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The Chicago Symphony Orchestra family joins the music world in mourning the loss of Latvian conductor Mariss Jansons, who died at his home in Saint Petersburg on November 30. He was 76.
Jansons appeared with the Orchestra on several occasions, both in Orchestra Hall and at the Ravinia Festival, and a complete list of his appearances is below.
Mariss Jansons (Peter Meisel photo)
July 26, 1991, Ravinia Festival
WEBER Overture to Oberon
MOZART Violin Concerto No. 5, A Major, K. 219 (Turkish)
Pinchas Zukerman, violin
SIBELIUS Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 43
July 27, 1991, Ravinia Festival
BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 15
Misha Dichter, piano
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Op. 36
June 25, 1993, Ravinia Festival
ROSSINI Overture to La gazza ladra
STRAUSS Four Last Songs
Alessandra Marc, soprano
BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14
June 26, 1993, Ravinia Festival
WAGNER Overture to Rienzi
BRUCH Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 26
BRAHMS Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77
Itzhak Perlman, violin
February 24, 25, and 26, 1994
WEBER Overture to Euryanthe
KORNGOLD Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35
Samuel Magad, violin
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 5 in D Minor, Op. 47
February 22, 23, and 24, 1996
SIBELIUS Symphony No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 39
SCHOENBERG Piano Concerto, Op. 42
Emanuel Ax, piano
RAVEL Suite No. 2 from Daphnis and Chloe
May 27, 28, and 29, 2004
HAYDN Symphony No. 97 in C Major
STRAUSS Suite from Der Rosenkavalier, Op. 59
BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 15
Daniel Barenboim, piano
When Sir Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra first toured to Russia in 1990, the Leningrad Philharmonic came to Chicago for two weeks of subscription concerts at Orchestra Hall, as part of a cultural exchange. Podium duties were shared by music director Yuri Temirkanov and associate conductor Mariss Jansons. Leading the second week of concerts, Jansons made his Chicago debut with the following program:
November 16 and 17, 1990, Orchestra Hall
Leningrad Philharmonic
PROKOFIEV Excerpts from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64
PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No. 1 in D-flat Major, Op. 10
Dmitri Alexeev, piano
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5 in E Minor, Op. 64
On the Allied Arts and Symphony Center Presents series, Jansons also appeared with visiting orchestras as follows:
November 15, 1991, Orchestra Hall
Oslo Philharmonic
MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64
Frank Peter Zimmermann, violin
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 7 in C Major, Op. 60 (Leningrad)
December 11, 1994, Orchestra Hall
Oslo Philharmonic
NORDHEIM Nachruf for Strings
STRAUSS Don Quixote, Op. 35
Otto Berg, viola
Truls Mørk, cello
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 9 in E-flat Major, Op. 70
RAVEL La valse
November 7, 1999, Orchestra Hall
Oslo Philharmonic
VERDI Overture to I vespri siciliani
GLASS Violin Concerto
Gidon Kremer, violin
MAHLER Symphony No. 1 in D Major
February 12, 2006, Orchestra Hall
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 7 in C Major, Op. 60 (Leningrad)
November 6, 2006
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Op. 54
SIBELIUS Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 43
April 17, 2016
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 7 in C Major, Op. 60 (Leningrad)
Numerous tributes have been posted online, including the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, The New York Times, Gramophone, and The Guardian, among many others.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra family joins the music world in mourning the death of legendary conductor Sir Neville Marriner, who died on Sunday at his home in London. He was 92.
Marriner began his career as a violinist and founded the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, a chamber orchestra named for the church in which the ensemble first performed, in 1958. Serving as music director until 2011, together they amassed an extraordinary discography (Andrew Clements of The Guardian picks his ten favorites here) that included the Grammy Award–winning soundtrack to the feature film Amadeus.
Marriner led the Chicago Symphony Orchestra during two residencies at the Ravinia Festival, as follows:
July 31, 1980
LUTOSŁAWSKI Mala Suita
LISZT Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major
Misha Dichter, piano
SCHUBERT Symphony No. 6 in C Major, D. 589
August 2, 1980
SCHOENBERG Transfigured Night, Op. 4
NIELSEN Flute Concerto
Jean-Pierre Rampal, flute
SCHUBERT Symphony No. 3 in D Major, D. 200
July 16, 1981
MOZART Symphony No. 35 in D Major, K. 385 (Haffner)
LALO Symphonie espagnole in D Minor, Op. 21
Shlomo Mintz, violin
RACHMANINOV Symphony No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 27
July 18, 1981
BIZET/Guiraud Suite from Carmen
ELGAR Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36 (Enigma)
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, Op. 58
Misha Dichter, piano
Numerous tributes have been posted online, including The New York Times, The Telegraph, and NPR, among others.
