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Alan Stout in 1971
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra family notes with sorrow the passing of Alan Stout, composer and longtime composition and theory professor at Northwestern University. Stout died yesterday, February 1, 2018, at the age of 85.
Stout’s music was first performed by the Orchestra on two concerts given at Northwestern University’s Cahn Auditorium on May 29 and 31, 1967, when Esther Glazer was soloist in Movements for Violin and Orchestra with Henry Lewis conducting. Soon thereafter, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra presented four world premieres by Stout, under the batons of Seiji Ozawa, Sir Georg Solti, and Margaret Hillis, at the Ravinia Festival and in Orchestra Hall.
On August 4, 1968, Ozawa led the world premiere of Stout’s Symphony no. 2 at Ravinia. The work was commissioned by the Ravinia Festival Association through a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, and the performance was made possible by a Composer Assistance Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
World premiere of Stout’s Second Symphony at the Ravinia Festival on August 4, 1968
The symphony was “vivid [and] multi-dimensional . . . a collection of musical rituals,” according to Thomas Willis in the Chicago Tribune. “The work is a marvelous tapestry of textures, combining a superior craftsmanship, a remarkable ear, and encyclopedic knowledge of the inventions of his colleagues, [including] Messiaen, Penderecki, Elliott Carter, and Pierre Boulez . . .”
The composer’s Symphony no. 4 was commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in celebration of its eightieth season and dedicated to Georg Solti, who led the world premiere performances on April 15, 16, and 17, 1971. The score calls for a small chorus, and members of the Chicago Symphony Chorus were prepared by assistant director Ronald Schweitzer.
The following year, Solti also led the world premiere of Stout’s George Lieder (Poems from Das neue Reich) on December 14, 15, and 16, 1972, with baritone Benjamin Luxon as soloist.
Composer and conductor review the score of the George Lieder in December 1972 (Terry’s photo)
Stout’s large-scale Passion for Soloists, Chorus, and Orchestra was commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with assistance from the National Endowment for the Arts and was dedicated to Margaret Hillis and the Chicago Symphony Chorus. Hillis led the world premiere performances on April 15, 16, and 17, 1976. Soloists included Mary Sauer on organ, Elizabeth Buccheri on piano, along with soprano Phyllis Bryn-Julson, tenors Frank Little and John McCollum, baritones Leslie Guinn and LeRoy Lehr, and bass Monroe Olson.
The premiere of Stout’s Passion, on which the composer worked for over twenty years, was a “monumental undertaking [and] provided the most difficult music the Chorus has undertaken since Fritz Reiner brought Margaret Hillis here in 1957 to found the now internationally known ensemble,” wrote Willis in the Chicago Tribune. “Stout fashions his church Latin text into curtains and tapestries of sound. Like a sonic aurora borealis, they expand and contract as needed, supplying intimate but still objective commentary on an emotional-laden event, creating towering climaxing as the peak points of the action, or providing canopies of tightly woven, often contrapuntal sheets of sound against which other portions of the action can take place.”
Detail from the first section of Stout’s Passion, with markings by Margaret Hillis
Before and during his tenure as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s ninth music director, Daniel Barenboim was firmly committed to introducing new works to Chicago audiences. He also was instrumental in the continued cultivation of the Orchestra’s composer-in-residence program, frequently conducting works by John Corigliano, Shulamit Ran, and Augusta Read Thomas. With the Orchestra, Barenboim led over thirty world and U.S. premieres, and a complete list is below (all performances in Orchestra Hall, unless otherwise noted; an asterisk (*) indicates a work commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra).
Barenboim and John Corigliano review the score to his Symphony no. 1 in March 1990 (Terry’s photo)
World premieres
March 8, 1990
*Tōru Takemitsu Visions
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
March 15, 1990
*John Corigliano Symphony No. 1
Stephen Hough, piano
John Sharp, cello
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
September 14, 1990 (Edman Memorial Chapel, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois)
*Stephen Kowalsky Last Voyage
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
Barenboim acknowledges Shulamit Ran following the world premiere of her Legends on October 7, 1993 (Jim Steere photo)
April 30, 1991
*Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Concerto for Bass Trombone, Strings, Timpani, and Cymbals
Charles Vernon, bass trombone
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
February 4, 1993
*Melinda Wagner Falling Angels
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
October 7, 1993
*Shulamit Ran Legends for Orchestra
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
Barenboim and the Orchestra acknowledge Elliott Carter following the world premiere of his Partita on February 17, 1994 (Jim Steere photo)
February 17, 1994
*Elliott Carter Partita
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
October 12, 1995
*York Höller Aura
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
January 30, 1997
*Jay Alan Yim Rough Magic
Daniel Barenboim
May 15, 1997
*Aribert Reimann Violin Concerto
Gidon Kremer, violin
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
February 5, 1998
*Sir Harrison Birtwistle Exody
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
February 12, 1998
Max Raimi Elegy
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
Two pages of Pierre Boulez’s manuscript score for Notations VII
January 14, 1999
*Pierre Boulez Notations VII for Orchestra
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
February 11, 1999
Elias Tanenbaum First Bassman for Contrabass and Orchestra
Joseph Guastafeste, bass
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
January 6, 2000
*Augusta Read Thomas Ceremonial
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
September 13, 2001 (Kultur- & Kongresszentrum, Lucerne, Switzerland)
*Hanspeter Kyburz Noesis for Large Orchestra
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
September 27, 2001
*Elliott Carter Cello Concerto
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
Texts for the first two sections of Bernard Rands’s apókryphos, as included in the printed score
May 8, 2003
*Bernard Rands apókryphos
Angela Denoke, soprano
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Duain Wolfe, director
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
May 22, 2003
*Melinda Wagner Extremity of Sky (Concerto for Piano and Orchestra)
Emanuel Ax, piano
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
May 29, 2003
Elliott Carter Of Rewaking
Michelle DeYoung, mezzo-soprano
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
October 9, 2003
*Lalo Schifrin Fantasy for Screenplay and Orchestra
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
May 19, 2005
*George Benjamin Dance Figures (Nine choreographic scenes for orchestra)
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
Title page detail for Augusta Read Thomas’s score for Astral Canticle
October 6, 2005
*Elliott Carter Soundings
Daniel Barenboim, piano and conductor
February 16, 2006
*Isabel Mundry Nocturno
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
June 1, 2006
*Augusta Read Thomas Astral Canticle
Mathieu Dufour, flute
Robert Chen, violin
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
United States premieres
November 7, 1985
Siefgried Wagner Sehnsucht
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
May 9, 1991
Pierre Boulez Four movements from Le visage nuptial
(I. Conduite; II. Gravité. L’emmuré; IV. Evadné; and V. Post-scriptum)
Phyllis Bryn-Julson, soprano
Lucy Shelton, soprano
Women of the Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis, director
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
In 1995, Teldec released recordings of three CSO world premieres, all conducted by Barenboim: Carter’s Partita, Berio’s Continuo, and Takemitsu’s Visions.
