1. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11. Jakub Hr\u016f\u0161a\/Chicago Symphony Orchestra<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Jakub Hr\u016f\u0161a led the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a revelatory performance of Dmitri Shostakovich\u2019s Symphony No. 11 \u201cThe Year 1905\u201d in March that swept away any notion that this is one of the Russian composer\u2019s superficial, Party dues-paying tub-thumpers.<\/p>\n From the opening bars, Hr\u016f\u0161a and the CSO attacked the score with a laser-like focus and alarming intensity that didn\u2019t let up for the 63-minute duration. Hr\u016f\u0161a revealed the Eleventh\u2014written to mark the \u201cfirst\u201d Russian Revolution of 1905\u2014as a work of hidden layers with a complexity rarely unearthed even by seasoned Shostakovich interpreters. The violence of the mechanistic climaxes was overwhelming, as with the grinding ferocity of the second movement, with screaming piccolos, timpani, brass, and five percussionists building to a terrifying climax. Yet the performance balanced the desolation with passages of affecting humanity such as the quelling effect of a forlorn English horn. The symphony closed on a metallic chord with chimes fading away to an ambivalent silence, which felt like the opposite of triumphant.<\/p>\n Hr\u016f\u0161a and the CSO made a powerful and eloquent case for the Eleventh Symphony as one of Shostakovich\u2019s finest works\u2014 as well as bolstering the view of several Shostakovich scholars and contemporaries that the Eleventh is as much about the enemy within in the 1950s as the enemy without a half-century earlier. Shattering and unforgettable. \u00a0<\/p>\n 2.\u00a0 V\u00edkingur \u00d3lafsson. Music of Bach, Beethoven and Schubert <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n V\u00edkingur \u00d3lafsson\u2019s appearances have become must-see events in Chicago and the Icelandic pianist\u2019s June recital was no exception. Playing the 90-minute program straight through with barely a pause between works, \u00d3lafsson drew acute drama and a remarkable array of luminous, finely shaded expression to Bach\u2019s Partita No. 6, two late Beethoven sonatas and Schubert\u2019s Sonata in E minor. Sonic poetry from one of the finest keyboard artists of our day, with otherworldly Bach and Rameau encores. (This program is available on \u00d3lafsson\u2019s most recent DG recording.)\u00a0<\/p>\n 3. Music of Beethoven, Schumann, Chin, and Widmann. Klaus M\u00e4kel\u00e4\/Chicago Symphony Orchestra<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n With the gradual ramping up of his local appearances, Klaus M\u00e4kel\u00e4 provided several highlights this year with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, including Mahler\u2019s epic Symphony No. 3 and a richly idiomatic Dvo\u0159\u00e1k Seventh Symphony.<\/p>\n But one week before Christmas in the final CSO program of the year, the orchestra\u2019s music director designate really seemed to come into his own as their new leader\u2014as well as establishing a bond with local audiences.\u00a0<\/p>\n The evening\u2019s performance of Beethoven\u2019s Symphony No. 7 was\u2014no surprise\u2014spirited, refined and idiomatic. But, most significantly, the concert gave the first real indication of M\u00e4kel\u00e4\u2019s intelligent, envelope-pushing programming. The Finnish conductor prefaced the symphony with contemporary Beethoven-inspired works by Unsuk Chin and J\u00f6rg Widmann, which were both given exhilarating performances. The CSO musicians sounded unleashed in these edgy, roiling works\u2014their combustible playing under M\u00e4kel\u00e4\u2019s energetic direction akin to a Lamborghini that was finally taken out on the highway and given a chance to show what it could do after being kept too long in the garage.<\/p>\n Yunchan Lim\u2019s lithe account of the Schumann Piano Concerto\u2014and his poetic Chopin encore\u2014were icing on this holiday cake.\u00a0<\/p>\n 4. Belcea Quartet. Music of Mozart, Beethoven and Mendelssohn. UChicago Presents<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Belcea Quartet returned to Mandel Hall in October and reminded local audiences why\u2014in their 31st season\u2014the ensemble remains among the finest chamber groups in the world. Barely affected by the venue\u2019s hothouse temperature, the quartet, led immaculately by first violinist, Corina Belcea, brought thrilling virtuosity, seamless ensemble and remarkable interpretive insight to music of Mozart, Beethoven and Mendelssohn. In the slow movement of Beethoven\u2019s final Quartet in F major, their playing was suffused with a sense of elevated repose that was both musically apt and raptly beautiful.<\/p>\n 5. Music of Beethoven, Haydn and Macmillan. Manfred Honeck\/Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Manfred Honeck\u2019s CSO weeks continue to provide consistent highlights every year. This fall the Austrian conductor brought a thoughtful realization of Mozart\u2019s Requiem<\/em> but better still was his May program with a fresh-as-paint Beethoven First Symphony and a soaring performance of Haydn\u2019s Mass in Time of War<\/em> in its belated CSO debut.