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New York Times
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
He Reinvigorated the Met Opera's Chorus. Next Stop, Chicago.
When Donald Palumbo departed his post as chorus master of the Metropolitan Opera last year after nearly two decades, he could have easily taken a break. But Palumbo, 76, wasn't finished. 'I knew it was not a retirement situation for me,' he said. Now Palumbo has lined up his next position: the Chicago Symphony Orchestra announced on Tuesday that he would serve as its next chorus director — only the third in the choir's 67-year history — beginning an initial three-year term in July. 'I love this chorus,' Palumbo said in a telephone interview from Chicago, where he was rehearsing the chorus. 'I love this city.' Palumbo was a fixture at the Met from 2007 to 2024, helping turn the chorus into one of the most revered in the field. He could often be seen during performances racing around backstage, working with singers to refine bits of the score. He was chorus master at Lyric Opera of Chicago from 1991 to 2007. At the Chicago Symphony, he said, he hoped to work with the singers on 'creating an identity as a chorus from the way we sing, and the way we devote ourselves to the music.' Jeff Alexander, the Chicago Symphony's president, said that Palumbo had built a close relationship with the chorus during guest appearances over the years, creating 'an atmosphere of collaboration that yielded exceptional artistry.' 'We knew this would be the ideal choice to build on the legacy of this award-winning ensemble,' Alexander said in a statement. Palumbo, who lives in Santa Fe and will commute to Chicago, is already at work with the Chicago singers. He will serve as guest chorus director this month for Verdi's Requiem, working with Riccardo Muti, the Chicago Symphony's former music director. In July, he will begin his tenure as chorus director with a performance of Mahler's 'Resurrection' Symphony at the Ravinia Festival, led by the festival's chief conductor, Marin Alsop. While Palumbo has forged a close relationship with Muti, he said, he was still getting to know Klaus Mäkelä, the Chicago Symphony's incoming music director, who begins in 2027. (Palumbo said he has been watching videos of Mäkelä on YouTube: 'Everything he does musically is exciting,' he said.) Palumbo said he hoped to stay in Chicago beyond the end of his initial term in 2028. 'I certainly am not planning on having a cutoff point,' he said. 'I intend to keep working.'
Chicago Tribune
02-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Classical and jazz for summer 2025: From concert halls to the open air of Millennium Park
Condolences to everyone's calendar. Despite sobering news of canceled summer festivals and slashed National Endowment for the Arts grants, Chicago summer — knock wood — looks to be as busy as ever. Classical and jazz programming alone is packed with blockbusters. Before the subscription arts season is out, Riccardo Muti is back at the Chicago Symphony, closing out the season with Verdi's Requiem, his calling card, and trumpeter Esteban Batallán as a featured soloist (June 12-24). After that, Giancarlo Guerrero begins his tenure as director of the Grant Park Music Festival, bringing with him a bevy of music by living and American composers (June 11-Aug. 16). Musicians and celebrity chefs team up for the Ravinia Festival's Breaking Barriers, with audiences taste-testing the results (July 25-27). Then, to close out the season, the Chicago Jazz Fest returns, this time with esperanza spalding, Monty Alexander, Kermit Ruffins and Eliades Ochoa as headliners (Aug. 28-31). But with so much excitement afoot, it's all too easy for other cultural highlights to get lost. Here's a handful to keep on your radar well ahead of summer's dog days. Before the boycott: Rosa Parks was just the most famous representative of a group of women who worked to desegregate Montgomery's public transit system in the 1950s. Chicago Opera Theater's 'She Who Dared' — with music by the talented young composer Jasmine Barnes and a libretto by Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton — foregrounds their overlooked story. June 3, 6 and 8 at the Studebaker Theater, 410 S. Michigan Ave., tickets $60-$160, Price's precocious champion: Still in his 20s, Randall Goosby has become one of the leading interpreters of Florence Price's music. The violinist brings her music — specifically her second violin concerto — back to its home city alongside the CSO and conductor Sir Mark Elder. June 5-7 at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave., tickets $39-$299, What happens to music never heard?: In the case of Oscar Peterson's 'Africa,' it gets resurrected. Peterson performed and recorded movements of the suite throughout his career, but never the entire thing. Thanks to bandleader and arranger John Clayton, the late jazz pianist's epic finally sees the light of day. 8 p.m. June 13 at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave., tickets $39-$299, Soundtrack to the 21st century: World-class soloists and contemporary classical music are both hallmarks of the Grant Park Music Festival, but they don't always converge. This summer is a refreshing change of pace, with several guest artists platforming pieces written in the new millennium. First among them: cellist Inbal Segev, who plays Mark Adamo's 'Last Year' (July 9) and Anna Clyne's 'Dance' (July 16) as this year's artist-in-residence. Also on tap are trumpeter Pacho Flores in Arturo Márquez's Concierto de Otoño (June 20-21); the Imani Winds in a concerto grosso penned by former ensemble member Valerie Coleman (June 25); mezzo-soprano J'Nai Bridges in Peter Lieberson's 'Neruda Songs' (Aug. 1 and 2 at Harris Theater); and Glen Ellyn native Jennifer Koh in Jennifer Higdon's epic 'The Singing Rooms' for solo violin, orchestra and chorus (Aug. 8 and 9). All at Millennium Park, 201 E. Randolph St., free admission, Paired pipes: From 2018 to 2020, Camille Thurman — as alluring a singer as she is a tenor saxophonist — made history as the first woman to join the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra roster. But she's a commanding, charismatic bandleader in her own right, as this local run of shows will no doubt co-sign. June 26-29 at the Jazz Showcase, 806 S. Plymouth Court, tickets $25-$45, more information at Big news for people who hit things: Chicago institution Third Coast Percussion is turning 20. The quartet rings in the milestone with 'Rhythm Fest,' an all-day bash with collaborators past and present. Noon to 10 p.m. June 28 at Epiphany Center for the Arts, 201 S. Ashland Ave., tickets $60-120 and $30 for students, Irakere at 50: The iconic Cuban ensemble technically celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023. Then again, no celebration is big enough to capture its outsized mark on contemporary Latin jazz. Founder and bandleader Chucho Valdés is joined by former bandmates Paquito D'Rivera and Arturo Sandoval — a rare convening of the genre's elder statesmen — for this one-night-only Ravinia extravaganza. 7:30 p.m. July 9 at the Ravinia Pavilion, 201 Ravinia Park Road, Highland Park, tickets $29-$65, One day, two premieres: Slather on sunscreen if you must, because new music fans are advised to post up at the Ravinia grounds on July 20. Steans Institute musicians debut a string quartet by American composer Joel Thompson at Bennett Gordon Hall (1:30 p.m.). A few short hours later, the CSO gives the first performance of Malek Jandali's 'Rhapsody for Orchestra' (5 p.m.). Both July 20 at Ravinia, 201 Ravinia Park Road, Highland Park, free admission for the Steans recital, tickets $15-$95 for the Pavilion concert, Early music everywhere: 'Baroque-and-before' need not mean 'boxed in.' Creative and unconventional early-music performances abound this summer, starting with 'Secret Byrd,' a theatricalized account of William Byrd's Mass for Five Voices devised by Bill Barclay. (Barclay was the mind behind 2023's excellent 'The Chevalier.') Meanwhile, at Ravinia, Cleveland- and Chicago-based early music troupe Apollo's Fire presents a 'dueling double concerto' program — as do actual fencers, demonstrating the sport on the lawn. Haymarket Opera Company also makes its festival debut with a semi-staged 'Alcina'; soprano Nicole Cabell, who starred in the company's recent 'L'Amant anonyme,' sings the title role. 'Secret Byrd,' two shows each, 6 p.m. and 9 p.m., on July 20 and 21 at Salvage One, 1840 W. Hubbard St., tickets $65-$75, 'Fencing Match' with Apollo's Fire, 7:30 p.m. Aug. 13 at Ravinia's Martin Theatre, tickets $15-$75, Handel's 'Alcina' with Haymarket Opera, 1 p.m. Aug. 24 at Ravinia's Martin Theatre, tickets $15-$75, Partitas na praia: Bach and Brazil meet in Plínio Fernandes. The São Paulo-born guitarist's 'Bacheando,' featuring Bach arrangements, was one of the illustrious Decca label's most striking 2023 releases. He picks up where the album left off with this Ravinia recital. 7:30 p.m. Aug. 26 at Ravinia's Bennett Gordon Hall, tickets $20,
Chicago Tribune
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Cellist Lia Kohl finds music in the everyday. She'll soon take a Union Station rush hour by surprise.
