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This retrospective — co-hosted by CSO Association Archivist Frank Villella — is a tribute to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s founder and first music director Theodore Thomas (1835-1905). Maestro Thomas never recorded with the Orchestra, so all the recordings in this retrospective were conducted by his successors. They feature works he introduced in the United States as well as pieces that were special to him, including works by Wagner, Bruckner, Berlioz, Richard Strauss, and Thomas’s favorite work, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, which he conducted on the first ever Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert on October 16, 1891.

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Wagner Overture to The Flying Dutchman
  Sir Georg Solti, Conductor
Bruckner Te Deum
  Daniel Barenboim, Conductor
  Jessye Norman, Soprano
  Yvonne Minton, Mezzo-Soprano
  David Rendall, Tenor
  Samuel Ramey, Bass
  Chicago Symphony Chorus
  Margaret Hillis, Director
Wagner Ride of the Valkyries from Die Walküre
  Artur Rodzinski, Conductor
Berlioz Queen Mab Scherzo from Romeo and Juliet, Op. 17
  Carlo Maria Giulini, Conductor
Strauss Death and Transfiguration, Op. 24
  Désiré Defauw, Conductor
Beethoven Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67
  Fritz Reiner, Conductor
Wagner Träume from Wesendonck Lieder (orch. Thomas)
  Frederick Stock, Conductor