Gathering Note

Tag: Dvorak

  • Distance and discovery in Rembrandt Chamber Musicians finale

    Antonin Dvorak and family.

    For their final program of the 2025–26 season, the Rembrandt Chamber Musicians—drawn from the Lyric Opera Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra—offered a thoughtful look at how geographic displacement can refine a composer’s identity. The concert, performed May 17, was delivered with the poise of musicians who thoroughly understand the mechanics of ensemble playing.

    Dvořák’s “American” String Quartet in F major and Mikhail Glinka’s Grand Sextet in E flat major do not often appear together, yet both emerged from periods when their composers were living abroad.The link between the two works is less stylistic than biographical. Each reflects a composer working at some remove from home, testing new influences.

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  • Civic Orchestra of Chicago brings vitality to Price, Walker, Kay and Dvořák at Orchestra Hall

    Civic Orchestra of Chicago brings vitality to Price, Walker, Kay and Dvořák at Orchestra Hall

    Amid a Chicago orchestral landscape dominated by marquee ensembles, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago tends to exist in the shadows. That’s unfortunate, because this century‑old training orchestra—founded in 1919 by Frederick Stock, then music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra—remains one of the city’s most earnest and quietly radical institutions. It’s made up of early‑career musicians, players straddling the line between their conservatory training and professional life. Many alums move on to orchestras across the country. Quite a few land seats in the CSO itself. Yet the Civic’s real gift to the city isn’t its alumni roster. It’s the opportunity audiences receive to enjoy adventurous music in Orchestra Hall at a steal: general admission tickets start at $5.

    The Civic Orchestra has also become an artistically compelling proposition under the direction of principal conductor Ken-David Masur. Beyond the typical warhorses, Masur has steered toward Copland and Takemitsu, Lutosławski and Chávez. Its March 2 concert was no exception, pairing Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7 in D minor with works by three Black American composers — Ulysses Kay, George Walker and Florence Price. It was an evening built around two, persistent questions: Who gets remembered, and why?

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  • CSO shines under Mäkelä’s baton in trio performance of Brahms, Boulez, Dvořák

    CSO shines under Mäkelä’s baton in trio performance of Brahms, Boulez, Dvořák

    Originally published on Seen and Heard International

    Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto is a meaty work.. It may not be as imposing as Mahler’s Third Symphony, but large enough in musical vision that it places great demand on both soloist and orchestra. Thus, it was an appropriate choice for Klaus Mäkelä’s second week with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and an equally fitting farewell for Daniil Trifonov, concluding his season-long role as the CSO’s artist in residence for 2024–25.

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