You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘Ernestine Schumann-Heink’ tag.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra family remembers one of its iconic musicians, Milton Preves (1909–2000), in honor of the anniversary of his birth on June 18.
Born in Cleveland, Preves moved to Chicago as a teenager and attended Senn High School. He was a student of Leon Sametini at Chicago Musical College, Richard Czerwonky at the Bush Conservatory of Music, and Albert Noelte and Ramon Girvin at the Institute of Music and Allied Arts before attending the University of Chicago.
Preves joined the Little Symphony of Chicago in 1930, regularly worked in radio orchestras, and was invited by Mischa Mischakoff (then CSO concertmaster) to join the Mischakoff String Quartet in 1932. Two years later, second music director Frederick Stock appointed Preves to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s viola section, promoting him to assistant principal in 1936 and principal in 1939. He would remain in that post for the next forty-seven years, serving under a total of seven music directors, including Désiré Defauw, Artur Rodzinski, Rafael Kubelík, Fritz Reiner, Jean Martinon, and Sir Georg Solti.
Preves performed as a soloist with the Orchestra on dozens of occasions, including the world premieres of David Van Vactor’s Viola Concerto and Ernest Bloch’s Suite hébraïque for Viola and Orchestra, both dedicated to him. Under Reiner, he recorded Richard Strauss’s Don Quixote—along with cellist Antonio Janigro and concertmaster John Weicher—with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for RCA in 1959.
A lifelong educator, Preves served on the faculties of Roosevelt, Northwestern, and DePaul universities, and he also always taught privately out of his home. An avid conductor, he held titled posts with the North Side Symphony Orchestra of Chicago, Oak Park–River Forest Symphony, Wheaton Summer Symphony, Gary Symphony, and the Gold Coast Chamber Orchestra. As a chamber musician, he performed with the Budapest, Fine Arts, Gordon, and Chicago Symphony string quartets, as well as the Chicago Symphony Chamber Players.
As reported in his obituary in the Chicago Tribune, “It was while directing the Oak Park–River Forest group that he gained an unusual measure of national attention. He briefly became an icon of the fledgling civil rights movement in 1963, when he resigned from the community orchestra because it would not allow a Black violinist he had invited to perform with the group.” (More information can be found here.)
Preves died at the age of ninety on June 11, 2000, following a long illness. Shortly thereafter, his family began donating materials to the Rosenthal Archives, establishing his collection of correspondence, contracts, photographs, scrapbooks, programs, and recordings. Most recently, his children donated additional photographs, mostly portraits of music directors and guest conductors, all autographed and dedicated to Preves. A sample of that collection is below.
In October 1984, on the occasion of Milton Preves’s fiftieth anniversary with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, fellow viola Isadore Zverow (1909–1999) composed this poem to honor his colleague:
It’s no mean feat, without retreat
To hold the forte so long,
To stroke and pluck in cold and heat—
All to produce a song.
Toward music bent, with single intent,
Unyielding dedication,
You of yourself so gladly lent
Your valued perspiration.
You sat and played and marked and bowed
And sometimes e’en reproached
And sometimes we squirmed (just a bit)
We didn’t wanna be coached.
And yet whene’er the chips were down
Throughout these fifty anna,
Your steadfast presence was a crown
Aiming at Nirvana.
This article also appears here.
In May 1904, Chicago Orchestra founder and first music director Theodore Thomas led his final Cincinnati May Festival concerts at Music Hall. Since founding the festival in 1873, Thomas had regularly led concerts, inviting his Chicago Orchestra after its founding in 1891.
Cover of the 1904 Cincinnati May Festival program book
Programming for the five-concert festival was nothing short of epic and included orchestral works, opera excerpts, and large-scale choral works. The Orchestra had been expanded to over one hundred and ten players and the May Festival Chorus numbered over 500. And for the final concert, Thomas had chosen Beethoven’s Missa solemnis and the Ninth Symphony.
