Program Book - Honeck Conducts Mozart Requiem

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ONE H U N DR ED T HI RT Y- FIFTH S EAS ON

CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

KLAUS MÄKELÄ Zell Music Director Designate | RICCARDO MUTI Music Director Emeritus for Life

Thursday, November 20, 2025, at 7:30 Friday, November 21, 2025, at 7:30 Saturday, November 22, 2025, at 7:30 Sunday, November 23, 2025, at 3:00

Manfred Honeck Conductor Jeanine De Bique Soprano Avery Amereau Mezzo-soprano Ben Bliss Tenor Stephano Park Bass Chicago Symphony Chorus Donald Palumbo Director BEETHOVEN

Coriolan Overture, Op. 62

HAYDN

Symphony No. 93 in D Major Adagio—Allegro assai Largo cantabile Menuetto: Allegro Finale: Presto ma non troppo

INTERMISSION

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These performances present Mozart’s Requiem in the context of a funeral liturgy in a program conceived

by Manfred Honeck.

Three Bell Strokes Gregorian Chant: Requiem aeternam MOZART

Masonic Funeral Music, K. 477 Gregorian Chant: Domine, exaudi orationem meam

MOZART Laudate Dominum from Vesperae solennes de confessore, K. 339

Gregorian Chant: In quacumque die MOZART

Requiem in D Minor, K. 626 Introitus Requiem Kyrie Sequenz Dies irae Tuba mirum Rex tremendae Recordare Confutatis Lacrimosa

Gregorian Chant: Christus factus est MOZART

Requiem in D Minor, K. 626

MOZART

Ave verum corpus, K. 618

Offertorium Domine Jesu Hostias Lacrimosa fragment

Three Bell Strokes JEANINE DE BIQUE AV E R Y A M E R E A U BEN BLISS S T E P H A N O PA R K C H I C A G O SY M P H O N Y C H O R U S Please refrain from applause between individual pieces.

The appearance of the Chicago Symphony Chorus has been made possible by a generous gift from The Grainger Foundation.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council.

Newsradio 105.9 WBBM is a Media Partner for this event.

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COMMENTS by Phillip Huscher LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

COMPOSED

Born December 16, 1770; Bonn, Germany Died March 26, 1827; Vienna, Austria

1807

FIRST PERFORMANCE

Coriolan Overture, Op. 62

March 1807; Vienna, Austria

As Richard Wagner said, Beethoven might as well have written this overture for Shakespeare’s tragedy Coriolanus as for the play by Heinrich von Collin. Unlike Wagner and most concertgoers today, Beethoven knew both plays. He admired and loved Shakespeare enormously. But Collin was a friend of his, and his Coriolan had enjoyed considerable popularity in the years immediately following its first performance in 1802. Beethoven was inspired, either by friendship or theater, to put something of the story into music.

Beethoven didn’t write his overture for a theatrical performance; he was writing for an audience that probably knew Collin’s play but was not attending an actual production. The first performance was given at one of two concerts at the palace of Prince Lobkowitz, where it was overshadowed by the premieres of the more genial Fourth Symphony and the Fourth Piano Concerto. The overture and the play were united just once in Beethoven’s lifetime, in April 1807, at the Burgtheater in Vienna, apparently without success.

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he Coriolan Overture is terse and strongly knit; it is as compact as anything Beethoven had written at the time.

Beethoven finds enormous power in C minor, his favorite minor key. (Sketches for his Fifth Symphony, in the same key, were already well advanced by then.) As in his Leonore Overture no. 3, finished the year before, he understood how to manipulate the outlines of sonata form to accommodate human drama.

(Here, only the second theme appears in the recapitulation.)

Wagner described Beethoven’s overture as a musical counterpart to the turning point in Shakespeare’s Coriolanus. Many listeners have heard, in its tightly worded argument, the conflict between Coriolanus, the exiled leader who marches against his own people, and his mother Volumnia, who pleads for mercy

I N S T R U M E N TAT I O N

2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings A P P R OX I M AT E PERFORMANCE TIME

8 minutes

FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES

February 12 and 13, 1892, Auditorium Theatre. Theodore Thomas conducting July 4, 1936, Ravinia Festival.

Ernest Ansermet conducting MOST RECENT CSO PERFORMANCES

July 14, 1979, Ravinia Festival.

James Levine conducting January 13 and 15, 2022, Orchestra Hall. Riccardo Muti conducting March 2, 2023; Frances Pew Hayes Hall, Artis–Naples, Naples, Florida.

Riccardo Muti conducting CSO RECORDINGS

1958. Fritz Reiner conducting.

CSO (From the Archives, vol. 17: Beethoven) 1959. Fritz Reiner conducting. RCA 1974. Sir Georg Solti conducting.

London

f r o m t o p : Ludwig van Beethoven, miniature, oil on ivory, by Danish artist Christian Horneman (1765–1844), 1803. Bodmer Collection, Beethoven-Haus Bonn, Germany | Playwright Heinrich von Collin (1771–1811), oil portrait by Joseph Lange (1751–1831), ca. 1810. The Vienna Museum Collection

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until her son finally yields. The main themes readily lend themselves to this reading—the first fierce and determined, the second earnest and imploring. In the play, Coriolanus commits suicide; Beethoven’s music disintegrates at the end.

Beethoven surely identified with Coriolanus’s lonely pride, for it marked every day of his own life. And, although his tough public image and brilliantly triumphant music argue otherwise, we now know that he, too, fought recurring suicidal tendencies and that death was regularly on his mind.

JOSEPH HAYDN Born March 31, 1732; Rohrau, Lower Austria Died May 31, 1809; Vienna, Austria

Symphony No. 93 in D Major In 1790, when he heard the news that Joseph Haydn’s longtime patron Nikolaus Esterházy had died, the impresario Johann Peter Salomon promptly went to Vienna to make the best business deal of his career.

He showed up, unannounced, at Haydn’s door and said, “I am Salomon from London and have come to fetch you. Tomorrow we shall make an accord ”—that final pun (in French accord means both “agreement” and “chord”) no doubt winning him critical points with the composer before negotiations had even begun.

Haydn had turned down offers to appear in England before, but now that he was free (and unemployed) he was more easily persuaded to visit this foreign country where his music had long been popular. (Haydn’s name was introduced to London audiences in 1765, inadvertently mangled as “Haydri,” when six of his string quartets were performed.) When Mozart, his only equal among composers, asked him how he would get along in a place where he didn’t even speak the language, Haydn replied, “Ah, my language is understood all over the world.” Mozart died within the year; the two composers had said goodbye before

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COMPOSED

1791

FIRST PERFORMANCE

February 17, 1792; London, England.

The composer conducting I N S T R U M E N TAT I O N

2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings A P P R OX I M AT E PERFORMANCE TIME

22 minutes

FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES

January 8 and 9, 1953, Orchestra Hall. Guido Cantelli conducting MOST RECENT CSO PERFORMANCES

December 11, 12, 13, and 16, 2014, Orchestra Hall. Manfred Honeck conducting

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Haydn left Vienna for London, not knowing it was the last time they would see each other.

Haydn had agreed to compose six new symphonies for his London visit—two for the 1791 season and four more for the following year. The D major symphony performed at this week’s concerts is the one we think of as the first of the now-famous London Symphonies—the initial work in what turned out to be a set of twelve scores (nos. 93–104) that are among the crowning achievements of the classical era.

But the chronology of Haydn’s symphonies is messy, and the ones we now know as nos. 95 and 96 were actually the first ones he unveiled, shortly after he arrived on New Year’s Day 1791.

Three more followed early in 1792, beginning in February with no. 93—some two months after Mozart’s death—and continuing with nos. 98 and 94 in March.

Symphony no. 93 was even more popular with the British public than the two symphonies Haydn had premiered the previous year. The Times, which had ignored Haydn’s debut in the city, now raved: “Such a combination of excellence was contained in every movement, as inspired all the performers as well as the audience with enthusiastic ardour.” The D major symphony, like the other symphonies of 1792, suggests that Haydn had taken stock of his London public and was now writing music to satisfy their tastes, challenge their expectations, and even shock them.

