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Chicago Tribune
13-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
CSO's principal flute departs for the Berlin Philharmonic
Musician Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson, the principal flute of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, is taking a one-year leave of absence from the orchestra after winning the same post at the Berlin Philharmonic. Höskuldsson was hired to his post by then-music director Riccardo Muti in 2015 and began playing with the orchestra the following year. His departure was confirmed by the CSO on Thursday. 'Stefan has requested a leave of absence so that he can play with the Berlin Philharmonic next season,' CSOA president Jeff Alexander said in an emailed statement to the Tribune. Originally from Iceland, Höskuldsson was principal flute of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra prior to joining the CSO. During his tenure with the orchestra, he performed solo with the orchestra on three occasions, most recently in the premiere of Lowell Liebermann's Flute Concerto No. 2 last year, and was a regular performer in its MusicNOW series. Writing about Höskuldsson's solo debut with the orchestra, former Tribune critic Howard Reich praised Höskuldsson for 'the fastidiousness of his melodic ornaments, the relatively chaste quality of his vibrato and the crystalline articulation of his every note.' Principal musicians hold crucial leadership roles in symphony orchestras: they take important orchestral solos, are tasked with leading their respective sections and are the highest-compensated members of the ensemble. (Höskuldsson had a notable solo in last season's Liebermann Flute Concerto No. 2.) At the same time, jobs in the Berlin Philharmonic are considered the most coveted in the orchestra world. Höskuldsson's predecessor Mathieu Dufour left Chicago for the same position in 2014. (He left the Philharmonic in 2018.) Höskuldsson will still hold his CSO position, the orchestra said, while he plays a trial year in Berlin. Occasionally, albeit rarely, departing musicians return to their old orchestras. CSO principal trumpet Esteban Batallán returns to his post in the fall after a season away playing principal with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Höskuldsson's departure leaves the CSO flute section essentially leaderless, since the section's assistant principal position is also currently vacant. In addition to seeking two new flutes, the orchestra is seeking a principal trombone, principal harp, second oboe, bass clarinet, contrabassoon, assistant principal viola and various section strings.
Chicago Tribune
07-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Review: A clarinet concerto 35 years in the making crowns CSO's Ravel concert
Christopher Theofanidis's 'Indigo Heaven' was well, well worth the wait. Chicago Symphony audiences expected to hear the American composer's clarinet concerto, written for CSO principal clarinetist Stephen Williamson, last season. Unexpected quadruple bypass surgery forced Williamson to postpone the performance to this week, in concerts conducted by Gustavo Gimeno. But Williamson and Theofanidis have had 'Indigo Heaven' on their mind even longer. The two met in 1990, as students at the Eastman School of Music; in the intervening years, they cajoled one another about working on a concerto. Like Lowell Liebermann's Flute Concerto No. 2 last season, 'Indigo Heaven' — named after a country Western novel by Mark Warren — is tonal, melodic and traditionally structured, with a moderato first movement, lyrical second, and zippy, mixed-meter third. Of the two wind commissions, 'Indigo Heaven' may have the most staying power. Though Theofanidis has written concertos for just about every major instrument group — including, early on, for bassoon and saxophone — 'Indigo Heaven' stands among his most skillful and organic contributions to the solo repertoire. The string writing is lush and multidimensional, while winds and brass get copious opportunities to dialogue with the soloist. Several echoing figures enliven the orchestration — one ripples through the trumpets early on, while others are tossed between soloist and section clarinets. Even setting its craft aside, 'Indigo Heaven' is simply beautiful: I challenge a listener not to get chills during the flowering orchestral entrance in the second movement. Williamson approached the solo part with his usual heart and generous creativity. The clarinet's opening statements, riffing over an easy tide in the orchestra, sound speechlike in their starting and stopping; Williamson played the section with a freedom that sounded nearly spontaneous. His cadenza before the third movement called back to that spirit, morphing from a searching line into the driving spirit of the third movement. That said, for a woodwind concerto, 'Indigo Heaven's' solo part is very, very busy, occasionally to a fault. The clarinet's good-natured musings become agitated and even relentless, offering the soloist little respite. That juice often wasn't worth the squeeze. During some serious soloistic pyrotechnics, particularly in the third movement, Williamson was covered by Theofanidis's thick orchestration. Nor did the solo part capitalize much on Williamson's stirring affinity for long, sustained lines. Even in the more lyrical second movement, it tended to scoot along to the next idea or phraselet — and quickly. In yet another commonality with last year's Liebermann flute concerto, 'Indigo Heaven' made off as the concert's strongest performance — great news for the doted-upon premiere, less so for the 20th-century works that surrounded it. Trumpets sounded a bit harried within themselves and in their sections with the trombones in Samuel Barber's Second Essay for Orchestra. The all-Ravel second half — 'Rapsodie espagnole' and 'Daphnis et Chloé' Suite No. 2 — fared worse, with widespread ensemble issues much more conspicuous than the CSO's usual standard. Still, Thursday had its singularly lovely moments. Samuel Barber's Second Essay for Orchestra opened with skillful shapeshifting from the winds. Wagner Campos, sitting in on bass clarinet as he has much of this season, played in his upper range with the birdsong clarity of a B-flat clarinet; tubist Gene Pokorny underpinned it all with a quiet held note so silky it sounded bowed. Gimeno, making his mainstage CSO debut, made some engaging interpretive calls. He varied the many crests in the 'Daphnis' suite to give them some extra character — a visceral twinge in the one of the first big dissonant chords, and quick, walloping washes in the dash to the end. If Ravel's 'Rapsodie espagnole' was lacking some mystery at the outset, it got more oomph in a snappy 'Malagueña' and powerful 'Feria' sections. That said, more trust and fluidity from the incoming Teatro Real chief would go a long way. Gimeno's beat was precise but overcautious; neither Ravel work got airborne as a result. Likewise, his Second Essay was tensile and exciting, but it tended to press on with obsessive consistency rather than allowing itself to wax and wane. Between the Theofanidis and Ravel works, Thursday's program was practically a woodwind expo. With principal flute Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson out and Williamson's hands quite full for the concerto, the CSO's own Emma Gerstein and John Bruce Yeh subbed in superbly, Gerstein bringing soft shadings to the flute solo at the heart of the 'Daphnis' suite. Among the many guests and subs fortifying the CSO for 'Daphnis's' mega-orchestra was E-flat clarinetist Jay Shankar, visiting from the Milwaukee Symphony. His two spotlights — a lyrical response to the piccolo in the beginning of the piece, and a prankish outburst near the end — were both uncommonly rhapsodic, making memorable artistic statements out of two short moments. 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. Originally Published: March 7, 2025 at 1:01 PM CST
