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The Chicago Symphony Orchestra family joins the music world in mourning the loss of German mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig, who died yesterday at her home in Klosterneuburg, Austria. She was ninety-three.
Riccardo Muti, writing from Ravenna, Italy, expressed, ′′The passing of Christa Ludwig, an immense artist, is a huge loss to the music world. She honored me with her friendship and gave me unforgettable artistic collaborations, both at the Musikverein in Vienna and La Scala in Milan. I will never forget her.”
Ludwig appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on numerous occasions, at Orchestra Hall, the Ravinia Festival, and Carnegie Hall, as follows:
February 20, 21, and 25, 1958, Orchestra Hall
MAHLER Das Lied von der Erde
Fritz Reiner, conductor
Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano
Richard Lewis, tenor
October 26 and 27, 1967, Orchestra Hall
MAHLER Songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Alfred Wallenstein, conductor
Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano
July 7, 1970, Ravinia Festival
MAHLER Kindertotenlieder
István Kertész, conductor
Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano
April 24, 25, and 26, 1980, Orchestra Hall
May 2 and 3, 1980, Carnegie Hall
MAHLER Symphony No. 2 in C Minor (Resurrection)
Sir Georg Solti, conductor
Isobel Buchanan, soprano
Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis, director
April 25, 26, and 27, 1985, Orchestra Hall
April 29, 1985, Carnegie Hall
VERDI Falstaff
Sir Georg Solti, conductor
Sir John Falstaff Guillermo Sarabia, baritone
Ford Wolfgang Brendel, baritone
Fenton Yordi Ramiro, tenor
Dr. Caius Heinz Zednik, tenor
Bardolph Francis Egerton, tenor
Pistol Aage Haugland, bass
Mistress Alice Ford Katia Ricciarelli, soprano
Nannetta Kathleen Battle, soprano
Mistress Quickly Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano
Mistress Meg Page Ann Murray, mezzo-soprano
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis, director
July 5, 1991, Ravinia Festival
MAHLER Das Lied von der Erde
James Levine, conductor
Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano
Gary Lakes, tenor
Numerous tributes have appeared online, including The New York Times, BBC News, and OperaWire, among several others.
Wishing a very happy ninetieth birthday to the wonderful mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig!
Ludwig has appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on numerous occasions, at Orchestra Hall, the Ravinia Festival, and Carnegie Hall, as follows (concerts at Orchestra Hall, unless otherwise noted):
February 20, 21, and 25, 1958
MAHLER Das Lied von der Erde
Fritz Reiner, conductor
Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano
Richard Lewis, tenor
October 26 and 27, 1967
MAHLER Songs from Des knaben Wunderhorn
Alfred Wallenstein, conductor
Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano
July 7, 1970 (Ravinia Festival)
MAHLER Kindertotenlieder
István Kertész, conductor
Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano
April 24, 25, and 26, 1980
May 2 and 3, 1980 (Carnegie Hall)
MAHLER Symphony No. 2 in C Minor (Resurrection)
Sir Georg Solti, conductor
Isobel Buchanan, soprano
Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis, director
April 25, 26, and 27, 1985
April 29, 1985 (Carnegie Hall)
VERDI Falstaff
Sir Georg Solti, conductor
Guillermo Sarabia, baritone
Wolfgang Brendel, baritone
Yordi Ramiro, tenor
Heinz Zednik, tenor
Francis Egerton, tenor
Aage Haugland, bass
Katia Ricciarelli, soprano
Kathleen Battle, soprano
Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano
Ann Murray, mezzo-soprano
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis, director
July 5, 1991 (Ravinia Festival)
MAHLER Das Lied von der Erde
James Levine, conductor
Christa Ludwig, mezzo-soprano
Gary Lakes, tenor
Happy, happy birthday!
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra family joins the music world in mourning the loss of the extraordinary American soprano Phyllis Curtin, a frequent guest artist who performed under three music directors—Fritz Reiner, Jean Martinon, and Sir Georg Solti—between 1957 and 1972. Curtin died on June 5, 2016, at her home in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. She was 94.
Curtin made her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival in 1957, and she most recently appeared at Orchestra Hall in 1972. A complete list of her appearances with the Orchestra is below (subscription concerts at Orchestra Hall, unless otherwise noted):
July 7, 1957 (Ravinia Festival)
FOSS The Song of Songs
Lukas Foss, conductor
Phyllis Curtin, soprano
April 27 and 28, 1961
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125
Fritz Reiner, conductor
Phyllis Curtin, soprano
Florence Kopleff, contralto
John McCollum, tenor
Donald Gramm, bass-baritone
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis, director
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony was recorded by RCA on May 1 and 2, 1961, in Orchestra Hall. The recording recently was re-released as part of a sixty-three-disc set featuring Reiner’s complete discography with the Orchestra.
