Music of the spirit soars with Honeck and CSO
There have been some up-and-down recent weeks with podium guests at 220 S. Michigan Avenue. So one was even more grateful than usual for the return of Manfred Honeck to conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Thursday night.
One of the CSO’s most esteemed and popular guest conductors, Honeck brought his customary shot of adrenaline to the performances, as well as a thoughtful program apt for the Lenten season, framed by two CSO premieres written 221 years apart.
The evening led off with Larghetto by James MacMillan. Commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 2017 for the tenth anniversary of Honeck’s music directorship, the work is an arrangement of the Scottish composer’s Miserere for chorus of 2009.
Larghetto begins in a hushed threnody for cellos, reflective of the Miserere’s plea for mercy, which moves to violas, then first and second violins. A low brass statement sounds a monastic pedal point, and the music segues into an abrupt fortissimo statement from the full orchestra. Three individual brass players (horn, trumpet and trombone), arrayed across the balcony, play solemn Gabrieli-like solos. The music gradually rises in spiritual confidence to a massive affirmative tutti with resplendent brass, before the music gradually slows and quietens again, returning to the feeling of the opening measures.
MacMillan’s climaxes feel a bit overblown and bombastic; one can’t help feeling that Larghetto might be more effective with smaller forces, perhaps even just scored for strings.
Still, at its best this 13-minute work communicates a deeply felt expression, suggestive of Barber’s Adagio for Strings in its stoic introspection. Honeck, Larghetto’s dedicatee, led a rich and fervent performance with superb contributions from the cello section and the trio of brass soloists (CSO principal horn Mark Almond and trombone Jay Friedman with Micah Wilkinson, guest principal trumpet from the Pittsburgh Symphony). This CSO premiere was warmly applauded by the audience.
A pair of nearly contemporaneous works made up the balance of the program, contrasting the young Beethoven with the elder statesman Haydn.
Beethoven’s “Eroica” is justifiably regarded as the composer’s epochal breakthrough work that changed the course of music. But Honeck and the CSO delivered a bracing performance of Beethoven’s First Symphony Thursday night that presented the composer as an icon-smashing revolutionary from the jump. One had the sense of Beethoven bodily wrenching the symphony from the galant Vienna court of Mozart to his own disruptive voice with its sudden lunges, abrupt accents and bursts of nervous energy.
Honeck is often at his best in cornerstone Austro-German repertory and so it proved again with Beethoven’s youthful vitality fairly leaping off the page. Taking tempos in all four movements at a fleeter pace than one often hears, Honeck led a fiery and exuberant rendition of this familiar work, with whirling violins, full-voiced winds, and rambunctious timpani playing by David Herbert. The finale was thrown off with exhilarating vivacity and precision; Beethoven’s jokey intro of the main theme’s notes hesitantly creeping upward before dashing off in complete form was delightful. This was one of the CSO’s finest Beethoven performances of recent seasons.
Haydn’s Mass in Time of War closed the program in what was, amazingly, its belated CSO debut.
Though written (1796) in an unsettled era, Haydn’s Mass in C Major is almost unfailingly optimistic even as the cannon fire of the pounding timpani and sudden choral fortissimos convey moments of darkness and doubt that precede the mass’s ultimate spiritual victory.
Honeck led a stirring performance of striking clarity, textual fidelity and remarkable transparency—one could hear the violins’ virtuosic lines even with the orchestra and 90-member chorus in full cry.
Joélle Harvey, Jennifer Johnson Cano, Andrew Haji and Joshua Hopkins. Photo: Todd Rosenberg
The performance was aided by a first rate quartet. Joélle Harvey’s luminous, crystal-clear soprano delivered the high spiritual grace notes as required. Baritone Joshua Hopkins anchored the low end with a noble solo in the Gloria’s “Qui tollis peccata mundi” (bringing the program full circle from MacMillan’s Miserere-inspired work).
