Ravinia Fest Announces 75th Anniversary of CSO's Summer Residency in 2011

Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman and Music Director James Conlon today announced details of the festival's 2011 Chicago Symphony Orchestra programming, which commemorates the 75th anniversary of the CSO's summer residency. Running from July 7 through August 19, the 17-concert residency showcases the variety and versatility of the mighty ensemble with a world premiere, timeless classic repertoire, superstar virtuosos, two movie nights, a complete opera, two major commissions and a multi-layered celebration of the 200th birthday of composer/pianist Franz Liszt.

In recognition of the 75th anniversary, anyone who donates at least $75 to the not-for-profit festival can purchase CSO tickets now at www.ravinia.org (general sales begin April 27) and receive a 20 percent discount on their total order in addition to other member benefits-such as early entry to the park on CSO concert nights. Ravinia has created a special brochure highlighting the CSO residency that details each of the concerts, and it is expected to hit 200,000 mailboxes between Sept. 30 and Oct. 4. To give buyers a sense of the music, full pieces from the 2011 repertoire can be heard at www.raviniaradio.org.

"The prime reason I came to Ravinia more than a decade ago was to work with this brilliant orchestra in building new audiences for classical music," Kauffman said. "Ravinia is known for presenting something different every day-sort of a Carnegie Hall without walls-and at the center of our classical programming is an orchestra that can do anything and everything. They've proved that over 75 glorious summers, and our 2011 season will give audiences a smorgasbord of the CSO's infinite abilities."

"It's been said countless times that the CSO is one of the world's finest ensembles. That doesn't happen by accident. It is made up of some the finest musicians I've ever met,
and I look forward to working with them each summer," Conlon said. "One of the things I like most is the same thing the audience enjoys: variety. We can be doing something new or exotic one night, an orchestral masterpiece the next, and an opera a week later. The variety, combined with the easygoing atmosphere of the festival, makes Ravinia the perfect place to experience your first symphonic concert."

The Liszt Bicentennial will be celebrated in a variety of programs throughout the summer (chamber music concerts, recitals and other events will be announced in the coming months), including the CSO's opening-night performance with superstar pianist Lang Lang performing Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-Flat Major along with his mentor Christoph Eschenbach conducting Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique and Chopin's Andante Spianato and

Grand Polonaise on July 7. The next night, André Watts performs Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 2 in A Major on a program that features Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and Berlioz's Roman Carnival Overture conducted by Eschenbach.

"The first real media superstar, Liszt earned praise and detractors. He was the subject of headlines and gossip; an early advocate for music education and inventor of the tone poem, piano recital and master class; the main attraction at music halls spanning the globe. He even had the world's first endorsement deal," Kauffman said. "We celebrate Liszt not just through his own music but also by showcasing the virtuoso, with performances by Lang Lang and Watts; the composer/performer with examples from Rachmaninoff, Nico Muhly and Rufus Wainwright; and the tastemaker, presenting the composers he championed, including Wagner (and even a "Ring" for the 21st century), Berlioz and Chopin. We'll even consider his contemporary Johannes Brahms, whom music critics pitted against Liszt."

Conlon concludes his multi-year Mahler cycle, in the centennial anniversary summer of the composer's death, by conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in the fairy-tale inspired Das klagende Lied ("Song of Lamentation"), one of Mahler's earliest works on Aug. 4. On the same program, Itzhak Perlman returns to Ravinia to perform Beethoven's only violin concerto, Violin Concerto in D Major. Perlman returns on Aug. 6 in the role of conductor with recent Kennedy Center honoree Leon Fleisher performing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 12 in A Major.

Building on the great success of recent opera performances at the festival that was once known as "the summer opera capital of the world," Conlon will conduct the CSO in a pavilion performance of one of Puccini's defining masterworks, Tosca on July 30. Patricia Racette, who starred in Madame Butterfly at Ravinia, also plays the title role in what is regarded as one of the most popular operas in the repertoire. Bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, in his first Ravinia appearance in more than a decade, will play Scarpia; and Salvatore Licitra makes his Ravinia debut in the role of revolutionary Cavaradossi.

The long history of the CSO and Ravinia creating opera together is celebrated in another evening, with soprano supreme Deborah Voigt singing major arias by Wagner, Beethoven and Richard Strauss on July 9.

As far back as 1908, the CSO has performed world premieres at Ravinia, and Ravinia began commissioning music for the orchestra to perform at the festival in 1971. That tradition continues on Aug. 9 with the world premiere of a new work by Nico Muhly, who is equally at home recording pop songs for Bjork, conducting for Phillip Glass, studying with John Corigliano and John Rouse and orchestrating the score for an Oscar-winning film like The Reader. In addition to his first opera (tentatively titled Two Boys) being produced in London in 2011, Ravinia has commissioned Muhly to write a new work specifically for The 5 Browns-a family of acclaimed young pianists who perform together with 5 pianos on stage-and orchestra.