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his D major symphony is a richer and more complex work than the one in the same key (no. 96) written for London scarcely a year earlier. The Oracle pronounced it “at once

grand, scientific, charming, and original.” The opening movement, with its signature slow introduction—characteristic of all but one of the twelve London Symphonies—is particularly impressive, and Haydn proves his originality in the first minute, when he suddenly shifts from D major to the remote harmonies of E-flat major. The main body of the movement is a genial Allegro, featuring a big, showy development section that exhibits both science and charm.

The slow second movement begins unexpectedly with music scored for a solo string quartet that plays just once and never reappears and later boasts one of Haydn’s most delightfully rude and perfectly timed jokes, courtesy of the bassoon, that is nearly as startling as the famous surprise that gave symphony no. 94 its nickname.

Haydn’s diary tells us that, at the second performance, both the first and second movements were “encort.”

The colorful minuet is offset by a trio that alternates loud fanfares and quiet responses to captivating effect. The finale is full of energy and unflagging imagination, right up to the theatrics of its noisy conclusion—an effect not lost on Beethoven in his own D major symphony written eleven years later.

o p p o s i t e pa g e , f r o m t o p : Volumnia pleading with Coriolanus not to destroy Rome. Painting in oil by English artist Richard Westall (1765–1836), 1800. Folger Shakespeare Library Collection, Washington, D.C. | Joseph Haydn, oil portrait by Thomas Hardy (1757–ca. 1805), 1791. Royal College of Music Museum of Instruments, London, England | t h i s pa g e : The Hanover Square Rooms in London, where Haydn gave his first series of concerts in 1791, including his Symphony no. 93 in D major, among many other works.

Engraving by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd (1793–1864), ca. 1830. Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images | n e x t pa g e : Wolfgang Mozart, posthumous oil portrait, 1819, by Barbara Krafft (1764–1825) working from portraits owned and shown to her by Mozart’s sister, Maria Anna (Nannerl, 1751–1829), at the request of Joseph Sonnleithner (1766–1835) for his portrait collection of well-known composers. Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde Collection, Vienna, Austria

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WOLFGANG MOZART Born January 27, 1756; Salzburg, Austria Died December 5, 1791; Vienna, Austria

MOZART’S REQUIEM: MUSIC OF DEATH AND HOPE The Requiem is Mozart’s last, unfinished composition.

It is one of the greatest and most mysterious torsos in Western art, and over the years it has become the subject of much dramatic speculation. This week’s performances, however, take us back to Mozart’s time—bringing us as close as we can get to what he left us. Manfred Honeck has devised a way of presenting Mozart’s Requiem in the context of a funeral liturgy, something like the mass that was celebrated after the composer’s death, by performing only the portions of the Requiem that are preserved in his hand and interspersing them with the tolling of bells, passages of Gregorian chant, and other Mozart works that deepen our understanding of the mystery of death and the idea of an afterlife.

Because Mozart died so young while working on a mass for the dead, this music long ago began to attract an unfair, though inevitable, amount of myth and popular drama. And because the Requiem was completed in relative secrecy after the composer’s death and presented as Mozart’s own, separating fact from fiction is complicated.

The stories invented by any number of writers

over the years, from Alexander Pushkin in the nineteenth century to Peter Shaffer, whose Amadeus made Mozart king of the Cineplex in the 1980s—and turned Antonio Salieri into one of drama’s greatest villains—have become nearly as famous and beloved as the music itself. (Shaffer’s brilliant play, directed by Robert Falls, is currently running through January 11 at Steppenwolf Theatre.)

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few facts. There was a messenger, apparently dressed in gray, who appeared at Mozart’s door. This must have been sometime during the summer of 1791, Mozart’s last. He came on behalf of his anonymous master, inquiring if Mozart would write a requiem mass, and if so, how long he would need and what fee he would accept. Although no single event in Mozart’s life has been dissected as carefully as this one, we still are not certain of the details of the verbal contract negotiated that day. Mozart did agree to the commission and probably accepted a fee of fifty ducats, half payable in advance. Apparently, the messenger did warn Mozart to respect the secrecy of his patron.

Mozart was a busy man in 1791. He went to Prague in late August, accompanied by his wife Constanze and his pupil Franz Xaver Süssmayr,

Masonic Funeral Music, K. 477 COMPOSED

July 1785

FIRST PERFORMANCE

November 17, 1785; Vienna, Austria.

The composer conducting I N S T R U M E N TAT I O N

2 oboes, clarinet, 3 basset horns, contrabassoon, 2 horns, strings

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A P P R OX I M AT E PERFORMANCE TIME

7 minutes

FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES

October 19 and 20, 1950, Orchestra Hall. Rafael Kubelík conducting

MOST RECENT CSO PERFORMANCES

November 10, 11, and 12, 2016, Orchestra Hall. Jaap van Zweden conducting CSO RECORDING

1980. Rafael Kubelík conducting.

CSO (From the Archives, vol. 16: A Tribute to Rafael Kubelík II)

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to prepare for the premiere of La clemenza di Tito. (He wrote much of the score in the coach.)

He returned to Vienna immediately after the premiere on September 6 to finish The Magic Flute, which he conducted on September 30 at the Theater auf der Wieden. Antonio Salieri appears just once in this story, on October 13, when Mozart took the composer and soprano Catarina Cavalieri to a performance of The Magic Flute.

“Salieri listened and watched most attentively,” Mozart wrote to Constanze, “and from the overture to the last chorus there was not a single number that did not call forth from him a bravo! or bello. It seemed as if they could not thank me enough for my kindness.” And on that genial note, untroubled by any undercurrents other than the simple envy a decent composer might reasonably feel confronted by Mozart’s genius, Salieri slipped from Mozart’s life.

During these same weeks, Mozart completed a clarinet concerto for Anton Stadler and wrote a little Masonic cantata, dated November 15, which was the last work he entered in his personal catalog. He conducted the piece three days later to dedicate a new temple for his lodge. On November 20 he came down with the first serious symptoms of the illness that would take his life just fifteen days later. It is doubtful whether Mozart left his bed or that he could compose unaided. Süssmayr, as well as another pupil, Joseph Eybler, visited him, perhaps regularly.

On December 4 he welcomed three friends who sang parts of the Requiem together with him.

The only eyewitness account of Mozart’s final hours, not written down until 1825, comes from

Sophie Haibel, Constanze’s sister. “Süssmayr was at Mozart’s bedside,” she recalled. “The well-known Requiem lay on the quilt and Mozart was explaining to him how, in his opinion, he ought to finish it when he was gone.” Eventually, Mozart fell unconscious. “His last movement was an attempt to express with his mouth the drum passage in the Requiem. That I can still hear.” But there was no urgent dictation, by candlelight, of Mozart’s last thoughts on putting the Confutatis together, as Shaffer’s Amadeus suggests—just the mouthing of the timpani part, and the quiet tragedy of a young man dying in the prime of his life. Mozart died at fifty-five minutes past midnight on December 5. Sophie Haibel recalls that her sister was inconsolable and could not tear herself away from Mozart.

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ow begins a new drama. Constanze, in serious debt, recognized that the Requiem must be finished and delivered and presented as Mozart’s final work. She turned first to Joseph Eybler, whom her husband had respected, delivering the score to him in exchange for a signed receipt on December 21.

Eybler eventually returned the Requiem, having filled out much of Mozart’s sketching, but refusing to add anything beyond what Mozart himself had already suggested. Constanze now turned to several others, and finally to Süssmayr, whom Mozart occasionally had called an ass and a blockhead, and who knew well he was not the first choice. “The completion of this work was assigned to a number of masters,” he later admitted. “Some of them could not undertake

Laudate Dominum from Vesperae solennes de confessore, K. 339 COMPOSED

1780

FIRST PERFORMANCE

Date unknown; likely September 30, 1780; Salzburg, Austria

I N S T R U M E N TAT I O N

soprano solo, four-part mixed chorus, bassoon, organ, strings A P P R OX I M AT E PERFORMANCE TIME

3 minutes

FIRST CSO PERFORMANCE

July 14, 1999, Holy Name Cathedral.

