My Favorite CSO: Mark Ridenour

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s commercial recording legacy began on May 1, 1916, when second music director Frederick Stock led the Wedding March from Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Columbia Graphophone Company. The Orchestra has since amassed an extraordinary, award-winning discography on a number of labels—including Angel, CBS, Deutsche Grammophon, Erato, London/Decca, RCA, Sony, Teldec, Victor, and others—continuing with releases on the in-house label CSO Resound under tenth music director Riccardo Muti. For My Favorite CSO, we asked members of the Chicago Symphony family for their favorite recordings (and a few honorable mentions) from the Orchestra’s discography.

With degrees from Asbury College and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Mark Ridenour was a member of the Dayton Philharmonic, Memphis Symphony Orchestra and principal trumpet of the Florida Orchestra before Daniel Barenboim appointed him assistant principal trumpet of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1994. Currently, he is on the faculty of Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.

RACHMANINOV Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Recorded in Orchestra Hall in 1956 for RCA
Fritz Reiner conductor
Artur Rubinstein piano
“There are few pianists that can play with beautiful lyricism. I marvel at how Artur Rubinstein is able to infuse emotion into the music. His artistry is simply just amazing.”

PROKOFIEV Lieutenant Kijé, Op. 60 and STRAVINSKY The Song of the Nightingale
Recorded in Orchestra Hall in 1957 and 1956 for RCA
Fritz Reiner conductor
“This recording of Stravinsky’s The Song of the Nightingale contains some of the most incredible trumpet sounds you will ever hear. It was one of my favorites before I joined the CSO. There are two trumpet solos at the very end of the piece accompanied by strings, and Adolph “Bud” Herseth‘s sound is so mysterious and otherworldly. Several times I asked him how he got that sound — covered the bell with a hat, use a contraption to reduce the size of the backbore like William Vacchiano (longtime principal trumpet of the New York Philharmonic) used to do, unscrew the mouthpiece rim, use a flugel mouthpiece. All he would say was that he didn’t know how, only that he had that sound in his ear.”

BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14
Recorded in Orchestra Hall in 1995 for Teldec
Daniel Barenboim conductor
“This was the first recording that I played first trumpet. At the end of my first year (beginning of May 1995) in the CSO, I was summoned to the Maestro’s studio. I was informed that Bud needed to take an immediate medical leave, and the following week, I began playing first trumpet for the foreseeable future. The week after the Berlioz, we recorded Hannibal’s African Portraits. And the week after that, we left for a three-week tour to Japan, but since Bud— along with William Scarlett and Timothy Kent — were all out on medical leave, I was the only member of the trumpet section that went on tour.”