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.
Neeme Järvi (Simon van Boxtel photo)
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
Using a single Telefunken condenser microphone—hung twenty-five feet directly above the conductor’s podium—Mercury recorded Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition on April 23, 1951, at Orchestra Hall. Rafael Kubelík, in his first season as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s fifth music director, conducted, and Adolph Herseth, principal trumpet since 1948, performed the opening fanfare. The recording was the inaugural release on Mercury’s Living Presence series.
In 1996, the original masters were used to transfer the recording to compact disc. In the liner notes for the Mercury rerelease, Robert C. Marsh commented that the original discs “represented the highest state of the art in monophonic recording technique. Hearing them again, some forty-five years later, one is still astonished by the degree to which they project the performers into the presence of the listener, a phenomenon noted in the early reviews by New York Times critic Howard Taubman [who originally coined the phrase ‘living presence’]. . . . Indeed, heard over multiple speaker systems there have always been passages in these recordings in which one is easily convinced that he is, in fact, listening to stereo. The balance, clarity, and texture of the music is so beautifully preserved, the dynamic range is so wide and so free of the compression often associated with monophonic records, that it is difficult to accept that all this sound comes from a monophonic source.”
Adolph “Bud” Herseth
The Orchestra also recorded Pictures in 1957 for RCA with Fritz Reiner conducting, in 1967 for RCA with Seiji Ozawa, in 1976 for Deutsche Grammophon with Carlo Maria Giulini, in 1980 for London Records with Sir Georg Solti, and in 1989 for Chandos with Neeme Järvi. The Reiner and Järvi versions were recorded at Orchestra Hall; Ozawa, Giulini, and Solti recorded at Medinah Temple. A performance video recorded at Suntory Hall in Tokyo on April 15, 1990—which also included an introduction with Solti performing examples at the piano and in rehearsal with the Orchestra—was released by London. On all recordings, Herseth performed the opening fanfare.