As part of a five-city, eight-concert East Coast tour, Music Director and Conductor Riccardo Muti leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for two concerts in Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage in February that highlight new works by Jennifer Higdon and Samuel Adams.
On
Friday, February 9 at 8:00 p.m., the CSO gives the New York premiere of a new Low Brass Concerto by Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy Award-winning composer Jennifer Higdon. The work brings four members of the Orchestra's renowned low brass section to center stage: Principal Trombone Jay Friedman, Trombone Michael Mulcahy, Bass Trombone Charles Vernon, and Principal Tuba Gene Pokorny. It is paired with Stravinsky's Scherzo Fantastique, Britten's Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes as well as Chausson's Poème de l' amour et de la mer featuring mezzo-soprano Clémentine Margaine.
The following evening on
Saturday, February 10 at 7:30 p.m., Maestro Muti leads the CSO in the New York premiere of many words of love by CSO Mead Composer-in-Residence
Samuel Adams. Considered a leading interpreter of Verdi, Maestro Muti also leads the CSO in Verdi's overture to I vespri Siciliani along with Brahms's Symphony No. 2.
While in New York, musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra-including Principal Viola Li-Kuo Chang, Principal Trombone Jay Friedman, Flute/Piccolo Jennifer Gunn, and Principal Timpani David Herbert-will also present masterclasses in
Carnegie Hall's Resnick Education Wing. Presented by the Negaunee Music Institute at the CSO in collaboration with
Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute, the masterclass participants will include students from The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music as well as alumni of the National Youth Orchestra of the USA.
Born in Naples, Italy, Riccardo Muti is one of the preeminent conductors of our day. In 2010, when he became the 10th music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), he had more than 40 years of experience at the helm of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (1968-1980), the Philharmonia Orchestra (1973-1982), the Philadelphia Orchestra (1980-1992), and Teatro alla Scala (1986-2005).
Maestro Muti studied piano under Vincenzo Vitale at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella in Naples and subsequently received a diploma in composition and conducting from the
Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan. His principal teachers were Bruno Bettinelli and Antonino Votto, principal assistant to Arturo Toscanini at La Scala. After he won the Guido Cantelli Conducting Competition in Milan in 1967, Maestro Muti's career developed quickly.
Herbert von Karajan invited him to conduct at the Salzburg Festival in Austria in 1971, and Maestro Muti has maintained a close relationship with the summer festival and with its great orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic, for more than forty-five years. He has received the distinguished Golden Ring and the Otto Nicolai Gold Medal from the Philharmonic for his outstanding artistic contributions to the orchestra. Maestro Muti was also invited by the Orchestra to lead his fifth New Year's concert in 2018. He also is a recipient of a silver medal from the Salzburg Mozarteum and the Golden
Johann Strauss Award by the
Johann Strauss Society of Vienna. He is an honorary member of Vienna's Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, the Vienna Hofmusikkapelle, the Vienna Philharmonic, and the Vienna State Opera.
In addition to his distinguished appointments as music director, Maestro Muti has received innumerable international honors. He is a Cavaliere di Gran Croce of the Italian Republic, Officer of the French Legion of Honor, and a recipient of the German Verdienstkreuz. Queen Elizabeth II bestowed on him the title of honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded him the Order of Friendship, and Pope Benedict XVI made him a Knight of the Grand Cross First Class of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great-the highest papal honor. Maestro Muti also has received Israel's Wolf Prize for the arts, Sweden's prestigious Birgit Nilsson Prize, Spain's Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts, Japan's Order of the Rising Sun Gold and Silver Star decoration, and the gold medal from Italy's Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as the prestigious "Presidente della Repubblica" award from the Italian government. He has received more than twenty honorary degrees from universities around the world.
Founded by Theodore Thomas in 1891, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is consistently hailed as one of the greatest orchestras in the world. Since 2010, the preeminent conductor Riccardo Muti has served as its 10th music director.
Yo-Yo Ma is the CSO's Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant, and
Samuel Adams and Elizabeth Ogonek are its Mead Composers-in-Residence.