According to Philo Adams Otis in his book The Chicago Symphony Orchestra: Its Organization, Growth, and Development, 1891–1924: “The program was of the highest order . . . But with due regard to soloists and chorus, the strength of the Festival, to my mind, was Mr. Thomas and the Orchestra. Never have I heard the Beethoven Eighth Symphony played as at the first matinée! What a performance he gave us Friday evening of Death and Transfiguration!”
And in Memoirs of Theodore Thomas (edited by his widow Rose Fay Thomas): “The May Festival of 1904 brought the work of Thomas to a close in Cincinnati, and its programmes were of such a caliber that it was the artistic climax, not only of the long series of festivals in that city, but, perhaps, even of Thomas’ own career. One colossal work was piled on another, regardless of everything but the one object of making this festival surpass, in standard and perfection, all that had preceded it. . . . the chorus, under the able and musicianly training of its director, Mr. Edwin W. Glover, was in splendid condition, and Thomas had nothing to correct about its performance. . . . The performances at the Cincinnati Festival were, therefore, amongst the very finest that he ever gave in his life, and no one in his audience had the slightest idea of the strain under which he worked.”
The complete concert programs are below.
First concert
Wednesday evening, May 11, 1904, 7:30 p.m.
BACH Suite No. 2 in B Minor, BWV 1067
Alfred Quensel, flute
BACH Mass in B Minor, BWV 232
Agnes Nicholls, soprano
Ernestine Schumann-Heink, contralto
William Green, tenor
Robert Watkin-Mills, bass
Wilhelm Middelschulte, organ
May Festival Chorus
Edwin W. Glover, director
(an intermission followed the conclusion of the Gloria)
Second concert
Thursday afternoon, May 12, 1904, 2:00 p.m.
MOZART Symphony No. 39 in E-flat Major, K. 543
MOZART Nie wird mich Hymen (Parto, ma tu ben mio) from La clemenza di Tito, K. 621
Ernestine Schumann-Heink, contralto
Joseph Schreurs, clarinet obbligato
SCHUBERT Entr’acte No. 1 from Rosamunde, D. 797
WEBER Ocean, Thou Mighty Monster from Oberon
Agnes Nicholls, soprano
ELGAR Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 (Enigma)
ELGAR Pomp and Circumstance Marches No. 2 in A Minor and No. 1 in D Major, Op. 39
Intermission
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93
LISZT The Three Gypsies (Die drei Zigeuner)
Ernestine Schumann-Heink, contralto
Leopold Kramer, violin obbligato
WAGNER Bacchanale from Tannhäuser
WAGNER Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde
Agnes Nicholls, soprano
Third concert
Friday evening, May 13, 1904, 7:30 p.m.
ELGAR Incidental Music and Funeral March from Grania and Diarmid, Op. 42
ELGAR The Dream of Gerontius, Op. 38
Muriel Foster, contralto
William Green, tenor
Robert Watkin-Mills, bass
Wilhelm Middelschulte, organ
May Festival Chorus
Edwin W. Glover, director
Intermission
STRAUSS Death and Transfiguration, Op. 24
BEETHOVEN Abscheulicher! from Fidelio, Op. 72
Agnes Nicholls, soprano
BERLIOZ Imperial Hymn, Op. 26
May Festival Chorus
Edwin W. Glover, director
Fourth concert
Saturday afternoon, May 14, 1904, 1:30 p.m.
GLUCK Overture and Divinités du Styx from Alceste
Ernestine Schumann-Heink, contralto
BRUCKNER Symphony No. 9 in D Minor (Unfinished)
BRAHMS Alto Rhapsody, Op. 53
Ernestine Schumann-Heink, contralto
Men of the May Festival Chorus
Edwin W. Glover, director
Intermission
WAGNER Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
ELGAR In Haven, Where Corals Lie, and The Swimmer from Sea Pictures, Op. 37
Muriel Foster, contralto
STRAUSS Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, Op. 28
STRAUSS Hymnus, Op. 33 No. 3
Muriel Foster, contralto
TCHAIKOVSKY 1812 Overture, Op. 49
Fifth concert
Saturday evening, May 14, 1904, 7:30 p.m.
