Concert in Costa Mesa

It’s a wrap: the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Riccardo Muti, Music Director Emeritus for Life, concluded their 2026 West Coast Tour with a concert Jan. 24 at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa.

Presented by the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, the concert consisted of works by Johann Strauss Jr., Hindemith, Stravinsky and Ravel at the center’s Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. Designed by acclaimed architect César Pelli and known for its curvilinear walls, the 1,700-seat theater opened in 2006.

The CSO and Riccardo Muti previously performed at Segerstrom Concert Hall on Feb. 17, 2012, Oct. 16, 2017, and Jan. 24, 2023. 

Before the concert, CSO musicians Max Raimi (viola and composer) and Gene Pokorny (principal tuba) joined Suraj Partha, a host of classical-music station KUSC-FM, for a Q&A session.

Then the CSO delivered a masterful performance of its signature tour repertoire, capped with an encore — the overture from Verdi’s Nabucco.

On Sunday, Jan. 25, a few CSO musicians stayed on in California to work with members of the Orange County Youth Symphony. The CSO participants were Mihaela Ionescu (violin), Daniel Carson (bass), John Bruce Yeh (assistant principal clarinet and E-flat clarinet) and John Hagstrom (trumpet). The CSO musicians joined in rehearsals and took a Q&A session with students at the Soka Performing Arts Center, courtesy of the Philharmonic Society of Orange County.

This week, the CSO returns to Orchestra Hall for concerts Jan. 29-31 and Feb. 1, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen and featuring pianist Daniel Trifonov, soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Also on the program, Buckner’s Symphony No. 4 (Romantic).