The Chicago Symphony has rolled out its 2023-24 season, the first after Riccardo Muti ends his tenure.
Names in the frame include Daniel Harding, James Conlon, Kazuki Yamada, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Jakub Hrůša, James Gaffigan, Paavo Järvi, Manfred Honeck, Gemma New and Elim Chan.
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Blomstedt conducting Schubert and Beethoven in early March 2024.
Hrusa or Honeck potential successors?
I spent several years predicting Honeck would replace Muti. But if it hasn’t happened by now, I have to assume they aren’t interested in him. And that’s in spite of the fact that I personally think he’d be a fantastic selection for the CSO or virtually any orchestra looking for a music director.
Remarkably, the season brochure (available as a facsimile on line) lists a guest appearance by Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin in an all-Brahms program at the end of November.
Although I am sad that Canellakis is left off the roster, I am very glad that Bychkov is coming back with Brahms 4.
Yes!
I find it really strange and sad that the announcement in the online newspapers lists the C.S.O. doing all sorts of Philip Glass; various world premieres (including something composed by Joshua Bell), and some possibly ‘woke’ looking stuff, yet no Bruckner, R. Strauss, Mahler or Shostakovich. This is the orchestra that has historically been known for its ability to handle the ‘heavy hitters’ with ease (I particularly like them in Bruckner, Strauss and Shostakovich). The only mention of those four composers, is a performance of Mahler 6 that Simon Rattle and the Bavarian Radio S.O. will be doing there on tour (and before you scoff at that, know that Rattle has always been really good with the 6th Mahler). My, how the mighty have fallen.
Yet when you look at the concert listings you see Mahler 1,2,5, Bruckner 7, Shostakovich 9, 10, Zarathustra and Death and Transfiguration.
Little correction, Mahler five is on this week, 4 and Knaben Wunderhorn are on next season along with 1&2, Shostakovich 1 and Suite 1 along with symphonies 9&10, and Strauss Aus Italien which I believe the cso is taking on tour.
Mahler 4.* You should get your facts straight.
And the argument isn’t that there are zero warhorses programmed, it’s that if there is any orchestra that should be neck deep in them year in and year out, it’s the CSO. Not to mention, these big pieces are in several instances being performed by people who have yet to establish themselves as renowned interpreters of said composer; Mäkelä and Lintu in Shostakovich for instance.
I saw Makela conduct Shostakovich 10 with The Cleveland Orchestra last April. If you go to only one concert next season, make it that one. Trust me!!!!
The Chicago Symphony playing Bruckner, Strauss, Mahler or Shostakovich is not exactly news. No doubt that’s why media reports didn’t feature those composers.
. . . and Philip Glass is news?
Yes, I corrected myself down below, once I actually found the season brochure. I foolishly went by their press release. I’m very happy to be wrong.
I concur with this sentiment and it is one that is echoed offstage by players. At one point in time the finger could be pointed at Muti but one has to wonder if the orchestra has irreversibly lost its connection to the works in which it once reigned supreme.
“….woke looking stuff”, Barry? Really?
Elim Chan.
lol
Very non-Woke.
It’s very awake -helps quell the supporters-donors
“Post-Muti” …
… how sweet the sound! Folks can’t see me, but I am crying like a baby, or like the old imbecile that I am :-)))
Merlin’s beard! What a fearsome and majestic conductor line-up! Worthy of the … well … just the world’s best orchestra, as we all agree.
Who needs Chailly, Thielemann, Petrenko?
Way to go Chicago! We are all rooting for you!!
We’ll go with your second take: you sure write like an obsessed old imbecile.
Whatever happened to the very stimulating post about Solti and Beyonce, and the CSO Grammy winning record? It seems to have disappeared.
In the days when even the MET and Philly are hacked by Russian bots, we should be concerned.
Or, should we fear something even more sinister?
I’d ask the editor of this site, but I am afraid of his answer. Has the Longa Manus arrived even … in here, the bastion of intellectual freedom that we thought inviolable??
Norman also beats me to the punch. I just received my email from the CSO with the same announcement. Noteworthy is that Muti is only conducting 3 concerts in September and then he is gone. They seem rudderless. The days of having Haitink and Boulez keep them in shape until a new conductor is selected are gone. The best concert of their season is Rattle and the BRSO visiting with M 6!
CSO will survive. We were rudderless for a season or 2 before Haitink rode to the rescue.
Never mind – I have to correct myself, as I found the season brochure. They’ll be doing Bruckner 7 (Honeck); R. Stauss’ “Also Sprach Zarathustra” and “Aus Italien”; Mahler symphonies 1, 4 and 2 (in that order), Shostakovich symphonies 9 and 10. There’s also a “Rite of Spring” (Philippe Jordan). Good stuff!. Sometimes it’s great to be wrong.
We’ll, you’re great at it!
When I am, at least I have the guts to admit publicly – with my real name.
Wrong: he’s gracious at it.
1) Is this Harding’s debut? And they’re making him do Holst Planets, what a wasted opportunity.
2) First time Chicago sees Rattle (albeit with Bavarian Radio). Maybe he’ll ask for a new hall.
3) Makela teaming up with his girlfriend for Bartok Piano 2. Should be magical.
4) No Thielemann. Guess there was no magic afterall.
Rattle was there with the CBSO for two concerts in 1998
And the Berlin Philharmonic in 2003.
