Chicago Symphony Orchestra

 

founded in 1891 by Theodore Thomas, who conducted it until his death in 1905. Orchestra Hall was built for it in 1904 with funds raised by public subscription; the hall is now part of Symphony Center, which was completed in 1997. Frederick Stock, Thomas's assistant, succeeded him and conducted the orchestra until 1942. Rafael Kubelík, its conductor from 1950 to 1953, was followed by Fritz Reiner, who conducted until his death in 1963. Sir Georg Solti conducted from 1968 to 1990 and was succeeded in 1991 by the current conductor, Daniel Barenboim. The orchestra plays a summer season at Ravinia Park in the suburbs north of Chicago.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Background information
Birth name	Chicago Orchestra
Also known as	CSO
Origin	Chicago, Illinois, United States
Genre(s)	Classical
Occupation(s)	Symphony Orchestra
Years active	1891–present
Associated acts	Civic Orchestra CSO Chorus
Website	www.cso.org
Members
Principal Conductor Bernard Haitink Conductor Emeritus Pierre Boulez Civic Orchestra Conductor Cliff Colnot Chorus Director Duain Wolfe
Former members
Founder Theodore Thomas
Notable instrument(s)
Violin Baron von der Leyen 1715 Stradivari Viola Domenico Montagnana 1723 Violoncello Braga 1731 Stradivari

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), based in Chicago, Illinois, is one of the world's leading^{[citation needed]} orchestras, currently performing its 116th season.

History

In 1891 Charles Norman Fay, a Chicago businessman, invited Theodore Thomas to establish an orchestra in Chicago. Conducted by Theodore Thomas under the name "Chicago Orchestra," the orchestra played its first concert on October 16, 1891 at the Auditorium Theatre. It is one of the oldest orchestras in the United States, along with the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Orchestra Hall, now a component of the Symphony Center complex, was designed by Chicago architect Daniel H. Burnham and completed in 1904. Maestro Thomas served as music director for thirteen years until his death shortly after the orchestra's newly built residence was dedicated on December 14, 1904. The orchestra was renamed "Theodore Thomas Orchestra" in 1905 and today, Orchestra Hall still has "Theodore Thomas Orchestra Hall" inscribed in its façade.

In 1905, Frederick Stock became music director, a post he held until his death in 1942. The orchestra was renamed "Chicago Symphony Orchestra" in 1913.

Other music directors have included Désiré Defauw, Artur Rodziński, Rafael Kubelík, Fritz Reiner, Jean Martinon, Sir Georg Solti and Daniel Barenboim. Barenboim resigned in order to focus on his activities with Staatskapelle Berlin, La Scala in Milan, and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which he co-founded with Edward Said. Maestro Barenboim's final concerts leading the Chicago Symphony Orchestra took place on June 15-17 2006. On 27 April 2006, the orchestra named Bernard Haitink to the role of principal conductor and Pierre Boulez to the role of conductor emeritus "while [the] music director search continues." The appointment begins in the 2006-2007 season. The season is scheduled to take place with all guest conductors, creating a unique schedule, the likes of which has not occurred in Chicago since the 1950s. Haitink will conduct the CSO in October 2006 and May 2007, and is scheduled for a further four to six weeks of performances beginning with the 2007-2008 season, as well as at New York City’s Carnegie Hall, at the Festival in Luzern, Switzerland, and at London’s BBC Proms. Pierre Boulez will conduct three to four weeks of CSO performances each season, including touring activities.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has long been associated with Ravinia, in Highland Park, Illinois, having first performed during Ravinia Park’s second season in November 1905 and appearing semiregularly through August 1931, after which the Park fell dark under the Great Depression. The Orchestra helped to inaugurate the first season of the Ravinia Festival in August 1936 and has been in residence at the Festival every summer since. Many conductors have made their debut with the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia, and several have gone on to become the artistic director, or primary summertime guest conductor at Ravinia, including Seiji Ozawa (1964-1968), James Levine (1973-1993), and Christoph Eschenbach (1995-2003). As of 2005, James Conlon holds the title of Ravinia music director.

