The CSO and Riccardo Muti close their Carnegie Hall stand in ‘Triumph’

For the second concert of their sold-out, season-opening engagement at New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Riccardo Muti took a voyage to Italy, anchored by Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony and Strauss’ Aus Italien. Launching the ship of musical state was Philip Glass’ The Triumph of the Octagon, a work inspired by a photo of the 13th-century Italian citadel Castel del Monte, which the composer happened to spot in Muti’s office at Symphony Center. 

Fittingly, Glass dedicated the work, a CSO commission, to Maestro Muti, who grew up near the region where the landmark castle still stands. When The Triumph of the Octagon received its world premiere during CSO concerts Sept. 28-30 in Chicago, Glass could not attend. But for the work’s New York premiere Oct. 5 at Carnegie Hall, Glass, a longtime Manhattanite, was in the audience and was acknowledged with rapt applause. 

In its review, the New York Times wrote of the Glass work: “The music gradually accumulated a mysterious timelessness with the shifting emphases of its time signatures and the delicate deployment of woodwind timbres.” Earlier in the review, the Times declared: “Under Muti, the Chicago Symphony is all power and finesse with no unsightly edges. ... The orchestra’s playing, strong yet nimble, drew on reserves of unforced power and charm.”

After the CSO returns to Chicago, there will be another New York connection. Jaap van Zweden, now in his last season as music director of the New York Philharmonic, will lead the CSO in Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and songs from Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn, the latter featuring baritone Christian Gerhaher, in concerts Oct. 12-15.

To mark their Carnegie Hall engagement, CSO musicians participated in this YouTube video, accessible here.