairly decent guy who gave it his best every time he had the chance.”

A quintet of musicians—including Chicago Symphony Orchestra members J. Lawrie Bloom, Richard Graef, Dennis Michel, and James Smelser—took time out of their busy schedules today to visit the kids and teachers at Frederick Stock School (named for the Orchestra’s second music director) in Chicago’s Edison Park neighborhood. The ensemble played several selections together and each musician spoke to the assembly, describing their instrument and demonstrating its range and versatility. A great time was had by all!

The visit was presented under the auspices of the CSO’s Institute for Learning, Access, and Training.

The quintet—Richard Graef, Anne Bach, Dennis Michel, James Smelser, and J. Lawrie Bloom—entertains Stock’s kids and teachers

James Smelser demonstrates different horn calls

J. Lawrie Bloom describes his clarinet to Stock kids

Dennis Michel shows Stock kids just how low a bassoon can play

We just received copies of an excellent new two-CD set from Decca Classics (one of their many releases and re-releases commemorating Solti’s centennial). It’s called Solti: The Legacy, 1937–1997 and includes studio, live, and rehearsal recordings—the majority of them released for the very first time—covering a sixty-year span.

A few highlights:

• A twenty-four-year-old Georg Solti playing the glockenspiel in Mozart’s The Magic Flute with Arturo Toscanini conducting baritone Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender and the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival in 1937.

• Renata Tebaldi and Richard Tucker performing the duet “Vicino a te” from Giordano’s Andrea Chenier, performed at Lyric Opera of Chicago
on November 10, 1956, during Solti’s debut season there.

• Two selections from Solti’s 75th birthday concert with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Orchestra Hall on October 9, 1987: Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos in E-flat major, K. 365 with Murray Perahia and Solti (conducting from the keyboard); and Kiri Te Kanawa and Plácido Domingo performing the duet “Già nella notte densa” from Verdi’s Otello.

Check it out!

Boulez speaks at a special event in the Grainger Ballroom at Orchestra Hall on March 30, 1995, celebrating his seventieth birthday. CSO composer-in-residence Shulamit Ran looks on.

All best wishes to Pierre Boulez, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Helen Regenstein Conductor Emeritus, on the occasion of his eighty-eighth birthday!