Critic’s Choice

Wed Mar 08, 2017 at 5:55 pm

By Lawrence A. Johnson

Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma

Critic’s Choice is normally limited to just one or two events. But the present week is so abundant with musical riches that the standard format is being jettisoned.

Three competing events take place Thursday night, all of supreme interest. Yo-Yo Ma will perform the world premiere of Esa-Pekka Salonen‘s  Cello Concerto with the composer-conductor leading the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (repeated Friday and Saturday) (cso.org). Placido Domingo is featured in a concert at Lyric Opera, which will include the complete Act 2 of La Traviata (lyricopera.org). And Seth Boustead‘s  Piano Concerto No. 1 will be heard in its world premiere with soloist Marta Aznavoorian and the Chicago Composers Orchestra.(eventbrite.com)

Want more? Igor Levit, one of the most brilliant young pianists of our day, makes his Chicago recital debut Sunday at Orchestra Hall. (cso.org).

And finally the Spektral Quartet performs Morton Feldman’s fascinating, six-hour String Quartet No. 2 Saturday night at the Museum of Contemporary Art in its belated Chicago premiere. (mcachicago.org)

Posted in Performances


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