<\/p>\n 6. Bach: Mass in B minor. Jeannette Sorrell\/Apollo\u2019s Fire<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Apollo\u2019s Fire gave a luminous account of the Bach Mass in B Minor at St. James Cathedral at the start of the Easter season, a highlight of the ensemble\u2019s five-year presence in Chicago. Music director Jeannette Sorrell led a performance imbued with spiritual grace and gravitas that had the full measure of Bach\u2019s transcendent statement of belief. (Tim Sawyier)<\/p>\n 7. Beethoven: Symphony No. 6; Bruch Scottish Fantasy<\/em>. Osmo V\u00e4nsk\u00e4\/Grant Park Orchestra with Paul Huang<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n 2025 was a transitional year at the Grant Park Music Festival with the lakefront summer series making a graceful segue from Carlos Kalmar to new principal conductor Giancarlo Guerrero who showed he is the real thing and worthy of the position.<\/p>\n Yet the finest lakefront evening this summer was provided by Osmo V\u00e4nsk\u00e4 in his belated Grant Park debut. The Finnish conductor led a fresh and vividly characterized account of Beethoven\u2019s \u201cPastorale\u201d symphony with delightful bird calls, vigorous dancing peasants and a finale of glowing beneficence. Violinist Paul Huang\u2019s solo playing in Max Bruch\u2019s Scottish Fantasy<\/em> on the first half ideally blended lyric poetry and virtuosic panache.<\/p>\n 8. Mahler: Symphony No. 6. Jaap van Zweden\/Chicago Symphony Orchestra<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n In prep performances for the CSO\u2019s spring European tour, Jaap van Zweden evinced little sympathy for Mahler\u2019s Seventh but was manifestly in synch with the bleak tragedy of the composer\u2019s Symphony No. 6. In a work he has enjoyed success with on previous occasions with the orchestra, van Sweden\u2019s May performance topped them all, a devastating experience with some of the CSO\u2019s most grippingly intense playing of the year.<\/p>\n 9. Ravel: Piano Concertos. Alice Sara Ott. Mikko Franck\/ Chicago Symphony Orchestra<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Alice Sara Ott provided the finest local tribute to Maurice Ravel in his 150th birthday year, tackling both of the French composer\u2019s piano concertos in a single evening with the CSO in September. The pianist showed herself a first-class Ravelian\u2014playing with lean power and limpid unsentimentality in the Concerto for Left Hand and unfolding the long-breathed solo in the Adagio of the G-Major Concerto with spare, unadorned simplicity.<\/p>\n 10. Music of Charles Ives. Mei-Ann Chen\/Chicago Sinfonietta<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The Chicago Sinfonietta deserves kudos for marking the 150th<\/sup> birthday of American great Charles Ives with their February tribute at Mandel Hall, more acknowledgement than the composer received from any other local organization in this anniversary season. Ives\u2019 Symphony No. 2 highlighted the thoughtful and informative program, with music director Mei-Ann Chen leading an accomplished rendition of a work almost bafflingly ahead of its time. (Tim Sawyier)<\/p>\n Honorable Mentions<\/strong><\/p>\n Klaus M\u00e4kel\u00e4 led a performance of Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019s Seventh Symphony<\/a> in May that put across the lean toughness of the outer movements, balancing the taut drama with Bohemian local color. Rarely will one hear Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019s gracious lyricism blossom so winningly as they did with the CSO woodwinds in this performance.<\/p>\n Music of the Baroque\u2019s 2025 highlights came, not insignificantly, with rarities, which were bolstered by excellent guest singers: the Nicholas Kraemer-led performance of Handel\u2019s oratorio Theodora<\/a><\/em> in March, and Gluck\u2019s Orfeo<\/a> <\/em>in September, conducted by Jane Glover.<\/p>\n Other musical highlights included Seong-Jin Cho<\/a>\u2019s staggering performance of Prokofiev\u2019s Second Piano Concerto with CSO; Jeremy Black<\/a> in the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and conductor Joseph Young<\/a>\u2019s Hanson Second Symphony, both with the Grant Park Orchestra. The sportive duo of Leonidas Kavakos & Daniil Trifonov<\/a> in music of Beethoven, Poulenc, Bartok and Brahms. And Jean-Yves Thibaudet<\/a>\u2019s lucid virtuosity in Debussy\u2019s complete Preludes in January.<\/p>\n Two opera highlights of 2025 came from Chicago\u2019s smaller companies in a pair of local premieres: Jacopo Peri\u2019s Euridice<\/a><\/em> in a collaboration by Haymarket Opera and Newberry Consort, and Chicago Opera Theater with Antonio Salieri\u2019s Falstaff.<\/a><\/em> (John von Rhein)<\/p>\n Reprise of a Rachmaninoff Rarity<\/strong><\/p>\n In his final season leading the Chicago Chorale, founder and\u00a0artistic director Bruce Tammen reprised Rachmaninoff\u2019s All-Night Vigil<\/a><\/em> in a moving and insightful performance.<\/p>\n Mahler First, Take 1<\/strong><\/p>\n Giancarlo Guerrero led the Grant Park Orchestra in Gustav Mahler\u2019s original version<\/a> of Symphony No. 1, offering a rare and fascinating opportunity to hear this cornerstone work with the inclusion of \u201cBlumine,\u201d the slow movement Mahler later excised.