Esteban Batalla?n/Photo: Todd Rosenberg

Imagine that you have had one career goal most of your life: to become principal trumpet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

For CSO principal trumpet Esteban Batallán, that quest began when he first heard recordings of the CSO back in his native Spain as a young teenager.

“It was what I dreamed of,” Batallán recalls.

“I just wanted to sit on Adolph Herseth’s chair. That was my main purpose in life as a musician. And I achieved that.”

Adolph “Bud” Herseth was the CSO’s legendary principal trumpet for fifty-three years—from 1948 to 2001—under six different music directors. The seat that Batallán occupies is called the Adolph Herseth Principal Trumpet Chair.

“When it happened [in 2019], I was not just proud of myself, but I knew that a lot of people would be proud of me as well. And that made me feel very, very good. In that moment, I also understood the responsibility that I had and that’s what I have been trying to do since. There’s a legacy. There’s a tradition. There are so many things in this glorious house to take care of. And that’s what I try to do every day.”

And yet in August of last year, Batallán sent shock waves through the music world by announcing he had accepted the position of principal trumpet at the Philadelphia Orchestra, starting in September of 2024. Less than six months later, it was announced Batallán would be returning to the CSO.

Why would Batallán leave his “dream job” in Chicago only to return to it after such a short stay in Philadelphia?

“Somehow, I wanted to make sure I had a good understanding of what the situation was here when Muti left. There was an uncertain time with the horn-section situation and with the trumpet section and with the trombone section as well. So, without getting really into detail, I think I needed to get some time away for myself.”

The orchestra had experienced division over a former virtuosic principal player not having been granted tenure, and a new principal being given it.

“I think excellence is something that the CSO should fight for, and for a work ethic and discipline. There are some really key values that make a big difference between A-level institutions and other institutions. The CSO has to be enforcing those values for everybody, to make sure that the huge legacy of decades of tradition that we have here, we are able to keep and pass forward to the next generation.”

Batallán was left with the feeling that the grass might be greener on the other side.

“When Philadelphia came up with the idea of my going there, I wanted to go and try and see how other places do things. The reality is that if I really felt that Philadelphia was a dream, I probably would stay there. But it was not a dream. My dream was still here. That’s why I decided to come back.

“There were some situations in Philadelphia over the seven months that I was officially there that kind of were dragging me down a little bit. Some unfortunate situations between colleagues and some behaviors and things that I was fighting against here. So, my energy or my hope was kind of coming down in terms of Philadelphia.

“Honestly, what I expressed to the CEO and [Philadelphia Orchestra music director] Yannick [Nézet-Séguin] was that I was not ready to say no to the CSO with all these problems. Besides, I saw that things were working properly here by then. They understood from the beginning that [Chicago] was always my dream. They knew when I left to come to Philadelphia that it was potentially a temporary situation. I never lied to them. I said, ‘Look, this is the situation. It’s not new. Everybody knows this. I cannot hide my feelings. That’s been publicly said many, many times. So, let’s see how things go.’

“Things were going good in some respects and really not so good in other respects. It was a very profitable time, a very good time away. I learned a lot. It was a very good learning experience for me. I can tell you that I came back to the CSO looking at things from a different perspective, which I think made me grow more as a human being as well as a person and as a musician. I think the Philadelphia experience was very good for me. No matter how things turned out with them or here during the time I was not here, I think it was overall, a really good experience.

“It takes decades of work to make something excellent. And it takes seconds to take it down. We have to keep these values. Klaus [Mäkelä, CSO music director designate] definitely has them. The same as Muti had these values as well. As a player, what you do doesn’t just mean playing all the notes. It involves more. It’s the way you behave. The way you treat every single moment that you are on stage. The way you dress. It’s a lot of things together. When you are on the stage playing and your face is like, you don’t care, no. You have to show it. That’s the Berlin Philharmonic. They have a huge work ethic and a huge discipline. They try to make their stand partner better every day. It’s this camaraderie that is really beautiful. We have that here as well. We just have to make sure it is always on the table.