While waiting for a train at Union Station recently, Lia Kohl noticed an unexpected sound echoing delicately above the din of commuters and travelers. The station's grand, high-ceilinged Great Hall was playing background music — not exactly Muzak, but about as tame, most of it sugary pop from the 2000s and 2010s. 'I'm really interested in this idea of background music. Like, what is that music for? Is it to make people happy, or calm? Is it just to fill up space? Is it a Spotify playlist?' Kohl wonders. 'For me, it's more of a spiritual question: Why is this here?' Kohl is exactly the kind of listener to home in on sounds like these. The cellist and composer, 36, makes music out of noise others might wish to tune out: turn-signal clicks, a far-off tornado siren test, the hums of refrigerators. After noticing the music piped into the hall, she reached out to both Union Station and musical incubator Experimental Sound Studio to propose composing her own, performed live by herself and nine other roving musicians. That project, 'Union Station Music,' takes over the Great Hall in a onetime performance on May 15, during rush hour. Kohl isn't expecting a rapt audience — that's not really the point, she says. The composition will be open-ended enough for commuters to catch just a snippet before rushing off to their trains. Modeled on the same resonances and sound profile as the station's generic pop playlist, it could even be tuned out entirely. The sounds of a busy Union Station? Kohl considers them just as much a part of 'Union Station Music' as the score itself. 'Someone from the station very apologetically told me, 'I'm really sorry, but the one thing we can't do is cut out the train announcements.' And I was like, 'No, no, you don't understand; I love train announcements,'' she says, gleefully. Kohl's current experimental mode may seem like a far cry from her classical training. In retrospect, though, there were always hints she would pursue the collaborative improvisational work for which she's become known. After picking up the cello in grade school, in San Francisco, Kohl followed all the typical beats of someone destined for a classical career: She enrolled in Indiana University's prestigious cello program and moved to New York, then Chicago, to pursue her studies further. (For a time, she even studied with John Sharp, the Chicago Symphony's principal cellist.) Throughout, Kohl was drawn to the chamber repertoire above all else, despite a nagging feeling that she never quite fit in with her peers. 'I need some kind of collaborator, something where I don't know what's going to happen,' Kohl says. 'Even as a quote-unquote 'solo artist,' I love the feeling of responding to something. I think that I need it.' Kohl got her start doing just that with dancers from the soon-to-be-shuttered Links Hall. That grew into ever more venturesome collaborations: with the puppet company Manual Cinema, performance-art collective Mocrep, drummer Makaya McCraven, Finom's Macie Stewart and fellow avant-garde cellist Katinka Kleijn, to name a few. Among her beloved colleagues was Mars Williams, the prolific Chicago saxophonist who died in 2023. Later this month, Kohl will take part in two performances commemorating what would have been Williams' 70th birthday and the opening of his archive, held in perpetuity at Experimental Sound Studio: a remount of Williams' epic music-and-dance piece 'The Devil's Whistle,' on May 24, and a brand-new tribute of her own, 'Mars Williams' Toy Story,' on May 25. The latter will use Williams' own massive toy collection, which he scavenged from trinket and pawn shops around the world. The toys now reside at ESS, in the Williams archive; when Kohl met up to chat at a North Side café, she arrived with an empty suitcase to cart more of them home. 'I got to spend a lot more time with Mars in New Orleans for the premiere of 'Devil's Whistle,' just hearing about his life story,' Kohl says. 