For Immediate Release: Press Contacts: May 27, 2015 Rachelle Roe, 312-294-3090 Eileen Chambers, 312-294-3092 Photos Available By Request [email protected] MUSIC DIRECTOR RICCARDO MUTI LEADS CSO IN TWO WEEKS OF SUBSCRIPTION CONCERTS TO CONCLUDE CSO’S 2014/15 SEASON, JUNE 11–20 Muti Conducts World Premiere of CSO Mead Composer-in-Residence Mason Bates’ New Work for Orchestra, Anthology Of Fantastic Zoology, June 18-20 Programs Focus on Season-Long Survey of Symphonic Works by Russian Masters Tchaikovsky and Scriabin CHICAGO— Music Director Riccardo Muti returns to Chicago in June to conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) in two weeks of subscription concerts that close the Orchestra’s 2014/15 season and mark the completion of five years with Muti as its music director. On June 11-13, Muti leads a program that pairs music by Scriabin and Tchaikovsky as part of this season’s exploration and juxtaposition of the symphonic works by these two great Russian composers. These concerts feature two works inspired by poetry: Tchaikovsky’s Manfred Symphony with Scriabin’s The Poem of Ecstasy, Op. 54 [Symphony No. 4]. Lord Byron’s dramatic poem “Manfred” is the basis for Tchaikovsky’s symphonic work of the same name, the composer’s only programmatic work that has multiple movements. Composed between the time that Tchaikovsky wrote his Fourth and Fifth symphonies, Manfred is his longest, yet probably least-performed symphonic work. The symphony loosely reflects the story told in Byron’s poem, a tale of guilt and redemption that some consider to be autobiographical. Scriabin’s writing of The Poem of Ecstasy began with poetry that the composer himself wrote. Based on that poem, the result is a 20-minute work for large orchestral forces that defines Scriabin’s highly individual style of modernism through his use of adventurous harmony and color. Muti has been a champion of Scriabin’s work throughout his career. He last led The Poem of Ecstasy with the CSO in the Fall of 2007 in performances in Chicago and on tour in Europe. On June 18-20, Maestro Muti leads the world premiere of Bates’ Anthology of Fantastic Zoology, a 30-minute acoustic work for full orchestra about strange creatures based on the book of magical realism of the same title by Luis Borges. Sprites, nymphs, sirens, banshees and naga (evil snakes) populate this surreal, imaginative suite of short movements. Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 closes these programs as well as the Orchestra’s survey of his symphonies this season. The Anthology of Fantastic Zoology marks Bates’ second CSO commission for full orchestra in his five years as one of the two CSO Mead Composers-in-Residence appointed by Muti in 2010. Muti and the CSO previously premiered Bates’ first orchestral commission from the CSO, Alternative Energy, in the 2011/12 season in Chicago; they subsequently performed it on tour, along with Anna Clyne’s Night Ferry, in California, as well as at Carnegie Hall in the fall of 2012. The works were also recorded and released digitally on the CSO Resound label in the fall of 2014. Bates’ and Anna Clyne’s tenures conclude at the end of the 2014/15 season. Muti leads two rehearsals this spring for invited audiences of donors on June 11 and for seniors and community groups on June 17. Preconcert conversations take place prior to each CSO performance. Muti’s activities since he was last in Chicago in March have seen him lead two tours with his Cherubini Youth Orchestra to Europe and the Middle East, which included stops in Italy, Spain, Oman, Abu Dhabi, Azerbaijan and Turkey. He also returned to Germany to lead the Berlin Philharmonic in Berlin and Munich for the first time since 2009, and led the Vienna Philharmonic—an orchestra with which he has 44 consecutive years of collaboration—in concerts in Vienna and on tour in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Klin in Russia. In addition, Muti announced that his inaugural Italian Opera Academy classes and workshops, which take place in July 2015 at the Ravenna Festival in Italy, will all be open to the public. Muti, who is widely considered one of the foremost interpreters of Verdi’s music today, will focus at the Festival on Verdi’s Falstaff, a work he will lead with the CSO in April 2016. Muti founded his academy in order to train young conductors, répétiteurs and singers in the Italian opera repertoire. The free on-demand stream of Muti and the CSO and Chorus’ September 2014 performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony was released on May 7 and has since been viewed in more than 167 countries. Bank of America is the Global Sponsor of the CSO. The CSO’s music director position is endowed in perpetuity by a generous gift from the Zell Family Foundation. The June 18-20 performances are sponsored by an anonymous donor in honor of Patricia Dash and Doug Waddell for their excellence in music education through the Percussion Scholarship Program, now celebrating its 20th season. Tickets for all