ÍøÆغÚÁÏ

English soprano Felicity Lott began her musical studies on the violin and piano, but she did not entertain the idea of a musical career until after completing a degree in French at the Royal Holloway College. Having studied voice during college, she auditioned for the Royal Academy of Music and spent the next four years there. Her debut came in London as Seleuce in Handel's Tolomeo, but she first came to public attention in 1975 when she stepped in as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at the English National Opera, where she also sang Natasha in Prokofiev's War and Peace and Roxane in Szymanowski's King Roger. In 1976 at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, she continued this thread of modern opera in Henze's We Come to the River and Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The following year, she sang Anne Trulove in The Rake's Progress at Glyndebourne and Jennifer in Tippett's The Midsummer Marriage at the Welsh National Opera. Perhaps even more important was singing the Countess in Strauss' Capriccio for the Glyndebourne Touring Company; this was the first of many Strauss roles she was to make her own.

Lott also undertook roles from the standard repertory, including Poppea in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, and Xiphares in Mitridate, rè di Ponto. She had great success in French opera, especially as Charpentier's Louise, Blanche in Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmelites and the Woman in La voix humaine. She eventually added more Strauss roles to her repertoire, including both Octavian and the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, Christine in Intermezzo and Arabella. She has sung at all of the major opera houses around the world, including Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco, the Metropolitan, Hamburg, Dresden, Vienna, Paris Opera, and Munich. Her Mozart roles have remained central in her performing schedule.

Lott is also very active as a recitalist. She is one of the original members of the Songmaker's Almanac, a group created by pianist Graham Johnson to explore all areas of song literature. She and Richard Jackson have been admired for their performances of Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch. She is also well known for her interpretations of the songs of Francis Poulenc and has recorded nearly all of the songs appropriate for female voice. Her performances of Schumann's Frauenliebe und -leben and Berg's Sieben frühe Lieder are also highly acclaimed. Her recital programs are unusually varied, often contain little-known pieces, and are much anticipated by audiences. She also appears regularly with major orchestras around the world. Her concert repertoire includes the second and fourth symphonies of Mahler, the oratorios of Bach, Handel, Mendelssohn, and, of course, the Four Last Songs of Strauss.

When Felicity Lott began performing, her voice was a medium-sized lyric soprano with a strong lower register. As she has matured, the voice has taken on darker hues that have enabled her to be able to fulfill all of the demands of the great Strauss operas for which she is justly famous. She has excellent control of the entire dynamic range and a wonderful feel for the long phrases of Mozart and Strauss. She is an excellent actress and is careful to create a complete character in her performances.

Through the new decade, she continued performing, including a 2004 appearance in Offenbach's La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein at the Chatelet in Paris. Her later recordings covered Schubert (2010), Elgar (2011), and Mahler (2011), among others.

Lott is married to actor Gabriel Woolf. She became a Commander of the British Empire in 1990 and was knighted as a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1996.

The Swedish mezzo soprano Anne Sofie von Otter is among the most versatile singers on today's scene, recording and performing opera of various eras and in various languages, art song, oratorio, rock, pop, and jazz. As a song recitalist, collaborating with pianist Bengt Forsberg, she has specialized in unusual and original programming. Von Otter was born in Stockholm on May 9, 1955. Her father was a Swedish diplomat, and her childhood was divided among stints in several countries; she mastered multiple languages as a child. Von Otter enrolled at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, studying with Vera Rosza, Erik Werba, and Geoffrey Parsons. Joining the cast of the Basel Opera in 1983, she made her debut as Alcina in Haydn's Orlando Paladino and singing several "pants" roles including the title role in Rossini's Tancredi. For a time, von Otter specialized in 18th century opera, including the muscular opera seria heroine roles that were just starting to become popular at the end of the 20th century. After multiple audition attempts, von Otter also landed a place in the stable of singers associated with conductor John Eliot Gardiner, performing and recording such works as Handel's Jephtha, Bach's Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248, and St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, and Mozart's Requiem in D minor, K. 626. Von Otter has performed at La Scala in Milan, Covent Garden in London, and other major European opera houses. With Bengt Forsberg she has released critically acclaimed recitals such as Terezin/Theresienstadt (2007) featuring music written by composers being held in concentration camps. Her artistic scope has only grown as she has aged; in 2016 she joined with the experimental ensemble Brooklyn Rider for a recital of works by composers ranging from Elvis Costello (with whom she had already released a duet album) to Björk, Nico Muhly, Kate Bush, and jazz pianist Brad Mehldau, with whom she recorded the album Love Songs in 2010. She has also recorded mainstream Romantic lieder repertory as well as Swedish art songs. Von Otter released A Simple Song, with Forsberg on the organ, on Sweden's BIS label in late 2018. ~ James Manheim

