From the CSO’s Archives: The First 130 Years

Composers’ Early Successes

February 02, 2021 — 1 hr 45 min listen

The RCA recording of Rachmaninov’s First Piano Concerto and Strauss’s Burleske—both with Byron Janis as soloist—was released in September 1957.

Most of the music on this program was written by teenagers: Mendelssohn was seventeen years old when he composed his Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Rachmaninov completed his First Piano Concerto and Strauss his First Horn Concerto at age eighteen, and nineteen-year-old Shostakovich submitted his First Symphony as a graduation exercise from the Petrograd Conservatory. The overtures to Verdi’s Nabucco and Wagner’s Rienzi—early triumphs for both composers—complete the program.

Wagner Overture to Rienzi
Daniel Barenboim conductor
January 1999 (Teldec)

Strauss Horn Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major, Op. 11
Daniel Barenboim conductor
Dale Clevenger horn
October 1998 (Teldec)

Mendelssohn Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 21
Jean Martinon conductor
May 1967 (RCA)

Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp Minor, Op. 1
Fritz Reiner conductor
Byron Janis piano
March 1957 (RCA)

Verdi Overture to Nabucco
Riccardo Muti conductor
June 2017 (CSO Resound)

Shostakovich Symphony No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 10
Leonard Bernstein conductor
June 1988 (Deutsche Grammophon)

From the CSO’s Archives: The First 130 Years—featuring recordings from the CSO’s vast discography, including releases on CSO Resound—is a cultural and community partnership between the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association and WFMT, Chicago’s Classical Music Station.

FTA130-20