Chicago Philharmonic plans season of Romantic favorites
Birthday anniversaries of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss will be marked in the 2013-14 season of the Chicago Philharmonic, which will split its program between Pick-Staiger Hall and Nichols Concert Hall in Evanston.
New artistic director Scott Speck will open the orchestra’s 24th season September 29 with Strauss’s Don Juan, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Tchaikovsky’s rarely heard Piano Concerto No. 3 with Kuang Hao Huang as soloist.
Joel Smirnoff will return November 10 to conduct Brahms‘ Serenade No. 2, Strauss’s Metamorphosen, and Berlioz’s Rêverie and Caprice featuring concertmaster David Perry as violin soloist.
On February 16, Speck will direct the Philharmonic in Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll, Strauss’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme suite and Mahler’s Rückert Lieder with mezzo-soprano Susan Platts.
Guest conductor Leif Bjaland will be on the podium April 13 for a program including Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, Dvorák Symphony No. 7 and Saint-Saëns Morceau de Concert with Marguerite Lynn Williams as harp soloist.
The season will conclude May 10 with Speck conducting excerpts from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. with guest violinist Ben Bielman.
The Chicago Philharmonic concludes its current season 7:30 p.m.May 23 with outgoing music director Larry Rachleff leading a performance of Schubert’s Symphony No. 9 and Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1 Jeremiah at Pick-Staiger Hall.
Subscriptions for all five concerts in the 2013-14 season range from $100-$300 with single tickets $25-$75. chicagophilharmonic.org; 847-866-6888.
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