April 26 and 27, 1962
HANDEL Israel in Egypt
Fritz Reiner, conductor
Phyllis Curtin, soprano
Carol Smith, mezzo-soprano
Richard Lewis, tenor
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis, director
July 9, 1964 (Ravinia Festival)
MOZART Voi che sapete from The Marriage of Figaro, K. 492
MOZART Alleluia from Exsultate, jubilate, K. 165
J. STRAUSS, Jr. Czárdás and Mein Herr Marquis from Die Fledermaus
KORNGOLD Glück das mir verblieb from Die tote Stadt
LEHÁR Dein is mein ganzes Herz from Das Land des Lächelns
SIECZYNSKI Wien, du Stadt meiner Träume
Andre Kostelanetz, conductor
Phyllis Curtin, soprano
April 22, 23, and 24, 1965
HAYDN The Seasons
Jean Martinon, conductor
Phyllis Curtin, soprano
Charles Bressler, tenor
Ara Berberian, bass
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis, director
January 6, 7, and 8, 1966
PERGOLESI Stabat Mater
Jean Martinon, conductor
Phyllis Curtin, soprano
Betty Allen, mezzo-soprano
STRAVINSKY Les noces
Jean Martinon, conductor
Phyllis Curtin, soprano
Betty Allen, mezzo-soprano
André Montal, tenor
Peter Harrower, bass-baritone
Mary Sauer, Laurence Davis, Louis M. Kohnop, and Eloise Niwa, pianos
Donald Koss, Gordon Peters, James J. Ross, Sam Denov, Albert Payson, and Norbert Szymanski, percussion
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis, director
December 1, 2, and 3, 1966
MARTINON The Rose of Sharon (U.S. premiere)
Jean Martinon, conductor
Phyllis Curtin, soprano
Ernst Haefliger, tenor
Joseph Brewer, tenor
Harold Robinson, baritone
Mary Sauer and Harriet Wingreen, pianos
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis, director
May 14 and 15, 1970
JANÁČEK Glagolitic Mass
Charles Mackerras, conductor
Phyllis Curtin, soprano
Joan Caplan, mezzo-soprano
John Alexander, tenor
Ara Berberian, bass
Mary Sauer, organ
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis, director
January 20, 21, and 22, 1972
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 14, Op. 135
Carlo Maria Giulini, conductor
Phyllis Curtin, soprano
Raffaele Arié, bass
June 27, 1972 (Ravinia Festival)
BRITTEN War Requiem, Op. 66
István Kertész, György Fischer, and Margaret Hillis, conductors
Phyllis Curtin, soprano
Robert Tear, tenor
John Shirley-Quirk, bass-baritone
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis, director
Northwestern University Chorus and Northwestern University Concert Choir
Margaret Hillis, director
Glen Ellyn Children’s Theatre Chorus
Doreen Rao, director
November 30 and December 1, 1972
BERLIOZ The Damnation of Faust, Op. 24
Sir Georg Solti, conductor
Phyllis Curtin, soprano (substituting for contralto Josephine Veasey)
Stuart Burrows, tenor
Robert Savoie, baritone
Roger Soyer, bass
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis, director
Glen Ellyn Children’s Theatre Chorus
Doreen Rao, director
Canadian contralto Maureen Forrester passed away last week in Toronto at the age of 79. Beautifully written tributes have been published in the Montreal Gazette and in The New York Times.
Forrester made quite an impression here in Chicago. At the age of twenty-seven, she made her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as a soloist in Mozart’s Requiem on March 13 and 14, 1958. Those now historic concerts also included the subscription concert debut of Margaret Hillis‘s newly formed Chicago Symphony Chorus and would also be the final Chicago appearances of beloved guest conductor Bruno Walter.
Her biography from that first program could not have been more modest: “Miss Forrester is a Canadian singer who made her New York recital debut in November 1956; in February, 1957, she appeared with the New York Philharmonic with Bruno Walter. She recently returned from her third European tour.”
Even though Mozart’s Requiem is hardly a showcase for the alto soloist, Forrester’s performance certainly attracted Claudia Cassidy’s attention in her review for the Chicago Tribune: “stately Maureen Forrester of the contralto so big, warm and gentle it makes you feel rested just to listen . . . [part of] a wonderful Mozart quartet.”
Forrester’s second appearances in Chicago were on November 5 and 6, 1959, when she performed what was to become one of her signature works, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Welsh tenor Richard Lewis and conducted by music director Fritz Reiner. The recording, made on November 7 and 10, has never gone out of print.
Forrester would go on to appear with the CSO on numerous occasions, both at Orchestra Hall and at the Ravinia Festival, in a wide variety of repertoire: Pablo Casals’s El pessebre (conducted by the composer); Beethoven’s Ninth, Bach’s Saint John Passion, Chausson’s Poème de l’amour et de la mer and Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody (Jean Martinon); Verdi’s Requiem and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (William Steinberg); Mahler’s Third (James Levine and Edo de Waart); Dvořák’s Stabat mater (Rafael Kubelík); and her final performance in Chicago in Mahler’s Second in 1988 (Zubin Mehta).
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One more thing. In 1995, we released the tenth volume of our From the Archives series of recordings (a limited release, featuring works that had been broadcast but not previously commercially released). The name of the set was Great Soloists and included performances with the CSO by Emanuel Feuermann, Zino Francescatti, Håkan Hagegård, Leonid Kogan, Byron Janis, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Andrés Segovia, and Maureen Forrester’s 1968 performance of Chausson’s Poème de l’amour et de la mer with Jean Martinon conducting.
Since the recording was produced to be a fundraiser premium, all participants — orchestra members, soloists, publishers, etc. — were asked to donate their services. Of course, we offered each artist a couple of complimentary copies of the finished product. Forrester agreed for her performance to be included and had only one request: that we send a copy of the recording to each of her five grandchildren.