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The Chicago Symphony is getting to be a bit like “Saturday Night Live” in that reruns are getting so fast and furious that they are sometimes presented the very next week. So, in case you missed last week’s season-opening program with Charles Dutoit conducting the Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony—or one of the jillions of previous CSO performances—here is another chance to hear this shopworn warhorse. Also repeated is co-concertmaster Robert Chen’s rendition of Lalo’s “Symphonie espagnole” for violin and orchestra and Rossini’s Overture to “La gazza ladra.” Note that the Saturday afternoon performance is free and part of what used to be Marshall Field’s but now called Macy’s Day of Music, but come early, as lines are likely to be long, though there will be music events of various genres going on all afternoon and evening throughout Symphony Center. Sunday afternoon’s first “Beyond the Score” program of the season will spotlight Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” in its colorful Ravel orchestration, which was given a superb dress rehearsal by Dutoit and the CSO at last weekend’s gala opening, which was actually not the first CSO concert of the new season. Yes, it’s confusing, but if you’ve never seen the actual “pictures” that inspired Mussorgsky, confusion will really set in at Mussorgsky’s musical imagination versus the works themselves rendered by his deceased friend that “inspired” him, as they resemble sketches you might otherwise see on matchbox covers advertising getting an art degree by mail order. (Dennis Polkow)
September 25 at Symphony Center
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