It’s always a festive occasion when the Chicago Symphony Orchestra comes to Foellinger Great Hall, but when Riccardo Muti takes the podium, the concert is likely to be filed under “never forget” in your mental concert memory .

Maestro Muti was in good spirits and the music was bright and exciting. Muti, as we know, loves punctuality, and he came on stage at 7:31 p.m., under my watch, and he began a funny rendition of the overture to Gaetano Donizetti’s comic opera “Don Pasquale” . In this music, the master’s hand could be heard as Muti signaled a slight delay in one of Donizetti’s sparkling melodies. Then, after the opening, Foellinger’s doors opened and a small stream of latecomers entered. Muti took the intermezzo in his stride, ordering, as a joke, two loud chords, then silence. He seemed to be joking with his musicians, and as the last characters slowly took their seats, Muti repeated the two strong chords that opened the longest of Giuseppe Verdi’s ballets for his operas offered in Paris, where every great opera had to have a ballet. . This ballet was called “The Four Seasons” and was written for a production of “I Vespri Siciliani”.

This music is easy to dismiss as an honest but somewhat uninspired product of Verdi’s workshop, but with an orchestra like the CSO and Muti’s tender, loving care at work, the delights of Verdi’s orchestral writing come through in high relief. In the “Summer” section there was a delightful oboe solo, movingly performed by CSO oboist William Welter. Along the way, one might hear reminiscences of the “Anvil Chorus” from “Il Trovatore.” At the end of the final “Autumn” section, the applause was enthusiastic and many of the CSO solo members took well-deserved bows.

The highlight of the second half of the program was the three-part musical suite written by Osvaldo Golijov for the Francis Ford Coppola film “Megalopolis”. This was the world premiere of this sequel. The Chicago premiere took place the following evening. The Suite opened with a “Roma” sequence in which the fireworks of orchestral brilliance seemed a deliberate homage to Milkos Rozsa’s music for the 1959 film “Ben-Hur.” From the tumult of “ Roma” emerged a lovely solo for saxophone, beautifully performed by Timothy McAllister. The part that moved me the most was the middle one, entitled “Love is in the air, Death Kiss Utopia”. Here, massive themes intertwine and collide in a stunning display of late Romantic opulence. The final section, “Saturnalia,” more than lived up to its title, and in wave after wave of thunderous sound, the CSO brass proved to be second to none. Amid a standing ovation, composer Golijov was summoned on stage to join Muti and the orchestra in accepting the audience’s cheers. Rumor has it that the film “Megalopolis” performed poorly at the box office, but a recording of Gilijov’s music, made in Hungary, is expected to sell well. I would love to hear a recording of the CSO playing this “Megalopolis Suite”.

After the gigantism of Golijov, Muti and the CSO offer Emmanuel Chabrier’s mini-masterpiece, “Espana”. In approximately seven minutes of electric rhythms and charming melodies, Chabrier evoked Spain’s unique dance spirit. Muti and the CSO made for a delightful read that I wanted to continue again and again. At the premiere in 1883, he was kissed.

After the evocation of Spain by a Frenchman, the concert ended with the real thing, Spanish, in the form of a suite from the ballet “Le Tricorne” by Manuel de Falla, and the dancing spirit of all the evening reached a resounding finale. in the “Jota” which ended Falla’s Suite. Muti, since 2023 music director emeritus in Chicago, moved all evening on the podium with the controlled vivacity of a conductor still in the prime of his life, and I hope to hear him soon as well as the magnificent CSO at FGH, when maybe we can bring everyone together. in their place at 7:30 p.m. sharp.

John Frayne hosts “Classics of the Phonograph” Saturdays on WILL-FM and, in retirement, teaches regularly at the Osher Lifelong Learner Institute in Champaign. Her email is [email protected].