From baroque through contemporary music, the CSO commands a vast repertoire. Its renowned musicians annually perform more than 150 concerts, most at Symphony Center in Chicago and, each summer, at the suburban
Ravinia Festival. They regularly tour nationally and internationally. Since 1892, the CSO has made 60 international tours, performing in 29 countries on five continents.
People around the globe listen to weekly radio broadcasts of CSO concerts and recordings on the WFMT radio network and online at
cso.org/radio. Recordings by the CSO have earned 62 Grammy Awards, including two in 2011 for Riccardo Muti's recording with the CSO and Chorus of Verdi's Messa da Requiem (Muti's first of eight releases with the CSO to date).
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has performed at
Carnegie Hall more than 130 times since its debut in 1898. The most recent performances by Maestro Muti and the CSO were in February 2015.
French mezzo-soprano Clémentine Margaine has gained international acclaim in recent seasons at such theaters as the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, to name a few. Also active as a soloist, Clémentine Margaine has sung Elijah in Berlin, the Mozart Requiem in Lisbon, and the Verdi Requiem in Budapest. Other roles in preparation include Fides in Meyerbeer's Le Prophete, Zayda in Donizetti's Don Sebastien, Gertrude in Hamlet, and Amneris in Aida.
In the 2016-2017 season, Ms. Margaine made her debuts at The Metropolitan Opera and Opéra national de Paris as Carmen. She also debuted at the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Dulcinee in Massenet's Don Quichotte and returned to the Bavarian State Opera as Sara in Roberto Devereux. Other engagements included her debut at the Cologne Opera as Concepcion in a new production of Ravel's L'Heure Espagnole and her debut at Semperoper Dresden in Carmen.
Shortly after graduating from the Paris Conservatory, Ms. Margaine was named the "révélation classique" and awarded the Special Jury Prize at the Concours International de Marmande. She subsequently joined the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where she sang her first performances of Carmen, a role for which she has now become internationally known and since sung in Munich, Rome, Naples, Washington, Dallas, and Toronto. Ms. Margaine also starred at the Deutsche Oper Berlin as Marguerite in the new production of Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust and as Dalila in Saint Saens's Samson et Dalila. In 2015, she made her debut at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires in her first performances of Charlotte in Werther.
Program Information
Friday, February 9 at 8:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Riccardo Muti, Music Director and Conductor
Clémentine Margaine, Mezzo-Soprano
Jay Friedman, Trombone
Michael Mulcahy, Trombone
Charles Vernon, Bass Trombone
Gene Pokorny, Tuba
Igor Stravinsky Scherzo fantastique, Op. 3
JENNIFER HIGDON Low Brass Concerto (NY Premiere)
ERNEST CHAUSSON Poème de l' amour et de la mer
Benjamin Britten Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, Op. 33a
______________
Saturday, February 10 at 7:30 p.m.
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Riccardo Muti, Music Director and Conductor
Giuseppe Verdi I vespri Siciliani Overture
Samuel Adams many words of love (NY Premiere)
JOHANNES BRAHMS Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73
Tickets, priced $51-$170, are available at the Carnegie Hall Box Office on 57th Street and Seventh Avenue, or can be charged to major credit cards by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800 or by visiting the Carnegie Hall website, carnegiehall.org.
For
Carnegie Hall Corporation presentations taking place in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage, a limited number of seats, priced at $10, will be available day-of-concert beginning at 11:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday and 12:00 noon on Sunday until one hour before the performance or until supply lasts. The exceptions are
Carnegie Hall Family Concerts and gala events. These $10 tickets are available to the general public on a first-come, first-served basis at the
Carnegie Hall Box Office only. There is a two-ticket limit per customer.
In addition, for all
Carnegie Hall presentations in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, a limited number of partial view (seats with obstructed or limited sight lines or restricted leg room) will be sold for 50% of the full price. For more information on this and other discount ticket programs, including those for students, Notables members, and Bank of America customers, visit
carnegiehall.org/discounts. Artists, programs, and prices are subject to change.
Photo Credit: Todd Rosenberg
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