Greetings and goodbyes were the themes: top 10 events and items of 2006

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(Free-Press-Release.com) December 25, 2006 -- 1. Daniel Barenboim's farewell: Whether one looks back at the last two seasons, the last few weeks or the last three special-ticket concerts of Barenboim's music directorship, it's clear that he and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra spun pure gold. That the precious metal came from an often divided orchestra in the midst of much backstage tension speaks volumes about Barenboim's abilities as a musical alchemist, as well as the sterling professionalism of the orchestra that he rebuilt and goaded in many ways.

2. The final shining of a great light: In two Symphony Center appearances in March, mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson demonstrated why she was at once one of the most highly respected and best-loved vocal artists of our day. In Mahler's Second Symphony with the CSO and conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, her hymn to celestial light transported her audience heavenward. In a touring performance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, she sang a new set of song settings of poet Pablo Neruda written for her by her husband, composer Peter Lieberson, with the skill of an interpreter who also knows the joys and pains of life on earth. Just over three months later, she was dead, at 52, of breast cancer. Just typing these words brings tears to the eyes.

3. The return of CSO and Lyric Opera radio broadcasts: After years of silence, Lyric Opera of Chicago is already back on the air with its opening nights and the CSO, which has announced ambitious plans for making recordings and using the Internet, will hit the antennae in March.

4. Chicago Opera Theater re-elects "Nixon": Leave it to our second company (in terms of size only) to present the decades-overdue Chicago premiere of one of the most significant and popular operas of recent time, John Adams' "Nixon in China." With brilliant conductor Alexander Platt in the pit, a top-level staging team and Chicago's own baritone Robert Orth in the title role, COT showed that it can do anything and gave performances that had composer Adams dropping his jaw with happy astonishment.

5. Top chamber programmer exits stage left: After seven remarkable years, Marna Seltzer, who arrived at Mandel Hall still in her early 30s, took leave of our top set of chamber series, the University of Chicago Presents. Seltzer built on her venue's distinguished history with her uncanny taste, questing spirit, and top-drawer management and marketing skills to present some of the great debuts and most riveting concerts and recitals Chicago has known in recent years.

6. 158 years to the rescue: After two years of a comprehensive international search for a new music director yielded no obvious single candidate, CSO management and musicians came up with an artistic leadership that seemed the stuff of fantasy. Two of the world's most esteemed maestros are taking charge at Orchestra Hall. Though they bear odd titles -- conductor emeritus and principal conductor, respectively -- Pierre Boulez, 81, and Bernard Haitink, 77, have a combined set of experiences and complementary areas of repertoire that mean the CSO is in the best possible hands however long the music director interregnum might last. Plus, Haitink was just named Musician of the Year by Musical America.

7. Three American divas and two divos: Countertenor supreme David Daniels made his stage role debut as Orfeo in Gluck's "Orfeo ed Euridice" at Lyric Opera. As stunning on stage as he is as a singer these were some of the great nights at Lyric. Another Gluck opera, "Iphigenie en Tauride," brought similarly definitive work from mezzo Susan Graham in the title role, and before you had time to blink, soprano Deborah Voigt made her long-awaited stage role debut in the title role there as "Salome." Not to be outdone, COT presented mezzo Susanne Mentzer, too long slighted by Lyric, as an unforgettable Dido in Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas." And Evanston-born tenor Matthew Polenzani had break-out performances that recalled the late Alfredo Kraus as Romeo in Lyric's recent stagings of Gounod's opera about the star-crossed lovers.

8. A quartet of soloists: Five visitors to Chicago this year stood out. Pianist Yefim Bronfman's Rachmaninoff Third with the CSO at Ravinia in July showed him as much a musician as he is a powerhouse. Pierre-Laurent Aimard's definitive performances of the late Gyorgy Ligeti's Piano Concerto with Boulez and the CSO at both Symphony Center and on tour at Carnegie Hall were superhuman. With his CSO debut at Symphony Center in Bartok's Second Violin Concerto, Leonidas Kavakos demonstrated what connoisseurs have known for several years: the Greek fiddler is one of the world's best. And the ageless Anja Silja made a long-awaited return to Chicago for a hair-raising performance in a concert version of Janacek's "Jenufa" with the CSO.

9. Grant Park, all summer long: Under Jim Palermo's artistic and general direction, the Grant Park Music Festival spread out and made itself fully at home in the Pritzker Pavilion and on the Great Lawn in Millennium Park. Crowds in the thousands came to hear the most eclectic and attractive programming of any American summer orchestral festival in one of the world's great new settings -- and all for free.

10. MusicNOW hellos and goodbyes: The CSO-sponsored series conceived and directed for years by Matias Tarnopolsky and Augusta Read Thomas entered new territory as Tarnopolsky departed for an artistic position with the New York Philharmonic and Thomas' Mead composer-in-residence post ended with the Barenboim era. Thomas bid farewell with a lovely chamber work featuring CSO principal players on a concert led by composer-conductor Oliver Knussen. The significantly less academic composers Marc Anthony Turnage and Osvaldo Golijov each occupy half of the "in residence" chair for the next two seasons offering much more tonal fare still expertly played.

Source: http://www.yahoo.com
POSTED BY ANDREW PATNER

daniel barenboim s farewell