Marvis Martin, Janet Hackett, Christine Callan, John Eskola, and Lorenzo Formosa as soloists; Holy Name Cathedral Chamber and Gallery Singers (Matthew Walsh, director); Carlos Kalmar conducting (Laudate Dominum and Magnificat)

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it because of the pressure of work; others, however, did not wish to compromise their talents with Mozart’s. Eventually the matter came to me.” Musicians still argue about how much work—and how much damage—Süssmayr actually did. But, in any event, the requiem that was first introduced to the public in January 1793, and that became one of the most familiar pieces in all music, is Süssmayr’s reconstruction of Mozart’s manuscript.

How much of the Requiem, then, is pure Mozart? Only the opening “Requiem aeternam” was written out and orchestrated in full.

(These are among the most sublime pages in Mozart’s output.) For most of the rest, Mozart left the essential materials: the vocal parts, the orchestral bass line, and some critical details of instrumentation exist for the Kyrie (a grand double fugue) and the six movements of the next section—the fearsome and dramatic Dies irae, Tuba mirum with its unexpected trombone solo, the urgent cries of Rex tremendae, the Recordare for the solo quartet, the violent and

disturbing Confutatis, and the beginning of the Lacrimosa, which Mozart broke off after the first eight measures—these are presumably the last notes he wrote—and which Süssmayr completed.

By then Mozart had already written the two movements of the Offertorium that follow: the lively Domine Jesu and the sublime and calming Hostias.

That is the Requiem that we hear at these concerts, without the new movements for the Sanctus and Agnus Dei that Süssmayr freely wrote (based on a “few scraps of music” that Constanze gave him, but which have not survived). There is no simple authentic version of the Requiem; it is unplayable as Mozart left it and requires the work of other hands to bring it to life. By performing Süssmayr’s completion of the movements Mozart left unfinished in his manuscript, we come as close as we can get to what he intended; this is the music, along with Süssmayr’s add-on movements, that was delivered to Mozart’s patron in 1793.

Requiem in D Minor, K. 626

Completed by Franz Xaver Süssmayr COMPOSED

1791, left unfinished at Mozart’s death FIRST PERFORMANCE

January 2, 1793; Vienna, Austria (Süssmayr version) I N S T R U M E N TAT I O N

soprano, alto, tenor, and bass soloists; four-part mixed chorus; 2 basset horns, 2 bassoons, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, organ, strings A P P R OX I M AT E PERFORMANCE TIME

35 minutes

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FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES

March 29 and 30, 1951, Orchestra Hall. Nancy Carr, Nan Merriman, Eugene Conley, and Cesare Siepi as soloists; Combined Choral Organizations of Northwestern University (George Howerton, director); Bruno Walter conducting July 13, 1986, Ravinia Festival.

Benita Valente, Florence Quivar, Philip Creech, and John Cheek as soloists; Chicago Symphony Chorus (Margaret Hillis, director); James Levine conducting

MOST RECENT CSO PERFORMANCES

June 23, 1991, Ravinia Festival.

Dawn Upshaw, Florence Quivar, Peter Kazaras, and Terry Cook as soloists; Chicago Symphony Chorus (Margaret Hillis, director); James Levine conducting February 21, 22, and 23, 2019, Orchestra Hall. Benedetta Torre, Sara Mingardo, Saimir Pirgu, and Mika Kares as soloists; Chicago Symphony Chorus (Duain Wolfe, director); Riccardo Muti conducting CSO RECORDING

1958. Chicago Symphony Chorus (Margaret Hillis, director), Bruno Walter conducting. CSO (From the Archives, vol. 13: Chicago Symphony Chorus: A Fortieth Anniversary Celebration) (Lacrimosa)

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By then Constanze knew that the mysterious messenger at Mozart’s door came representing Count Franz Walsegg-Stuppach, a passionate music lover and amateur composer who regularly hosted musical evenings at his castle and enjoyed the peculiar deception of commissioning music and then passing it off as his own. The messenger was his estate manager, Anton Leutgeb. “I cannot free myself from the eyes and appearance of this stranger,” Mozart wrote in a letter that September. “I see him constantly before me, begging me, urging me on and impatiently demanding this work from me.” The count commissioned this requiem from Mozart to honor his wife Maria Anna, who had died on February 14, 1791, at the age of twenty. He may well have intended to recopy the score, placing his own name on its cover, although that is also part of the legend and hard to verify.

The full Requiem was performed in Vienna on January 2, 1793, in Süssmayr’s version, at a benefit concert for Constanze, who still had bills to pay.

The newspaper reported: Mozart, who achieved an immortal name in the art of music, left a widow and two orphans in poverty. Many noble benefactors are helping this unfortunate woman. Two days ago, Baron Swieten presented a public concert with a sung requiem as a memorial to Mozart. The widow received proceeds of over 300 gold ducats.

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anfred Honeck’s liturgical setting of the Requiem begins and ends with the tolling of a bell, very like the sound that still echoes through the hills of the Austrian countryside today to signal the passing of a local citizen. The music that follows, interwoven with movements of the Requiem, includes passages of Gregorian chant and three pieces by Mozart.

The first of those, the Masonic Funeral Music, was originally composed in August 1785 and rescored for a larger orchestra that November to be played at the memorial service for two distinguished Masons who had recently died. It is a tiny work of extraordinary intensity and power, marked by dark sonorities, sudden shifts of dynamics, and dramatic harmonies. The effect of so many low instruments—especially the basset horns (alto and tenor members of the clarinet family that also appear in the Requiem) and contrabassoon—give this funeral processional

Ave verum corpus, K. 618 COMPOSED

June 16–17, 1791 FIRST PERFORMANCE

probably June 23, 1791

I N S T R U M E N TAT I O N

four-part mixed chorus, strings, organ A P P R OX I M AT E PERFORMANCE TIME

6 minutes

FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES

January 2, 3, and 4, 1969, Orchestra Hall (without chorus). Rafael Kubelík conducting June 20, 21, 22, and 23, 2013, Orchestra Hall. Chicago Symphony Chorus (Duain Wolfe, director), Riccardo Muti conducting CS O.O RG

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a particularly somber magnificence. And yet with the final chord Mozart turns from C minor to C major: life, perhaps, after death. Mozart’s beloved setting of Psalm 117, Laudate Dominum from the Vesperae solennes de confessore, with its lyrical and soaring soprano solo floating over the simplest of orchestral accompaniment figures (and later joined by chorus), is music that comforts, reassures, and provides consolation amid so much darkness.

This week’s performances of the Requiem end by repeating the last music Mozart wrote, the first eight measures of the Lacrimosa, which now leave us hanging mid-air, like a great unanswered question, just as Mozart put down his pen forever at the point where man was rising from the ashes to be judged. They are then followed by the transcendence of the Ave verum corpus, forty-six perfect measures that are among music’s greatest miracles. In two

p r e v i o u s pa g e : Initiation Ceremony in a Viennese Masonic Lodge during the Reign of Joseph II, oil painting by Ignaz Unterberger (1748–1797), 1789, depicting, it is believed, the lodge named Newly Crowned Hope and including characters at the extreme right thought to be Mozart and his close friend Emanuel Schikaneder (1751–1812). The Vienna Museum Collection | t h i s pa g e : Autograph manuscript of the last three bars of Mozart’s Lacrimosa from the Requiem, K. 626. The movement was completed by his student Franz Xaver Süssmayr (1766–1803). Austrian National Library, Vienna | o p p o s i t e pa g e : The Salzburg Mozart Monument, Mozartplatz (formerly Michaelsplatz), Old Town. Bronze statue of the composer sculpted by Ludwig Schwanthaler (1802–1848) and cast by Johann Baptist Stiglmaier (1791–1844), unveiled on September 4, 1842. Photo ca. 1860 by Lévy and Sons, Paris, France | n e x t s p r e a d : Mozart’s autograph manuscript of the Ave verum corpus motet, dated June 17, 1791, owned

by Joseph Schellhammer (1785–1864) and part of the collection later sold to Ludwig von Köchel (1800–1877). Austrian National Library, Vienna

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pages of a flawless, uncorrected script, Mozart left us one of his most moving testaments to the power of art and the mystery of simplicity.

