My Favorite CSO: Cheryl Frazes Hill

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.

Cheryl Frazes Hill is director of the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus and associate director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus. She began as a singer in the Chicago Symphony Chorus in 1976 and was appointed to the conducting staff by Margaret Hillis, the Chorus’ founder and first director, in 1987. Frazes Hill has continued in that role and assisted Duain Wolfe during his 28-year tenure as director. An accomplished vocalist, she was a soloist on the Grammy Award–nominated recording of the CBS Masterworks release Mozart: Music for Basset Horns featuring musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Frazes Hill also is a full professor, serving as director of choral activities for Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts since 2002. She is a frequent guest conductor, speaker, clinician and author, and her newly released book Margaret Hillis: Unsung Pioneer is published by GIA.

VERDI Messa da Requiem
Recorded in Medinah Temple in 1977 for RCA
Sir Georg Solti conductor
Leontyne Price soprano
Janet Baker mezzo-soprano
Veriano Luchetti tenor
José van Dam bass-baritone
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis director
1977 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance
"During my first season in the Chicago Symphony Chorus (1976-77), this was one of three recordings we made, along with Beethoven’s Missa solemnis and Verdi’s Quattro pezzi sacri. The great thrill of being a part of the Requiem was that the Chorus was reduced in size for the recording after the full Chorus performed the piece in concert. This was due to some stipulation in the recording contract, and many singers were disappointed not to be included. I was very fortunate to have been selected to sing on both!

"The thrill of observing Leontyne Price in the recording process was an unforgettable experience and an education into how great singers work their magic. I was absolutely star struck. All of the soloists were magnificent; however, witnessing Price’s vocal dexterity from the most dramatic moments to the exquisitely refined floating pianissimos was one of the cherished experiences I have had with the Chicago Symphony Chorus."

BRAHMS A German Requiem, Op. 45
Recorded in Medinah Temple in 1978 for London
Sir Georg Solti conductor
Kiri Te Kanawa soprano
Bernd Weikl baritone
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis director
1979 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance
"This magnificent recording was made during a remarkable season, shortly after Margaret Hillis had stepped in as a last-minute replacement for Sir Georg Solti at Carnegie Hall in a performance of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony. The Chorus was on a ’high’ of sorts throughout the remainder of that season, and this recording captured the essence of superb performances. The array of colors Margaret Hillis was known to bring out in the Chorus are conveyed in this heartfelt performance, reflecting the sentiments Brahms elicits in his magnificent musical setting of carefully constructed biblical texts.

“What I remember most was when the soloists joined us to rehearse with Solti. Kiri Te Kanawa, unknown to most of us at that time, was doing some sort of needlepoint as we worked on the choral movements. I was quite astonished that she seemed so relaxed in such an intense rehearsal. When it was time for her to sing, she put down her needlepoint and out came a sound that seemed too perfect to be human! It was pure beauty, effortlessly produced and utterly magnificent. The entire Chorus reacted in rousing applause. Unforgettable!”

BERLIOZ The Damnation of Faust, Op. 24
Recorded in Medinah Temple in 1981 for London
Sir Georg Solti conductor
Frederica von Stade mezzo-soprano
Kenneth Riegel tenor
José van Dam bass-baritone
Malcolm King bass
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis director
Glen Ellyn Children’s Chorus
Doreen Rao director
1982 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance
BERLIOZ The Damnation of Faust, Op. 24
Recorded in Royal Albert Hall in 1989 for Arthaus Musik
Sir Georg Solti conductor
Anne Sofie von Otter mezzo-soprano
Keith Lewis tenor
José van Dam bass-baritone
Peter Rose bass
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Margaret Hillis director
Choristers of Westminster Cathedral
Rodney Greenberg director
"This piece is one of my very favorites to perform, with so many different characters that a chorister is engaged to ’play’ throughout the story. The commercial audio recording is superb; however, the video truly is my favorite of the two, as it was this performance in London that marked the first appearance of the Chicago Symphony Chorus in Europe. So many details that were developed in the 1981 recording were refined in the performances that were hailed as great successes in London and Salzburg in 1989. The audience reaction in the video says it all. Every time we perform this piece — be it in Chicago, New York or in Europe — audiences enthusiastically respond. I would say that this is one of the signature pieces of our Chicago Symphony Chorus."

VERDI Messa da Requiem
Recorded in Orchestra Hall in 2009 for CSO Resound
Riccardo Muti conductor
Barbara Frittoli soprano
Olga Borodina mezzo-soprano
Mario Zeffiri tenor
Ildar Abdrazakov bass
Chicago Symphony Chorus
Duain Wolfe director
2010 Grammy awards for Best Classical Album and Best Choral Performance
"Preparing the Chorus for this piece was a particularly daunting task, knowing the array of colors and dramatic details with which Maestro Muti approaches Verdi. We were tasked with preparing the Chorus for the utmost dexterity, and that is exactly what can be heard in the performances and in this recording of a work that is clearly very close to his heart. This would be most useful going forward, when we were preparing Verdi’s operas that Maestro Muti would transform into magnificent artistic experiences. 

"This recording captures the drama and beauty, along with the religious fervor and operatic elements, of Verdi’s Requiem in a way that only Maestro Muti can. The Chorus under the direction of Duain Wolfe reached a precision and quality that deservedly earned Grammy awards. It is a powerful performance that maintained an intensity and beauty throughout the recording."

SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 13 in B-flat Minor, Op. 114 (Babi Yar)
Recorded in Orchestra Hall in 2018 for CSO Resound
Riccardo Muti conductor
Alexey Tikhomirov bass
Men of the Chicago Symphony Chorus
Duain Wolfe director
2020 Grammy Award for Best Engineered Recording–Classical
“This is a powerful recording. During rehearsals, the intensity of the story was already being built into the sound, and one of the compelling aspects of this work is Maestro Muti’s connection to it. He began each concert by explaining his particular history with the piece, his connection to the composer and the story along with his dedication to bringing this to the world’s attention. This translated into performances of the work that were particularly intense. The men of the Chorus show an immense range of expression and beauty, and it is one of my favorite recordings that we have done with Maestro Muti.”

A few honorable mentions:

• BERLIOZ Les nuits d’été with Fritz Reiner and Leontyne Price for RCA (1963)
• VERDI Patria oppressa! from Macbeth from Riccardo Muti Conducts Italian Masterworks with Riccardo Muti for CSO Resound (2017)
• SCHOENBERG Kol nidre with Riccardo Muti for CSO Resound (2012)
• RAVEL Daphnis and Chloe with Bernard Haitink for CSO Resound (2007)
• VERDI Opera Choruses with Sir Georg Solti for London (1989)
• VERDI Otello with Riccardo Muti, Aleksandrs Antonenko, Krassimira Stoyanova, and Carlo Guelfi for CSO Resound (2011)
• VERDI Otello with Sir Georg Solti, Luciano Pavarotti, Kiri Te Kanawa, and Leo Nucci for London (1991)
• BARTÓK Cantata profana with Pierre Boulez for Deutsche Grammophon (1991)

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