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Riccardo Muti in 1973
Riccardo Muti made his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival on July 25, 1973, leading Rossini’s Overture to Semiramide, Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor (with thirty-three-year-old Christoph Eschenbach, the festival’s future music director, in his Ravinia debut), and Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.
The following day Thomas Willis wrote in the Chicago Tribune: “It is easy to see why Riccardo Muti was the first Italian to win the Guido Cantelli Conducting Competition. The Neapolitan firebrand, still in his early thirties, can galvanize both audiences and an orchestra with the kinetic energy of his beat. In his Midwest debut at Ravinia last night, he asserted command at the first notes of Rossini’s Overture to Semiramide and sustained it until the last of the procession had marched through the Great Gate of Kiev in the Mussorgsky-Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition. . . . With the sensitivity to melody of an already seasoned opera conductor, he sets off each tune with a breath, combines short phrases into longer ones, and underlines each high point. Above all, his music is perfectly clear.”
March 20, 21, and 22, 1975
Muti’s first Ravinia residency also included Mozart’s Symphony no. 34 and Piano Concerto no. 22 (with Misha Dichter) and Strauss’s Aus Italien on July 27; and Liszt’s Les préludes and Totentanz (with Jean-Bernard Pommier) and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony no. 5 on July 28.
Less than two years later, Muti returned to conduct the Chicago Symphony on subscription concerts at Orchestra Hall on March 20, 21, and 22, 1975, leading Vivaldi’s Concerto in A major for Strings and Continuo, Stravinsky’s Scherzo fantastique, Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, and the Orchestra’s first subscription concert performances of Tchaikovsky’s First Symphony.
This article also appears here.
As we all wish Riccardo Muti a very happy birthday, I was reminded that our tenth music director also celebrated his thirty-second birthday with us.
Maestro Muti made his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival in the summer of 1973, conducting a series of three concerts that also included three up-and-coming pianists: thirty-three-year-old Christoph Eschenbach (in his Ravinia Festival debut), twenty-seven-year-old Misha Dichter, and twenty-eight-year-old Jean-Bernard Pommier (in his CSO and Ravinia Festival debuts).
Muti’s biography in the Ravinia program book that week was quite modest:
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Permanent conductor of the Florence Maggio Musicale Orchestra since 1969, Riccardo Muti was born in Naples in 1941. He graduated with honors from the Conservatorio San Pietro a Maiella, where he studied piano, and then completed his studies at Milan’s Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi, graduating with honors in composition and conducting. In 1967, Riccardo Muti became the first Italian candidate to win the Guido Cantelli International Conducting Competition. In June 1968, he conducted the Maggio Musicale Orchestra and the same night was asked to become permanent conductor.
Since his first operatic engagement, at the 1970 Autunno Musicale Napoletano, Riccardo Muti has conducted opera in the major houses of Italy and at the Salzburg Festival. He has conducted the important European orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic. Mr. Muti made his American debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Cincinnati Symphony in 1972. He makes his Midwest debut at Ravinia this summer with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. During the next two seasons, he will conduct the orchestras of Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, and Philadelphia. He recently accepted appointment as principal conductor of the New Philharmonia Orchestra of London.
His three programs at the festival that summer were:
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July 25, 1973
ROSSINI Overture to Semiramide
SCHUMANN Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 54
Christoph Eschenbach, piano
MUSSORGSKY/Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition
July 27, 1973
MOZART Symphony No. 34 in C Major, K. 338
MOZART Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat Major, K. 482
Misha Dichter, piano
STRAUSS Aus Italien, Op. 16
July 28, 1973
LISZT Les préludes
LISZT Totentanz
Jean-Bernard Pommier, piano
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5 in E Minor, Op. 64
Thomas Willis’s review of the first concert in the July 26 Chicago Tribune certainly sets the stage: “It is easy to see why Riccardo Muti was the first Italian to win the Guido Cantelli Conducting Competition. The Neapolitan firebrand, still in his early thirties, can galvanize both audiences and an orchestra with the kinetic energy of his beat. In his Midwest debut at Ravinia last night, he asserted command at the first notes of Rossini’s Overture to Semiramide and sustained it until the last of the procession had marched through the Great Gate of Kiev in the Mussorgsky-Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition. Whether one responds or not to the tense muscularity of his approach, there is no gainsaying its power and effectiveness . . . With the sensitivity to melody of an already seasoned opera conductor, he sets off each tune with a breath, combines short phrases into longer ones, and underlines each high point. Above all, his music is perfectly clear.”
Off to a great start, Maestro. Have a wonderful birthday.
from the archives 