Customer Reviews
What You'll Get
It’s easy to forget that many familiar melodies originally had lyrics, which is why it took musicologists so long to discover that The Beatles filled their first five singles with the words from Eine kleine Nachtmusik. Sing along with the symphony with this deal to see the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall in Evanston. Choose from the following options:
- For $40, you get one ticket for main-floor seating to one concert (up to an $80 value, including fees). Choose between the following concerts: - “Bravo Brazil!” on Sunday, September 30, at 7 p.m.
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“Mozart and Beethoven” on Sunday, November 4, at 7 p.m.<p>
- For $80, you get one ticket for main-floor seating to both of the above shows (up to a $160 value, including fees).
- For $160, you get a season pass, good for main-floor seating for all four shows of the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2012–13 season (up to a $305 value, including all fees).<p>
Beneath a honeycomb of sound-enhancing panels at Northwestern’s Pick-Staiger Hall, the Chicago Philharmonic’s tight-knit career musicians—many of them drawn from the Lyric Opera—profile beloved composers with help from nationally acclaimed guest performers.
September’s concert brings Brazilian conductor and a former principal oboist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Alex Klein, to the podium to lead the philharmonic in Brazilian compositions that evoke the musical mélange of the South American country. Brazilian pianist Arnaldo Cohen also takes the stage with Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto no. 1. The piece’s mellifluous strains dance above sometimes dissonant harmonies, subverting classical structures with the subtle playfulness of a bright pink wig worn under a regular white wig.
In November, the president of the Cleveland Institute of Music, Joel Smirnoff, takes up the baton for a night of classics by a duo of legendary composers. Smirnoff kicks off the evening with Mozart’s Overture to The Impresario, opening with elegant bombast that transitions into merrily tripping strings before building to a crescendo interspersed with regal horn blasts. Praised by the New York Times for her “intensely musical and impassioned playing,” violinist Joan Kwuon follows up, putting bow to string for Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D Major. The concerto’s famous third movement begins with a plaintive violin jig that recalls the strains of a melancholy windup toy before the orchestra joins in with rich, sweeping harmony. Mozart’s Symphony no. 40 closes out the night with ominous string triplets, galloping forward at the hesitant pace of a horse in his human Halloween costume.
Season tickets open up further musical vistas including April’s “Nordic Romance” concert, which features works by Edvard Grieg and Jean Sibelius. The season closes in May with the one-two punch of Symphony no. 1 by American giant Leonard Bernstein and Franz Schubert’s Symphony no. 9, dubbed “The Great” by musicologists and “The Greatest” by Schubert’s mom.
The Fine Print
Expiration varies. Amount paid never expires. Limit 8 per person. Valid only for option purchased. Redeem starting 9/30 for a ticket at venue box office. Must show valid ID matching name on voucher at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. Must provide first and last name at checkout, which we will provide to facilitate redemption of voucher. Refundable only on day of purchase. Must redeem together to sit together. Discount reflects Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra's current ticket prices - price may differ on day of event. Merchant is solely responsible to purchasers for the care and quality of the advertised goods and services.
About Chicago Philharmonic
When the Chicago Philharmonic was founded in 1988, it was a tightly knit ensemble consisting of principals from the Lyric Opera Orchestra. Since then, it has blossomed into a collective of more than 200 professional Chicagoland musicians. But despite the increased size and bow-tie budget, the players have lost none of their precision or dynamic nature, prompting the Chicago Tribune to herald the group as “one of the country's finest symphonic orchestras.”