BEETHOVEN Missa solemnis in D Major, Op. 123
Intermission
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125
Agnes Nicholls, soprano
Ernestine Schumann-Heink, contralto
William Green, tenor
Robert Watkin-Mills, bass-baritone
May Festival Chorus
Edwin W. Glover, director
This article previously appeared here.
____________________________________________________
During the Chicago Orchestra’s thirteenth season, Theodore Thomas programmed Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony for its first performances in the United States. This was the fourth of Bruckner’s symphonies to be performed by the Orchestra in Chicago, as Thomas had already led the Fourth in January 1897, the Third in March 1901, and the Second in February 1903.
On February 19, 1904, the capacity crowd at the Auditorium Theatre had gathered mainly to hear contralto Ernestine Schumann-Heink, one of the most famous singers of the day. Thomas had strategically programmed the Bruckner on the first half of the concert between Schumann-Heink’s two selections—“Non più di fiori” from Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito and an orchestration of Schubert’s song “Die Allmacht”—to obviously assure that the premiere would be heard by all in attendance.
“The name of Bruckner caused these 3,700 persons [over 700 had been turned away] to listen in patient, long suffering to a piece of tedious music which endured for fifty-five wearisome minutes, and to applaud when the trial was at an end,” wrote William Lines Hubbard in the Chicago Tribune. “There may have been those in the audience yesterday who did not find the three movements of Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony tedious almost beyond endurance, but certainly their number was small. . . . We have endured four of his symphonies in the last six years—please, Mr. Thomas, is there not somebody else it would be ‘good for us’ to hear? Anybody will be preferable to more Bruckner!”
February 19 and 20, 1904
This article also appears here.
____________________________________________________
Cincinnati May Festival, May 26, 1892
Music director of the Cincinnati May Festival since its inception in 1873, Theodore Thomas was eager to show off his new orchestra at the 1892 festival. The seven concerts were packed with symphonies, orchestral arrangements of chamber works and songs, extended sections and complete acts from operas (including Beethoven’s Fidelio; Gluck’s Alceste; Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Parsifal, and Tannhäuser; and Weber’s Euryanthe) along with large-scale choral works such as Becker’s Cantata, Dvořák’s Requiem, and Mendelssohn’s Saint Paul.
The fourth concert, on May 26, opened with the first two parts of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio followed by Schumann’s First Symphony after intermission. The concert closed with the U.S. premiere of Anton Bruckner’s Te Deum, with Corinne Moore-Lawson, Marie Ritter-Goetze, Edward Lloyd, and George Ellsworth Holmes as soloists. The Cincinnati May Festival Chorus was prepared by W.L. Blumenschein.
Cincinnati May Festival, May 14, 1904
The Orchestra returned regularly to Cincinnati throughout Thomas’s tenure. His final appearance at the May Festival was on May 14, 1904, leading the Orchestra and Festival Chorus in Beethoven’s Missa solemnis and Ninth Symphony, with soloists Agnes Nicholls, Ernestine Schumann-Heink, William Green, and Watkin Mills.
This article also appears here.
Now, that’s a festival.
In May 1904, Chicago Orchestra founder and first music director Theodore Thomas led his final Cincinnati May Festival concerts at Music Hall. Since founding the festival in 1873, Thomas had regularly led concerts, inviting his Chicago Orchestra after its founding in 1891.
Cover of the 1904 Cincinnati May Festival program book
Programming for the five-concert festival was nothing short of epic and included orchestral works, opera excerpts, and large-scale choral works. The Orchestra had been expanded to over one hundred and ten players and the May Festival Chorus numbered over 500. And to conclude the final concert, Thomas had chosen Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
According to Philo Adams Otis in his book The Chicago Symphony Orchestra: Its Organization, Growth, and Development, 1891–1924: “The program was of the highest order . . . But with due regard to soloists and chorus, the strength of the Festival, to my mind, was Mr. Thomas and the Orchestra. Never have I heard the Beethoven Eighth Symphony played as at the first matinée! What a performance he gave us Friday evening of Death and Transfiguration!”