Jennifer Johnson Cano brought her finely focused mezzo and striking agility to her Sanctus solo. Tenor Andrew Haji had fewer spotlight opportunities but blended gracefully with his colleagues in ensemble moments.
Prepared by Donald Nally, the large CSO Chorus sang magnificently throughout—majestic in the opening Kyric, etching the passing dark moments in the Credo and conveying the Agnes Dei’s eventual spiritual triumph in the “Dona nobis pacem.”
The orchestra often gets overlooked in these choral masterworks, but the CSO’s playing was first-class across the board, both individually and as an ensemble. Principal cellist John Sharp supported Hopkins’ Credo solo with a burnished and sensitive obbligato. Assistant principal timpanist Vadim Karpinos delivered powerful playing of his daunting solos, reflecting the fraught time of the mass’s creation, with Napoleon’s army outside the gates of Vienna.
Overseeing all was conductor Honeck, balancing the large forces with extraordinary clarity and transparency. Haydn’s attentive setting of the text was manifest in every leap in dynamic, shift in color, or upward surge in the chorus.
This concert is a highlight of the current music season and one would be well advised to catch one of the remaining performances this weekend.
________
CSO principal flute Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson has won the same position with the Berlin Philharmonic. The CSO stated Thursday that the Iceland-born musician will take a leave of absence in the 2025-26 season to play in Berlin. Höskuldsson performed the world premiere of Lowell Liebermann’s Flute Concerto No. 2 with the CSO last year.
Höskuldsson, who is currently marking a decade with the Chicago Symphony, is the second CSO principal flute in 11 years to decamp to Berlin. His predecessor, Mathieu Dufour, left the CSO in 2014 to become principal flute with the Berlin Philharmonic, a position he resigned from after seven seasons.
Höskuldsson’s impending departure creates a serious woodwind void since the CSO is currently without an assistant principal flute as well.
In happier CSO musical chairs news, principal trumpet Esteban Batallán is returning to his post after taking a sabbatical this season to perform in the same position with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Batallán will be back to play CSO concerts beginning in April.
The program will be repeated 1:30 p.m. Friday and 7:30 p.m. Saturday. cso.org
Posted in Performances
4 Responses to “Music of the spirit soars with Honeck and CSO”
Leave a Comment
Subscribe via RSS.
Posted Mar 15, 2025 at 12:18 pm by Roger
Very good news about Batallan—he belongs in Chicago as a worthy successor to Herseth.
Posted Mar 15, 2025 at 11:56 pm by niloiv
I attended the Saturday concert and would echo the positivity of the review.
The Haydn Mass was a highly enjoyable piece. I’m surprised how little it gets performed, given the motivated mood, beautiful vocal writing and accessible length. Honeck consistently delivers high quality concerts in Chicago. His Bruckner 7 was my season highlight from last year, and tonight again stands high in the list for current season. Looking forward to him coming back in November for the Mozart Requiem (and won’t complain if he stays more than one week in town every year).
A big group of young students showed up on Saturday and clapped between every movement of the Beethoven. It broke the flow a little bit, but no issue for the second half. Hopefully some of them would come back and become frequent visitors. (The main floor was 30% empty, a shame for such a great concert.)
Posted Mar 16, 2025 at 3:10 pm by CHARLES CAPWELL
I heard the Fri matinee, and though I am generally reluctant to shout anything at the end of a piece, I couldn’t contain an immediate ‘bravo’ after the Beethoven.
Honeck’s interpretation left me stunned with a new understanding of the piece. Of course, he was helped a bit by this unparalled ensemble.
Posted Mar 18, 2025 at 12:25 pm by James Sparling
Finest performance of Beethoven 1 that I’ve ever heard. It just filled me with joy. I know the piece really well and it was just stunning.
I liked the Macmillan more than you I think and it turns out the Scottish knight had the same composition tutor as me, John Casken. The Haydn needs another listen for me but the baritone was a standout.
Always a joy to watch and listen to Honeck’s work. Thanks for your review.