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Retired violists gather at the October 19, 1996, CSO Alumni Association reunion: William Schoen (1964–1996), Milton Preves (1934–1939, principal 1939–1986), Phillip Kauffman, Isadore Zverow, and Donald Evans (1948–1988) (Jim Steere photo)
Virtually every Chicago Symphony Orchestra musician studied with a great teacher, who studied with great teachers before that—a process that traces back to Bernstein, Brahms, and Bach. Along with our beloved Italian maestro, Riccardo Muti, the members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Alumni Association are a living link to past generations of legendary performers, conductors, and composers, and our artist musicians hail from many different countries who share a common musical heritage.

Lady Valerie Solti is greeted by CSOAA president Tom Hall at the Cliff Dwellers on October 16, 2009 (Dan Rest photo)
As we conclude the celebrations surrounding the Orchestra’s festive 125th season, the CSOAA also celebrates an anniversary this year—its twenty-fifth. The CSOAA consists of nearly 130 members—including retired and former musicians, spouses, and children—an astonishing aggregate total of well over a thousand years of service to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra! In 1991, Isadore Zverow (viola, 1945–1988) fostered the idea of the CSOAA, and subsequent presidents have included Sam Denov (percussion, 1954–1985), Phillip Kauffman (violin and viola, 1927–1930 and 1964–1984), Jerry Sabransky (violin, 1949–1997), and currently Tom Hall (violin, 1970–2006).

Victor Aitay (assistant/associate concertmaster 1954–1967, concertmaster 1967–1986, concertmaster emeritus 1986–2003) and his daughter Ava along with Donald Peck (flute 1957–1958, principal 1958–1999) and Edward Druzinsky (seated, principal harp 1957–1997) at the Cliff Dwellers on October 16, 2009 (Dan Rest photo)
Having performed for many years together on stages all over the world, alumni continue to interact with each other through the CSOAA; and each season, members receive discounts to concerts and the Symphony Store. The organization enjoys the warm embrace of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association, which holds its former musicians close as senior members of the Orchestra’s family. Current CSOA President Jeff Alexander has been most gracious in supporting the retirees, some of whom are well into their nineties. The CSOAA board of directors meets several times a year to plan annual reunion dinners, which are usually held at the historic Cliff Dwellers club. Members also have contributed to the CSOA’s Rosenthal Archives—a treasure trove of history, recordings, music scores, artifacts, and databases of former orchestra members—lovingly curated and managed by our liaison, director Frank Villella.

Arnold (principal tuba 1944–1988) and Gizella Jacobs in Orchestra Hall’s Grainger Ballroom on October 19, 1996 (Jim Steere photo)
So the next time you stroll through Symphony Center’s first-floor arcade, try to imagine the many great musicians of earlier generations behind each portrait—beautifully taken by photographer Todd Rosenberg—of the superb musicians of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
This article also appears in the September/October CSO program book.
Donald Moline was a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra cello section from 1967 until 2006, and he currently serves as secretary of the CSOAA.

Edgar (violin 1956–2003) and Nancy Muenzer, Jacques Israelievitch (assistant concertmaster 1972–1978), and Samuel (violin 1958–1966, assistant concertmaster 1966–1972, concertmaster 1972–2007) and Miriam Magad in The Club at Symphony Center on June 3, 2011 (Dan Rest photo)

