Riccardo Muti, CSO breathe marvelous new life into familiar repertoire

Music Director Riccardo Muti’s first four Chicago Symphony Orchestra programs of 2019-20 all included at least one rarity or premiere. But Thursday evening’s concert line-up fell entirely within the so-called standard repertoire — familiar works that are regularly presented.

The secret to performing such fare is to infuse it with freshness and vibrancy and make it come off as anything but routine, however “standard” it might be. And that’s exactly what Muti and the orchestra did.

The program focused on works written in a five-decade span by three famed 19-century German composers whose lives overlapped in fascinating ways: a close friendship between Johannes Brahms and Robert Schumann and, a famed if often-complicated, philosophical divide between those two and Richard Wagner.

The evening’s centerpiece was Brahms’ Concerto for Violin and Cello in A minor, Op. 102, “Double,” a masterwork written 10 years before his death in 1897. Meant as an olive branch to famed violinist Joseph Joachim, from whom the composer had become estranged, it is the first work for written for this combination.

More in the vein of a baroque concerto grosso, it shows off the two solo instruments but it is not a showpiece in the manner of many flashy concertos. Instead, this work has a kind of enlarged chamber-music sensibility, with the soloists in close dialogue with each other and the orchestra.

Anne Ryan

Instead of engaging guest soloists for the central roles, as is often the case, the orchestra turned to two its own members — associate concertmaster Stephanie Jeong and assistant principal cellist Kenneth Olsen.

Handling the concerto’s not inconsiderable technical challenges with aplomb and meshing nicely together, the two seemed right at home front and center, especially Olsen. Considering he is primarily an ensemble player, the cellist displayed a surprising soloistic flair, especially in the long first movement.

The cello is the concerto’s dominant solo instrument, and Olsen capitalized on the opportunity, displaying a sure, resonant, amber tone and performing with compelling expressiveness and a seemingly unflappable self-assuredness.

He was well-matched by Jeong, who also proved herself to be a first-class musician and no slouch as a soloist. She was her thoughtful, convincing best in the slow, at times dreamy second movement.

Muti adroitly backed and framed the two hometown soloists, effectively evoking the elusive, reserved quality of this music — its kind of understated romantic fervency. Perhaps most notably, he conveyed the scope and depth of the big, arching first movement, with all its changing moods and emotions.

The conductor opened the evening with a forceful, full-bodied take on the Overture to Richard Wagner’s opera, “The Flying Dutchman,” a measured, well-scaled version that captured the complex emotions of this music, which is alternately forlorn and noble, intimate and expansive.

The piece was an ideal showcase for the Chicago Symphony’s brass, which sounded in excellent form, especially the French horn section, which has been reinforced and reinvigorated with the recent arrival of David Cooper as principal.

The evening ended with the Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 97, “Rhenish,” Schumann’s ode to the Rhine River. It premiered in 1851 — three years before the composer was tragically committed to a private asylum.

Muti brought an appropriately light, nuanced approach to this work, which can too easily be smothered with too heavy a hand. After the flowing grandeur of the first movement, Muti and the orchestra brought a suitably airy, genial touch to the scherzo second movement and due gentleness to the third. The turned-in, suspended emotions of the fourth movement, which the composer marked as “Solemn,” led to a jaunty conclusion.

Before the second half began, Jeff Alexander, president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association, and Muti presented the Theodore Thomas Medallion for Distinguished Service to three recently retired ensemble members — violist John Bartholomew, bassist Roger Cline and violist Daniel Orbach.

Following repetitions of this program, Muti and the orchestra travel to New York for Nov. 15-16 concerts in Carnegie Hall.

Kyle MacMillan is a local freelance writer.