And in Memoirs of Theodore Thomas (edited by his widow Rose Fay Thomas): “The May Festival of 1904 brought the work of Thomas to a close in Cincinnati, and its programmes were of such a caliber that it was the artistic climax, not only of the long series of festivals in that city, but, perhaps, even of Thomas’ own career. One colossal work was piled on another, regardless of everything but the one object of making this festival surpass, in standard and perfection, all that had preceded it. . . . the chorus, under the able and musicianly training of its director, Mr. Edwin W. Glover, was in splendid condition, and Thomas had nothing to correct about its performance. . . . The performances at the Cincinnati Festival were, therefore, amongst the very finest that he ever gave in his life, and no one in his audience had the slightest idea of the strain under which he worked.”
The complete concert programs are below.
First concert
Wednesday evening, May 11, 1904, 7:30 p.m.
BACH Suite No. 2 in B Minor, BWV 1067
Alfred Quensel, flute
BACH Mass in B Minor, BWV 232
Agnes Nicholls, soprano
Ernestine Schumann-Heink, contralto
William Green, tenor
Robert Watkin-Mills, bass
Wilhelm Middelschulte, organ
May Festival Chorus
Edwin W. Glover, director
(an intermission followed the conclusion of the Gloria)
Thursday afternoon, May 12, 1904, 2:00 p.m.
MOZART Symphony No. 39 in E-flat Major, K. 543
Second concert
MOZART Nie wird mich Hymen (Parto, ma tu ben mio) from La clemenza di Tito, K. 621
Ernestine Schumann-Heink, contralto
Joseph Schreurs, clarinet obbligato
SCHUBERT Entr’acte No. 1 from Rosamunde, D. 797
WEBER Ocean, Thou Mighty Monster from Oberon
Agnes Nicholls, soprano
ELGAR Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 (Enigma)
ELGAR Pomp and Circumstance Marches No. 2 in A Minor and No. 1 in D Major, Op. 39
Intermission
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93
LISZT The Three Gypsies (Die drei Zigeuner)
Ernestine Schumann-Heink, contralto
Leopold Kramer, violin obbligato
WAGNER Bacchanale from Tannhäuser
WAGNER Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde
Agnes Nicholls, soprano
Third concert
Friday evening, May 13, 1904, 7:30 p.m.
ELGAR Incidental Music and Funeral March from Grania and Diarmid, Op. 42
ELGAR The Dream of Gerontius, Op. 38
Muriel Foster, contralto
William Green, tenor
Robert Watkin-Mills, bass
Wilhelm Middelschulte, organ
May Festival Chorus
Edwin W. Glover, director
Intermission
STRAUSS Death and Transfiguration, Op. 24
BEETHOVEN Abscheulicher! from Fidelio, Op. 72
Agnes Nicholls, soprano
BERLIOZ Imperial Hymn, Op. 26
May Festival Chorus
Edwin W. Glover, director
Fourth concert
Saturday afternoon, May 14, 1904, 1:30 p.m.
GLUCK Overture and Divinités du Styx from Alceste
Ernestine Schumann-Heink, contralto
BRUCKNER Symphony No. 9 in D Minor (Unfinished)
BRAHMS Alto Rhapsody, Op. 53
Ernestine Schumann-Heink, contralto
Men of the May Festival Chorus
Edwin W. Glover, director
Intermission
WAGNER Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
ELGAR In Haven, Where Corals Lie, and The Swimmer from Sea Pictures, Op. 37
Muriel Foster, contralto
STRAUSS Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, Op. 28
STRAUSS Hymnus, Op. 33 No. 3
Muriel Foster, contralto
TCHAIKOVSKY 1812 Overture, Op. 49
Fifth concert
Saturday evening, May 14, 1904, 7:30 p.m.