The annual Gala Benefit Evening, hosted by the Women's Board of Ravinia Festival, celebrates "The Great Gershwin-Here to Stay" on July 23 as the CSO is joined by pianist Kevin Cole and singers Sylvia McNair, Kelli O'Hara and Brian Stokes Mitchell, conducted by James Conlon. The concert features Rhapsody in Blue, An American in Paris, Cuban Overture and various hit songs that defined the career of one of America's most beloved composers, who made a legendary Ravinia debut in 1936. Proceeds from the benefit help support the not-for-profit festival's mission, especially its efforts to bring music back to the schools through its REACH*TEACH*PLAY education programs.
Ravinia Festival joins several other cultural institutions throughout Chicago to explore The Soviet Arts Experience with two concerts.

An all-Russian evening on Aug. 5 couples Yo-Yo Ma's performance of two popular Tchaikovsky works, Variations on a Rococco Theme and the Andante Cantabile from String Quartet No. 1, with Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet Suite. Romeo and Juliet is the 2011 One Score, One Chicago selection. To help engage the Chicagoland community in this annual focus on a single masterwork, a resource guide to the piece will be made available at www.ravinia.org along with a free download of a complete symphonic performance of the work. The Soviet Experience is again explored on Aug. 9 in a performance of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 in D Minor, the triumphant work that restored the composer to official favor after a period of censure from Soviet officials.

Russian music is then highlighted in an All-Tchaikovsky Evening on July 31, featuring Miriam Fried performing the Violin Concerto in D Major along with Symphony No. 6 in B Minor ("Pathetique") and the festival's annual roof-raising "1812" Overture performed with live cannons.

Tapping into the long history of symphonic music in the movies as often chronicled in the CSO's popular movie nights at Symphony Center, Ravinia will present two performances, Aug. 18 and 19, of The Lord of the Rings-The Fellowship of the Ring. The orchestra will perform the Oscar-winning Howard Shore score live as the complete film is projected on a giant video screen on the lawn and the two video screens that flank the pavilion stage.

One of the most celebrated conductors working today, Christoph von Dohnányi, returns to Ravinia to conduct two back-to-back all-Brahms evenings. On July 14, pianist Emanuel Ax joins him for the Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor on a program that also includes Symphony No. 2 in D Major. The next night, Ax performs Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major on a program that features Symphony No. 3 in F Major. The Brahms evenings were programmed as a counterpoint to the Liszt celebration as contemporaries of the two composers often found themselves forced to take sides in one camp or the other because of the divisive writings of powerful critic Eduard Hanslick. Patrons can purchase both concerts for the special price of $100 (a $140 value).

Brahms receives another hearing July 24, when his Violin Concerto is performed with CSO concertmaster Robert Chen on a program with Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 ("Eroica") conducted by Conlon.

Over time, Liszt would not be alone in terms of towering virtuosity and public popularity. Along came Rachmaninoff. Conlon will lead an all-Rachmaninoff evening that features a rare U.S. appearance of the Chorus of the National Opera of Ukraine and pianist Alexander Romanovsky, both making Ravinia debuts. The July 21 program features Vesna ("Spring" Cantata), Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini and The Bells.

The man Elton John calls the greatest songwriter on the planet, folk music prodigy and progeny Rufus Wainwright (son of Loudon Wainwright and Kate McGarrigle) performs his original settings of Shakespeare's Sonnets with the CSO, co-commissioned by Ravinia Festival. The Chicago premiere on Aug 14 is juxtaposed with other music inspired by the bard: Berlioz's Overture to Beatrice and Benedict and the Scherzo and Nocturne from Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream conducted by Jeffrey Kahane. Following intermission, Wainwright returns sans CSO in a more familiar guise, a full-blown folk-rock concert demonstrating why he's been a festival sell-out in previous seasons.In its continuing efforts to build audiences for classical music, Ravinia has set its 2011 CSO prices even lower than its 2010 prices. Lawn admission in most cases is $10 or $12.

A 10-punch lawn pass is available for only $70 (through Dec. 31, 2010), making the cost of each lawn admission only $7. Pavilion seats to three CSO concerts-the July 24 performance of Beethoven's "Eroica," the July 31 All-Tchaikovsky Evening and the Aug. 6 performance of Mozart conducted by Itzhak Perlman-are only $25 each. Customers who purchase all three of these $25 performances will also be given free pavilion admission to the July 8 program featuring Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and André Watts performing Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 2.

As always, children 5 and under will be admitted free to the lawn for CSO concerts and children 6-10 will be admitted for $5. For information on tickets, phone the Ravinia Box Office at 847-266-5100, but please note, tickets are not yet available by phone but may be obtained exclusively at www.ravinia.org.