Daniel Harding made his CSO debut in 2005.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2005-11-12-0511120202-story.html
I can’t speak for everyone in the orchestra but there was plenty of magic with Thielemann, as a matter of fact for majority of us it’s been the highlight of the season so far. Why he’s not coming back or why we never see Rattle, Petrenko is something you’d have to ask the management. Perhaps they’re also blacklisted with every conductor of Italian nationality and Dudamel. But hey, few more months…. Change is coming
“blacklisted… every conductor of Italian nationality and Dudamel”
Ha ha, that’d be so Muti, who has a much publicized enmity with The Other Riccardo and referred to an unnamed conductor as “all hair”
see my comment below about throwing one’s rival under the bus, lol
Can’t wait to hear what is coming in a few months (at least it’s not winter!)
FYI the 23-24 season was already planned out when CT visited last October, so don’t insinuate that there are other things going on. There are ongoing talks to bring CT back.
What’s with the ‘every conductor of Italian nationality and Dudamel’?
Muti hasn’t allowed any other Italian conductor or Dudamel to conduct the CSO during his tenure, pretty self explanatory.
Yes, change is finally coming.
Besides the 6 weeks of Muti (yes, still 6 as you know, counting the tours, not 3), that have to still be endured, this new season is a great start.
Lots of rebuilding needed. Anyone of a certain caliber has been blacklisted for more than a decade, until last season. Italians conductors and Dudamel top of that list, as you say. His power and toxic iron grip, not to mention the “lifestyle” garbage, are going to be dissolved.
Chicago is going to hear great music again. A bright future is ahead.
Whatever happened to Muti’s “music director emeritus for life” designation?
If I was the Old Man, I would blacklist the Dude. He’s younger, much more energetic, more diverse, and even has better hair.
He just makes the Old Man look bad.
I would assume that most of the season was already planned by the time he conducted in October.
I believe you’ll be hearing quite a lot about thielemann and CSO in the near future.
Jeff Alexander has already said they are trying to get Thielemann for future appearances.
2) Besides the CBSO 1998 appearance mentioned below, Rattle also took the Berlin Philharmonic to Chicago in 2009.
4) These artists are usually booked 2-4 years in advance. Hence, whether or not someone returns the season following their debut is a decision that was already made before they actually had their debut and is often based on scheduling considerations. I.e. it has nothing to do with whether there was or wasn’t any “magic” at the debut itself.
Manfred Honeck and James Conlon are my favorites. Both would be great.
Honeck, yes. Conlon, no.
And also Van Zweden, Makela, MTT, Bychkov, Davis, and Salonen.
…and in other news, the new “Bennifer” of classical music, Klaus Makela & Yuja Wang will be making the rounds in the US. So far Chicago has announced.
https://cso.org/performances/23-24/cso-classical/klaus-makela-and-yuja-wang/
For marketing purposes, should it be Kluja? Or Yukla?
Hope it ain’t Wankela.
For marketing purposes, Yuja should be marketed as “the greatest pianist of her generation” or some such, of course. Though thankfully that line of marketing has already been used by a certain Russian pianist, so Yuja won’t be associated with such cringe.
Anmarie, you made me laugh out loud.
No Alsop?
She’s still in charge at Ravinia, so Chicagoans have no shortage of opportunities to hear her.
Also Herbert Blomstedt 🙂
“If you sit by the river for long enough, you will see the body of your enemy float by.” (Ancient ORIENTAL proverb)
“a journey of a thousand miles begins with first pushing your rival in front of the bus” (some chinese or korean guy)
“Hate always turns against the perpetrator.” ‘Desmond Tutu).
I saw Sir Simon’s photo in the brochure and thought, finally they’re booking him! Alas no; he’s just there with the BRSO. But some interesting programs, including Josef Spacek playing the Martin 1st Concerto.
Not sure what conclusions one could make about MD contenders; of this group I’d only consider Honeck to be a possibility. Too soon to book Thielemann for a return, I guess.
Leave it to the CSO board to bring in someone uninspiring like Jaap Van Zweden, (whom Alex Ross calls) the “Millard Fillmore” of music directors.
Zweden achieves with the CSO what the NYP is unable to deliver naturally without sounding forced and blaring: power and precision.
And Zweden’s music making is all about power and precision, very much like Solti’s.
The problem is that Zweden, former concertmaster of the Concertgebouw under Haitink, fundamentally approaches the NY Phil as an inferior orchestra and that he is there to work the orchestra up to the Concertgebouw and Chicago level, but that’s not what the NY critics want to hear. At heart, Alex Ross and Zachary Woolfe just want some of that Gustavo Dudamel magic dust to be sprinkled all over New York.
van Zweden has a one-size-fits-all approach to interpreting all composers that gets tedious pretty quickly.
Good idea to call Elim Chan she deserves more attention as guest conductor.
The obvious choices for Chicago – because it is Chicago – are Machine Gun Kelly, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd.
Alas, Baby Face already signed for Concertgebouw, New York got the Machine Gun, and Philly is stuck with the Boy until the end of the decade.
All the Chicagoans who favor Lori Lightfoot as their mayor probably would just as soon see the CSO crash and burn. Whether I’m being sarcastic or not is a constantly moving target.
Yep, politics are very much in the eye of the beholder. But Lightfoot sure as heck hasn’t given a sheen and respectability to her city. So if its residents don’t mind her, what does that say about how they view Chicago, including its entities like the CSO?
Maybe Francisco Noya, Max Hobarts, Sandra Dackow, Ric Madru, Jimmy Vinci-great underrated conductors.
I hope Elim Chan gets the permanent job. She ticks all the boxes.