Around the Music Festival

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has announced its performance lineup for the new 2022/2023 season. The new season is the last for Riccardo Muti, who turns 81 this July and has been music director since 2010. A candidate for the next music director is expected to be invited for the new season, and the lineup of guest conductors is expected to attract attention.

The new season opens and closes with Muti conducting, opening with Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 with Yefim Bronfman and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 2 “Little Russia”. The final concert as music director will be Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, featuring Erin Morley, Alisa Kolosova, Giovanni Sala and Ildar Abdrazakov.

Notable guest conductors include Christian Thielemann, Xian Zhang, Edward Gardner, Manfred Honeck, Dalia Stasevska, Marin Alsop, Lahav Shani, Klaus Mäkelä, Herbert Blomstedt, Osmo Vänskä, Thomas Wilkins, Bernard Labadie, Thomas Ades, Mikko Franckk, Fabian Gabel, Vladimir Jurowsky, Giovanni Antonini, David Afkham and Jakub Hrůša are among the faces.

In the US press surrounding the next music director, the names of Honeck, Alsop and Hrůša have so far been discussed among these. In the new season, Honeck will conduct Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 and other works. Alsop will conduct Julia Wolf’s ‘Her Story’, commissioned by the orchestra, and Hrůša will conduct Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 at the end of the season.

However, following the announcement, there has been a surge of speculation that newcomers Thielemann, Gardner, Shani, Mäkelä, Frank and Jurowsky will join the race.

Thielemann’s guest appearances are particularly noteworthy, as he has not conducted in the USA for almost 20 years. His first appearance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was his US orchestral debut, in 1993, when he took the podium in place of Klaus Tennstedt.

He is also stepping down as Music Director of the Bayreuth Festival at the end of 2020 and Chief Conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden at the end of the 2023/2024 season, which gives him more time than in the past. In the new season he will conduct Bruckner’s No. 8 Symphony.

Meanwhile, Jurowsky also made a well-received debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2010 and will conduct Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 in the new season.

He is currently Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera (2021-) and Music Director of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (2017-), but has a little time on his hands as he retires as Chief Conductor of the Svetlanov Memorial Russian State Symphony Orchestra in Russia in the 2020/2021 season.

Photo：NCPA　/　Chicago Symphony Orchestra　/　Todd Rosenberg


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