'I think it's very easy for someone of that generation to think, 'I've established myself, and you're nobody. Why should I talk to you?' But he was always very interested in everyone else and what they were doing.' Kohl was bracing for the experience of rummaging through Williams' toys to be emotional. It has been — but not in the way one might expect. More often than not, on visits to the archive, she's found herself giggling uncontrollably, taking the same delight in the toys' goofy sounds as Williams once did. 'Some of them have price tags on them in Euros. Some are obviously old, made with that kind of old plastic that they don't make anymore,' she says, with obvious delight. 'I can feel his decisions; I can feel his humor. It feels like a collaboration between me and his brain. … I get to interact with my friend again.' Like so many social musicians, Kohl struggled with introducing a feeling of collaboration — and the spontaneity it brings — while sequestered away during the pandemic. To replicate that, she began playing alongside staticky, portable radios. The radios pick up random snippets from live broadcasts, giving Kohl a broad and unpredictable palette to work with. The concept became the basis of her 2022 album 'Too Small to Be a Plain' and many live performances since, both solo and ensemble. She's performed with radios all over Western Europe, Scandinavia, the U.K. and Chile (which, she adds, 'has amazing radio'). 'I didn't think about this when I was starting to make work with radio, but every new city that I go to is a new landscape,' she says. 'It's always fun to be in a place where I don't speak the language. I'll have moments at shows where audiences will laugh, because I catch something on the radio that they think is funny. It makes me feel like a ventriloquist.' 'Union Station Music' and 'Mars Williams' Toy Story' won't use live radio, but her forthcoming duo record with Chicago artist and synth player Zander Raymond, releasing next month, does. So does a new work Kohl will present alongside art by Ximena Garrido-Lecca on July 13, at the University of Chicago's Renaissance Society. Meanwhile, Kohl will be in residence at the Hungry Brain every Thursday in July, allowing audiences to take in the variegated facets of her music. What it might sound like? If Kohl's work so far is any indication, the whole world is on the table.
Chicago Tribune
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Review: CSO music-director-to-be Klaus Mäkelä faces his orchestra — and the work ahead
At a Chicago Symphony rehearsal this week open to the press and orchestra donors, music director designate Klaus Mäkelä halted the orchestra while working on Dvořák's Symphony No. 7. 'We know it will be a long line, yeah?' he said to the violins. As he said it, the young conductor assumed the stance of an explorer, shielding his eyes and pointing to an imagined horizon. Reflecting on Mäkelä's appearances on April 24 and May 1, I returned again and again to this directive. Both concerts evinced the infectious energy and sonic dazzle that inspired the CSO to hire him in the first place. But they also probed ensemble areas which require investment and attention — that 'long line,' so to speak, made even longer by the fact that Mäkelä doesn't fully assume the CSO post until 2027. Last week, he returned to Gustav Mahler, the composer whose symphony sealed Mäkelä's partnership with the CSO and who will be the subject of an upcoming orchestral summit in Amsterdam, another home-base-to-be for the Finnish conductor. His choice of repertoire was characteristically ambitious: Mahler's Third Symphony, the longest in the standard repertoire at about 100 minutes long. This time around, Mäkelä didn't relay the same end-to-end momentum and delicious abandon as 2023's Fifth — still a high bar for Mahlers at Orchestra Hall, under any baton. Instead, Mäkelä's Third dwelt on the CSO's impassioned ensemble sound. He had much to love: After a sleepy couple of months at Orchestra Hall, hearing the CSO give their all under Mäkelä was like a blast of fresh alpine air. (The orchestra was similarly energized under conductor Jaap van Zweden, which