The color palette is small, restricted to voices with strings and organ. Mozart writes a single expression marking at the beginning: sotto voce—literally “under voice”—hushed, in other words. The entire piece moves forward in steady quarter notes, like a hymn, and the harmonies are, for the most part, schoolbook plain. And yet, one cannot imagine changing a note without diminishing, if not, in fact, damaging, its fragile beauty. Ave verum corpus was written in the

summer of 1791, Mozart’s last. In compiling his catalog of Mozart’s works, Ludwig von Köchel assigned it number 618. It is followed only by a handful of works, including The Magic Flute, from which Mozart stole a few hours of time in order to compose it; the Clarinet Concerto; and finally, the Requiem, K. 626.

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few footnotes. Shortly after Mozart’s death, Süssmayr resumed his study of composition; his new teacher was Salieri.

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married Georg Nikolaus Nissen, with whom she collaborated on a biography of Mozart.

Documents discovered over the summer of 1991 indicate that parts of Mozart’s Requiem, in its incomplete state, were performed at the memorial service held on December 10, 1791, at Saint Michael’s, the court chapel in Vienna. This information lends new weight to the long-discredited newspaper report of December 16, which claimed that “Herr Schikaneder [the librettist for The Magic Flute] had obsequies performed for the departed, at which the Requiem, which he composed in his last illness, was executed.”

The cause of Mozart’s death is still uncertain. In the nineteenth century, poison was the favored theory, and the principal suspects were not only Salieri, but Süssmayr or Mozart’s

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fellow Masons, who feared he had divulged too many lodge secrets in The Magic Flute. Newer suggestions include the rare Schönlein-Henoch syndrome, infective endocarditis, and mercury poisoning, inadvertently administered at the hand of his doctor. But it is plain rheumatic fever that still seems the most likely candidate.

Mozart was buried in a common grave outside Vienna on December 7. No mourners attended, as was the custom of the time, but it was later reported that both Salieri and Süssmayr, along with other musicians, were there to say farewell.

Phillip Huscher has been the program annotator for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1987.

TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS Gregorian Chant: Requiem aeternam Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine: et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Eternal rest grant to them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine on them.

Gregorian Chant: Domine, exaudi orationem meam Domine, exaudi orationem meam, et clamor meus ad te veniat.

O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come unto thee.

Laudate Dominum from Vesperae solennes de confessore Laudate Dominum omnes gentes; laudate eum omnes populi.

Quoniam confirmata est super nos misericordia ejus, et veritas Domini manet in aeternum.

Praise the Lord, all you nations; praise him, all you peoples.

For his loving kindness has been bestowed upon us, and the truth of the Lord endures forever.

Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto.

Sicut erat in principio, et nunc et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Gregorian Chant: In quacumque die In quacumque die in vocavero te, velociter exaudi me.

On whatever day I call upon you, hear me quickly.

(Please turn the page quietly.)

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Requiem in D Minor INTROITUS Requiem Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine: et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Eternal rest grant to them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine on them.

Te decet hymnus Deus in Sion, et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem:

To you will be sung hymns in Zion, O God, and a vow made to you in Jerusalem.

Exaudi orationem meam, ad te omnis caro veniet.

Dona eis Domine, requiem aeternam: et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Hear my prayer; to you all flesh shall come.

Grant them, O Lord, eternal rest, and let perpetual light shine on them.

KYRIE Kyrie eleison.

Christe eleison.

Kyrie eleison.

Lord, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

SEQUENZ Dies irae Dies irae, dies illa, solvet saeclum in favilla: teste David cum Sibylla.

The Day of Wrath, that day shall dissolve the world in ashes, as David and the Sibyl said.

Quantus tremor est futurus, quando judex est venturus, cuncta stricte discussurus!

What trembling shall there be when the Judge shall come who shall thresh out all thoroughly!

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T E XTS A N D T R A N S L AT I ON S

Tuba mirum Tuba mirum spargens sonum per sepulchra regionum, coget omnes ante thronum.

The trumpet, scattering a wondrous sound through the tombs of all lands, shall drive all unto the throne.

Mors stupebit et natura, cum resurget creatura, judicanti responsura.

Death and Nature shall be astounded when creation shall rise again to answer the Judge.

Liber scriptus proferetur, in quo totum continetur, unde mundus judicetur.

A written book shall be brought forth, in which shall be contained all for which the world shall be judged.

Judex ergo cum sedebit, quidquid latet apparebit: nil inultum remanebit.

And therefore, when the Judge shall sit, whatsoever is hidden shall be manifest, and naught shall remain unavenged.

Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?

Quem patronum rogaturus?

Cum vix justus sit securus.

What shall I say in my misery?

Whom shall I ask to be my advocate, when scarcely the righteous may be without fear?

Rex tremendae Rex tremendae majestatis, qui salvandos salvas gratis salva me, fons pietatis.

King of awful majesty, who freely saves the redeemed, save me, O fount of mercy.

Recordare Recordare Jesu pie, quod sum causa tua viae: ne me perdas illa die.

Remember, merciful Jesus, that I am the cause of your journey, lest you lose me on that day.

Quaerens me, sedisti lassus: redemisti crucem passus: tantus labor non sit cassus.

Seeking me, you sat weary; you redeemed me, suffering on the cross; let not such labor be frustrated.

Juste judex ultionis, donum fac remissionis ante diem rationis.

O Just Judge of Vengeance, give the gift of remission before the day of reckoning.

Ingemisco, tamquam reus: culpa rubet vultus meus supplicanti parce Deus.

I groan as one guilty: My face blushes at my sin.

Spare, O God, me, your supplicant.

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Qui Mariam absolvisti, et latronem exaudisti, mihi quoque spem dedisti.

You who absolved Mary and heard the thief ’s prayer have given hope to me also.

Preces meae non sunt dignae: Sed tu bonus fac benigne, ne perenni cremer igne.

My prayers are not worthy, but do you, good Lord, show mercy, lest I burn in everlasting fire.

Inter oves locum praesta, et ab haedis me sequestra, statuens in parte dextra.

Give me a place among your sheep and put me apart from the goats, setting me on the right hand.

Confutatis Confutatis maledictis, flammis acribus addictis.

Voca me cum benedictis.

When the damned are confounded and consigned to searing flames, call me with the blessed.

Oro supplex et acclinis, cor contritum quasi cinis: Gere curam mei finis.

I pray, kneeling in supplication, a heart, contrite as ashes, take my end into your care.

Lacrimosa Lacrimosa dies illa, qua resurget ex favilla, judicandus homo reus: Huic ergo parce Deus.

Pie Jesu Domine, dona eis requiem.

Amen.

Lamentable is that day on which guilty man shall arise from the ashes to be judged.

Spare then this one, O God. Merciful Lord Jesus: Grant them rest.

Amen.

Gregorian Chant: Christus factus est Christus factus est pro nobis obediens usque ad mortem autem crucis.

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Christ became obedient for us unto death, even death on a cross.

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OFFERTORIUM Domine Jesu Domine Jesu Christe, Rex gloriae, libera animas omnium fidelium defunctorum de poenis inferni, et de profundo lacu: libera eas, de ore leonis, ne absorbeat eas tartarus, ne cadant in obscurum: sed signifer sanctus Michael repraesentet eas in lucem sanctam: Quam olim Abrahae promisisti, et semini ejus.

O Lord Jesus Christ, King of Glory, deliver the souls of all the faithful departed from the land of hell, and from the pit of destruction: deliver them from the lion’s mouth, that the grave devour them not; that they go not down to the realms of darkness: but let Michael, the holy standard-bearer, make speed to restore them to the brightness of glory: which you promised in ages past to Abraham and to his seed.

Hostias Hostias et preces tibi Domine, laudis offerimus: tu suscipe pro animabus illis, quarum hodie memoriam facimus: fac eas, Domine, de morte transire ad vitam.

Quam olim Abrahae promisisti et semini ejus.

Sacrifice and prayer we offer you, O Lord: accept them for the souls departed in whose memory we make this oblation: and grant them, Lord, to pass from death to life: as you promised in ages past to Abraham and to his seed.

Lacrimosa Lacrimosa dies illa, qua resurget ex favilla, judicandus homo reus.

Lamentable is that day on which guilty man shall arise from the ashes to be judged.

Ave verum corpus Ave verum corpus, natum de Maria Virgine: Vere passum, immolatum in cruce pro homine: Cujus latus perforatum unda fluxit et sanguine: Esto nobis praegustatum in mortis examine.

