Musical Destinations
Terry Blain finds a great deal has already happened this year at the famed ‘Windy City’, home to a wealth of first-class musical events
Terry Blain visits Chicago, a mecca for classical music
Landing at Chicago’s O’hare International Airport can be spectacular. Below you a teeming metropolis of 2.7 million people stretches westward into open prairie country. To the east, the city’s streets abut the shoreline of mighty Lake Michigan, a vast expanse of water two-thirds the size of England. In winter, when it freezes over, it can be hard to tell where city ends and lake begins.
Two blocks west of the waterfront, on busy South Michigan Avenue, sits Symphony Center, a mecca for classical music in the ‘Windy
City’. It is home to the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra (CSO), one of America’s fabled ‘Big Five’ orchestras, and a formidable presence in a city not short of cultural attractions.
Formed in 1891, the CSO’S past music directors at have included Rafael Kubelík, Fritz Reiner and Daniel Barenboim. But it was the fiery Hungarian Georg Solti (see ‘Local hero’, right) who truly catapulted the orchestra to international prominence, leading its first European tour and making a slew of reference recordings. Today the CSO is headed by the more aristocratic Riccardo Muti, who retires as music director after the 2021-22 season.
Any trip to Chicago should include a CSO concert, and if possible an evening at the city’s Lyric Opera too. Founded
Legendary associations: (above) Riccardo Muti throws a ceremonial first pitch for the Chicago Cubs, 2019; (above right) Maria Callas in Chicago’s Lyric Theatre, 1955, with the Metropolitan Opera director Rudolf Bing after performing in Il trovatore
in 1954, the Lyric hosted Maria Callas’s American debut (as Bellini’s Norma) that year – ‘a European Marilyn Monroe who can sing, too’, the Chicago Sun-times called her – and high-calibre performers such as Jussi Björling, Birgit Nilsson, Luciano Pavarotti and Leontyne Price have graced the company. Englishman Sir Andrew Davis recently stepped down after 21 years as music director, and his replacement, the Italian Enrique Mazzola, kick-starts the 2021-22 season with Verdi’s Macbeth and Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore.
Another English musician enjoying an extended tenure in Chicago is Dame Jane Glover. The conductor will shortly be celebrating two decades helming Music of the Baroque, an ensemble specialising in the type of repertoire the Chicago Symphony doesn’t usually cover. Using a mix of modern and period instruments, the group’s upcoming 50th-anniversary season has a marked British flavour, with conductor Nicholas Kraemer, early music specialist John Butt and Glover herself all leading concerts.
Glover calls Chicago ‘a vibrant hub of classical music’, and points to the plethora of organisations you can sample there.
The Chicago Sinfonietta, dubbed ‘the city’s hippest orchestra’ by the Chicago Tribune, has a reputation for innovation and cultural inclusivity. Then there’s Haymarket Opera, which focuses on Baroque music. Playing on period instruments, the company is currently celebrating its tenth-anniversary season with a new production of Handel’s Orlando starring countertenor Bejun Mehta, available online throughout October.
Classical music thrives in the Chicago area even during the traditionally dead summer months. The Chicago Symphony plays an annual six-week residency at the famed Ravinia Festival, held outdoors in Highland Park, 25 miles north of downtown Chicago. Summer 2021 featured conductor Marin Alsop (the festival’s artistic curator) with violinists Midori and Joshua Bell among others.
Jazz, folk and rock events also feature: billtoppers such as Aretha Franklin, Bryan Ferry, Duke Ellington and The Beach Boys have all performed in Ravinia’s 100-plusyear history.
The North Shore Chamber Music Festival, founded by violinist Vadim Gluzman and pianist Angela Yoffe, is another summer fixture. A half-hour ride from downtown in suburban Northbrook, the festival taps into what Jane Glover calls the ‘astonishing standard’ of chamber music-making in the Chicago area, mixing upcoming younger players with established guest artists.
Away from the concert hall and opera house, Chicago is bristling with interest for the culturally inclined traveller. The Art Institute of Chicago holds a major collection of works by Van Gogh, Hopper, Picasso, Monet and many others. For an overview of the city, the Chicago History Museum warrants a visit, and there are museums of high quality devoted to surgical science, photography, architecture and natural history.
Chicago is also a sports-mad city, and depending on the time of year you can take in games at the Chicago Bears (American football), the White Sox and Chicago Cubs (baseball – the former team famously supported by Barack Obama), the Black Hawks (ice hockey) and the Bulls or Sky (basketball). But classical music lovers more than equal sports fans in their fervour, Glover argues. ‘Chicago audiences are among the best anywhere: incredibly knowledgeable, loyal, enthusiastic and generous in their support,’ she says. ‘For musicians, this is wonderfully enabling.’ Further info: Chicago SO: cso.org
Lyric Opera: www.lyricopera.org
‘Chicago audiences are among the best anywhere, incredibly loyal and enthusiastic’