Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski was so fascinated with the sonority of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra that he wrote his 1983 Third Symphony with the sound of the orchestra in mind. His fellow countryman Karol Wojtyla, a.k.a., Pope John Paul II, was also a CSO junkie and heard the orchestra here visiting as an archbishop and even as pope in 1979. Both men shared with then CSO music director and Hungarian Sir Georg Solti a deep passion for rooting out Communism throughout Eastern Europe and after convincing Sir Georg and the CSO to offer the world premiere of the work, Lutoslawski even used the radio broadcast of the CSO’s performance at solidarity rallies. A decade later, Daniel Barenboim would record the work with the CSO, though the broadcast of the Solti premiere is available on the CSO’s 1991 ten-disc centennial set, which is still available. Lutoslawki would go on to write a Fourth Symphony before his 1994 death, this time for the Los Angeles Philharmonic though the CSO would perform the work back in 1997, under Zubin Mehta. Bernard Haitink is a staunch admirer of Lutoslawski’s music and is able to bring remarkable clarity to its complexities and has chosen the Fourth Symphony to spotlight during the season-long celebration of Haitink’s eightieth birthday both here and abroad. No less significant is that pianist Murray Perahia, once a staple of CSO concerts during the Solti era and a frequent Haitink collaborator elsewhere but who was sidelined for years with a finger injury only to make a full recovery and glorious return to the stage last year, returns to perform the Beethoven Fourth Piano Concerto with both. Haydn’s Symphony No. 44 “Mourning” opens the program. (Dennis Polkow)
November 28-30 at Symphony Center 220 S. Michigan, (312)294-3000
Scenes From A Season: An Inside Look at a Year with Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Walking out onto the stage last September, Muti was receiving his first applause at Orchestra Hall in over nineteen months. The celebrated Italian-born music director of the CSO, who had turned eighty two months earlier, was clearly moved. What made the acclamation unusual was that the hall was empty. The orchestra itself was providing heartfelt and sustained applause, greeting Muti…