Hail, true body, born of the Virgin Mary, who has truly suffered and was sacrificed on the cross for humankind.

Whose side, being pierced, flowed with water and blood: may you be for us a foretaste in the trial of death.

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HANDEL’S MESSIAH SYMPHONY CENTER MONDAY, DEC 1, 7:30PM

A beloved homage to hope and faith

Music of the Baroque Chorus & Orchestra Dame Jane Glover, conductor Yulia Van Doren, soprano

Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano Miles Mykkanen, tenor Will Liverman, baritone

baroque.org | 312.551.1414

PROFILES Manfred Honeck Conductor FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES

July 29, 1995, Ravinia Festival. Beethoven’s Leonore Overture no. 2, Foss’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand with Leon Fleisher, and Dvořák’s Symphony no. 9 February 7, 8, 9, and 10, 2002, Orchestra Hall. Augusta Read Thomas’s Ceremonial, Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto no. 2 with Lang Lang, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony no. 5 MOST RECENT CSO PERFORMANCES

March 13, 14, and 15, 2025, Orchestra Hall. MacMillan’s Larghetto for Orchestra, Beethoven’s Symphony no. 1, and Haydn’s Mass in Time of War with Joélle Harvey, Jennifer Johnson Cano, Andrew Haji, and Joshua Hopkins as soloists; Chicago Symphony Chorus (Donald Nally, guest director)

Manfred Honeck has firmly established himself as one of the world’s leading conductors. As music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, where he has now started his eighteenth season, he continues to shape the ensemble’s artistic identity. His tenure, extended through the 2027–28 season, has seen the orchestra flourish artistically and as a cultural ambassador for the city of Pittsburgh, with guest appearances under his leadership at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York and the major venues and leading music festivals of Europe. For a nine-city European festivals tour in the summer of 2024, Pittsburgh was the only American orchestra at the Salzburg Festival.

Manfred Honeck’s tenure in Pittsburgh is extensively documented by a series of recordings on the Reference Recordings label that have received widespread critical acclaim, as well as multiple Grammy Award nominations and a win for Best Orchestral Performance in 2018. In August 2025 he and the orchestra released Requiem: Mozart’s Death in Words and Music, an original concept imagining a funeral mass for Mozart.

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Born in Austria, Manfred Honeck completed his musical training at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. His experiences as a member of the viola section in the Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna State Opera Orchestra have had a lasting influence on his work as a conductor. He began his career as an assistant to Claudio Abbado and as director of the Vienna Jeunesse Orchestra. Subsequently, he was engaged by the Zurich Opera House, where he was awarded the European Conducting Prize in 1993. He has since served as one of three principal conductors of the MDR Symphony Orchestra Leipzig, music director of the Norwegian National Opera, principal guest conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, and chief conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Stockholm. In 2023 he was appointed an honorary conductor by the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra following decades of close collaboration.

In his four seasons as general music director of the Stuttgart State Opera, Manfred Honeck led premieres of works by Berlioz, Mozart, Poulenc, Strauss, Verdi, and Wagner. In 2022 he made his much-acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut. Beyond the podium, Manfred Honeck has created a series of symphonic suites, including Strauss’s Arabella, the latest, premiered by the Pittsburgh Symphony in March 2025.

He also has been artistic director of the International Concerts Wolfegg in Germany for over three decades.

This season, Honeck records Mahler’s Symphony no. 2 (Resurrection) and Bruckner’s Symphony no. 8 with the Pittsburgh Symphony and leads a variety of American orchestral music as part of celebrations around America’s 250th anniversary.

Manfred Honeck holds honorary doctorates from several universities in the United States and was awarded the honorary title of professor by the Austrian federal president. In 2018 he was declared Artist of the Year by the jury of the International Classical Music Awards.

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Jeanine De Bique Soprano FIRST CSO PERFORMANCE

July 26, 2019, Ravinia Festival. Mahler’s Symphony no. 8, Marin Alsop conducting These concerts mark Jeanine De Bique’s subscription concert debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

The inspirational Trinidadian soprano Jeanine De Bique has captivated audiences around the globe with flawless technique, sparkling coloratura, and profoundly moving and dramatically astute performances.

Blessed with a musical versatility that lets her shine equally in baroque, classical, and contemporary roles, De Bique brings a unique authenticity to the stage and has firmly secured her international position as one of the most exceptional sopranos of her generation.

Operatic highlights of the 2025–26 season include the title role in Handel’s Alcina in Johanna Wehner’s new production for the Bavarian State Opera under Stefano Montanari, as well as the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro and Vitellia in La clemenza di Tito by Mozart for the Zurich Opera House. She also unveils her new program, Venus, in collaboration with B’Rock Orchestra on tour throughout Europe, continuing her exploration of baroque heroines following her award-winning first disc, Mirrors. Concert highlights include a

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televised Christmas program with the Northwest German Philharmonic Orchestra and De Bique’s Wigmore Hall, London, debut in Handel’s Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno with La Nuova Musica under David Bates.

In recent seasons, De Bique’s versatility has led to remarkable debuts, including Violetta in Verdi’s La traviata at Grand Théâtre de Genève and Berlin State Opera, the title role in Massenet’s Cendrillon for the Paris Opera, Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen for Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Anaï in Rossini’s Moïse and Pharaon for the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Agathe in Weber’s Der Freischütz at Konzerthaus Berlin, Helena in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Deutsche Oper Berlin, and the world premiere of Micha Hamel’s Causo a Cuba for Dutch National Opera. Elsewhere, the soprano has met with unanimous acclaim for her baroque interpretations of Alcina for the Paris Opera, Handel’s Rodelinda for Opéra de Lille, La Folie in Rameau’s Platée for Vienna’s Theater an der Wien and Gran Teatre del Liceu, and the title role in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea for Grand Théâtre de Genève. Mozart’s leading ladies have also significantly contributed to De Bique’s successes: as Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) for the Berlin State Opera and Opéra National du Rhin; Susanna (The Marriage of Figaro) for the Paris Opera and San Francisco Opera; and Annio (La clemenza di Tito) in Peter Sellars’s iconic production for the Salzburg Festival, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Dutch National Opera under Teodor Currentzis.

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PROFILES

Avery Amereau Mezzo-soprano These concerts mark Avery Amereau’s debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Since making her Metropolitan Opera debut in 2016, Avery Amereau has rapidly drawn international attention, appearing with the top houses and orchestras across the United States and Europe.

In the 2025–26 season, Amereau makes major role debuts as Irene in Handel’s Theodora in her first collaboration with the Jupiter Ensemble and as Didon in Berlioz’s Les Troyens returning to the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra. She also returns to the Bavarian State Opera as Bradamante in a new production of Handel’s Alcina and reprises the role of Cherubino in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal under Rafael Payare.

In concert, Amereau makes debuts with the National Symphony of Ireland in Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri led by Alexander Shelley. Further highlights include a U.S. concert tour of Handel’s Messiah with the Handel and Haydn Society conducted by Jonathan Cohen and Ravel’s Shéhérazade with the Jacksonville Symphony.

Amereau made her Bavarian State Opera house and role debut as Dorabella in a new production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte conducted by Vladimir Jurowski in 2022, later joining the ensemble in Munich from the 2023–24 season. Her association with the house includes notable debuts in new productions of the Mozart–Da Ponte trilogy: Don Giovanni (Zerlina), The Marriage of Figaro (Cherubino), and Così fan tutte (Dorabella).

Recent operatic highlights include her Royal Opera House, London, house debut as Olga

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in a new production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin directed by Ted Huffman; the title role in Bizet’s Carmen with the Jacksonville Symphony; Marguerite in Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra (Federico Cortese); and Serena Joy in Poul Ruders’s The Handmaid’s Tale for English National Opera. Amereau has also appeared with Santa Fe Opera, Opéra de Lille, Opéra de Lyon, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Seattle Opera, and at the Glyndebourne and Salzburg festivals.

Amereau is highly sought after on the international concert stage, where recent engagements include Elgar’s Sea Pictures with the Cleveland Orchestra (Daniel Harding); her Tanglewood Festival debut in Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (Dima Slobodeniouk); Mahler’s Symphony no. 2 with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Harding); Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (Leonardo García Alarcón), Orchestra of St. Luke’s (Bernard Labadie), and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (Richard Egarr); Bach’s Saint John Passion with the Seattle Symphony (Nicholas McGegan); Das Paradies und die Peri with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (Harding); and Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody with the American Classical Orchestra.