A light-voiced tenor with a sensuous sound and a trim, handsome appearance, Hans Peter Blochwitz made a somewhat late debut in opera, but quickly rose to the top level of Austro-German lyric tenors. His thoroughness and accuracy as a musician brought engagements with the most fastidious conductors and he secured a place among those artists well suited to Bach and Handel, as well as Mozart. In addition to opera and orchestral concert work, Blochwitz soon found himself in demand as a Lieder singer. After studies at both Mainz and Frankfort, Blochwitz graduated with a doctorate in computer science. By the time of his debut as Lenski, he was nearly 36, but engagements were almost immediately proffered from major European houses. When Peter Schreier, one of the era's leading Don Ottavios, conducted his first Don Giovanni, he chose Blochwitz for the role in the 1987 Hamburg production. His suitability for Mozart tenor roles placed him in demand with such theaters as Vienna, La Scala, Paris (both the Bastille and Châtelet), Zürich, Brussels, Covent Garden, San Francisco, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam, as well as in San Francisco and San Diego. During the 1990 - 1991 season, Blochwitz made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera (again in the role of Don Ottavio). The Salzburg Festival also beckoned and his first appearance there during that same season was as Belmonte in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail. Two other parts with which he became closely identified were undertaken in 1992 - 1993. At Frankfurt, he sang Tito in La clemenza di Tito, and for Zürich, he introduced his Flamand in Strauss' Capriccio. Despite his successes in music of the eighteenth century, Blochwitz has not neglected works of his own time. His repertory has included works by Britten, Henze (Der junge Lord), and Martin. He was chosen to premier Hans Zender's adaptation of Schubert's Die Winterreise and subsequently recorded the work. Blochwitz's song recitals have been heard worldwide from London's Wigmore Hall to Japan. On recording, he has collaborated with conductors as diverse as Levine, Chailly, and Harnoncourt.

