An expanded Beethoven Ninth leads off the CSO’s 2023 Ravinia residency

Movies are remade regularly. Classic Broadway musicals are refreshed and rethought for a more culturally sensitive time. So why can’t classical masterworks be revisited for contemporary audiences? 

That’s the idea behind Turn Up the Joy: Beethoven 9 Expanded, one of the highest-profile offerings of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s 2023 summer residency at the Ravinia Festival, which will run July 14 through Aug. 20. Marin Alsop, Ravinia’s chief conductor, will lead three of the six-week residency. Details were announced Thursday by Ravinia President and CSO Jeffrey Haydon.

The opening concert July 14, led by Alsop, features an expanded version of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, with a new English-language take on the work’s celebrated fourth movement, Ode to Joy, commissioned from former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith. “My idea was to reimagine Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony for the 21st century,” Alsop said. “The biggest barrier to it is the text. While the [Friedrich] Schiller [Ode] is beautiful, it was radical for its time but not certainly for our time.”

Smith’s reworking of the Ode was one of nine commissioned by Carnegie Hall in partnership with Alsop, who wanted to maintain Schiller’s themes of unity, tolerance, humanity and joy, updated for contemporary audiences.

Joining the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in the concert will be soprano Janai Brugger, mezzo-soprano Ashley Dixon, tenor Paul Appleby, bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green, Adrian Dunn Singers, Ayodele Drum & Dance, Jim Gailloreto Trio and Senn High School Choir.

To make the performance what she calls a “complete journey,” the concert opens with See Me, an a cappella choral work by Reena Esmail, and then continues without a break into the Symphony No. 9. Jazz and African drumming interludes link its first and second movements, so the whole piece proceeds without interruption. “It’s kind of a radical idea, but we’re trying to connect everything in a way that brings a cultural and timely resonance to what’s going on and creates a journey piece,” Alsop said.

Alsop, whose other posts include chief conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, will mark her third year as Ravinia’s first-ever chief conductor and curator in 2023. In February 2022, the festival extended her tenure through 2025. In this role, she conducts the CSO more frequently than anyone else each year, except for the ensemble’s music director.

“It’s great fun to work with the CSO, of course,” she said. “They are marvelous, but it’s also great to work with Jeff [Haydon] and the team there [at Ravinia]. You know, our industry isn’t necessarily known for thinking innovatively, so when you find a team that is all about looking at things from new perspectives, it’s really fun.”

Returning for its second year is Ravinia’s Breaking Barriers, on July 21-23, and which has morphed, at least for now, into an event that celebrates women musicians. Last year, the focus was on female conductors, and this summer the spotlight has shifted to composers. “It’s an idea that’s evolving,” Alsop said. “It’s so clear from the first year that the need and the interest was there to focus on women in our industry, so that naturally led us to this idea of women composers. But that’s not to say we won’t in the future branch out.”

Much like last year, the festival will include panel discussions, roundtable conversations, a composer workshop and three concerts. Among the participants are Jude Kelly, former artistic director of London’s Southbank Centre, as well as some of the composers featured during the festival. The event includes one CSO concert anchored by Roxanna Panufnik’s Across the Line of Dreams for double choir, split orchestra and two conductors.

Taking the helm are Alsop and Valentina Peleggi, in her Ravinia debut. The work’s text ties together two 19th-century heroines: abolitionist and activist Harriet Tubman and Rani Lakshmibai, a prominent figure in the Indian Rebellion of 1857. “It’s two women on the podium and also this story is about two women in separate parts of the world,” Alsop said. Filling out the program are works by Gabriela Montero, Gabriela Ortiz and Heitor Villa-Lobos. Alsop calls the lineup “like postcards from around the world.” 

On July 5-8, before the CSO residency begins, Alsop and Ravinia are hosting National Seminario Ravinia: Orchestras for All, as part of the festival’s Reach Teach Play program. The event, which includes orchestral training and mentoring, brings together 100 students from El Sistema-style organizations in 15 states and Canada, including Sistema Ravinia. The four days culminate with a concert in which the students will perform side by side with the Chicago Philharmonic in a program that includes a preview of the reworked Ode to Joy.

El Sistema is a highly successful system of music education in Venezuela that has spread around the world, including the United States. “It’s serendipitous that Ravinia happens to have the largest El Sistema program outside of Venezuela,” Alsop said. “It’s huge — has incredible reach. So it’s natural for Ravinia to be a hub and gathering place, to have a celebration and conference, which is what we’re doing.”

Other highlights of the CSO residency:

Aug. 4 and 6: Alsop leads a semi-staged performance of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, in collaboration with stage director James Robinson. Featured are the Apollo Chorus of Chicago and a range of soloists, including soprano Janai Brugger and baritone Joshua Hopkins. “I’ve done quite a bit of opera in concert and Flute is one,” she said. “I love the piece so much. For me, it’s nice to work with the CSO in a variety of contexts, not just the Alpine Symphony or Mahler 8, but to do something intimate. I’m really looking forward to it.”

Also performing are sopranos Kathryn Lewek, Tiffany Choe and Diana Newman; mezzo-sopranos Ashley Dixon and Taylor Raven; tenors Matthew Polenzani and Christian Sanders, and bass-baritones David Leigh and Adam Lau.

Aug. 5: Yunchan Lim, who created a sensation as the gold medalist of last year’s Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, makes his CSO debut in Sergei Rachmaninov’s iconic Piano Concerto No. 3. “I’m excited to introduce him to our audiences,” Alsop said. Also on the program are works by Beethoven and Chicago-based composer Augusta Read Thomas.

Aug. 17: Guest conductor Joshua Weilerstein makes his CSO debut, leading a program that includes Edward Elgar’s beloved Cello Concerto, featuring his sister, esteemed cellist Alisa Weilerstein, as soloist.

Other CSO concerts at Ravinia:

July 15: Shulamit Ran’s Chicago Skyline and Brahms Violin Concerto. Alsop conducts, with violinist Miriam Fried.

July 16: Gala fundraising concert benefitting Reach Teach Play. With Alsop, vocalist Heather Headley and singers from Ravinia Lawndale Family Music School and Trinity UCC Chicago Choir.

July 19: Alma Mahler’s Songs and Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5. With Alsop and mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke.

July 21: Roxanna Panufnik’s Across the Line of Dreams. Conducted by Alsop and Valentina Peleggi, featuring pianist Gabriela Montero.

July 28: Florence Price’s Ethiopia’s Shadow in America and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4. With conductor Mei-Ann Chen, music director of the Chicago Sinfonietta, and pianist Jeremy Denk.

July 29: Tribute to Joni Mitchell, Carole King and Carly Simon. Conductor Ted Sperling and vocalists Andréa Burns, Morgan James and Capathia Jenkins salute three singer-songwriters and hitmakers of the ’70s.

Aug. 9: Tania León’s Pasajes and Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto. With conductor Jonathon Heyward and violinist Benjamin Beilman.

Aug. 10: Gabriel Kahane’s Heirloom for Piano and Chamber Orchestra. With conductor Teddy Abrams and pianist Jeffrey Kahane.

Aug. 1: An Evening with Rufus Wainwright: Composer-vocalist Rufus Wainwright joins the CSO for orchestral arrangements of his songs from his albums “Want One” and “Want Two.”

Aug. 17: William Grant Still’s Poem for Orchestra and Elgar Cello Concerto. With conductor Joshua Weilerstein and cellist Alisa Weilerstein.

Aug. 20: Tchaikovsky Spectacular. The annual send-off features conductor George Stelluto, pianist Kevin Murphy and Steans Music Institute singers.