As a recording artist, Amereau appears as the Sorceress in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with La Nuova Musica for the Pentatone label, and she created her role in Caroline Shaw’s The Listeners with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra on its own label. Her debut solo album of Handel arias with Philharmonia Baroque and McGegan, selected as Editor’s Choice in Gramophone magazine, was released in 2020 to widespread critical acclaim.

Intermusica represents Avery Amereau worldwide. intermusica.com/artist/Avery-Amereau

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Ben Bliss Tenor FIRST CSO PERFORMANCES

August 15 and 17, 2014, Ravinia Festival. Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, James Conlon conducting December 16, 17, 18, and 19, 2021, Orchestra Hall.

Handel’s Messiah, Nicholas McGegan conducting

Ben Bliss has established himself as one of the most exciting performers on today’s operatic stage. He was a 2021 recipient of the Metropolitan Opera’s prestigious Beverly Sills Award, and his other accolades include the 2016 Martin E. Segal Award at Lincoln Center, the Mozart and Plácido Domingo awards at the 2015 Francisco Viñas International Competition, first prize at the 2014 Gerda Lissner and Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation competitions, and the 2013 Operalia Don Plácido Domingo Sr. Zarzuela Prize.

In 2025–26, he makes his anticipated role debut as the Duke in Verdi’s Rigoletto with the Canadian Opera Company and his debut as the title role in Mozart’s Idomeneo with Washington Concert Opera. He also returns to the Metropolitan Opera as Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni conducted by Yannick NézetSéguin, performs in Handel’s Messiah as staged

by Houston Grand Opera, and sings Tamino in Mozart’s The Magic Flute with the St. Louis Symphony. Other highlights include a recital at Los Angeles Opera and a Messiah concert tour with the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston.

Last season’s highlights included a debut as Eric in Jeanine Tesori’s new opera Grounded

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and Tamino at the Met. Bliss also returned to the Paris Opera as Tom Rakewell in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress and appeared as Jupiter in Handel’s Semele for his house debuts at the Royal Opera House, London, and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris. Concert engagements included performances at Carnegie Hall with the Met and Nézet-Séguin and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York.

While in the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Ben Bliss made his stage debut as Vogelgesang in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg under James Levine and has since returned as the Steersman in Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman under NézetSéguin and Belmonte in Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio and Tamino.

Other operatic highlights have included Tamino at Bavarian State Opera, Los Angeles Opera, and Philadelphia Opera; Ferrando in Mozart’s Cosí fan tutte at the Vienna State Opera, Seattle Opera, Canadian Opera Company, and Oper Frankfurt; and Robert Wilson in Peter Sellars’s new production of John Adams’s Doctor Atomic in Santa Fe. Ben Bliss’s concert highlights include debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel and the New York Philharmonic as Tony in Bernstein’s West Side Story Concert Suite no. 1 with Alan Gilbert, a house and role debut as Count de Rosillon in Lehár’s The Merry Widow in concert at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, and a U.S. recital tour with pianist Lachlan Glen including Carnegie Hall. instagram: @mrbenbliss facebook: Ben Bliss, Tenor youtube: @MrBenBliss

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PROFILES

Stephano Park Bass These concerts mark Stephano Park’s debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

South Korean bass Stephano Park was named the winner of Operalia 2023 in Cape Town, South Africa.

This past summer, Park made his American debut as Sparafucile in Verdi’s Rigoletto at Sante Fe Opera under the baton of Carlo Montanaro. Operatic highlights of the 2025–26 season include debuts with the Royal Danish Opera as the Count of Monterone in Rigoletto and Uncle Bonze in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly with Calgary Opera. In October Park made his U.S. concert debut in performances of Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9 with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ken-David Masur.

Last season, Park made numerous house and role debuts, including the title role in a new production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro at the Korean National Opera in Seoul, as the Mandarin in Puccini’s Turandot at the Baltic Opera Festival under Keri-Lynn Wilson, and as the High Priest in concert performances of Verdi’s Nabucco for

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Opéra de Toulon. In concert, Park made his debut with the Korean National Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Verdi’s Requiem conducted by Roberto Abbado and his festival debut in recital alongside soprano Hera Hyesang Park at the Daejeon Grand Festival in Korea.

Park recently completed his second season as part of the Vienna State Opera studio, where roles have included Walter Furst in Rossini’s William Tell, Lodovico in Verdi’s Otello, Sid in Puccini’s La fanciulla del West, FouquierTinville in Giordano’s Andrea Chénier, the Jailer in Puccini’s Tosca, Hans Schwarz in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and the Second Soldier in Strauss’s Salome.

Other highlights include Ramfis in Verdi’s Aida with Oper Burg Gars Summer Festival in Austria as well as Talpa and Simone in Puccini’s operas Il tabarro and Gianni Schicchi with the Seoul National University Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yun-Sung Chang.

Stephano Park trained at Seoul National University and continues his studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Attila Jun, Jennifer Larmore, and Karlheinz Hanser.

Intermusica represents Stephano Park worldwide. intermusica.com/artist/Stephano-Park

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Chicago Symphony Chorus

The Chicago Symphony Chorus regularly performs with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Orchestra Hall and at the Ravinia Festival.

The history of the Chorus began in 1957, when sixth music director Fritz Reiner invited Margaret Hillis to establish a chorus to equal the quality of the Orchestra. Hillis accepted the challenge, and the Chicago Symphony Chorus debuted in March and April 1958, in Mozart’s Requiem under Bruno Walter and Verdi’s Requiem under Reiner.

Hillis served the Chorus for thirty-seven years.

In 1994 ninth music director Daniel Barenboim appointed Duain Wolfe, who served as the Chorus’s director and conductor until his retirement in 2022. Donald Palumbo was appointed as the Chorus’s third director in 2025.

The Chorus first performed in Carnegie Hall in 1967 in Henze’s Muses of Sicily and Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe under seventh music director Jean Martinon, and most recently in 2015 with Riccardo Muti for Scriabin’s Prometheus and Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky.

Touring internationally with the Orchestra, the Chorus traveled to London and Salzburg in 1989 with Sir Georg Solti for performances of Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust and to Berlin in 1999 with Barenboim for Brahms’s A German Requiem and Pierre Boulez for Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron.

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World premieres featuring the Chorus have included Ned Rorem’s Goodbye My Fancy, John Harbison’s Four Psalms, and Bernard Rands’s apókryphos. With visiting orchestras, the Chorus has collaborated with the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Seiji Ozawa, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra with Zubin Mehta, and the Staatskapelle Berlin under Barenboim.

Since first recording commercially in 1959—Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky under Reiner—the Chorus has amassed a discography that includes hallmarks of the choral repertoire and several complete operas. The Chorus most recently received a 2010 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance for Verdi’s Requiem, led by Riccardo Muti on CSO Resound. The Chorus has received an additional nine Grammy awards for Best Choral Performance for Verdi’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, Brahms’s A German Requiem, Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust, Haydn’s Creation, and Bach’s Mass in B minor with Solti; Brahms’s Requiem and Orff’s Carmina Burana with James Levine; and Bartók’s Cantata profana with Boulez.

The Chorus also has appeared on two movie soundtracks with the Orchestra: Fantasia 2000 led by Levine, and John Williams’s score for Lincoln conducted by the composer. Recordings on CSO Resound featuring the Chorus include Mahler’s Second and Third symphonies, Poulenc’s Gloria and Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe under Bernard Haitink; and Berlioz’s Lélio, Verdi’s Otello, Schoenberg’s Kol Nidre, choruses

by Verdi and Boito’s Prologue to Mefistofele, Shostakovich’s Symphony no. 13 (Babi Yar), and most recently Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana under Riccardo Muti.

