Please note a change in this evening’s repertoire: Chopin’s Waltz in A-flat Major and Nocturne in E-flat Major will not be performed.

Audiences clamor for music of Poland’s ultimate musical ambassador, Frédéric Chopin, and Ravinia gets regular requests to program the timeless preludes, waltzes, nocturnes and concertos that have remained popular for centuries because of their memorable and beautiful melodies. Now your musical prayers have been answered. 

Chopin explored new forms that his predecessors and contemporaries had not: his ballades, preludes, Polonaises and mazurkas made attendance at one of his “salons” Europe’s most coveted invitation, and his liaison with the charismatic counter-culture author Georges Sand, as well as his abiding yet fraught friendship with his fellow keyboard genius, Franz Liszt, kept his personal life as fascinating as his music.   

The opening concert of the 2010 Chicago Symphony Orchestra summer residency demonstrates why Garrick Ohlsson was the first American ever to win the coveted Chopin Prize. The all-Chopin program includes both concertos and various famous solo works.