bodes well for their forthcoming tour to Amsterdam's Mahler Festival together.) The first movement is pocked with all-orchestra rests, which tend to give the music an air-clearing effect. Under Mäkelä, the silences themselves sung, articulating the music's bleakness rather than offering a respite from it. If a symphony must embrace everything, as Mahler's old saw goes, it must, too, embrace silence. After a mostly moment-by-moment first movement, a reverent sixth and final movement hit that point home, its spaciousness calling back to the symphony's introduction with far-sighted acuity. Last week's Mahler 3 also marked Mäkelä's first CSO appearance with singers. Based on Thursday's performance, vocalists — both solo and ensemble — seem to be in good hands. Contralto Wiebke Lehmkuhl sang her fourth-movement solo with elemental authority, her phrasing thoughtful and vowels warmly rounded. In the fifth movement, the treble voices of the Chicago Symphony Chorus and Uniting Voices Chicago (formerly Chicago Children's Choir) melded, handsomely, into one ringing body. It helped that Mäkelä cloaked the orchestra's sound ever so slightly for the benefit of the soloist and singers, just as he did for last year's Shostakovich cello concerto. Even Lehmkuhl's low-middle range landed squarely for listeners in the lower balcony. Against the Mahler, Mäkelä's Dvořák 7 (continuing through this weekend) came away as a more cohesive musical statement. In performance, Mäkelä maintained that 'long line' through the entire piece: Returning motives varied slightly but effortlessly, as though being sung in real time. The string hiccup beginning the Scherzo theme was whistle-clean; rather than beating through busy sections, Mäkelä resurrected his favored move of pointing at instruments with moving lines, or, occasionally, mouthing along to them. The third movement melted into the fourth with ease, making natural bedfellows of two very different movements. The performance seemed to just flow as though coasting across the score, rather than the Mahler's burrowing. The ride was bumpier on the rest of the May 1 program. Programming Pierre Boulez's 'Initiale,' a brass septet, was a great idea in theory: The late conductor-composer's centenary has been mostly overlooked at Orchestra Hall, and at four minutes long, the piece is plenty audience-friendly, not to mention a showcase for the storied CSO brass. Instead, the performance was dispiritingly coarse, only gaining confidence and clarity as it went on — which, for a piece that short, is too little, too late. Pianist and artist-in-residence Daniil Trifonov's appearance with the orchestra, playing Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2, also improved as it went along. The fearsomely talented pianist tends to follow his own whims behind the keyboard — a guarantee of fresh and sometimes idiosyncratic performances, like Thursday's. (Mäkelä again impressed in his solo support role here, catching Trifonov's fluctuations with eagle-eyed precision.) All the Trifonov hallmarks were there: rubbery, supple hands that glide across the keyboard, and an unabashed interiority that gives the sense, at times, that Trifonov is playing for an audience of one. Trifonov carried that spirit forward into the final Allegretto grazioso movement, its first notes beginning with the same awed hush as the end of the Andante. More uncharacteristically, the typically impeccable pianist tripped a couple times in Thursday's performance: a note flub in the first movement, a brief brain freeze in an exposed moment in the second. One wonders if that, on top of the concerto's immense bulk, played into the exacting Trifonov's decision to leave audiences with just a whiff of an encore: Chopin's Prelude No. 10, all of 30 seconds long. CSO musicians delivered on the concerto's big solo moments, mostly. Principal cellist John Sharp sang above the haze of the Andante with a noble tone and tender phrasing. So did assistant principal horn Daniel Gingrich, his sound willowy and fluid. Less so for his