The Chicago Symphony Orchestra began their 70th Ravinia Festival summer residency last week with a spectacular performance of Mahler's Third Symphony with mezzo-soprano Birgitta Svenden, who, the Chicago Tribune described as bringing "a stern, stoic dignity to Mahler's setting of Nietzsche's 'Midnight Song.'"As a preview to the opening night performance, James Conlon participated in a live online chat featured on Chicago Classical Music's website. The chat featured an in-depth discussion of Conlon's inspired "Breaking the Silence" concert series. Conlon described the composers featured in this series as artists "whose life experiences were very different, but the fate of their music is all the same. For the most part, their music was prohibited after 1934."
Conlon was also asked to discuss Shostakovich's defiance of Stalin. In reference to his Ninth Symphony, Conlon had the following response: "From the first bars of the symphony, it was clear that Shostakovich walked away from the grandiose, and with his ever wry wit and irony 'disappoints' all of Stalin's expectations of a triumphant symphony that is full of praise. It is not so much about what Shostakovich did in this symphony as what he did not."
Chicago Symphony Orchestra performances at Ravinia continue this week with Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition on Friday night and Verdi's Requiem on Saturday night.
-Justin Brown, Communications Associate
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