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PROFILES

Donald Palumbo Chorus Director Donald Palumbo was born in Rochester, New York, and received a bachelor of arts degree from Boston University. His career was launched in the 1980s at the Dallas Opera, where he served as assistant to Roberto Benaglio, the renowned Italian chorus master of Teatro alla Scala in Milan. Following a sixteen-year tenure as chorus director at the Lyric Opera of Chicago from 1991 to 2007, Palumbo assumed the same position at the Metropolitan Opera. There he was responsible for the Met Chorus’s participation in more than twenty productions each season, and his work was honored with seven Grammy awards for Best Opera Recording. After stepping down from his position at the Met in June 2024, he returned to the theater in the following season to prepare the chorus in a new production of Verdi’s Aida.

Palumbo’s appointment as the third chorus director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus was announced in June 2025, and he began an initial three-year tenure on July 1, 2025. As director, he works with the Chorus each year to prepare multiple programs across the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s downtown season and the annual summer residency at the Ravinia Festival.

Palumbo was music director of the Chorus pro Musica of Boston and has also served as chorus master of the Canadian Opera Company, Dallas Opera, Banff School for the Arts Summer Opera Program, the Opera Company of Boston, and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. In Europe, he has held chorus master positions at Opéra de Lyon,

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the Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Théâtre du Châtelet, and the Teatro Massimo in Palermo.

From 1999 to 2001, Palumbo was chorus director of the Salzburg Festival, the first American to hold that position.

He has worked extensively at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, preparing the chorus for the Berlioz Festival in 1990—Requiem, The Damnation of de Faust, Romeo and Juliet—and performances of Britten’s Peter Grimes and Janáček’s Jenůfa. Palumbo has conducted the Radio France Chorus in several a cappella choral concerts and prepared Britten’s War Requiem.

Palumbo has been a vocal coach for the Apprentices of the Santa Fe Opera since 2014 and a faculty member of the Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts at the Juilliard School in New York since 2016.

In 2022 and 2023, he joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as guest chorus master for performances of Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera and Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, both works conducted by Riccardo Muti. Shortly after his appointment in June 2025, he was guest chorus master for performances of Verdi’s Requiem, also led by Muti.

In June 2024 he prepared the choral forces for a concert performance of Puccini’s La bohème for the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin and returned for Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde in June 2025.

In March 2025 he prepared the chorus for Verdi’s La traviata staged in Kyoto and Tokyo for the Seiji Ozawa Music Academy.

Donald Palumbo returned to the Lyric Opera of Chicago in May 2025 to prepare and conduct a program of scenes with the artists of the Ryan Opera Center.

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PROFILES

Chicago Symphony Chorus

Donald Palumbo Director Cheryl Frazes Hill Associate Director Jennifer Kerr Budziak Assistant Director Benjamin Rivera Assistant Director SOPRANOS

Michele Agpalo Alicia Monastero Akers* Melinda Alberty Laura Bumgardner Anastasia Cameron Balmer Joan Cinquegrani Katarzyna Dorula Nida Grigalaviciute Kimberly Gunderson Amy Gwinn-Becker Ashlee Hardgrave Betsy Hoats Alexandra Ioan Alison Kelly Susan Krout Katelyn Lee Kristin Lelm Amanda Compton LoPresti* Suzanne Ma-Ebersole Taylor Jacobson Manrique Nini Marchese Lillian Murphy Máire O’Brien Cari Plachy Elvira Ponticelli Angela Presutti Korbitz Margaret Quinnette Elizabeth Shuman Meaghan Smallwood Samantha Thielen Pak A LT O S

Melissa Arning Angela Born Diane Busko Bryks Magaly Cordero Sandra Cross Leah Dexter Stacy Eckert Kirsten Fyr-Searcy Elizabeth Haley Hamilton Catarine Hancock Ruth Ginelle Heald

Margaret Izard Amy Allyssa Johnson Robin A. Kessler Kathleen Madden Clarissa Parrish Short Laura Polevoy Nicoleta Roman Bridget Skaggs Cassidy Smith* Gabrielle Timofeeva López Megan Wilhelm TENORS

Madison Bolt Michael Brauer Joseph Cloonan* Micah A. Dingler Nicholas Falco Andrew Fisher W. Ryan Frenk Jianghai Ho Garrett Johannsen James Judd Stephen Mollica Marcos Ochoa Wha Shin Park Nicholas Pulikowski Cole Seaton Silfredo Serrano Andrew Seymour Aaron Short Alan Taylor Paul W. Thompson BASSES

Evan Bravos Conor Broaders Terry L. Bucher Michael Cavalieri Timothy Christopoulos William Esch Kevin Michael Hall Adam Lance Hendrickson Jess Koehn

Mathew Lake Lee Lichamer* Bill McMurray Douglas Peters Robert J. Potsic Ian R. Prichard Leo Radosavljevic Peder Reiff Joseph Smith Avery Sujkowski Scott Uddenberg Aaron Wardell Peter Wesoloski O F F S TA G E C H O R U S

Justin Berkowitz Matthew Brennan* Ed Frazier Davis Alec Fore Klaus Georg* Dimitri German Tejas Gururaja Paul Hunter Ian Murrell Stephen D. Noon Nathan S. Oakes Brett Potts Stephen Richardson Michael Seybold Michael St. Peter

CHORUS MANAGER

Melissa Hilker

A S S I S TA N T M A N A G E R AND LIBRARIAN

Olive Haugh

REHEARSAL PIANISTS

John Goodwin Sharon Peterson Chuck Foster

Donald Palumbo prepared the Chorus for these performances. He also conducts the Offstage Chorus in selections of Gregorian chant. *Section leader

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CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA | SYMPHONY CENTER PRESENTS

JOY IN EVERY NOTE NOV 28-30

How to Train Your Dragon in Concert

© 2010 DreamWorks Animation LLC. All Rights Reserved.

NOV 29

Vienna Boys Choir: Christmas in Vienna DEC 9

A Chanticleer Christmas DEC 16

Chicago Symphony Orchestra Brass DEC 19-23

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Merry, Merry Chicago!

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25 26 SEASON

Celebrating Black Excellence in Classical Music and Beyond

The CSO African American Network aims to engage Chicago’s culturally rich African American community through the sharing and exchanging of unforgettable musical experiences while building relationships for generations to come. The AAN seeks to serve and encourage individuals, families, educators, students, musicians, composers and businesses to discover and experience the timeless beauty of music.

Be a part of the season with concerts across musical genres highlighting world-class performances and compositions from Christian McBride, Julia Bullock, Lizz Wright, Mike Reed, Wynton Marsalis and more!

Join the CSO African American Network!

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CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA The Chicago Symphony Orchestra—consistently hailed as one of the world’s best—marks its 135th season in 2025–26. The ensemble’s history began in 1889, when Theodore Thomas, the leading conductor in America and a recognized music pioneer, was invited by Chicago businessman Charles Norman Fay to establish a symphony orchestra. Thomas’s aim to build a permanent orchestra of the highest quality was realized at the first concerts in October 1891 in the Auditorium Theatre. Thomas served as music director until his death in January 1905, just three weeks after the dedication of Orchestra Hall, the Orchestra’s permanent home designed by Daniel Burnham.

Frederick Stock, recruited by Thomas to the viola section in 1895, became assistant conductor in 1899 and succeeded the Orchestra’s founder.

His tenure lasted thirty-seven years, from 1905 to 1942—the longest of the Orchestra’s music directors. Stock founded the Civic Orchestra of Chicago— the first training orchestra in the U.S. affiliated with a major orchestra—in 1919, established youth auditions, organized the first subscription concerts especially for children, and began a series of popular concerts.

Three conductors headed the Orchestra during the following decade: Désiré Defauw was music director from 1943 to 1947, Artur Rodzinski in 1947–48, and Rafael Kubelík from 1950 to 1953.

The next ten years belonged to Fritz Reiner, whose recordings with the CSO are still considered hallmarks. Reiner invited Margaret Hillis to form the Chicago Symphony Chorus in 1957. For five seasons from 1963 to 1968, Jean Martinon held the position of music director.

Sir Georg Solti, the Orchestra’s eighth music director, served from 1969 until 1991. His arrival launched one of the most successful musical partnerships of our time. The CSO made its first overseas tour to Europe in 1971 under his direction and released numerous award-winning recordings. Beginning in 1991, Solti held the title of music director laureate and returned to conduct the Orchestra each season until his death in September 1997.

Daniel Barenboim became ninth music director in 1991, a position he held until 2006.