colleague, principal horn Mark Almond, whose opening horn call kicks off the concerto. Almond has seen a few strong performances in recent months, including a poised turn in Jaap van Zweden's Mahler 7 last month. But his features in Mäkela's concert weeks — in Mahler 3 and the Brahms — sounded tentative in the extreme. Mahler 3 likewise saw some good nights for principals and troubled nights for others. Principal trumpet Esteban Batallán returned for these concerts with a post horn solo to remember, wistfully sounding from Orchestra Hall's rafters. (Mahler's score directs the soloist to emulate the effect of a horn call moving closer; in these performances, Batallán actually did so, playing his first solo from the fifth floor corridor, his second from the entrance to the hall's ceiling, and his final solo directly above the stage, on a catwalk.) Concertmaster Robert Chen, settling back into the orchestra after a pinched nerve, saw opposite fortunes in the first movement, with stoic solos that often trotted ahead of his colleagues and Mäkelä's beat. Ups and downs in various principal seats only made trombonist Timothy Higgins' contributions, leading that section, all the more commendable. After winning the CSO's principal trombone audition last month, Higgins, of the San Francisco Symphony, has joined the orchestra for some trial weeks, starting with van Zweden's Mahler 7. But it was Mahler 3, and the first movement's many trombone solos, that were his true testing ground. Over the course of the movement, brawny eloquence gave way to vulnerability, as though he was curling inwards — a unified statement across the movement's sprawl. A week later, Higgins was MVP again as an anchor in the rough tides of the Boulez. If the deal gets sealed, Higgins will be Mäkelä's second hire to the orchestra after violinist Gabriela Lara — also a standout player. The last three weeks would indicate he's passed, colors a-flying. Hannah Edgar is a freelance critic. The Rubin Institute for Music Criticism helps fund our classical music coverage. The Chicago Tribune maintains editorial control over assignments and content. Program repeats 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and again 3 p.m. on Sun., May 4; tickets $75-$399 at Also worth noting The arts calendar has gotten fuller in recent weeks. Chicago Opera Theater announced its coming season, with Chicago premieres of works by Kurt Weill and Antonio Salieri, while the Grant Park Music Festival and CSO have grown theirs slightly. Grant Park adds a performance by violinist Joshua Bell on Aug. 6, and the CSO tacks on concerts of John Williams' film music (June 23, 2026), the Ravi Shankar Ensemble (March 22, 2026) and ranchera star Aída Cuevas (Sept. 26). Symphony Center's jazz series also announced its 2025-26 season programming this week, and with it a new guest curator model. Kate Dumbleton, director of the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, and Mike Reed, drummer, venue owner and festival programmer, are each tasked with curating a concert in the spring. The full SCP Jazz lineup is as follows; tickets are on sale Aug. 6 at Bassist Christian McBride and pianist Brad Mehldau playing duo, 8 p.m. Oct. 10; tickets $39-$119. Herbie Hancock (note Sunday date), 8 p.m. Oct. 26; tickets $55-$199. Joshua Redman Quartet feat. singer Gabrielle Cavassa, playing selections from 2023's 'where we are' and the forthcoming 'Words Fall Short,' 8 p.m. Nov. 7; tickets $39-$119. 50th anniversary of Marvin Gaye's 'I Want You' with singers José James and Lizz Wright, 8 p.m. Feb. 6, 2026; tickets $39-$119. Double-bill of saxophonist Nubya Garcia and singer Somi, curated by Kate Dumbleton, 8 p.m. March 13, 2026; tickets $29-$119. Miles Davis centenary tributes by pianists Gonzalo Rubalcaba and John Beasley, 8 p.m. March 27, 2026; tickets $39-$119. Drummer and curator Mike Reed explores his 'Chicago Inspirations,' including a tribute to bassist Fred Hopkins and a suite of compositions written by Chicagoans between 1980 and 2010. 8 p.m. May 1, 2026; tickets $29-$119.
