Riccardo Muti Returns to Chicago for His 5th Season as as Chicago Symphony Orchestra Music Director, 9/18

Riccardo Muti returns to Chicago in September for the start of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's 2014/15 concert season-his fifth season as music director. Muti's three-week residency begins with performances of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 on Thursday, September 18 at 8 p.m., Sunday, September 21 at 3 p.m. and Tuesday, September 23 at 7:30 p.m. at Symphony Center in downtown Chicago.

A special gala performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony also takes place on Saturday, September 20 at Symphony Ball, the CSO's annual gala fundraising event. Joining Muti, the CSO and the Chorus as soloists in all four performances are soprano Camilla Nylund, mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova, tenor Christopher Ventris and bass-baritone Eric Owens. The Chicago Symphony Chorus is prepared by chorus director Duain Wolfe.

Tickets for performances of Beethoven's Ninth are in very high demand; a limited number for the concert only onSeptember 20, as well as Symphony Ball gala packages, are still available.

Taping for Worldwide Streaming of Beethoven's Ninth

The concert on Thursday, September 18, will be videotaped and made available, at a date to be announced, free, on demand at cso.org, at RiccardoMutiMusic.com, on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and on the websites of other media and music organizations around the world.

Free Concert for Chicago

Continuing a tradition that Muti began when he became music director in 2010-to offer a free CSO concert each year outside of Symphony Center-Muti and the Orchestra return for the third time to the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. On Friday, September 19 at 6:30 p.m., the free Concert for Chicago features an all-Tchaikovsky program, including The Tempest, Op. 18, music from The Sleeping Beauty and Symphony No. 4. Throughout the 2014/15 season, Muti leads the CSO in a complete survey of Tchaikovsky's symphonies, sometimes paired with the works of Scriabin, an often overlooked composer of whom Muti has long been a champion. The Fourth Symphony is also featured on programs in the following week.

CSO Concerts in Second and Third Weeks of Residency

Muti's second week of programs with the Orchestra includes performances on Thursday, September 25 at 8:30 p.m.,Friday, September 26 at 8 p.m., Saturday, September 27 at 8 p.m. and Tuesday, September 30 at 7:30 p.m. All four performances feature Debussy's La mer and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4. The program on Thursday and Fridayopens with Berlioz's Waverley Overture, Saturday's program begins with Mendelssohn's Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage and Tuesday's opening work is Tchaikovsky's The Tempest, Op. 18.

The next week, on Thursday, October 2 at 8 p.m., Friday, October 3 at 1:30 p.m., and Saturday, October 4 at 8:30 p.m., Muti leads CSO Principal Trumpet Christopher Martin as soloist with the Orchestra in Andrzej Panufnik's Concerto in modo antico, in honor of the Polish composer's centennial in 2014. Also on the program are Stravinsky's Suite from The Firebird (1919 revision) and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 3 (Polish). The Panufnik work will be featured when the CSO makes its debut in Poland at a concert in Warsaw on October 20.

Strengthening Community Connections

In addition to the free Concert for Chicago, Muti will continue traditions he began in previous residencies for making classical music accessible to more people. As part of his longstanding commitment to perform for young people who are incarcerated, Muti will visit the Illinois Youth Center-Chicago with musicians from the CSO. Muti has visited similar facilities before; this is his first visit to this one.

Muti will also open a CSO rehearsal for no charge to select community groups and students by special invitation. Another rehearsal is open to the public: On Monday, September 29 at 7 p.m., Muti will lead a rehearsal of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, a preprofessional training orchestra of young adult musicians that is part of the Negaunee Music Institute at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. They will rehearse Liszt's tone poem, Les préludes. Tickets are free but required, and a $2 per ticket service fee applies.

On Wednesday, September 24 at 7 p.m., Muti will conduct the Symphony of Oak Park and River Forest in a rehearsal that is free and open to the public (tickets are not required) at the Dominican University Performing Arts Center in River Forest. They will rehearse Strauss' Death and Transfiguration. CSO's Principal Trombone Jay Friedman is the ensemble's music director.

Release of Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet

Muti and the CSO's fourth recording together on the CSO Resound label, Prokofiev: Suite from Romeo and Juliet, a work they have performed to great acclaim both at home and on tour internationally, is scheduled for release outside the U.S. on September 23. It will be sold exclusively in the CSO's Symphony Store beginning September 16 and will be available for purchase and download, including through iTunes, throughout the U.S. on October 14.

Fifth European Tour

From October 20 through November 2, Muti and the CSO will perform on their fifth tour to Europe together, this one including performances in Warsaw, Geneva, Luxembourg and Paris and its first residency in Vienna. The tour marks the CSO's debut in Poland and in Geneva. The full tour schedule and programming can be viewed here.

Recent Performances Abroad; Two New Honors

The summer of 2014 was an extremely busy one for Muti, who led many notable and well-reviewed concerts, including an orchestra and chorus of 365 musicians from different countries in a concert to mark the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I and to honor those who died in World War I and other wars. Find information on this concert and others, including Muti's success at the Salzburg Festival, here.

On July 13, Muti received the Carla Fendi Foundation Prize, an annual award which, according to the foundation's website, was established in 2012 to honor "illustrious representatives of our times, who, in line with the spirit of the foundation, have contributed to the preservation of our collective cultural heritage, guaranteeing the continuity of its values and development in the future through their commitment in the fields of art, culture, and creativity."

On September 3, the International Center for Italian Studies at the University of Genoa awarded Muti its prestigious Isaiah Berlin Award at a ceremony at the Villa Durazzo in Santa Margherita Ligure. The award is named after the renowned philosopher and political theorist, Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997), whom Muti came to know during his time as chief conductor and music director of London's Philharmonia Orchestra, from 1973 to 1982. Berlin was a Professor of Social and Political Theory at the University of Oxford, the former President of the British Academy, and the author of many important and enduring writings on liberty and the dangers of political extremism and intellectual fanaticism. The organizers of the award called Muti "one of the most highly regarded international celebrities, a prominent figure in the music scene worldwide."

Supporters

The CSO's music director position is endowed in perpetuity by a generous gift from the Zell Family Foundation, and performances of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony on September 18, 21 and 23 are also generously supported by the Zell Family Foundation.

Bank of America is the Global Sponsor of the CSO.

The September 20 performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is generously sponsored by the Randy and Melvin Berlin Family Fund for the Canon.

Northern Trust is the Presenting Sponsor of Symphony Ball on September 20. Notable corporate supporters of the event are Bank of America, United Airlines, Abbott, ITW, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Sidley Austin LLP, Baxter International Inc., KPMG LLP, Mayer Brown, Bulgari, Aon, The Boeing Company, CVS Caremark, Ernst & Young LLP, Goldman Sachs & Co., JPMorgan, Latham & Watkins LLP, Morgan Stanley, PNC Bank, Spencer Stuart, and William Blair & Company, LLC.

The performance of Concerto in modo antico on October 2, 3 and 4 is generously supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the Polska Music programme.

The Negaunee Foundation provides generous support in perpetuity for the work of the Negaunee Music Institute of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.