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Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Salonen Conducts Ravel & Stravinsky
May 26-31, 2022
Overview
Esa-Pekka Salonen takes listeners on a voyage through astonishing terrains, from Ravel’s exquisite setting of Perrault’s fairy tales to Stravinsky’s 1940s “war symphony,” with its allusions to marching soldiers and tanks. Completing the program, Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto introduces a 2021 concerto by Bryce Dessner partly inspired by Anne Carson’s essay The Anthropology of Water. It is a re-imagining of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, “an endeavor as old as civilization to set out on a road that is supposed to take you to the very end of things.” (Carson, The Anthropology of Water)
Ticket holders are invited to a free preconcert conversation featuring Stephen Alltop in Orchestra Hall 75 minutes before the performance. The conversation will last approximately 30 minutes. No additional tickets required.
Program
Ravel
Mother Goose
Dessner
Violin Concerto
Stravinsky
Symphony in Three Movements
Iro Haarla (Arr. Pekka Kuusisto)
Barcarole [May 26 Encore]
Gabriel Kahane
Kiivetä Kotiin [May 27 Encore]
Trad. Finnish
Pirun Polska (The Devil’s Polska) [May 28 Encore]
Trad. Finnish
“Kopskin Jonas” [May 31 Encore]
Performers
Sponsors & Partners
Official Airline of the CSO
Media Partner
These concerts are generously sponsored by Richard W. Colburn and Jenner & Block LLC.
Discover more on Experience CSO
Returning to the CSO after a four-year absence, Esa-Pekka Salonen feels "very close to the orchestra. We have a very good rapport musically and on a personal level. It’s a developing relationship, which makes it even more enjoyable."
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Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto compares the new concerto written for him to a work-out. “It's the only piece I do push-ups as a warm-up,” he said. “The work is like a boxing match.”
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Bryce Dessner is a force in two worlds, as the guitarist of indie rock's The National and as a composer of contemporary classical works written for Pekka Kuusisto, Kronos Quartet and Jennifer Koh. “I’m the same musician no matter what room I’m in,” he said.
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The Chicago Symphony Chorus takes center stage in two gorgeous French works from the 20th century, Poulenc's Gloria and Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe.
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Igor Stravinsky leads the CSO in his ballet Orpheus, plus Fritz Reiner conducts Song of the Nightingale, Sir Georg Solti leads The Rite of Spring, and Carlo Maria Giulini conducts a suite from The Firebird.
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Available at the Symphony Store
Pierre Boulez leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements, recorded live at Orchestra Hall in 2009.
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