The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has left the Windy City (temporarily) for sunnier climes–and with winter still very much in the picture, who can blame them? The CSO’s California Tour kicked off this week, and it runs from February 13 through February 20. It’s not just a vacation from the midwest to be envied; it’s the CSO’s first appearance in Orange County in 25 years. Orchestras go on tour for various reasons, but it seems that this particular tour is one of celebration. This year marks Riccardo Muti’s second as Chicago’s music director, and it’s the first one to offer smooth sailing. His first season in Chicago was marred by stops and starts as his health interfered with his scheduled engagements and cast some shadows on the getting-to-know-you stage of his relationship with the orchestra. Despite these initial setbacks, however, Muti has had the very strongest support and enthusiasm from the CSO, a remarkable situation in the often-disgruntled world of orchestral musicians. In fact, the bond between Muti and his orchestra has been the stuff of magic since almost the very beginning of the relationship. The fruits of this bond have produced great changes in the orchestra, changes that the LA Times describes as an “artistic marriage between [Muti’s] Italianate warmth and the orchestra’s sinewy brilliance.” Perhaps the Maestro himself said it best: “Sometimes when you least expect it, the timing and the situation unite.”
It is this marriage that the CSO is seeking to showcase on their California tour. Muti has not conducted in Orange County since a guest stint in the 1980’s during which he conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Symphony hasn’t been to SoCal for two and a half decades. In a way, the California tour offers the new union between director and orchestra an opportunity to reintroduce themselves to old friends as a new item, and Muti’s programming is built to ensure that Californian concertgoers will see the very best of the relationship. The tour began with concerts on Tuesday and Wednesday in San Francisco. This weekend will take Muti and the CSO down the coast to Costa Mesa for a concert Friday at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. The California tour will conclude with concerts in Palm Desert and San Diego. While some people may contend that no visit to Souther California is complete without a trip to LA, Los Angeles is noticeably absent from the itinerary. Deborah Borda, president and CEO of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, offered this by way of explanation: “We are great fans of maestro Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and did in fact invite them to appear at Walt Disney Concert Hall. While our organizations enjoy close and excellent relations, as matters sometimes transpire, we were unable to come to a contractual agreement.”
Contractual disagreements aside, the tour will still feature ample opportunity for Californian audiences to see the excitement that Muti and the CSO bring to the table together. Symphonies by César Franck and Franz Schubert will anchor the programs, but Muti is also putting great emphasis on CSO resident composers Mason Bates and Anna Clyne. The works on the tour were premiered at Chicago’s Symphony Center earlier in the month, and Muti is eager to expound upon their importance to the tour: “They are big, important works, each completely different from the other….It’s essential to take new works on tour because we, as a great orchestra, have an obligation to show the public the latest fruits of young, serious, talented composers who are trying to make new creative paths.”
Muti’s approach has certainly been working wonders in Chicago. The CSO Association reported record fundraising and solid ticket sales for fiscal 2011, with the main subscription series finishing at 84% paid capacity sold. Chicago’s paying concertgoers have not been Muti’s only targets: before Muti took the orchestra to California, he first embarked on a mission to take music to the disparate neighborhoods of his adopted city. In this mission he is joined by superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and the pair are taking music to the streets in unprecedented ways as part of their Citizen Musician initiative. The goal behind the initiative is to lead symphony musicians to share their gifts and their music to enrich the lives of others in new ways.
The Maestro himself is participating: he has recently made recurring visits to a center for incarcerated women in the Chicago suburb of Warrenville, where he plays the piano and speaks with the young women who are serving time there. He says, “I think [the residents] have a beautiful future ahead of them, as long as we insist on bringing this kind of music and culture to them….As long as we keep pushing them in the right direction.”
No matter the location, things seem to be moving in the right direction for Muti and his orchestra. As they continue on their California tour, both parties will continue to push their musical audiences in the right direction in celebration of the new relationship here in Chicago. If the serendipitous pattern of previous events is to be trusted, both the Maestro and the orchestra will take away exciting new ideas from the sun, sea, and time together with friends. Hopefully this honeymoon will continue for some time!
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