The orchestra has also had a number of distinguished guest conductors, including Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg, Sergei Prokofiev, Sergei Rachmaninov, Maurice Ravel, Edward Elgar, Aaron Copland, Leonard Slatkin, André Previn, Michael Tilson Thomas, Leonard Bernstein, Leopold Stokowski, Morton Gould, Erich Leinsdorf, Walter Hendl, Eugene Ormandy, George Szell and Charles Munch. Many of these guests have also recorded with the orchestra.

There have also been designated principal guest conductors including Carlo Maria Giulini, Claudio Abbado, and Pierre Boulez. Beginning with the 2006-2007 season, Boulez will serve as conductor emeritus.^[1]

Music performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra has appeared in various movies, including Casino conducted by Sir Georg Solti, and Fantasia 2000 conducted by James Levine.

The Chicago Symphony also holds an annual fundraiser, originally known as the Chicago Symphony Marathon, more recently as "Radiothon," and currently "Symphonython," in conjunction with Chicago radio station WFMT. As part of the event, the Orchestra has, since 1986, released exclusive tracks from their broadcast archives on double LP/CD collections.

Recordings and broadcasts

The Chicago Symphony has amassed a discography numbering more than 900. Recordings by the Orchestra have earned fifty-eight Grammy Awards from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. These include several Classical Album of the Year awards, awards in Best Classical Performance in vocal soloist, choral, instrumental, engineering and orchestral categories.

On May 1, 1916, Frederick Stock recorded the Wedding March from Felix Mendelssohn's music to A Midsummer Night's Dream for what was then known as the Columbia Graphophone Company. Stock and the orchestra made numerous recordings for Columbia Records and the Victor Talking Machine Company, renamed RCA Victor in 1929. The orchestra's first non-acoustic electrical recordings were made for Victor in 1925, including a performance of Karl Goldmark's In Springtime overture. These early electrical recordings were made in Victor's Chicago studios; within a couple of years Victor began recording the orchestra in Orchestra Hall. Stock continued recording until 1942, the year he died.

In 1951, Rafael Kubelik made the first modern high fidelity recordings with the orchestra, in Orchestra Hall, for Mercury. Like the very first electrical recordings, these performances were made with a single microphone. Philips has reissued these performances on compact disc with the original Mercury label and liner notes.

In March 1954, Fritz Reiner made the first stereophonic recordings with the orchestra, again in Orchestra Hall, for RCA Victor, including a performance of Richard Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra. Reiner and the orchestra continued to record for RCA through 1962. These were all part of RCA's triple-channel "Living Stereo" process. RCA has digitally remastered the recordings and released them on CD and SACD Jean Martinon also recorded with the orchestra for RCA Victor during the 1960s, producing performances that have been reissued on CD.

Sir Georg Solti recorded primarily for Decca in recordings that were issued in the U.S. on the London label, including a highly-acclaimed Mahler series, recorded in the historic Medinah Temple. Many of the recordings with Daniel Barenboim have been released on Teldec.

The Chicago Symphony was first broadcast on the radio in 1925. There have been regular broadcasts ever since, except for a few years during World War II and a hiatus between October 2002 and April 2007. The reason for the latter break was a dispute between the musicians' union and CSO management over extra pay for musicians for radio broadcasts.^[2] The Orchestra offered to match the broadcast fees of the highest-paying US orchestra, but the union refused the offer. Henry Fogel, then president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association, told the Tribune, "I think the musicians' representatives believe we should find a way to fund payments at the levels they expect, and frankly we just cannot."^[3] With the resolution of the dispute, the Chicago Symphony radio syndication is to resume with a 52-week series. The broadcasts will be sponsored by BP and will air on 98.7 WFMT in Chicago and the WFMT Radio Network. It will consist of 39 weeks of recordings of live concerts, as well as highlights from the CSO's vast discography.^[4]

The CSO has also appeared on a series of telecasts on WGN-TV, beginning in 1953. The early 1960s saw the videotaped telecast series Music from Chicago, conducted by Fritz Reiner and guest conductors including Arthur Fiedler, George Szell, Pierre Monteux, and Charles Munch. Many of these televised concerts, from 1953 to 1963, have since been released to DVD by VAI Distribution.

