Mondays at 8:00 pm
Revisiting the best Ravinia Festival performances of Summer 2019.
With Ravinia’s 2020 season canceled on account of COVID-19, WFMT is bringing you some of the highlight performances recorded at the Martin Theatre last summer. Programming highlights include recitals by soprano Angel Blue, tenor Matthew Polenzani, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, and more.
WFMT and Ravinia have partnered for an additional broadcast series: New From the Ravinia Festival, which airs on Thursday evenings. Learn more here.
There are no upcoming broadcasts at the moment.
‘Considering Matthew Shepard’
September 28, 2020
Composer-conductor Craig Hella Johnson leads this performance of his 2016 oratorio commemorating LGBTQ hate crime victim Matthew Shepard featuring Grammy-winning vocal ensemble Conspirare.
Leon Fleisher — A master hand at Bach, Mozart, and more
September 21, 2020
From 2018: Accomplished pianist Leon Fleisher is joined by Katherine Jacobson Fleisher, piano; the Argus Quartet; and Kit Polen, double bass in this celebratory performance honoring Fleisher’s 90th birthday. Works by Bach, Mozart, and more.
Gary Hoffman and Jon Kimura Parker
September 14, 2020
Cellist Gary Hoffman returns to Ravinia for this recital of works by Debussy, Brahms, Fauré, and Rachmaninoff with accompaniment by pianist Jon Kimura Parker.
Dan Tepfer, piano
August 31, 2020
Dan Tepfer brings the world premiere of Inventions / Reinventions, featuring each of Bach’s Fifteen Inventions for solo keyboard paired with an improvised Invention by Tepfer.
Stile Antico
August 24, 2020
Stile Antico, one of the world’s leading vocal ensembles, presents an imaginative program of sacred and secular choral music from Tudor England, recorded live at Ravinia Festival on June 18, 2019.
Bernstein’s ‘Songfest’
August 17, 2020
Leonard Bernstein’s Songfest, a cycle of American poems for six singers, is performed by the Caroga Arts Ensemble conducted by Alexander Platt, with vocalists from the Steans Music Institute and three poet-readers from the Poetry Foundation.
Alon Goldstein, piano
August 10, 2020
Goldstein presents a program tracing the influential legacy of Domenico Scarlatti.
Jory Vinikour, harpsichord
August 3, 2020
The acclaimed, Chicago-area harpsichordist performs Bach's Goldberg Variations.
Cellist Alisa Weilerstein and the Shanghai Symphony
July 27, 2020
Works by Dvořák, Rachmaninoff, and Qigang Chen in this performance conducted by Long Yu recorded at the Pavilion at Ravinia Festival.
Soprano Angel Blue
July 20, 2020
Ascendent soprano Angel Blue gives a recital of works by Mozart, Richard Strauss, and Rachmaninoff, and more with the accompaniment of pianist Catherine Miller.
Tenor Matthew Polenzani
July 13, 2020
Joined by pianist Kevin Murphy, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano, and singers from the Ravinia Stearns Music Institute, this leading operatic tenor — who hails from the Chicago area — gives a performance of works by Schubert, Beethoven, Brahms, and Janáček.
Juilliard String Quartet
July 6, 2020
The renowned, longstanding ensemble performed at Ravinia in June 2019, sharing works by Beethoven and Dvořák, as well as a quartet-commissioned piece by Lembit Beecher.
Gautier Capuçon and Jean-Yves Thibaudet [Rebroadcast]
April 13, 2020
This is a rebroadcast from a performance with cellist Gautier Capuçon and pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet recorded live from Ravinia’s Martin Theatre. Gautier Capuçon is a true 21st century ambassador for the cello. Performing internationally with many of the world’s foremost conductors and instrumentalists, he is also founder and leader of the Classe d’Excellence de Violoncelle at the Fondation Louis Vuitton ...
Considering Matthew Shepard
January 6, 2020
Composer-conductor Craig Hella Johnson leads this performance of his 2016 oratorio commemorating LGBTQ hate crime victim Matthew Shepard featuring Grammy-winning vocal ensemble Conspirare.
Alon Goldstein — the Art of Imagination: The Generational Influence of Domenico Scarlatti
September 30, 2019
Earlier this month, pianist Alon Goldstein took the Ravinia Festival stage at Bennett Gordon Hall for a program highlighting the inventiveness and influence of Domenico Scarlatti, drawing a line from the prolific Baroque composer to Beethoven, Schumann, Ginastera, and Bernstein.
Cellist Alisa Weilerstein and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra
September 23, 2019
Cellist Alisa Weilerstein joins conductor Long Yu and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the oldest symphony orchestra in Asia, for a performance of Dvořák’s cello concerto at the pavilion of Ravinia Festival. Also featured in this program are works by Rachmaninoff and Chinese-born composer Qigang Chen. READ MORE: Hear 5 of Alisa Weilerstein’s Favorite New Works for Cello
Harpsichordist Jory Vinikour performs Bach’s Goldberg Variations
September 16, 2019
Acclaimed harpsichordist Jory Vinikour takes the stage of Bennett Gordon Hall to perform Bach’s famed Goldberg Variations.
Renée Fleming and Emerson String Quartet perform Previn’s Penelope
September 9, 2019
Soprano Renée Fleming, pianist Simone Dinnerstein, and the Emerson String Quartet perform André Previn’s final work, Penelope. A Ravinia co-commission, the piece features text by Tom Stoppard and narration by Jennifer Ehle.
Soprano Angel Blue
September 2, 2019
Soprano Angel Blue and pianist Catherine Miller take the stage of Ravinia Festival’s Martin Theatre to perform a selection of songs by Mozart, Strauss, Rachmaninoff, Jake Heggie, and more, plus two spirituals.
Matthew Polenzani
August 26, 2019
Evanston-born star tenor Matthew Polenzani returns to Ravinia Festival for this program of Schubert, Beethoven, Brahms, and Janáček that also features mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano, pianist Kevin Murphy, and singers from Ravinia's Steans Music Institute (RSMI) — the festival's summer young artists conservatory.