Sunday Afternoons

Christian Reif, conductor

Clara-Jumi Kang, violin

The 1913 premiere of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring was perhaps the most famous opening-night scandal in history. Confronted with its primal and untamed nature, its first audience was ignited into a riot, instantly cementing its reputation as a work that, to this day, triggers visceral responses. Conductor Christian Reif sets the stage for our wild encounter with a light and airy dance by Manuel de Falla and violinist Clara-Jumi Kang, bringing her poise to Prokofiev's second violin concerto.

Dalia Stasevska, conductor
Davóne Tines, bass-baritone

Dalia Stasevska returns to lead a Thanksgiving weekend of music that calls us home. Music drawn from the American heartland opens the program, with the beloved “Goin’ Home” theme from Dvořák’s New World Symphony, George Walker’s Lyric for Strings, and bass-baritone Davóne Tines performing Saariaho’s True Fire, a work based on Native American texts, Emerson’s Spiritual Laws, and other texts, collaged together by Aleksi Barrière. Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony provides a finale of sweeping and grand themes, evoking the spirit of Stasevska's own Finnish homeland.

Dame Jane Glover, conductor
Christopher Pell, clarinet

Dame Jane Glover is widely regarded as a preeminent conductor of Mozart’s music. She leads an “all-Amadeus” program, showcasing CSO Principal Clarinetist Christopher Pell in Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A Major. His performance is folded between works illustrating Mozart’s evolution of the symphony from the lighter style of early composers such as Haydn to the more emotionally-infused music of Beethoven.

Matthias Pintscher, conductor

Conrad Tao, piano

As the winter winds quell and the flowers of spring begin to blossom, CSO Creative Partner Matthias Pintscher conducts the Orchestra in works capturing the feeling of life beginning anew. Copland’s Appalachian Spring shines with the “Simple Gifts” of the season. After wowing CSO audiences in 2021 and 2022, pianist Conrad Tao returns for Mozart’s intimate and reflective Concerto No. 24 in C Minor. Then, Schumann’s Symphony No. 1 triumphantly ushers in the Spring season.

Sir Mark Elder, conductor

Pavel Kolesnikov, piano
Stefani Matsuo, violin

Stories of glory, chivalry and adventure abound as conductor Sir Mark Elder joins the CSO. Wagner’s Tannhäuser is a musical story of lust, love, and deliverance, as the opera’s title character makes a pilgrimage from the magical realm of Venus to his final redemption in Rome. Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben is an epic portrayal of the hero that exists in all of us, along with the accompanying joys and struggles, depicted through battling brass and tender string melodies. Pianist Pavel Kolesnikov brings his “fluid, fine-toned” (Gramophone) playing to Mozart’s melodic Piano Concerto No. 17.

Daniel Wiley, conductor

Augustin Hadelich, violin

Schoenberg's music, before he became known as a father of 20th-century 12-tone composition, developed from the harmonic bedrock of Romantics like Brahms, Mahler and Richard Strauss. His "Transfigured Night" was further heightened when Schoenberg met the love of his life and found inspiration in poetry of hope and acceptance. Led by Louis Langrée, the CSO performs this, along with Brahms' Violin Concerto, which features the return of Grammy-winning violinist Augustin Hadelich, and a co-commission from former CSO Composer-in-Residence Jonathan Bailey Holland.

Please note: Music Director Louis Langrée has suffered an injury due to a fall yesterday and will not be conducting the APR 21 CSO program, Hadelich & Holland. Assistant Conductor Daniel Wiley will step in to lead the Orchestra in his CSO debut. The pre-concert talk with Wiley has been cancelled to accommodate for the conductor change. The program will remain intact.

Louis Langrée, conductor
Latonia Moore, soprano

In his final program as Music Director, Louis Langrée and the CSO share the stage one more time for a performance that will pay tribute to highlights of their time together over the past 11 years. Grammy Award-winning soprano Latonia Moore will join the CSO for the world premiere of a new orchestral song cycle by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis, whose piece You Have the Right to Remain Silent profoundly impacted Louis and left a poignant impression on livestream viewers at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The program also includes Ravel’s mythical and airy Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2, a work that Louis and the Orchestra performed on tour in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai in 2017; Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 2, which was last performed in 2015 as part of that season’s One City, One Symphony initiative; and Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which was a part of an all-French program that opened the Orchestra’s 2018-19 season at the newly renovated Music Hall.

Expect moving music and memories, celebrating the final performances of the CSO’s beloved Music Director.