Chicago Tribune
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
CSO gives a sneak peek of its big Amsterdam trip with upcoming Mahler concerts
Forget Lollapalooza and all the rest. The hottest festival ticket happens just once a generation, if not once a lifetime. That would be the Mahler Festival, a musical G20 summit of sorts celebrating the life and legacy of Gustav Mahler. From May 8 to 18, orchestras from around the world will convene in Amsterdam to perform the composer and conductor's complete orchestral works, marathon-style. This year's Mahler Festival is notable for two reasons. First off, it's just the third in history: The festival was founded in 1920, and its last iteration was in 1995. Second, an orchestra from the Americas has never been invited to participate until this year — a distinction reserved for our very own Chicago Symphony. 'It has been sold out already for one year,' conductor Jaap van Zweden says of the CSO's festival appearances. 'Everybody is really excited, of course, for the festival itself. But also, having the Chicago Symphony there is a huge honor for us.' With its music-director-to-be, Klaus Mäkelä, already booked to lead Amsterdam's own Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the CSO will play Mahler's Sixth and Seventh symphonies with van Zweden. The Dutch conductor already led an explosive Mahler 6 with the Chicagoans in 2022; he reprises it at Symphony Center May 8 and 9. Before that, he gives a preview of the Seventh for local audiences from April 17 to 19. 'The best thing would be playing (the symphonies) on a single night: 6, then 7 after intermission,' van Zweden says. 'That's impossible, of course' — that would be nearly three hours of music — 'but 6 and 7 are so related.' Both symphonies contain some of Mahler's darkest and most uncompromising music. His Sixth Symphony, sometimes nicknamed the 'Tragic,' is, in van Zweden's words, 'devastating.' The Seventh, written just after it, seesaws between the 'demonic' and hopeful. '(Mahler) is coming out of the woods. It's like there is still life after this symphony,' van Zweden says. Even at personal and professional high points, Mahler's life was full of inner turmoil. He fretted over his tempestuous marriage, over his conducting responsibilities sapping the little free time he had to compose, and over relentless antisemitic barbs in the Viennese press, despite having converted to Catholicism to improve his professional prospects. His music is often haunted by death — premonitions that, in his case, proved correct. Mahler died in 1911 from illnesses exacerbated by a heart condition, at just 50. 'Although it's very tragic, thank god it all happened to him. Without these very deep life experiences, Mahler would not have made this incredible music,' van Zweden says. Van Zweden's own connections to Amsterdam, and the festival, are multifold. An accomplished violinist, he was born and raised in the city. He left to study at Juilliard, only to be promptly tugged home: Bernard Haitink — at the time the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra's principal conductor, and later taking the same role at the CSO — invited van Zweden to become the prestigious orchestra's concertmaster at just 19. Van Zweden would play in the orchestra until 1995, when he began conducting in earnest. One of his last major undertakings as concertmaster was, in fact, playing that 1995 Mahler Fest. 'I think it helps tremendously that I've played all the Mahler symphonies, both on the podium and as a player,' he says. 'He doesn't give you the feeling of power, but it is a very powerful feeling. Those are completely different things. You are part of something very big and very emotional.' Van Zweden has spent a good chunk of his career in the U.S., most recently as the music director of the New York Philharmonic. He shares that résumé line with both Mahler himself and Mahler Festival founder Willem Mengelberg, one of the only conductors to champion Mahler's music while the composer was still alive. Before his stint in New York, Mengelberg became the youngest chief conductor of the city's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1895, when he was appointed at 24. (That will make Mäkelä the second youngest when he takes the reins of the Concertgebouw in 2027, the same year he assumes leadership of the CSO.) The festival invited van Zweden for his long history with the Concertgebouw and Amsterdam generally: One of the Mahler symphonies he played at the 1995 festival was, in fact, the Sixth. From there, the festival specifically requested he appear with the CSO — a testament to the orchestra's 'incredible history' with Mahler. The orchestra became the first in the U.S. to play the Seventh Symphony in 1921, shortly after then-CSO music director Frederick Stock heard it at the very first Mahler Festival. The CSO would become especially associated with Mahler under the leadership of Sir Georg Solti, whose pummeling, precise recordings of the composer's complete symphonies won multiple Grammys. Through memorable performances, recordings and tours, Haitink and principal guest conductor Pierre Boulez also asserted the orchestra's identity as world-class Mahlerians. 'It's not for nothing that the Concertgebouw asked me to bring the Chicago Symphony with me,' van Zweden says. '(The orchestra is) legendary for its Mahler playing.' Leading the orchestra in a setting as august as this, Van Zweden is looking forward to building on that history. But he stresses that these symphonies are anything but museum pieces. 'I remember coming to New York and doing a Mahler symphony with (specific) bowings. They said, 'Well, this is the tradition of Bernstein.' I thought, how interesting — because when Bernstein was in Amsterdam, he did a different bowing,' he says. 'So, what is tradition? All the different conductors who are coming will bring their own tradition, their own life, their own experience to the orchestra. Tradition is always something that needs to be alive.' Hannah Edgar is a freelance critic.
