Hedy Weiss | May 28, 2021 3:14 pm
A socially distanced, reduced-capacity audience listens to the sounds of the CSO brass at the concert that signaled the return of Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts, May 27, 2021. (Credit Anne Ryan)
The sense of pure elation was palpable Thursday evening as members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra walked onstage to perform their first concert before a live audience in more than 14 months.
Thanks to our sponsors:
The orchestra, like the audience, was reduced in size (about 20 musicians in various combinations, along with a number of guest artists), with only its altogether golden brass and percussion sections positioned in a grand semicircle on Symphony Center’s Orchestra Hall stage. But their sound was as full and beautiful as ever as they played a meticulously chosen program of works by five American composers (all under the umbrella title of “Fanfare”) that alternately heralded a triumphant return and evoked the emotional turmoil of the pandemic era. The expert conductor for the evening was Michael Mulcahy, a trombonist with the CSO for more than three decades.