125 Moments: 109 “Chelsea Dagger”

Music director Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra jumped on the Chicago Blackhawks bandwagon on June 19, 2013, recording for video the song “Chelsea Dagger” by the Scottish band the Fratellis. For the past several years, the song — played in United Center whenever the Blackhawks scored a goal — had become a hit with Chicago hockey fans.

“The CSO musicians and I are happy to honor and support another home team, the Chicago Blackhawks, with our music,” said Maestro Muti. “They are a world-class hockey team, and we hope this recording demonstrates our support of them and their desire to bring the Stanley Cup back to this great city. As I keep hearing and seeing everywhere in Chicago, ‘Go Hawks!’ ”

On June 24, 2013, in game six of the Stanley Cup finals, the Chicago Blackhawks were behind the Boston Bruins 2–1 with less than two minutes remaining in the third period. Scoring two goals in 17 seconds, the Blackhawks defeated the Bruins to win the series 4–2, claiming their fifth Stanley Cup victory.

Two years later, on June 15, 2015, the Blackhawks defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in game six of the National Hockey League finals, securing the Stanley Cup for the sixth time. Later that week on June 18, the Orchestra began the final subscription week of the 124th season with the world premiere of Bates’s Anthology of Fantastic Zoology. Just after intermission and before beginning Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, Riccardo Muti addressed the audience: “We want to celebrate in our way, and we can celebrate only by playing, singing, making music. So we will play for you now the ‘Chelsea Dagger.’ ” The audience roared.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra: 125 Moments was created to celebrate the ensemble’s 125th season in 2015-16 and gathered significant events, illustrated with imagery and artifacts from the collections of the Rosenthal Archives.

This article also appears here and portions previously appeared here.