Chicagoan Charm and Power, Back for More

Gazing over the 107-year-old classical music presenter CAMA’s impressive roster of world-class orchestras and classical artists ushered into Santa Barbara over the decades can’t help but invite awe. And among the more recent, renewed jewels in the CAMA legacy crown is an ongoing relationship with one of America’s greatest orchestras, the Chicago Symphony, which makes its way back to The Granada Theatre on Friday, January 23. 

Founded in 1891, the Chicago Symphony takes its rightful place in what is considered the “Big Five” list of prominent American orchestras — along with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. (Arguably, the formidable and courageous Los Angeles needs to be added to the list, making it a “Big Six.”) Notably, all five on the list have passed through Santa Barbara courtesy of CAMA.

Once again, the Chicago Symphony will be led on this two-week winter tour out west by the eminent maestro Riccardo Muti. Although his tenure as music director lasted from 2010 through 2023, he returns in his current role as Music Director Emeritus for Life. Currently, the orchestra awaits the installment of 29-year-old Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä as its new music director, starting in 2027. 

With his Emeritus status, Muti brings a deep conductor-musician rapport to the task of leading the group. In 2023, as part of his farewell tour, Muti led a riveting program featuring Beethoven’s too-rarely performed Symphony No. 8 and Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. On Friday, he leads a program of Brahms’s Symphony No. 4, Stravinsky’s “Divertimento Suite” from The Fairy’s Kiss, and a different kind of Ravel piece — the crowd-pleasing splash of the crescendo exercise Boléro, with the vision of Bo Derek dancing in some heads.

When Muti came to Santa Barbara with the Chicago Symphony back in 2017 — the group’s first appearance here in 30 years — he touched on sensitive global dynamics and the bonding universal power of music. He had recently performed in Israel and, a few months later, in Iran with Italian musicians. “This was almost impossible when we started to prepare,” he said, “to put the idea on paper, the idea of friendship with Iran, because I had been in Israel before. Iran and Israel are, as you know, strong enemies. But through the music, I was able to make music with Iranian musicians together with the Italian musicians.

“This is what the governments around the world still don’t understand completely, that music and culture is one of the most important weapons that the western world — including the United States — has, and should be promoted around the world, just to underline that the United States is not only what many people perceive, as a nation of power. It is also a nation of great culture and great possibilities — democratic possibilities.”

Years later, amid a harsher era in America, his sentiments ring like idealistic, hopeful words.

The Chicago Symphony/CAMA connection is getting to be a habit, and the welcome mat is ever out for this stellar ensemble. 

See the Chicago Symphony perform on Friday, January 23, 7:30 p.m. at The Granada Theatre (1214 State St). See granadasb.org.