CSO revises remainder of series program due to absence of Riccardo Muti

With maestro Riccardo Muti sidelined due to a positive COVID test result on Monday, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on Tuesday announced a revised program for its remaining concert dates this week.

Lina González-Granados, the CSO’s Solti Conducting Apprentice and a Muti protege, will be making her CSO debut conducting Rossini’s overture to “The Barber of Seville” and Mozart’s Overture to “Don Giovanni” in concerts April 7, 8, 9 and 11 at Symphony Center.

Soloist Leif Ove Andsnes, who was already scheduled to perform, will conduct the orchestra from the piano in two Mozart concertos, a familiar and often standard performance practice for the works. Scheduled are Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466, and Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 488. He will also perform the composer’s solo piano work, Rondo in D Major, K. 485.

González-Granados “has distinguished herself as a skilled interpreter of opera and orchestral music” and is the winner of the 2019 CSO Sir Georg Solti Conducting Competition, according to Tuesday’s announcement. She also currently serves as the Conducting Fellow of the Philadelphia Orchestra, as well as artistic director of the Unitas Ensemble chamber orchestra, which she founded to promote and perform the works of Latin-American composers. Upcoming she will be preparing the Festival Orchestra for the Chicago Youth in Music Festival and summit running April 9-11, during which student musicians will be performing in an open rehearsal with members of the CSO, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and the Chicago Sinfonietta’s Project Inclusion.

It has been a rare occasion that Muti has had to withdraw from performances in Chicago; the most recent prior to Monday was in 2016, when he missed a series of concerts following hip surgery.

Tickets for the originally scheduled concerts/programs will be honored; or patrons can exchange their tickets for an alternate date later this season. Refunds for the affected performance dates are also available. For information, or to purchase tickets for the concerts, visit cso.org.

© Helge Hansen/Sony Music Entertainment