BEETHOVEN Missa solemnis in D Major, Op. 123
Intermission
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125
Agnes Nicholls, soprano
Ernestine Schumann-Heink, contralto
William Green, tenor
Robert Watkin-Mills, bass-baritone
May Festival Chorus
Edwin W. Glover, director
A digital, searchable version of Otis’s book is available here and Thomas’s memoir here.
To open the 124th season in September, Riccardo Muti leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chorus, and soloists in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The concerts currently are sold out, but check the website as last-minute tickets may become available.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has performed Verdi’s Requiem on numerous occasions, and a complete list of all documented performances is below:
North Shore May Festival, Northwestern University Gymnasium, Evanston, June 1910 – Peter C. Lutkin conducting
June 4, 1910 (Northwestern University Gymnasium, Evanston, Illinois)
Peter C. Lutkin conductor
Jane Osborn-Hannah, soprano
Rose Lutiger-Gannon, contralto
Evan Williams, tenor
Allen Hinckley, bass
North Shore Festival Chorus
February 7, 1912 (Massey Music Hall, Toronto, Ontario)
February 28, 1912 (Carnegie Hall, New York)
A.S. Vogt, conductor (for 2/7, not confirmed for 2/28)
Florence Hinkle, soprano
Christine Miller, mezzo-soprano
George Hamlin, tenor
Clarence Whitehill, bass-baritone
Mendelssohn Choir of Toronto
February 26, 1912 (Convention Hall, Buffalo, New York)
February 29, 1912 (Symphony Hall, Boston, Massachusetts)
(Excerpt: Libera me)
A.S. Vogt, conductor (not confirmed)
Florence Hinkle, soprano
Mendelssohn Choir of Toronto
May 15, 1913 (Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan)
Albert A. Stanley, conductor
Florence Hinkle, soprano
Ernestine Schumann-Heink, contralto
Lambert Murphy, tenor
Henri Scott, bass
University Choral Union
February 2, 1914 (Massey Music Hall, Toronto)
(Excerpts: Offertorium, Sanctus and Benedictus, Responsorium)
A.S. Vogt, conductor (not confirmed)
Florence Hinkle, soprano
Mildred Potter, contralto
Reed Miller, tenor
Horatio Connell, baritone
Mendelssohn Choir of Toronto
Pabst Theatre, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, April 1951 – Herman A. Zeitz conducting
April 5, 1915 (Pabst Theater, Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
Herman A. Zeitz, conductor
Lucille Stevenson, soprano
Charlotte Peege, mezzo-soprano
Albert Lindquest, tenor
Burton Thatcher, bass
Milwaukee Musical Society Mixed Chorus
April 18, 1915 (Orchestra Hall)
Daniel Protheroe, conductor
Marjorie Dodge Warner, soprano
Rose Lutiger-Gannon, contralto
Albert Lindquest, tenor
Marion Green, bass
Allen W. Bogen, organ
“50 Members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra”
Irish Choral Society
May 14, 1915 (Elmwood Music Hall, Buffalo, New York)
Frederick Stock, conductor
Anna Case, soprano
Margarete Matzenauer, contralto
Paul Althouse, tenor
Clarence Whitehill, bass-baritone
Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus
Andrew T. Webster, director
April 11, 1918 (Orchestra Hall)
Harrison M. Wild, conductor
Adelaide Fischer, soprano
Emma Roberts, alto
Theodore Karle, tenor
Henri Scott, bass
Apollo Chorus of Chicago
April 13, 1919 (Auditorium Theatre)
(Given in memory of the heroes of the U.S. and Allied nations)
May 18, 1919 (Bartlett Gymnasium, University of Chicago)
(Given in memory of members of the University of Chicago fallen in the war)
Harrison M. Wild, conductor
Monica Graham Stultz, soprano
Louise Harrison Slade, alto