Tall, warm of voice, and reserved in stage manner, lyric bass Gwynne Howell found his career significantly advanced with his early work with both Benjamin Britten and Georg Solti. Still active in his sixties, Howell pursued twin pathways in opera and concert work, consistently winning good reviews in the latter while achieving his greatest stage successes in roles not requiring a galvanizing stage persona. A fine Wagner singer, he is better suited to such parts as Fasolt, King Marke, and Pogner, rather than to such a hard-edged character as Hunding. In the later stages of his career, his once rock-steady instrument has spread in its upper range, though its timbre remains attractive and soft-grained. During his studies at the Royal Manchester College of Music, Howell was afforded the opportunity to sing Mozart in concert while learning his stagecraft in student performances of Wagner operas. Of the several roles he essayed, Pogner remained in his active repertory and grew into an astutely acted, handsomely sung portrayal. Making his debuts with London's two major companies just two years apart, Howell has continued to sing with both, pursuing at the English National Opera (Sadler's Wells at the time of the singer's first performance in 1968) and the Royal Opera House operas both in the established repertory and new works, many of them premieres. At both houses, first roles were small, though important ones. Soon, Howell's dignified presence and uncommonly beautiful sound were considered too valuable not to engage for principal parts. At Sadler's Wells/English National Opera, he progressed from Monterone to Filippo II in Don Carlo, the protagonist in Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle, Gurnemanz, and even into the bass baritone reaches of Hans Sachs. In 2000, he created the unsavory Croucher in the world premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage's The Silver Tassel with the company. Meanwhile, at Covent Garden, Howell moved from the First Nazarene in Strauss' Salome to Padre Guardiano, Pimen, the Landgraf in Tannhäuser and Richard Taverner in the 1972 world premiere of Maxwell Davies' Taverner. In 1996, Howell participated in another Davies' premiere, The Doctor of Myddfai, this one at the Welsh National Opera. Critics drew parallels between this work, based on a Welsh subject portraying an extended dialogue between the Doctor and a weak-willed Ruler, and the facedown between Filippo and the Grand Inquisitor in Verdi's Don Carlo. As the Ruler, Howell revealed new dramatic purpose, a quality acknowledged in the overwhelmingly favorable reviews. The Financial Times referred to the singer's "noble disillusioned Ruler" while The Western Mail noted, "Welsh bass Gwynne Howell gave a characteristically strong performance as the Ruler who at first rejects the Doctor but seeks his help when inflicted by the terrible disease that has struck down the Myddfai villagers." Although Howell has centered his stage career in London, he has sung also in the major houses of, among other cities, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Munich, Paris, and Geneva. During the course of his long career, he has collaborated with such celebrated conductors as Claudio Abbado, James Levine, Carlos Kleiber, Carlo Maria Giulini, Leonard Bernstein, Riccardo Muti, Pierre Boulez, and Daniel Barenboim. Among Howell's numerous recordings are Britten's English-language edition of Bach's St. John Passion (where he sings Jesus), Elgar's Dream of Gerontius, Rossini's Guillaume Tell, and Handel's Messiah.

The Chicago Symphony Chorus is among the best choruses attached to a world-class symphony orchestra. It was established in 1957, when the music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner, engaged Margaret Hillis to develop a permanent chorus of a quality fit to partner the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at its concerts. Hillis already had a record of achievement: she was a junior golf champion and a civilian flying instructor for the U.S. Navy during World War II. She studied music at Indiana University and the Juilliard School (she had been a tuba and string bass player in her high school band), became assistant to America's leading choral conductor, Robert Shaw, and was conductor of the chorus of the American Opera Society in New York. She quickly fulfilled the mission given her by Reiner, developing one of the world's greatest choral groups.

Recordings of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with its chorus have won a number of Grammy Awards. It also appears with visiting symphony orchestras when they wish to perform a choral/orchestral work. The chorus also tours with the orchestra and has been critically acclaimed for its performances in Europe, which include Berlioz's Damnation of Faust, Schoenberg's Moses und Aron, and Brahms' Requiem.

In 1994 Duain Wolfe succeeded Hillis as the chorus' director. He originated the orchestra and chorus' popular Welcome Yule! Christmas concert programs.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is one of the three most acclaimed orchestras in America and one of the few serious rivals the New York Philharmonic has had in its long history. Curiously, the histories of the two orchestras are somewhat intermingled.

Theodore Thomas had organized and led orchestras in New York during the 1870s and 1880s, competing with the Philharmonic Society of New York for audiences, soloists, and American premieres of works. His orchestra did very well as a major rival to the group that would become the New York Philharmonic. The orchestra visited Chicago during several seasons, and it was intended that he would be music director of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in that city. However, in 1891, he abandoned New York entirely in favor of Chicago and arrived as the first conductor of what was then called the Chicago Orchestra. Thomas held that position until his death in 1905. In his honor, the Chicago Orchestra changed its name to the Theodore Thomas Orchestra in 1906. Six years later, the group was renamed the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

It was under the leadership of Thomas' assistant, Frederick Stock, that the Chicago Symphony's modern reputation was formed. From 1905 until his death in 1942, Stock led the orchestra in decades of programs that featured not only the established classics but the American premieres of many post-romantic works. Additionally, Stock raised the level of performance and the financial status of his players and established the orchestra in a major teaching role for aspiring musicians in its home city. Its recordings were relatively few in number because the long-playing record -- central to the appreciation of classical music -- had not yet been invented, which means there is little evidence by which modern listeners can judge the work of the orchestra during this period, but some of the recordings from that era were among the best in the world at the time. Among the few available from the period on major labels are the Beethoven Piano Concertos Nos. 4 and 5 on the BMG label, featuring soloist Arthur Schnabel with Stock conducting.