<\/p>\n Worst Opera<\/strong><\/p>\n No contest here. Missy Mazzoli\u2019s The Listeners<\/a>, <\/em>which opened at Lyric Opera in March, proved a turkey for the ages, with a potentially intriguing sci-fi-esque scenario undone by Lifetime Channel domestic cliches and a stupefyingly dumb libretto by the overrated Royce Vavrek.<\/p>\n Worst Government Decision (music division)<\/strong><\/p>\n Granted, the Chicago and Illinois politicians and judges who happily allow repeat violent criminals out on the streets to commit mayhem and worse is an issue of more immediate and pressing concern.\u00a0<\/p>\n But from a musical standpoint, one cannot beat the bozos at Chicago\u2019s Office of Emergency Management for peremptorily cancelling the final concert of the Grant Park Music Festival in August. The OEM made a clueless decision to call off the evening\u2019s repeat performance of Carmina Burana<\/a><\/em> way too early for a potential storm that never materialized. The skies were clear by concert time, leaving thousands of audience members disappointed and making an anti-climactic coda to Giancarlo Guerrero\u2019s first season at the helm.<\/p>\n Guys, the idea is to get the concert in<\/em>\u2014not to cancel it as early as possible so you can go home.<\/p>\n Best Advocacy for New Music\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n In its third iteration, the Ear Taxi Festival<\/a> offered a remarkable, even bewildering number of events in October: 507 musicians performing works by 210 composers<\/a> including 71 world premieres<\/a>. Kudos to festival leaders Tim Corpus, LaRob K. Rafael and Amy Wurtz for their efforts on behalf of new music in Chicago.<\/p>\n Best Premiere\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Apart from the Ear Taxi Festival, there weren\u2019t many world premieres to choose from in 2025 but Matthew Aucoin\u2019s Song of the Reappeared<\/a><\/em> with the CSO in December managed to be powerful, well-crafted, deeply felt, and of the moment.<\/p>\n Second Best Premiere\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n French composer Camille P\u00e9pin packed a lot into her Les Eaux c\u00e9lestes<\/a>, <\/em>a compelling nine-minute work where French impressionism meets early John Adams, given glowing and nimble advocacy by Mikko Franck and the CSO.<\/p>\n Best Singer Debut<\/strong><\/p>\n Lyric Opera showed evidence of returning to respectable life this fall with strong performances of Medea<\/a> <\/em>and Cav & Pag<\/em>, even though the former was let down by weak conducting and the double-bill by uneven casting.<\/p>\n The most striking element was the Chicago debut of SeokJong Baek in Mascagni\u2019s Cavalleria Rusticana<\/a><\/em>. The Korean tenor may not be the most compelling of actors but, as the doomed Turiddu, Baek cut loose with the kind of heroic tone and full-blooded vocalism one rarely hears these days, at least in Chicago.<\/p>\n A Wandering Violist\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Antoine Tamestit took the wandering title hero of Berlioz\u2019s Harold in Italy<\/a><\/em> literally in October. The French violist sauntered around the CSO musicians on stage while he performed as soloist in Berlioz\u2019s oddball quasi-concerto led by Klaus M\u00e4kel\u00e4\u2014a hybrid of concert music and theatrical presentation that worked surprisingly well.<\/p>\n A good autumn for autumnal Brahms<\/strong><\/p>\n Under guest conductors Phillipe Jordan and Petr Popelka, the CSO served up fresh and rewarding performances of Brahms\u2019 Second<\/a> and Third<\/a> symphonies, respectively.<\/p>\n Adieu Jay Friedman et al<\/strong><\/p>\n The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is going through a transitional era, not just on the podium but in the ensemble with many open positions that incoming Klaus M\u00e4kel\u00e4 has filled or will be tasked with doing so.<\/p>\n Among the CSO musicians departing in 2025 is trombonist Jay Friedman, who retired in August. A Chicago native, Friedman joined the CSO in 1962 as assistant principal trombone, appointed by Fritz Reiner. Three years later, Jean Martinon promoted him to principal trombone, a position in which he performed with remarkable consistency, rich sonority and musical distinction for 63 years.<\/p>\n Friedman soloed many times with the CSO including works by American composers such as Ernest Bloch\u2019s Symphony for Trombone and Orchestra and Paul Creston\u2019s Fantasy for Trombone and Orchestra In 1991, Friedman gave the world premiere of Ellen Taafe Zwilich\u2019s Trombone Concerto,\u00a0 a work written for him.<\/p>\n Friedman is also a conductor and he will continue to lead concerts with the Orchestra of Oak Park and River Forest, the west suburban ensemble where he has been music director for the past 30 years.<\/p>\n Other CSO musicians retiring this year were trumpet Mark Ridenour (31 seasons), violinist Joyce Noh (46 seasons), and harpist Lynne Turner (67 seasons).<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/chicagoclassicalreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/CSO20250608b_29.jpeg\")
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