CSOA-presented concerts can be purchased by phone at 800-223-7114 or 312- 294-3000; online at cso.org, or at the Symphony Center box office: 220 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60604. Discounted student tickets for select concerts can be purchased, subject to availability, online in advance or at the box office on the day of the concert. For group rates, please call 312-294- 3040. Artists, programs and prices are subject to change. # # # Chicago Symphony Orchestra Thursday, June 11, 2015, 8 p.m. Friday, June 12, 2015, 8 p.m. Saturday, June 13, 2015, 8 p.m. Chicago Symphony Orchestra Riccardo Muti, conductor SCRIABIN The Poem of Ecstasy, Op. 54 [Symphony No. 4] TCHAIKOVSKY Manfred Symphony, Op. 58 __________________________________________________________________________________ Chicago Symphony Orchestra Thursday, June 18, 2015, 8 p.m. Friday, June 19, 2015, 1:30 p.m. Saturday, June 20, 2015, 8 p.m. Chicago Symphony Orchestra Riccardo Muti, conductor BATES Anthology of Fantastic Zoology [World Premiere, CSO Commission] TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5 in E Minor, Op. 64 ___________________________________________________________________________________ About the Artists Riccardo Muti Riccardo Muti, born in Naples, Italy, is one of the preeminent conductors of our day. In 2010, when he became the tenth music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), he already had more than forty years of experience at the helm of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Philharmonia Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Teatro alla Scala. He is a guest conductor for orchestras and opera houses all over the world: the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna State Opera, the Royal Opera House, the Metropolitan Opera, and many others. Muti studied piano under Vincenzo Vitale at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella in his hometown of Naples, graduating with distinction. He subsequently received a diploma in composition and conducting from the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan, also graduating with distinction. His principal teachers were Bruno Bettinelli and Antonino Votto, principal assistant to Arturo Toscanini at La Scala. After he won the Guido Cantelli Conducting Competition—by unanimous vote of the jury—in Milan in 1967, Muti’s career developed quickly. In 1968, he became principal conductor of Florence’s Maggio Musicale, a position that he held until 1980. Herbert von Karajan invited him to conduct at the Salzburg Festival in Austria in 1971, and Muti has maintained a close relationship with the summer festival and with its great orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic, for more than forty years. When he conducted the philharmonic’s 150th anniversary concert in 1992, he was presented with the Golden Ring, a special sign of esteem and affection, and in 2001, his outstanding artistic contributions to the orchestra were further recognized with the Otto Nicolai Gold Medal. He is also a recipient of a silver medal from the Salzburg Mozarteum for his contribution to the music of W.A. Mozart. He is an honorary member of Vienna’s Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Society of the Friends of Music), the Vienna Hofmusikkapelle, the Vienna Philharmonic, and the Vienna State Opera. Muti succeeded Otto Klemperer as chief conductor and music director of London’s Philharmonia Orchestra in 1973, holding that position until 1982. From 1980 to 1992, he was music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and in 1986, he became music director of Milan’s Teatro alla Scala. During his nineteen-year tenure, in addition to directing major projects such as the Mozart–Da Ponte trilogy and Wagner Ring cycle, Muti conducted operatic and symphonic repertoire ranging from the baroque to the contemporary, also leading hundreds of concerts with the Filarmonica della Scala and touring the world with both the opera company and the orchestra. His tenure as music director, the longest of any in La Scala’s history, culminated in the triumphant reopening of the restored opera house with Antonio Salieri’s Europa riconosciuta, originally commissioned for La Scala’s inaugural performance in 1778. Throughout his career, Muti has dedicated much time and effort to training young musicians. In 2004, he founded the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini (Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra), based in his native Italy. He regularly tours with the ensemble to prestigious concert halls and opera houses all over the world. Since 1997, as part of Le vie dell’Amicizia (The paths of friendship), a project of the Ravenna Festival in Italy, Muti has annually conducted large-scale concerts in war-torn and poverty-stricken areas around the world, using music to bring hope, unity, and attention to present day social, cultural, and humanitarian issues. Muti has received innumerable international honors.