Concert for Chicago, September 18, 2015, Millennium Park, Chicago.

In celebration of the CSO's 125th season, Riccardo Muti and the CSO present a free concert to the City of Chicago. This performance is part of the 125 community concerts the CSO will present during its 125th season. The program includes Beethoven: Leonore Overture No. 3 and Mahler: Symphony No. 1. 

Seating is general admission and tickets are not required.

Click here for more information about this exciting concert at CSO.org

The June, 2014 Chicago Tribune review of the CSO performance of the Mahler First Symphony was  extraordinary.

.... Sure enough, a great roar went up from the crowd at the end of Thursday's performance of the Mahler First, and the applause continued in full as a beaming Muti made his way through the orchestra ranks, shaking the hands of key musicians and signaling for various first-desk players and choirs to rise for solo bows.

But it didn't feel like your typical kneejerk audience reaction to a mammoth Mahlerian peroration; rather, it came across as an honest, heartfelt response to an interpretation that had been prepared with uncommon attention to detail, and realized with uncommon brilliance, by an orchestra that makes just about any other Mahler orchestra on the planet sound like slackers.

While never attempting to blow listeners away in any cheaply theatrical way (as so many conductors are wont to do with this masterpiece), Muti succeeded in blowing them away anyway, for the best possible reason: He respected what's in the score and gave it back to them whole.

Read the entire review at Chicagotribune.com

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