Muti Conducts Montgomery & Beethoven Pastoral

Apr 28-May 3, 2022
Muti Conducts Montgomery & Beethoven Pastoral

Overview

Riccardo Muti leads a world premiere by Jessie Montgomery, the CSO’s new Mead Composer-in-Residence. Raised on New York’s Lower East Side, Montgomery writes music that is “turbulent, wildly colorful and exploding with life” (The Washington Post). CSO Principal Bass Alexander Hanna is the soloist in Bottesini’s bravura concerto before the program ends on a joyous note with Beethoven’s homage to nature, the Pastoral Symphony.

Ticket holders are invited to a free preconcert conversation featuring Max Raimi and Jessie Montgomery in Orchestra Hall 75 minutes before the performance. The conversation will last approximately 30 minutes. No additional tickets required.

On April 28 the CSO Latino Alliance hosts Noche Alegre a special preconcert networking event. Tickets required. Learn more at CSO Latino Alliance.


Postconcert on Tuesday, May 3, all ticketholders are invited to this free postconcert discussion:

Composer Connection: A Conversation with Renée Baker and Jessie Montgomery
Hosted by the CSO African American Network
Tuesday, May 3

Join Chicago composer, conductor and frequent African American Network guest Renée Baker and CSO Mead-Composer-in-Residence Jessie Montgomery for a special postconcert chat hosted by the AAN. Both known for their contributions to the modern landscape of classical music, Baker and Montgomery come together to share their unique perspectives as female composers of color.

  • Venue
    Symphony Center
  • Length
    1 hour 30 minutes
  • Preconcert Conversation
    with Max Raimi and Jessie Montgomery
  • Program Book
    Read more
Program
Montgomery

Hymn for Everyone [CSO Commission, World Premiere]

Bottesini
Double Bass Concerto No. 2
Beethoven
Symphony No. 6 (Pastoral)
Performers
Music Director Emeritus for Life
Principal Bass
The David and Mary Winton Green Principal Bass Chair
Sponsors

These concerts are generously sponsored by Mr. and Mrs. Dietrich M. Gross. 

Montgomery Hymn for Everyone, World Premiere, commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Lead Commissioner) through the Helen Zell Commissioning Program; additional co-commissioners: National Symphony Orchestra and the Music Academy of the West


Discover more on Experience CSO
Jessie Montgomery's "Hymn for Everyone," set for its world premiere in late April, started out as an orchestral suite but then she "switched mid-stream to reference this theme, this hymn, I had written during the pandemic."
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Of performing Bottesini's Concerto for Double Bass No. 2 with Riccardo Muti, Alexander Hanna says, “You’ll certainly hear influences of Verdi. It’s very operatic — obviously in the Maestro’s wheelhouse.”
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Second music director Frederick Stock wrote that in Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, "we find his thoughts expressed in a new form [proving] to be a lasting achievement.”
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