You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘Anthony McGill’ tag.
Wishing a very happy eighty-fifth birthday to Estonian American conductor Neeme Järvi! A frequent guest to the Orchestra Hall podium for nearly forty years, he has led the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a remarkable array of works, including one U.S. and two world premieres. Also with the CSO, Järvi has made four recordings, including Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, along with works by Hindemith, Kodály, Schmidt, and Scriabin, all for Chandos Records.
A complete list of his appearances with the Orchestra is below.
November 21, 22, and 23, 1985, Orchestra Hall
LYADOV Polonaise, Op. 49
RACHMANINOV Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18
Yefim Bronfman, piano
STENHAMMAR Symphony No. 1 in F Major (U.S. premiere)
December 10, 11, 12, and 15, 1987, Orchestra Hall
STENHAMMAR Intermezzo from Sängen, Op. 44
STENHAMMAR Florez och Blanzeflor, Op. 3
Håkan Hagegård, baritone
ALFVÉN Skogen sover, Op. 28, No. 6
Håkan Hagegård, baritone
SIBELIUS Incidental Music from Kuolema
SIBELIUS Four Songs
Håkan Hagegård, baritone
TUBIN Symphony No. 4 in A Major (Sinfonia lirica)
December 17, 18, and 19, 1987, Orchestra Hall
GLAZUNOV Prelude from From the Middle Ages, Op. 79
SHOSTAKOVICH Violin Concerto No. 2 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 129
Samuel Magad, violin
PROKOFIEV Symphony No. 4 in C Major, Op. 112
November 10, 11, and 12, 1988, Orchestra Hall
HAYDN Symphony No. 88 in G Major
LLOYD Symphony No. 7 (world premiere)
April 20, 21, 22, and 25, 1989, Orchestra Hall
SCHMIDT Symphony No. 2 in E-flat Major
CORIGLIANO Pied Piper Fantasy (Concerto for Flute and Orchestra)
James Galway, flute
Marie Bennett, Charlie Chen, Brian Davis, Demarre McGill, Vicki Meier, Anita Mooney, Katherine Naftzger, Esther Sullivan, Kyra Tyler, and Caroline You, flutes
Sharyon Culberson and Brad Fox, percussion
Tracy Cunningham, Kelly Krueger, Anthony McGill, and Carlos Velez, Jr., actors
René Roy, director
Schmidt’s Symphony no. 2 was recorded in Orchestra Hall live in concert.
November 22, 24, 25, and 28, 1989, Orchestra Hall
PÄRT Symphony No. 3
SCRIABIN Poem of Ecstasy, Op. 54
MUSSORGSKY/Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition
Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition were recorded in Orchestra Hall on November 27 and 28, 1989.
February 15, 16, 18, and 20, 1990, Orchestra Hall
KODÁLY Háry János, Op. 35a
Laurence Kaptain, cimbalom
SAINT-SAËNS Piano Concerto No. 5 in F Major, Op. 103 (Egyptian)
Lorin Hollander, piano
KODÁLY Variations on a Hungarian Folksong (The Peacock)
KODÁLY Dances of Galánta
Kodály’s Háry János, Peacock Variations, and Dances of Galánta were recorded in Orchestra Hall live in concert.
January 31, February 1, 2, and 5, 1991, Orchestra Hall
HINDEMITH Concerto for Orchestra, Op. 38
MOZART Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor, K. 491
Radu Lupu, piano
SCHMIDT Symphony No. 3
Hindemith’s Concerto for Orchestra and Schmidt’s Symphony no. 3 were recorded in Orchestra Hall live in concert.