Stock's death in 1942 precipitated a difficult decade for the orchestra. Apart from the general complications of World War II, it had a great deal of trouble finding acceptable leadership. Désiré Defauw lasted for only four years, from 1943 until 1947, and Artur Rodzinski (best known for his leadership of the New York Philharmonic) was in the job for only one year (1947-1948). Rafael Kubelik served three years as music director from 1950 until 1953, but his gentlemanly manner and decidedly modern, European-centered taste in music proved unsuited to the players, critics, and management -- although it was under Kubelik that the orchestra made its first successful modern recordings, for the Mercury label, many of which were reissued in the mid-'90s.

Fritz Reiner became the music director of the Chicago Symphony in 1953, beginning the modern renaissance and blossoming of the orchestra. Under Reiner, the orchestra's playing sharpened and tightened, achieving a clean, precise, yet rich sound that made it one of the most popular orchestras in the United States. The Chicago Symphony under Reiner became established once and for all as an international-level orchestra of the first order, rivaling the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony. Moreover, Reiner's arrival with the orchestra coincided with its move to RCA Victor, which, in 1954, was beginning to experiment with stereo recording. With Reiner as conductor, these "Living Stereo" recordings -- characterized by vivid textures, sharp stereo separation, and microphone placement that gave the impact of a live performance -- became some of the best-selling classical albums of all time and have since been reissued numerous times on compact disc to new acclaim from critics and listeners, more than a generation removed from their original era.

Reiner's death in 1963 led to another interregnum period, during which conductor Jean Martinon led the orchestra (1963-1968). In 1969, Sir Georg Solti joined the orchestra as its music director. Under Solti, the orchestra's national and international reputations soared, as did its record sales. Reiner had begun the process of cultivating the burgeoning audience for late-romantic composers such as Mahler, but it was with Solti that the works of Mahler and Bruckner became standard fare in the orchestra's programs, right alongside those of Beethoven and Mozart. The playing standard achieved during Solti's tenure, in concert and recordings, was the highest in the history of the orchestra. Additionally, the orchestra under Solti began a quarter-century relationship with London Records that resulted in some of the best-sounding recordings of the era. Solti's approach to performance was very flamboyant yet intensely serious -- even his performances of lighter opera and concert overtures strike a perfect balance between broad gestures and finely wrought detail, attributes that have made him perhaps the most admired conductor of a major American orchestra, if not the most famous (Leonard Bernstein inevitably got more headlines during the 1960s, especially with his knack for publicity). Solti was both popular and respected, and his tenure with the Chicago Symphony coincided with his becoming the winner of the greatest number of Grammy Awards of any musician in history (he also recorded with orchestras in London and Vienna). Daniel Barenboim succeeded Solti and served as music director from 1991 until 2006, with Solti transitioning to the post of music director emeritus. Bernard Haitink was named the orchestra's first principal conductor, holding this position from 2006 through 2010. Riccardo Muti was chosen as the tenth music director in the orchestra's history in 2010.

As with other major American orchestras, the Chicago Symphony found itself competing with its own history, especially where recordings are concerned. Reissues of its work under Reiner and Solti continue to sell well and are comparable or superior to the orchestra's current recordings in sound and interpretive detail. Even the early-'50s recordings under Kubelik were reissued by Mercury in the late '90s, while RCA-BMG and some specialty collector's labels have re-released the recordings under Stock. The recordings of Solti and Reiner leading the Chicago Symphony are uniformly excellent, and virtually all of them can be recommended. The orchestra also maintains composer-in-residence and artist-in-residence partnerships; in 2023, Jessie Montgomery occupied the former, and Hilary Hahn the latter. ~ Bruce Eder