“That’s why coming back gave me a different perspective. There are places where things work even worse, especially in that respect or that section, if you want to say it. So I came back and I said, ‘You know what? I have to make things work instead of going against them.’ That little click actually made a difference. And I’m starting already to see the difference. There is a different mood in the brass and that tension that we had for a few months is barely there.”

Esteban Batallán, with John Hagstrom (left), Michael Mulcahy (right)/Photo: Todd Rosenberg

Although Batallán has technically been on a leave of absence from Chicago while in Philadelphia for the 2024-25 season, he has been back to play a few concerts this spring, and even went on tour with the CSO when it appeared at the Mahler Festival in Amsterdam last month. That almost didn’t happen, however, as he and his wife Marina were expecting their first child.

“The due date for us was May 13, which was the first day of the tour. We were going to schedule induced labor, but there were no spots. And because my wife didn’t have any medical conditions, she was not approved to have a scheduled delivery. But the baby suddenly decided to show up! It was so interesting. That was May 6, and I left May 12. I left one day later than the whole group just to make sure I was going to have an extra day with the baby.”

It is also not lost on Batallán that his first-ever appearances as soloist with his beloved CSO—though planned years in advance—happens to fall across Father’s Day weekend, in the wake of his having become a new father.

“The moment that you hold that little boy in your arms, there is a click. Something changes. You’re super worried about everything with him. Whenever he’s crying for something, I’m the first one on top of him. That protective sense kind of comes up.

“I was gone for just twelve days, but Marina’s parents came to help and I was following things every single day. When I came home, he was already three centimeters longer than the day I left. He’s gained one pound already. His name is Lucas and he is doing very, very well.

“I definitely was not going to leave for the tour if the baby was not here yet, because there wouldn’t be enough time to fly back and I didn’t want to miss the moment of the birth and those special moments that nobody should ever miss. Luckily for everybody, everything worked out, thank God. And I was able to go on tour and we had a huge success everywhere we went.

“The orchestra sounded great. I like Jaap [van Zweden] a lot. He’s a very awesome maestro. He’s very demanding, but he makes the orchestra sound great.”

While the CSO was still touring Europe under van Zweden, the Dutch website Pointer released a highly-publicized report consisting of mostly anonymous interviews with musicians and insiders who had worked with van Zweden over the last twenty-five years. The report characterized the Dutch conductor as generating a “culture of fear” with his work methods.

“I understand some of that because I have seen some situations. But from my experience, everything comes from the desire of excellence that Jaap has. He’s not a rude person. He’s actually very respectful with everybody. He’s a great maestro and he’s a great musician. His life goes around music and around family and he has strong values for everything he does in life. I respect him. Everybody here respects him. There’s nobody that you will see saying anything wrong about him here. He’s just a very gifted person and he knows how to get the best of the CSO, no doubt, one-hundred percent.”

Batallán was also principal trumpet at the Hong Kong Philharmonic in 2018-19 under van Zweden, just prior to his appointment as principal trumpet of the CSO.

“Jaap was always very demanding. I think it belongs to him and his personality, the fact that he was always a very gifted musician and a very well-trained violinist.”

In 1979, then-music director Bernard Haitink appointed van Zweden concertmaster of the Concertgebouw Orchestra at the age of nineteen, the youngest concertmaster in the orchestra’s history.

“I don’t want to be disrespectful to the people who actually had any experiences, but I saw some of those situations and Jaap was never nasty. He was never disrespectful. If you have one-hundred people and ten are not doing what they are supposed to do, it’s not the same. I’m actually the same way with my students. I tell them the truth, and when I have to say, ‘This is wrong,’ it is wrong. ‘Let’s do it again until you get it.’ And if I have to explain it in ten different ways for them to understand it, I will do it. But I’m not going to let it go. I want them to be precise. Mediocrity remains something that is very much alive everywhere.”

Esteban Batalla?n and Riccardo Muti/Photo: Todd Rosenberg

Batallán’s June performances with CSO music director emeritus for life Riccardo Muti will be their first together with the Chicago Symphony since January of 2024, during Muti’s final CSO European tour.

