Orchestra Hall (Photo: Todd Rosenberg)
Today, WFMT and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra announce the launch of an exciting new broadcast and streaming series: From the CSO’s Archives: The First 130 Years. Prepared with support from the Rosenthal Archives at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association and its director Frank Villella, the new series launches in conjunction with the beginning of the Orchestra’s 130th season and focuses on the CSO’s extensive discography, featuring Grammy-winning releases as well as recordings highlighting virtually every era in CSO history. The new series will air weekly on Tuesday evenings at 8:00 pm beginning September 22 and is hosted by WFMT announcer Kerry Frumkin.
The first six programs in From the CSO’s Archives: The First 130 Years allow listeners to rediscover the extraordinary recording legacy of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra beginning with the first commercial recording—Mendelssohn’s Wedding March from A Midsummer Night’s Dream recorded in May 1916 under second music director Frederick Stock.
Other highlights include Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony led by Bernard Haitink in 2007 during his first season as principal conductor, the Grammy-winning recording of Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony led by Leonard Bernstein in his final CSO podium appearances in 1988, David Del Tredici’s Final Alice led by Sir Georg Solti and featuring American soprano Barbara Hendricks, Strauss’s First Horn Concerto featuring former CSO Principal Horn Dale Clevenger in an all-Strauss program, and a Halloween-inspired program that opens with a 1968 recording of Mussorgsky’s A Night on Bald Mountain led by first Ravinia Festival Music Director Seiji Ozawa.