His tenure was distinguished by the opening of Symphony Center in 1997, appearances with the Orchestra in the dual role of pianist and conductor, and twenty-one international tours.

Appointed by Barenboim in 1994 as the Chorus’s second director, Duain Wolfe served until his retirement in 2022.

In 2010, Riccardo Muti became the Orchestra’s tenth music director. During his tenure, the Orchestra deepened its engagement with the Chicago community, nurtured its legacy while supporting a new generation of musicians and composers, and collaborated with visionary artists. In September 2023, Muti became music director emeritus for life.

In April 2024, Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä was announced as the Orchestra’s eleventh music director and will begin an initial five-year tenure as Zell Music Director in September 2027.

In July 2025, Donald Palumbo became the third director of the Chicago Symphony Chorus.

Carlo Maria Giulini was named the Orchestra’s first principal guest conductor in 1969, serving until 1972; Claudio Abbado held the position from 1982 to 1985. Pierre Boulez was appointed as principal guest conductor in 1995 and was named Helen Regenstein Conductor Emeritus in 2006, a position he held until his death in January 2016. From 2006 to 2010, Bernard Haitink was the Orchestra’s first principal conductor.

Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato is the CSO’s Artist-in-Residence for the 2025–26 season.

The Orchestra first performed at Ravinia Park in 1905 and appeared frequently through August 1931, after which the park was closed for most of the Great Depression. In August 1936, the Orchestra helped to inaugurate the first season of the Ravinia Festival, and it has been in residence nearly every summer since.

Since 1916, recording has been a significant part of the Orchestra’s activities. Recordings by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus— including recent releases on CSO Resound, the Orchestra’s recording label launched in 2007— have earned sixty-five Grammy awards from the Recording Academy.

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The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association is committed to sharing the transformational power of music locally, nationally and internationally.

Tax-deductible donations do more than support the concerts you love — they impact more than 200,000 people through education and community engagement programs each year.

Make a difference with your gift today.

CSO.ORG/MAKEAGIFT 312-294-3100 SCAN TO GIVE

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Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Klaus Mäkelä Zell Music Director Designate Joyce DiDonato Artist-in-Residence VIOLINS

Robert Chen Concertmaster The Louis C. Sudler Chair, endowed by an anonymous benefactor Stephanie Jeong Associate Concertmaster The Cathy and Bill Osborn Chair David Taylor* Assistant Concertmaster The Ling Z. and Michael C. Markovitz Chair Yuan-Qing Yu* Assistant Concertmaster So Young Bae Cornelius Chiu Gina DiBello Kozue Funakoshi Russell Hershow Qing Hou Gabriela Lara Matous Michal Simon Michal Sando Shia Susan Synnestvedt Rong-Yan Tang Baird Dodge Principal Danny Yehun Jin Assistant Principal Lei Hou Ni Mei Hermine Gagné Rachel Goldstein Mihaela Ionescu Melanie Kupchynsky § Wendy Koons Meir Ronald Satkiewicz ‡ Florence Schwartz VIOLAS

Teng Li Principal The Paul Hindemith Principal Viola Chair Catherine Brubaker Youming Chen Sunghee Choi Wei-Ting Kuo Danny Lai Weijing Michal Diane Mues Lawrence Neuman Max Raimi

CELLOS

John Sharp Principal The Eloise W. Martin Chair Kenneth Olsen Assistant Principal The Adele Gidwitz Chair Karen Basrak § The Joseph A. and Cecile Renaud Gorno Chair Richard Hirschl Olivia Jakyoung Huh Daniel Katz Katinka Kleijn Brant Taylor The Ann Blickensderfer and Roger Blickensderfer Chair BASSES

Alexander Hanna Principal The David and Mary Winton Green Principal Bass Chair Alexander Horton Assistant Principal Daniel Carson Ian Hallas Robert Kassinger Mark Kraemer Stephen Lester Bradley Opland Andrew Sommer FLUTES

Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson § Principal The Erika and Dietrich M. Gross Principal Flute Chair Emma Gerstein Jennifer Gunn PICCOLO

Jennifer Gunn The Dora and John Aalbregtse Piccolo Chair OBOES

William Welter Principal Lora Schaefer Assistant Principal The Gilchrist Foundation, Jocelyn Gilchrist Chair Scott Hostetler

Riccardo Muti Music Director Emeritus for Life

CLARINETS

Stephen Williamson Principal John Bruce Yeh Assistant Principal The Governing Members Chair Gregory Smith E - F L AT C L A R I N E T

John Bruce Yeh BASSOONS

T I M PA N I

David Herbert Principal The Clinton Family Fund Chair Vadim Karpinos Assistant Principal PERCUSSION

Cynthia Yeh Principal Patricia Dash Vadim Karpinos

Keith Buncke Principal William Buchman Assistant Principal Miles Maner

LIBRARIANS

HORNS

CSO FELLOWS

Mark Almond Principal James Smelser David Griffin Oto Carrillo Susanna Gaunt Daniel Gingrich ‡ TRUMPETS

Esteban Batallán Principal The Adolph Herseth Principal Trumpet Chair, endowed by an anonymous benefactor John Hagstrom The Bleck Family Chair Tage Larsen TROMBONES

Timothy Higgins Principal The Lisa and Paul Wiggin Principal Trombone Chair Michael Mulcahy Charles Vernon

Justin Vibbard Principal Carole Keller Mark Swanson Ariel Seunghyun Lee Violin Jesús Linárez Violin The Michael and Kathleen Elliott Fellow ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL

John Deverman Director Anne MacQuarrie Manager, CSO Auditions and Orchestra Personnel S TA G E T E C H N I C I A N S

Christopher Lewis Stage Manager Blair Carlson Paul Christopher Chris Grannen Ryan Hartge Peter Landry Joshua Mondie

BASS TROMBONE

Charles Vernon TUBA

Gene Pokorny Principal The Arnold Jacobs Principal Tuba Chair, endowed

by Christine Querfeld

ENGLISH HORN

Scott Hostetler

* Assistant concertmasters are listed by seniority. ‡ On sabbatical § On leave The CSO’s music director position is endowed in perpetuity by a generous gift from the Zell Family Foundation.

The Louise H. Benton Wagner chair is currently unoccupied.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra string sections utilize revolving seating. Players behind the first desk (first two desks in the violins) change seats systematically every two weeks and are listed alphabetically. Section percussionists also are listed alphabetically.

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Discover more about the musicians, concerts, and generous supporters of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association online, at cso.org.

Find articles and program notes, listen to CSOradio, and watch CSOtv at Experience CSO.

Get involved with our many volunteer and affiliate groups.

For complete listings of our generous supporters, please visit the Richard and Helen Thomas Donor Gallery.

cso.org/experience

cso.org/getinvolved

cso.org/donorgallery

Connect with us on social @chicagosymphony

Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association Board of Trustees OFFICERS

Mary Louise Gorno Chair Chester A. Gougis Vice Chair Steven Shebik Vice Chair Helen Zell Vice Chair Renée Metcalf Treasurer Jeff Alexander President Kristine Stassen Secretary of the Board Stacie M. Frank Assistant Treasurer Dale Hedding Vice President for Development

Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association Administration SENIOR LEADERSHIP

Jeff Alexander President Stacie M. Frank Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Finance and Administration Dale Hedding Vice President, Development Ryan Lewis Vice President, Sales and Marketing Vanessa Moss Vice President, Orchestra and Building Operations Cristina Rocca Vice President, Artistic Administration The Richard and Mary L. Gray Chair Eileen Chambers Director, Institutional Communications Jonathan McCormick Managing Director, Negaunee Music Institute at the CSO

Visit cso.org/csoa to view a complete listing of the CSOA Board of Trustees and Administration.

CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CSO ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE

Joyce DiDonato Versatility.

Warmth.

Virtuosity.

The celebrated American mezzo-soprano infuses this season with unmatched expressive power and artistry.

25 26 SEASON Joyce DiDonato in Emily – No Prisoner Be FEB 10

DiDonato Performs Neruda Songs MAY 7-9

GET YOUR TICKETS TODAY!

CSO.ORG | 312-294-3000 CSO Artist-in-Residence Sponsor Artists, prices and programs subject to change.

James and Brenda Grusecki

Concert Sponsor Lori Julian for the Julian Family Foundation

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