May 16, 1991
Edison Denisov Symphonie pour grande orchestra
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
January 7, 1993
*Luciano Berio Continuo
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
October 1, 1998
Rodion Shchedrin Concerto cantabile
Maxim Vengerov, violin
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
September 30, 1999
*Wolfgang Rihm Sotto voce
Daniel Barenboim, piano and conductor
Barenboim with Augusta Read Thomas during a rehearsal for the world premiere of her Aurora—co-commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic—in Berlin in June 2000
February, 24, 2000
Elliott Carter What Next?
Simone Nold, soprano
Lynne Dawson, soprano
Hilary Summers, contralto
William Joyner, tenor
Hanno Müller-Brachmann, bass-baritone
Michael John Devine, boy soprano
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
September 21, 2000
*Augusta Read Thomas Aurora
Elizabeth Norman, soprano
Daniel Barenboim, piano and conductor
October 4, 2001
*Isabel Mundry Panorama ciego
Daniel Barenboim, piano and conductor
December 13, 2001
Wilhelm Furtwängler Symphony No. 2 in E Minor
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
____________________________________________________
To honor Sir Georg Solti’s seventy-fifth birthday, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus gave a gala concert of the highest order on October 9, 1987.
Governor James R. Thompson opened the concert with welcoming remarks, and after the intermission, Mayor Harold Washington presented Sir Georg with the City of Chicago’s Medal of Merit. The concert program was as follows:
CORIGLIANO Campane di Ravello (world premiere)
Kenneth Jean, conductor
J. STRAUSS Overture to Die Fledermaus
Plácido Domingo, conductor
MOZART Concerto for Two Pianos in E-flat Major, K. 365
Sir Georg Solti, conductor and piano
Murray Perahia, piano
STRAUSS Don Juan, Op. 20
Sir Georg Solti, conductor
Plácido Domingo and Kiri Te Kanawa perform a scene from Verdi’s Otello (Jim Steere photo)
VERDI Excerpts from Act 1 of Otello
Sir Georg Solti, conductor
Kiri Te Kanawa, soprano
Plácido Domingo, tenor
Kurt R. Hansen, tenor
Joseph Wolverton, tenor
Richard Cohn, baritone
David Huneryager, bass
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis, director
The commemorative program contained letters and testimonials from numerous public officials, conductors, musicians, and industry professionals, including: Ronald Reagan, James R. Thompson, Harold Washington, Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Carlo Maria Giulini, Rafael Kubelík, John Corigliano, Christoph von Dohnányi, Rudolf Serkin, Henry Fogel, Michael Tilson Thomas, Christa Ludwig, Birgit Nilsson, Witold Lutosławski, Sir Charles Mackerras, Mstislav Rostropovich, Klaus Tennstedt, David Del Tredici, Leonard Bernstein, Leonard Slatkin, Werner Klemperer, José van Dam, Elliott Carter, Karel Husa, Isaac Stern, Morton Gould, Hans Werner Henze, Itzhak Perlman, Anja Silja, Erich Leinsdorf, Josef Suk, Plácido Domingo, Michael Tippett, Kiri Te Kanawa, Murray Perahia, Leontyne Price, András Schiff, Kenneth Jean, Andrzej Panufnik, Dame Janet Baker, Pierre Boulez, Yvonne Minton, Herbert Blomstedt, Mira Zakai, Margaret Hillis, Gunther Herbig, Ray Minshull, Ann Murray, Philip Langridge, Raymond Leppard, Vladimir Ashkenazy, George Rochberg, Gwynne Howell, Ardis Krainik, Michael Morgan, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Henry Mancini, and Barbara Hendricks.
Solti and Perahia as soloists in Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos (Jim Steere photo)
The concert was covered widely in the press, in the Chicago Tribune (here, here, and here) and Sun-Times (here and here), as well as Time, Newsweek, the Post-Tribune, and the San Francisco Chronicle, among many others.
from the archives 