Frank Miller, the respected veteran principal cellist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, retires for health reasons after 25 years in the first chair position.
JAN. 3
Leontyne Price, one of the great Verdi sopranos of the age, announces her retirement from opera, after a Metropolitan Opera performance of ”Aida.” The diva, 57, cautions that this farewell does not mean she is retiring from singing. As if to prove it, she sings a concert with the CSO in July at Ravinia, a feast for fans. Some retirement; some diva.
JAN. 15
The CSO begins its fifth European tour under music director Georg Solti. The $990,000, 19-day winter journey takes Gen. Solti and his conquering army to 11 major musical centers–though Berlin and Vienna are conspicuously absent. Mayor Harold Washington and a Chicago entourage attend the final program of the tour, Feb. 2, in London. After first refusing to give any money to the orchestra, an apparently embarrassed City Hall finally coughs up $25,000 toward the orchestra`s tour expenses. The state of Illinois, by comparison, gives $250,000.
FEB. 3
The 300th birthday anniversary of composer George Frideric Handel. Lyric Opera, Music of the Baroque, the Chicago Symphony, Chicago Chamber Choir, City Musickand other local organizations all sing ”Hallelujah”–but a large number of important Handel works go unexplored locally.
FEB. 21
The University of Chicago music department begins one of the most significant tributes to Alban Berg on the 100th anniversary of the composer`s birth–a four-day international conference including concerts, the presentation of scholarly papers and a film of the opera ”Lulu.”
MARCH 14
Former CSO music director Rafael Kubelik makes a grand pause in his global guest-conducting activities, bidding adieu to his former orchestra by directing the world premiere of his ”A Symphonic Peripeteia.”
MARCH 20
Old-fashioned diva-worship combines with ravishing vocal beauty as Kiri Te Kanawa gives a concert for Lyric Opera at the Auditorium.
MARCH 21
Johann Sebastian Bach turns 300, and his joyous, astonishing, monumental, original, life-affirming, infinitely varied body of work is duly celebrated by every orchestra, chorus, chamber ensemble, solo singer, instrumentalist, synthesizer, computer, music critic, musicologist, music publisher and record company in the civilized world–or nearly so.
APRIL 18
Morton Gould`s nostalgic and lyrical Flute Concerto has its world premiere by CSO principal Donald Peck, the work`s dedicatee, with Georg Solti and the Symphony.
APRIL 24
Henry Fogel, 42, is named executive director of the CSO, the 10th chief executive in the organization`s 94-year history. The announcement caps a seven-month, nationwide search for a successor to the late John S. Edwards.
APRIL 25
Blazing, propulsive Verdi from Solti and the CSO: ”Falstaff” in concert form, starring Guillermo Sarabia, Christa Ludwig, Katia Ricciarelli, Wolfgang Brendel and–most notably–the delectable Kathleen Battle.
MAY 25
Chicago Opera Theater adds another contemporary American opera to its list of significant company premieres: Robert Ward`s ”The Crucible.”
JUNE 2-8
San Francisco Opera unveils all four music dramas of Wagner`s ”Der Ring des Nibelungen,” conducted by Edo de Waart, staged by Nikolaus Lehnhoff and designed by John Conklin. A great box-office success, this is one of the most visually handsome, musically and dramatically cogent productions in modern times.
JUNE 13
David Del Tredici`s campy, cutesy, ultimately empty ”March to Tonality” has its premiere by the CSO under Michael Tilson Thomas.
JUNE 25
The Ravinia Festival celebrates its first half-century as a leading American festival of music, dance and theater. The 50th-anniversary season adheres to the successful program formula that has marked the durable (13 seasons) partnership of music director James Levine and executive director Edward Gordon. At season`s end, Ravinia tallies 435,000 paying customers, $3.8 million in ticket sales and operating revenues in excess of $4 million.
AUG. 8-13
Paul Fromm, the Chicago new-music Maecenas and wine merchant, moves his Fromm Week of New Music from Tanglewood to Aspen. The four concerts yield a stimulating array of new sounds, new attitudes, new directions. Unfortunately, one comes away remembering less the music itself than the shockingly uneven quality of the performances by the overworked, underprepared student musicians.
SEPT. 23
While the Chicago Symphony struggles to get its fund-solicitation act together, Lyric Opera becomes the first Chicago musical institution to go public with a major fund-raising effort. The opera company announces the start of a $25-million capital campaign, the first such drive in the company`s history.
SEPT. 25
After singing only one of six scheduled performances, Placido Domingo departs the cast of Lyric Opera`s ”Otello” to search for relatives in the rubble of the Mexican earthquakes, becoming the most publicized opera defector in a season riddled with superstar cancellations, near and far.
SEPT. 26
The Chicago Symphony begins its 95th season, the conservative programs reflecting the uncertainties of an organization in transition.
OCT. 21
Katia and Marielle Labeque, the French duo-piano sisters in their belated local debut, charm just about everyone in sight with their vigorous yet supple pianism.
NOV. 6
The Chicago Symphony scales tickets up to $50 for a pension fund benefit performance of Wagner`s ”Tristan und Isolde” (Act II), presented in concert form under Daniel Barenboim. No more than 600 seats are sold, making it the musical season`s most expensive box-office flop. The performance, fortunately, turns out to be an artistic triumph.
NOV. 14
Aaron Copland, the genial patriarch of American music, turns 85 and his works are celebrated in performances throughout the land. Apart from Erich Leinsdorf`s account of the Third Symphony with the CSO, most Chicago musical groups ignore the occasion.
NOV. 15
A new production of Bellini`s ”I Capuleti e i Montecchi” opens at Lyric Opera, introducing Chicago audiences to Cecilia Gasdia, one of the most important vocal talents to appear in years.
NOV. 15
The Fires of London, the adventuresome English new-music ensemble led by composer Peter Maxwell Davies, embarks on its first major tour of the U.S. since 1976. The tour does not–repeat, not–include Chicago. The Contemporary Chamber Players of the University of Chicago eases our disappointment with a performance of Davies` fascinating music-theater piece, ”Vesalii Icones,”
featuring a solo dancer from the Fires.
DEC. 6
Andrew Lloyd Webber`s cliche-ridden ”Requiem” has its Midwest premiere in Chicago, at benefit prices. Appearances by the composer and wife Sarah Brightman, the soprano soloist, are announced, but neither shows up.
DEC. 10
The Chicago Symphony announces it has received a $2.5-million challenge grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the largest grant given to the organization in its 94-year history.
DEC. 15
Vladimir Horowitz, King of the Comeback Trail, returns to the recital stage of New York`s Carnegie Hall after a two-year absence. The legendary pianist, 82, also returns to Paris (where he had not performed for 34 years), makes two recordings and allows his stellar fingers to be filmed in action for a new documentary, titled ”Vladimir Horowitz, the Last Romantic.”
DEC. 18
Lyric Opera makes a belated entry into the wonderful world of captions
–here called ”projected English titles”–with its company premiere of Puccini`s ”La Rondine.”
