July 13, 2025
By Hanna Edgar
The Chicago Symphony’s return to Ravinia? Make it double.
On July 11 and 12, the orchestra and chief festival conductor Marin Alsop opened its season with two twinned programs. Both began with engrossing contemporary American openers: Carlos Simon’s “AMEN!” on Friday, Jessie Montgomery’s “Strum” on Saturday. Those were followed by gripping performances of piano cornerstones: Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” played by Bruce Liu, then Gershwin’s Concerto in F, played by Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Each ended, customarily, with a symphonic juggernaut: Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, “Pathétique,” respectively.