Adolph Herseth (principal trumpet 1948–2001, principal trumpet emeritus 2001–2004) and Norman Schweikert (horn 1971–1997) on April 11, 2008, at the Cliff Dwellers (Dan Rest photo)
RCA Red Seal Records (now a division of Sony Masterworks) has just released the complete Chicago Symphony Orchestra recordings—some available for the first time on CD—led by Morton Gould, a frequent and favorite guest conductor in the 1960s.
“This set of recordings documents an unusual relationship Gould had with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra,” writes Alan G. Artner in the set’s liner notes. “[This] collection represents something close to the height of Gould’s work in the recording studio, made with the finest orchestra he conducted, taking chances with a good deal of music just being discovered in that adventurous, bygone time.”
Highlights of the six-CD set include several works by Ives, including The Unanswered Question, Variations on America, Robert Browning Overture, Putnam’s Camp, the first recording of Orchestral Set no. 2, and the Symphony no. 1 (which won the 1966 Grammy Award for Album of the Year—Classical). Also featured are Rimsky-Korsakov’s Antar Symphony, Miaskovsky’s Symphony no. 21, several waltzes by Tchaikovsky, Copland’s Dance Symphony, Gould’s Spirituals for Orchestra, and two works by Nielsen: the Symphony no. 2 and Clarinet Concerto featuring Benny Goodman. A special bonus track is Goodman performing Gould’s arrangement of Fred Fisher’s song Chicago (previously only available on LP, released in conjunction with the CSO’s second Marathon fundraiser in 1977).
In 1985, the Chicago Symphony gave the world premiere of Gould’s Flute Concerto, commissioned for the Orchestra, principal flute Donald Peck, and music director Sir Georg Solti. In the program note, the composer recalled, “Among my most pleasant memories are those years when I was guest conductor with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.”
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Left to right: Clark Brody, Willard Elliot, Donald Peck, Dale Clevenger, Jean Martinon, Ray Still, Adolph Herseth, Donald Koss, and Jay Friedman (Terry’s photo)
On February 10 and 11, 1966, Jean Martinon led performances of Martin’s Concerto for Seven Wind Instruments, Timpani, Percussion, and String Orchestra at Orchestra Hall. The featured soloists were CSO principals Clark Brody (clarinet), Willard Elliot (bassoon), Donald Peck (flute), Dale Clevenger (horn, in his first week on the job), Ray Still (oboe), Adolph Herseth (trumpet), Donald Koss (timpani), and Jay Friedman (trombone).
Later that month, the Orchestra embarked on a three-week tour through Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C., performing the concerto fifteen more times. Upon their return to Chicago, Martinon and the Orchestra committed their performance to disc with RCA recording the work on March 19. In 2015, RCA rereleased the concerto as part of a boxed set that included Martinon’s complete catalog of recordings with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
This article also appears here.
RCA Red Seal Records (now a division of Sony Masterworks) recently released the complete Chicago Symphony Orchestra recordings—some available for the first time on CD—led by our seventh music director Jean Martinon. (The set has not yet been released in the United States but is available from several European and Japanese distributors.)
“It’s always a very delicate and perilous business for a conductor to take over a renowned orchestra that has just passed through a glorious and legendary era under a charismatic predecessor,” writes Christoph Schlüren in the accompanying booklet, referring to Martinon succeeding Fritz Reiner. “Martinon was not blessed by fate in Chicago. The problem was not that the orchestra failed to appreciate him, nor that the ensemble’s outstanding level dropped under his leadership. The surviving recordings are no less brilliant than Reiner’s. . . . In any event, the standard view that the Chicago Symphony Orchestra did not really get going until Martinon gave way to Georg Solti is true only with regard to its commercial success and resultant worldwide fame, not to the perfection of its playing.”

