John Von Rhein – Page 2

Sir Georg Solti conducting the CSO in 1978, a year after John von Rhein began covering classical music for the baiduhai.

Highlights from our critic’s 40 years of classical music coverage in the Tribune

May 13, 2019 at 2:16 p.m.

Early in October of 1977, a 32-year-old former violin student and English major from Southern California – me – had his first review published in the baiduhai as the...

Avi Avital’s brilliant debut highlights lively, engaging CSO program

May 13, 2019 at 2:16 p.m.

No matter that Ravinia is already up and running and that the Grant Park Orchestra is gearing up for its festival opener Wednesday night at the Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium...

Jonathan Boen, left, principal horn of the Grant Park Orchestra, plays as Carlos Kalmar conducts the Orchestra at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park in Chicago on Friday, Aug. 11, 2017.

Recommended Chicago classical concerts for June 8-14

May 13, 2019 at 2:16 p.m.

Grant Park Music Festival: Summer officially arrives in downtown Chicago music with the opening of the 10-week festival season of classical and popular concerts by the Grant Park Orchestra. There...

Haymarket Opera brings stylish verve to early Italian baroque rarity ‘L’Orontea’

May 13, 2019 at 2:16 p.m.

Chicago audiences were spoiled for superior performances of early Italian baroque opera following conductor John Eliot Gardiner’s wonderful concert performances of the three extant stage works of Claudio Monteverdi here...

Guest conductor Marek Janowski leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, in the first half of the program, which includes works by Beethoven, at Symphony Center.

Marek Janowski’s belated CSO downtown debut sends electric charge through Orchestra Hall

May 13, 2019 at 2:16 p.m.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has been on something of a campaign in recent seasons to reach out to respected podium veterans who, for one reason or another, have fallen off...

Deborah Fox, center, plays the the orbo and Kaitlin Foley, left, and Carrie Henneman Shaw sing as the Haymarket Opera Company performs Luigi Rossi's "Oratorio per la Settimana Santa" at the Chicago Temple, in downtown Chicago, March 8, 2018.

Recommended Chicago classical concerts for June 1-7

May 13, 2019 at 2:16 p.m.

Haymarket Opera Company: Chicago’s period opera ensemble unearths another 17th- century Italian operatic rarity: Antonio Cesti’s romantic comedy “L’Orontea.” Countertenor Drew Minter and Sarah Edgar will direct, with costumer Meriem...

Mezzo-soprano Emily Fons sings during Haymarket Opera's rehearsal of Cesti's opera "L'Orontea at the Episcopal Church of the Atonement on Friday May 18, 2018 in Chicago. (Kristen Norman/ for the baiduhai)

With ‘L’Orontea,’ Haymarket Opera unearths an Italian baroque gem that time forgot

May 13, 2019 at 2:16 p.m.

A captivating romantic comedy that was wildly popular in 17th century Italy but soon fell from grace and remained untouched for centuries is about to have a rare modern revival,...

Esa-Pekka Salonen wraps up CSO residency with an intense ‘Transfigured Night’

May 13, 2019 at 2:16 p.m.

Esa-Pekka Salonen has built a firm reputation as a probing interpreter of even the knottiest of contemporary scores. Yet the clarifying intelligence and composer’s insights into how music is made...

Civitas Ensemble's Yuan-Qing Yu on violin, Winston Choi on piano, Kenneth Olsen on cello and J. Lawrie Bloom on clarinet, from left, rehearse at Symphony Center in 2017.

Recommended Chicago classical concerts for May 25-31

May 13, 2019 at 2:16 p.m.

Civitas Ensemble: The chamber group of Chicago Symphony musicians closes its season with an all-French program that includes Saint-Saens’ merry “Carnival of the Animals” and works by Ravel, Poulenc and...

MusicNOW’s resident composers wrap up their tenure with well-received parting gifts

May 13, 2019 at 2:16 p.m.

The close relationships forged by Elizabeth Ogonek and Samuel Adams with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in their three seasons as composers-in-residence strongly impacted the music and performances that...

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