Sondergard Conducts Sibelius, Tchaikovsky & Rachmaninov
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra welcomes world renowned Danish conductor Thomas Sondergard to wield the baton during a soul-stirring program of dynamic works by Sibelius, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov. The evening kicks off with selections from Sibelius' King Christian II Suite, incidental music written for a play by Swedish playwright Adolf Paul about the love between the King of Denmark and a common Dutch girl. Its lyricism and sweeping melodies burst with the sense of nationalistic pride and joy that was sweeping the composer's homeland during the late 1800s.
Ukrainian-Australian piano superstar Alexander Gavrylyuk will then join the ensemble for his CSO debut during Tchaikovsky's thunderously triumphant Piano Concerto No. 1, a work revered for its soulful melodies and soaring interplay between soloist and orchestra. The program comes to a close with Rachmaninov's Symphony No. 1, an epic and ambitious work that was not well received upon its debut in 1897, but it was later a grand success that proves to still be popular amongst modern listeners. Get lost in the reveries of its swirling thematic motifs and dramatic life-and-death struggle of its monumental finale.