Robert Quait, tenor
Arthur Middleton, bass
Apollo Chorus of Chicago
North Shore May Festival, Northwestern University Gymnasium, Evanston, May 1928 – Frederick Stock conducting
May 20, 1920 (Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan)
Albert A. Stanley, conductor
Leona Sparkes, soprano
Carolina Lazzari, contralto
William Wheeler, tenor
Léon Rothier, bass
University Choral Union
May 21, 1928 ((Northwestern University Gymnasium, Evanston, Illinois))
Frederick Stock, conductor
Isabel Richardson Molter, soprano
Alvene Resseguie, contralto
Eugene F. Dressler, tenor
Rollin M. Pease, baritone
Festival Chorus of 600 Singers
A Cappella Choir
April 16, 1929 (Orchestra Hall)
Edgar Nelson, conductor
Else Harthan Arendt, soprano
Lilian Knowles, contralto
Edwin Kemp, tenor
Raymund Koch, bass
Chicago Sunday Evening Club Choir
Apollo Chorus of Chicago
Ann Arbor May Festival, Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan, May 1930 – Earl V. Moore conducting
May 17, 1930 (Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor, Michigan)
Earl V. Moore, conductor
Nanette Guilford, soprano
Kathryn Meisle, contralto
Paul Althouse, tenor
Chase Baromeo, bass
Palmer Christian, organ
University Choral Union
February 20, 1934 (Orchestra Hall)
Edgar Nelson, conductor
Margery Maxwell, soprano
Lilian Knowles, alto
William Miller, tenor
Mark Love, bass
Apollo Chorus of Chicago
April 21, 1941 (Orchestra Hall)
Edgar Nelson, conductor
Esther Hart, soprano
Ruth Heizer, alto
William Miller, tenor
Mark Love, bass
Robert Birch, organ
Apollo Chorus of Chicago
April 8, 1949 (Orchestra Hall)
Edgar Nelson, conductor
Maud Nosler, soprano
Lili Chookasian, contralto
Edward Richmond, tenor
David Austin, bass
Robert Birch, organ
Apollo Chorus of Chicago
Ravinia Festival, July 1951 – William Steinberg conducting
July 31, 1951 (Ravinia Festival)
William Steinberg, conductor
Frances Yeend, soprano
Elena Nikolaidi, mezzo-soprano
Jan Peerce, tenor
Yi-Kwei Sze, bass
Northwestern University Summer Chorus
George Howerton, director
February 14 and 15, 1952 (Orchestra Hall)
Bruno Walter, conductor
Zinka Milanov, soprano
Elena Nikolaidi, mezzo-soprano
David Poleri, tenor
Cesare Siepi, bass
Combined Choral Organizations of Northwestern University
George Howerton, director
August 2, 1956 (Ravinia Festival)
William Steinberg conductor
Frances Yeend, soprano
Regina Resnik, mezzo-soprano
Jan Peerce, tenor
Nicola Moscana, bass
Northwestern University Summer Chorus
George Howerton, director
Orchestra Hall, April 1958 – Fritz Reiner conducting
April 3 and 4, 1958 (Orchestra Hall)
Fritz Reiner, conductor
Leonie Rysanek, soprano
Regina Resnik, mezzo-soprano
David Lloyd, tenor
Giorgio Tozzi, bass
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis, director
April 22, 1960 (Orchestra Hall)
Henry Veld, conductor
Alice Riley, soprano
Evelyn Reynolds, alto
Thomas MacBone, tenor
Lionel Godow, bass
Apollo Chorus of Chicago
July 30, 1966 (Ravinia Festival)
William Steinberg, conductor
Saramae Endich, soprano
Maureen Forrester, mezzo-soprano
Jacob Barkin, tenor
John Macurdy, bass
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis, director
November 14, 15, and 16, 1968 (Orchestra Hall)
Jean Martinon, conductor
Martina Arroyo, soprano
Carol Smith, mezzo-soprano
Sándor Kónya, tenor
Malcolm Smith, bass
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis, director
Orchestra Hall, March 1971 – Carlo Maria Giulini conducting
March 25, 26, and 27, 1971 (Orchestra Hall)
Carlo Maria Giulini, conductor
Martina Arroyo, soprano
Shirley Verrett, mezzo-soprano
