Some classical music works arrive on the concert stage like shy guests at a crowded party. They need a persuasive host to draw listeners in and reveal their charm, lest the room move on to flashier attractions. Not every work carries the inevitable triumph of a Beethoven symphony, for example. His ‘Eroica’ can survive a rough night and still leave an audience on its feet. But Tchaikovsky’s own third symphony, known as the ‘Polish,’ is not that kind of piece. It requires advocacy. On Thursday evening at Orchestra Hall, Riccardo Muti provided exactly that.
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Palindromic beauty at the CSO with Vilde Frang and Hannu Lintu
Originally published at Seen and Heard International
Chicago’s first snowfall of the season also marked the return of Hannu Lintu to Orchestra Hall, though an afternoon rise in temperature meant that, by the time the maestro ascended the podium, snow had transitioned to rain and a steady melt. The meteorological pivot in some ways mirrored the contrasts the Finnish conductor was bringing to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
On his earlier visit to Chicago, Lintu balanced the familiar and the unexpected, pairing well-known crowd-pleasers by Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky with seldom-performed works by Saariaho and Mussorgsky. For this current engagement, Lintu—joined by the Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang, a rising star with an already formidable reputation—brought a program just as intriguing, with contrasts between pieces that exuded entertaining push-and-pull tension.
Continue reading Palindromic beauty at the CSO with Vilde Frang and Hannu Lintu