May 2025 – Gathering Note

Mahler’s many voices: how the CSO has shaped and been shaped by his music

Originally published on Seen and Heard International

A palpable buzz filled Orchestra Hall on the afternoon of May 9th, as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, led by Jaap van Zweden, launched into Mahler’s formidable Sixth Symphony. The Friday matinee had drawn a full house, and the performance that unfolded was a gripping study of control, power, and clarity. When the final movement’s infamous hammer blows fell, they did so with unflinching and devastating precision. The performance neither overstated Mahler’s deep ironies nor softened his stark vision.

This concert carried added weight: it marked the CSO’s final performance before their European tour, which included showcasing the Sixth and Seventh Symphonies at the prestigious 2025 Amsterdam Mahler Festival.

Jaap van Zweden returns with a blazing Mahler Sixth

Jaap van Zweden returned to Orchestra Hall this week to lead the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in two commanding performances of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony. Whether by design or coincidence, this symphony has become something of a calling card for the Dutch maestro during his visits to Chicago. Van Zweden was on the podium the last two times the orchestra played the piece, and this time he not only led the work at home, but will also take it on tour to Amsterdam for the third Mahler Festival.

Mahler’s Sixth has long been shrouded in biographical myth—its popularity fed by the image of the composer as a death-haunted artist. This lens, while perhaps oversimplified, finds a potent anchor in the work’s unsettling musical language. The mythology would be nothing without the work’s infamous hammer blows in its final movement—strikes that have become almost synonymous with Mahler’s fatalism.

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.