New Friends at Ravinia

It’s been a week of new friends at Ravinia.

First, Feist, and artist who brought a crowd of folks not typically seen at Ravinia – probably more a Pitchfork or Lollapalooza crowd – and folks very welcome at Ravinia and who enjoyed the beauty, serenity, and, by the by, a terrific performance.

Then Bernard Haitink, in his long awaited Ravinia debut, warming up his powerful, searing Mahler 6 with the CSO for their tour together to Europe. The Ravinia crowd, having heard the Sixth last summer under Conlon as part of his Mahler cycle, was bowled over by Haitink’s interpretation and not at all concerned that he’d just done it downtown. Performances such as these, conductors such as Haitink, are few and far between and should be savored whenever they appear – and the weather gods, while predicting 95 degrees, dropped to a balmy 75 by concert time making for a gorgeous evening.

And then there is the Rach/Rock star, Denis Matsuev, blowing everyone away with a Rachmaninoff Third Concerto (exquisitely accompanied by Slatkin and the CSO) with the weather gods providing highly appropriate thunder and lightning topped only by Matsuev’s pyrotechnics. And then he provided a packed Martin Theater with rarities by the Russian master, a sizzling and intimate Second Sonata, and four encores by Russian Romantic giants – Rachmaninoff’s G Minor Prelude (also an encore at the CSO performance but this time captured for WFMT), Scriabin’s fiendishly difficult Op.8 no. 12 Etude, Liadov’s charming Music Box, and Ginsburg’s arrangement of Hall of the Mountain King by Grieg from Peer Gynt – fitting for a true king of the keyboard.

Welz Kauffman
President/CEO