CSO principals Clark Brody (clarinet), Williard Elliot (bassoon), Donald Peck (flute), Dale Clevenger (horn), Martinon, Ray Still (oboe), Adolph Herseth (trumpet), Donald Koss (timpani), and Jay Friedman (trombone) backstage in February 1966 before a performance of Martin’s Concerto for Seven Winds, Timpani, Percussion, and String Orchestra
The set includes a number of works, most notably Martin’s Concerto for Seven Winds, Timpani, Percussion, and String Orchestra (featuring several CSO principal players); Mennin’s Symphony no. 7; Varèse’s Arcana; and Weber’s Clarinet Concertos nos. 1 and 2 with Benny Goodman. Additionally, two very special works are heard: an arrangement of Paganini’s Moto perpetuo as arranged by the CSO’s second music director Frederick Stock (according to Schlüren, “wittily peppered with fragments from the finale of [Beethoven’s] Eroica“) as well as Martinon’s own Symphony no. 4 (Altitudes), commissioned for the Orchestra’s seventy-fifth season. And similar to the previously issued Reiner set, the booklet includes numerous images from the collections of the Rosenthal Archives.
Happy (almost) 100th birthday, maestro!
Rafael Kubelík and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra made a series of landmark recordings in Orchestra Hall for Mercury Records during our fifth music director’s brief tenure. A complete list of those recordings is below.
BARTÓK Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta
April 1951
BLOCH Concerto grosso No. 1
April 1951
George Schick, piano
BRAHMS Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 68
April 1952
DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95 (From the New World)
November 1951
HINDEMITH Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes by Weber
April 1953
MOZART Symphony No. 34 in C Major, K. 338
December 1952
MOZART Symphony No. 38 in D Major, K. 504 (Prague)
December 1952
MUSSORGSKY/Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition
April 1951
SCHOENBERG Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16
April 1953
SMETANA Má Vlast
December 1952
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36
November 1951
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Op. 74 (Pathétique)
April 1952
On its From the Archives series, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra also released several Kubelík-conducted works, all originally recorded for radio broadcast between 1950 and 1991.
BARBER Capricorn Concerto for Flute, Oboe, Trumpet, and Strings, Op. 21
December 2 & 5, 1982
Donald Peck, flute
Ray Still, oboe
Adolph Herseth, trumpet
BRITTEN Sinfonia da requiem, Op. 24
November 3 and 4, 1983
BRUCKNER Symphony No. 6 in A Major
December 9 & 11, 1982
DELLO JOIO Variations, Chaconne, and Finale
December 2 & 5, 1982
DVOŘÁK Husitzká Overture, Op. 67
October 18, 1991
DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88
December 8, 1966
HARRIS Symphony No. 5
December 2 & 5, 1982
KUBELÍK Sequences for Orchestra
November 9, 1980
MARTINŮ Double Concerto for Two String Orchestras, Piano, and Timpani
March 20 & 22, 1980
Mary Sauer, piano
Donald Koss, timpani
MOZART Finale (Allegro) from Horn Concerto No. 3 in E-flat Major, K. 447
September 27, 1950
Philip Farkas, horn
MOZART Masonic Funeral Music, K. 477
March 15, 1980
MOZART Mass in C Major, K. 317 (Coronation)
March 15, 1980
Lucia Popp, soprano
Mira Zakai, mezzo-soprano
Alexander Oliver, tenor
Malcolm King, bass
RAVEL Le tombeau de Couperin
November 3 and 4, 1983
ROSSINI Overture to Tancredi
November 27, 1951
ROUSSEL Symphony No. 3 in G Minor, Op. 42
November 3, 4, & 6, 1983
(Released on Chicago Symphony Orchestra: The First 100 Years)
SUK Meditations on an Ancient Czech Chorale, Op. 35 (Holy Wenceslaus)
December 25, 1951
WAGNER Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde
December 22 and 23, 1966
WALTON Belshazzar’s Feast
March 30, 1952 (University of Illinois Auditorium; Urbana, Illinois)
Nelson Leonard, baritone
University of Illinois Choir and Men’s Glee Club
Paul Young, director
University of Illinois Women’s Glee Club
John Bryden, director
University of Illinois Brass Bands
Lyman Starr and Haskell Sexton, directors
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On April 18, 1985, Sir Georg Solti led the world premiere of Morton Gould‘s Flute Concerto, which had been commissoned for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s principal flute, Donald Peck.
From Arrand Parsons‘s program note:
“The Concerto for Flute and Orchestra . . . was made possible by a generous gift to The Orchestral Association from Mrs. Katherine Lewis of Carmel, California. Mrs. Lewis was the wife of Herbert Lewis, a distinguished artist who was trained at the Chicago Academy of fine Arts and the Art Institute of Chicago, followed by a period of study at the Académie Julian in Paris. . . . [Herbert and Katherine] moved to Carmel, California in 1954 where he continued his prolific painting activity, oils and water colors. It was in Carmel that Mrs. Lewis became active in the annual Bach Festival and became acquainted with Donald Peck, who participated in the performances in 1970, 1971, and 1978. While Herbert Lewis died in 1962, the friendship between Mrs. Lewis and Donald Peck continued. After the arrangements to commission a flute concerto for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra were completed, the selection of Morton Gould as composer was announced in June 1983. Morton Gould became acquainted with the artistry of Donald Peck during the several years he appeared as guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
“Recalling his long association, Morton Gould remarked, ‘Among my most pleasant memories are those years when I was guest conductor with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and in recent years, as a listener, I have admired the “golden age” of Sir Georg Solti and the Orchestra. As a guest conductor I always admired the artistry of the members collectively and individually, and of course, the musical sensitivity and dedication of Donald Peck. . . . I cannot think of a better combination for a composer than Donald Peck, Sir Georg Solti, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.'”