Carlo Cossutta, tenor
Ezio Flagello, bass
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis, director
April 24 and 26, 1975 (Orchestra Hall)
April 30, 1975 (Carnegie Hall)
Sir Georg Solti, conductor
Leontyne Price, soprano
Yvonne Minton, mezzo-soprano
Luciano Pavarotti, tenor
Gwynne Howell, bass
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis, director
May 31, 1977 (Orchestra Hall)
Sir Georg Solti, conductor
Leontyne Price, soprano
Dame Janet Baker, mezzo-soprano
Veriano Luchetti, tenor
José van Dam, bass
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis, director
June 24, 1983 (Ravinia Festival)
James Levine, conductor
Leona Mitchell, soprano
Florence Quivar, mezzo-soprano
Ermanno Mauro, tenor
John Cheek, bass
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis, director
Orchestra Hall, November 1986 – Claudio Abbado conducting
November 13, 14, and 16, 1986 (Orchestra Hall)
Claudio Abbado, conductor
Margaret Price, soprano
Linda Finnie, mezzo-soprano
Vinson Cole, tenor
Bonaldo Giaiotti, bass (November 13 and 14)
Samuel Ramey, bass (November 16)
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis, director
June 23, 1989 (Ravinia Festival)
James Levine, conductor
Andrea Gruber, soprano
Tatiana Troyanos, mezzo-soprano
Gary Lakes, tenor
Samuel Ramey, bass
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis, director
November 3 and 4, 1989 (Orchestra Hall)
Sir Georg Solti, conductor (November 3)
Michael Morgan, conductor (November 4)
(Excerpt: Sanctus)
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis, director
Terry Edwards, guest chorus master
September 17, 18, 23, and 25, 1993 (Orchestra Hall)
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
Alessandra Marc, soprano
Waltraud Meier, mezzo-soprano
Vicente Ombuena, tenor
Ferruccio Furlanetto, bass
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis, director
Ravinia Festival, June 1996 – Christoph Eschenbach conducting
June 23, 1996 (Ravinia Festival)
Christoph Eschenbach, conductor
Shinobu Satoh, soprano
Florence Quivar, mezzo-soprano
Richard Leech, tenor
Roberto Scandiuzzi, bass
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Duain Wolfe, director
April 24, 26, and 28, 2001 (Orchestra Hall)
Daniel Barenboim, conductor
Margaret Jane Wray, soprano (April 24)
Deborah Voigt, soprano (April 26 and 28)
Violeta Urmana, mezzo-soprano
Johan Botha, tenor
René Pape, bass
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Duain Wolfe, director
June 30, 2001 (Ravinia Festival)
Christoph Eschenbach, conductor
Adina Nitescu, soprano
Florence Quivar, mezzo-soprano
Vinson Cole, tenor
John Relyea, bass
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Duain Wolfe, director
July 8, 2006 (Ravinia Festival)
James Conlon, conductor
Christine Brewer, soprano
Stephanie Blythe, mezzo-soprano
Frank Lopardo, tenor
Vitalij Kowaljow, bass
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Duain Wolfe, director
Orchestra Hall, January 2009 – Riccardo Muti conducting
June 14, 15, and 16, 2007 (Orchestra Hall)
David Zinman, conductor
Sondra Radvanovsky, soprano
Yvonne Naef, mezzo-soprano
Giuseppe Sabbatini, tenor
Morris D. Robinson, bass
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Duain Wolfe, director
January 15, 16, and 17, 2009 (Orchestra Hall)
Riccardo Muti, conductor
Barbara Frittoli, soprano
Olga Borodina, mezzo-soprano
Mario Zeffiri, tenor
Ildar Abdrazakov, bass
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Duain Wolfe, director
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!
from the archives 