October 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17, 1993, Orchestra Hall
TUBIN/Raid Elegy for Strings
ELLER Folk Tune from Songs of My Homeland
DARZINS Melancholy Waltz
MEDINS Aria
NIELSEN Clarinet Concerto, Op. 57
John Bruce Yeh, clarinet
DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 4 in D Minor, Op. 13
January 5, 6, 7, and 10, 1995, Orchestra Hall
BARBER Intermezzo and Under the Willow Tree from Vanessa
SCHUMANN Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 97 (Rhenish)
RACHMANINOV Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30
Leif Ove Andsnes, piano
TCHAIKOVSKY Excerpts from the Incidental Music for The Snow Maiden
February 13, 14, 15, and 16, 1997, Orchestra Hall
RAPCHAK Saetas (world premiere)
PAGANINI Violin Concerto No. 2 in B Minor, Op. 7
Rachel Barton, violin
NIELSEN Symphony No. 4, Op. 29 (The Inextinguishable)
May 18, 19, 20, and 23, 2000, Orchestra Hall
SCHUMANN Overture to Manfred, Op. 115
BRAHMS Concerto for Violin and Cello in A Minor, Op. 102 (Double)
Samuel Magad, violin
John Sharp, cello
DOHNÁNYI Symphony No. 2 in E Major, Op. 40
October 16, 17, 18, and 21, 2008, Orchestra Hall
RACHMANINOV Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30
Yefim Bronfman, piano
TANEYEV Symphony No. 4 in C Minor, Op. 12
December 8, 9, and 10, 2016, Orchestra Hall
GLAZUNOV Concert Waltz No. 1 in D Major, Op. 47
PROKOFIEV Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major, Op. 19
Vadim Gluzman, violin
SIBELIUS Suite from Karelia, Op. 11
SIBELIUS Symphony No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 82
April 20, 22, and 23, 2017, Orchestra Hall
April 21, 2017, Wheaton College
PÄRT Fratres
Robert Chen, violin
BARTÓK Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. Posth.
Robert Chen, violin
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68 (Pastoral)
December 7, 8, 9, and 12, 2017, Orchestra Hall
SMETANA Music from The Bartered Bride
BARBER Cello Concerto, Op. 22
Alisa Weilerstein, cello
DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 5 in F Major, Op. 76
Happy, happy birthday!
This article also appears here.
Emanuel Ax in 1980 (Nick Sangiamo photo)
Wishing a very happy seventieth birthday to the remarkable American pianist Emanuel Ax! A longtime Chicago favorite—in recital, as a chamber musician, and as soloist with orchestra—he has appeared in Orchestra Hall and at the Ravinia Festival on near-countless occasions.
Following first place triumphs at the Michaels Award of Young Concert Artists and the Artur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, Ax made his local debut at Ravinia on July 23, 1975, substituting for an indisposed Alexis Weissenberg. Performing an all-Chopin program, “the young Polish-American master took the evening by storm,” according to Thomas Willis in the Chicago Tribune. “Still in his middle twenties . . . there is nothing of the poseur in him, no excess mannerism, no youthful sentimentality, no histrionic display. He walks onstage, settles solidly onto the bench, shakes a hand to limber up, and begins to play. At that moment, or within a few seconds, a transformation of near miraculous proportions takes place. . . . This is quite possibly the outstanding poet-performer of his generation.”
Ax made two debuts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra the following year in 1976, on May 20 and 21 in Orchestra Hall, performing Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto under the baton of Henry Mazer, and on July 29 at the Ravinia Festival, as soloist in Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 20 with Andrew Davis on the podium. According to Alan Artner in the Chicago Tribune, media reports following Ax’s competition wins had compared the young pianist to Vladimir Horowitz and Sviatoslav Richter. “But to have actually heard him in Liszt’s Second Concerto was to discover that Ax in n a class virtually by himself. . . . His performance was intelligent, wholly refreshing . . .”
Emanuel Ax in 2016 (Lisa Marie Mazzucco photo)
Since then, Ax has been one of the most frequent guest artists in Orchestra Hall and at the Ravinia Festival, performing with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as well as with visiting orchestras, and as a chamber musician and recitalist with an astounding array of collaborators. He has worked with conductors David Afkham, Daniel Barenboim, James Conlon, James DePreist, Sir Mark Elder, Christoph Eschenbach, Lawrence Foster, Bernard Haitink, Daniel Harding, Mariss Jansons, Bernhard Klee, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Itzhak Perlman, David Robertson, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Leonard Slatkin, Sir Georg Solti, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Christoph von Dohnányi. Ax also has collaborated with Yefim Bronfman, Robert Chen, Evelyn Glennie,
Benjamin Hochman, Aleksey Igudesman, Richard Hyung-ki Joo, Jaime Laredo, Yo-Yo Ma, Anthony McGill, Orli Shaham, Raimi Solomonow, Isaac Stern, Anne Sofie von Otter, and Orion Weiss. With visiting orchestras, he also has performed in Orchestra Hall with the Cleveland Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Juilliard Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.
Ax returns to the Ravinia Festival this summer, as soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on August 2, 2019, in Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto with Rafael Payare on the podium. He will be back in Orchestra Hall next season on March 2, 2020, for an all-Beethoven chamber music concert, collaborating with violinist Leonidas Kavakos and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
Happy, happy birthday!
from the archives 