“Yeah, but I saw him last in October in Philadelphia, because he came and did Verdi’s ‘Requiem’ in Philadelphia.”

It was Batallán who sounded the last trumpet, as he will also do when Verdi’s “Requiem” closes out the 2024-25 CSO season under Muti June 19-24.

What was it like for Batallán to play under Muti—the music director who hired him as principal trumpet in Chicago—as the principal trumpet in Philadelphia?

“Well, he looked at me in a different way, definitely. But he was fully aware of the situation that I was in there. We even got to have lunch together one day, and we spoke for over three hours.”

As former music director of both the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony, Muti had a unique vantage point.

“He speaks openly and freely, whatever he thinks. Despite the distance of ‘he’s the big maestro and I’m just a blower of a piece of brass,’ we found a common ground for us.”

The two also discussed Batallán’s pre-Philadelphia planned performances making his solo debut with the CSO June 12-14 with Muti conducting.

“You know, Muti made a recording back in the day with [legendary French trumpeter] Maurice André for EMI. We were talking about the fact that he conducted Maurice André while Muti was a young conductor. And now it is the opposite situation. It’s a very unique experience. I don’t think any other trumpet player will get to play with Muti as a soloist, and I think very few have played with him. I know for sure Maurice André. I don’t know if any of the trumpet players in La Scala played with him as a soloist.”

The two pieces Batallán will play with Muti are Telemann’s Trumpet Concerto in D Major and Michael Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto in D Major in a program that also includes the Haydn Symphony No. 48 (“Maria Theresa”) and the Schubert Symphony No. 4 (“Tragic”).

“The Telemann Concerto has been played because [Adolph] Herseth has played it a few times. But the Michael Haydn has never been played. At least in the CSO for sure, and I don’t think in any other major orchestra in the United States. It’s a very complicated concerto and is very demanding for the trumpet.

“Michael Haydn is Joseph Haydn’s youngest brother but the concerto is not in a classical style; it’s more in a Baroque style. It’s very high on the register so not a lot of people want to play it.”

Batallán performed the Michael Haydn Concerto in the 2011 ARD Competition in Munich and even wrote his own cadenzas for it, which he will be performing.

“I was playing them at Orchestra Hall a few days before going on tour. [CSO trumpeter] John Hagstrom was listening to the cadenzas and he thought they were brilliant. I said, ‘OK, glad to hear.’”

Although Batallán’s official return to the CSO is not until the start of the 2025-26 season next September, these solo appearances are very special to him.

“It’s not just the fact of playing these two pieces of music that I love and what they actually mean to me. But the fact of playing with the Chicago Symphony as a soloist and with Muti, that is definitely a very big deal. He’s always been a very unique and wise conductor with amazing musicianship. For me, it’s very thrilling to do this with him. I’m pretty sure that it’s going to be very interesting for the audience as well: my debut as a soloist here in this house following in Herseth’s steps with Muti, another legend, playing two really beautiful Baroque trumpet concertos. I mean, if you put all the pieces together, I think it turns out to be something pretty nice, pretty awesome. I feel really, really happy about this and I’m very humbled with the fact that I get to play with him.

“For me, it’s been a blast working with Muti always, and the fact that I may be the last principal trumpet that he may hire—hopefully not—makes it all the more special. He’s a legend. And he comes from a very important tradition of conductors, from Toscanini to his teacher, Antonino Votto. You know how impressive this is for me. The fact of being close to him makes me feel that I have done some things right to get to this point. It’s a very beautiful thing.”

As for the future of Batallán’s renewed relationship with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra?

“A big part of my whole career as a musician was dreaming about the CSO. In the end, I couldn’t give up on that, at all. In the end, I have to be where I belong. It’s not just that I belong to the CSO. But also, the CSO belongs to me.”

Esteban Batallán performs under Riccardo Muti on Thursday, June 12, 7:30pm; Friday, June 13, 1:30pm; and Saturday, June 14, 7:30pm at the Orchestra Hall at Symphony Center, 220 South Michigan. For tickets and more information, visit cso.org.