John Von Rhein – Page 14

Schiff moves with conviction from piano bench to CSO podium

May 13, 2019 at 2:13 p.m.

We know the insightful Hungarian pianist Andras Schiff to be a man of firm political convictions. The son of Holocaust survivors, in 2011 he declared his opposition to political developments...

Nick Cave has been singing about mortality for decades, and he's really good at it. Whether the narratives are biblical or pulpy, the victims innocents or death row convicts, the circumstances comprehensible or cruelly random, Cave's songs are on intimate terms with the infinite ways a life can be extinguished. And yet, "Skeleton Tree", his latest album with his estimable band, the Bad Seeds, is a relatively concise song cycle shadowed by death that feels different than all the rest. <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/kot/sc-music-nick-cave-skeleton-tree-ent-0916-20160916-column.html" target="_blank">Read the full review.</a>

Stage tricks sometimes misfire in Lyric’s musically strong new ‘Walkure’

May 13, 2019 at 2:13 p.m.

Welcome to the grandest of all dysfunctional-family dramas. With Richard Wagner's "Die Walkure" ("The Valkyrie") we move from the fairy tale realm of gods, giants and dwarfs in "Das Rheingold"...

Singers Christine Goerke and Eric Owens play Brunnhilde and Wotan during a dress rehearsal Saturday, Oct. 28, 2017 of Wagner's "Die Walkure" at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Recommended Chicago-area classical concerts

May 13, 2019 at 2:13 p.m.

Chicago Opera Theater: The season opens with a new production by departing general director Andreas Mitisek of Gian Carlo Menotti’s timely and chilling Pulitzer Prize-winning music drama “The Consul,” starring...

Chicago Symphony Orchestra conductor Riccardo Muti, during a May 2017 performance.

CSO in solid shape despite seventh consecutive deficit

May 13, 2019 at 2:13 p.m.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association posted an operating deficit of $1.4 million for fiscal 2017, its seventh consecutive deficit in as many years. The shortfall was slightly higher than the...

How the Lyric Opera plans to take on 5 hours of Wagner’s epic ‘Die Walkure’

May 13, 2019 at 2:13 p.m.

The grand adventure continues. On Wednesday, Lyric Opera of Chicago will open a new production of “Die Walkure” (“The Valkyrie”), the second installment of David Pountney’s staging of Richard Wagner’s...

Yekwon Sunwoo performs at Northwestern University's Mary B. Galvin Recital Hall in Evanston on Oct. 27, 2017. He displayed a remarkably mature musicality.

Cliburn medalist Yekwon Sunwoo makes impressive area recital debut at NU

May 13, 2019 at 2:13 p.m.

With ritual solemnity, the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, the world’s biggest in terms of visibility and prizes, unfolds every four years in Fort Worth, Texas, where its famous namesake...

James Gaffigan conducts members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a performance from Oct. 6, 2016.

Review: CSO salutes Bernstein, soars in Barber and revels in Rachmaninov

May 13, 2019 at 2:13 p.m.

The 2018 centennial of Leonard Bernstein’s birth won’t officially arrive until August, but already orchestras worldwide are donning their party hats. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is doing its bit this...

Soprano Christine Goerke will take part in the Chicago Humanities Festival.

Recommended Chicago-area classical concerts

May 13, 2019 at 2:13 p.m.

Chicago Humanities Festival: Soprano Christine Goerke (Brunnhilde in Lyric Opera’s “Die Walkure”) discusses her life in music with Colin Ure and Roger Pines; 6 p.m. Sunday, First United Methodist Church...

Tenor Nicholas Phan, during a September 2017 recital in Chicago.

Lincoln Center chamber society, Bella Voce off to strong season starts

May 13, 2019 at 2:13 p.m.

Although not planned that way, music by Leonard Bernstein and Samuel Barber occupies a prominent place in concerts given by both the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the...

Arditti Quartet launches Ligeti series with wondrous, strange sounds

May 13, 2019 at 2:13 p.m.

One of the most interesting aspects of the valuable series devoted to the music of Gyorgy Ligeti that University of Chicago Presents is producing this season will be tracing the...

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