Georg Solti also conducted a series of concerts with the Chicago Symphony that were broadcast in the 1970s on PBS.

In 2007, the Chicago Symphony formed its own in-house recording label, CSO Resound. After an agreement was reached with the Orchestra's musicians, arrangements were made for new recordings to be released digitally at online outlets and on compact disc.^[4] The first CSO Resound CD, recording Bernard Haitink's rendition of Mahler's Third Symphony, was released in the spring of 2007. The second release, in October 2007, was Haitink conducting the Bruckner 7th.

Civic Orchestra of Chicago

Frederick Stock founded the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the first training orchestra in the United States affiliated with a major symphony orchestra, in 1919. Its goal is to recruit pre-professional musicians and train them as high-level orchestra players. Many alumni have gone on to play for the CSO or other major orchestras.

The Civic Orchestra performs half a dozen orchestral concerts and a chamber music series annually in Symphony Center and in other venues throughout the Chicago area free of charge to the public.

Music directors, conductors

Music directors 1891-1905 Theodore Thomas 1905-1942 Frederick Stock 1943-1947 Désiré Defauw 1947-1948 Artur Rodziński 1950-1953 Rafael Kubelík 1953-1962 Fritz Reiner 1962-1963 Fritz Reiner (musical advisor) 1963-1968 Jean Martinon 1968-1969 Irwin Hoffman (acting) 1969-1991 Sir Georg Solti 1991-2006 Daniel Barenboim Titled Conductors 1969-1972 Carlo Maria Giulini - Principal Guest Conductor 1982-1985 Claudio Abbado - Principal Guest Conductor 1995-2006 Pierre Boulez - Principal Guest Conductor 2006-present Pierre Boulez - Conductor Emeritus 2006-present Bernard Haitink - Principal Conductor Composers-in-Residence 1987-1990 John Corigliano 1990-1997 Shulamit Ran 1997-2006 Augusta Read Thomas 2006-2008 Osvaldo Golijov and Mark-Anthony Turnage

Assistant / Associate Conductors Arthur Mees - Assistant 1896-1898 Frederick Stock - Assistant 1899-1905 Eric DeLamarter - Assistant 1918-1933, Associate 1933-1936 Hans Lange - Associate 1936-1943, Conductor 1943-1946 Tauno Hannikainen - Assistant 1947-1949, Associate 1949-1950 George Schick - Assistant 1950-1952, Associate 1952-1956 Walter Hendl - Associate 1958-1964 Irwin Hoffman - Assistant 1964-1965, Associate 1965-1968, Conductor 1969-1970 Henry Mazer - Associate 1970-1986 Kenneth Jean - Associate 1986-1993 Michael Morgan - Assistant 1986-1993 Yaron Traub - Assistant 1995-1998, Associate 1998-1999 William Eddins - Assistant 1995-1998, Associate 1998-1999, Resident 1999-2004

References

External links

• Chicago Symphony Orchestra official website
• Civic Orchestra of Chicago Official website
• Silk Road Project Official website

Chicago Symphony Orchestra Music Directors
Theodore Thomas (1891) • Frederick Stock (1905) • Désiré Defauw (1943) • Artur Rodziński (1947) • Rafael Kubelík (1950) • Fritz Reiner (1953) • Jean Martinon (1963) • Irwin Hoffman (1968) • Georg Solti (1969) • Daniel Barenboim (1991)

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