Chicago on the Aisle

Chicago On the Aisle is an online magazine focused on the performing arts, offering news and reviews about theater, classical music, dance, art exhibitions, and other cultural highlights. It’s a great resource for both cultural travelers and local art lovers. Whether you're visiting Chicago and have a passion for the arts or you're a resident looking to discover more, we’re here to help you enjoy everything this vibrant arts scene has to offer, just like a tourist would.

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Ax’s masterly recital of Beethoven, Schumann pointed up rare worth of Chicago piano series

1 week ago | chicagoontheaisle.com | Lawrence B. Johnson

Commentary: Evgeny Kissin, Víkingur Ólafsson close Symphony Center Presents season; Cliburn winner opens 2025-26 seriesBy Lawrence B. JohnsonIn elegant, illuminating and distinctly individual fashion, Emanuel Ax’s recent recital at Orchestra Hall exemplified everything that is marvelous about the annual piano series under the banner of Symphony Center Presents. Season after season, this longstanding treasure of a series brings to Chicago the greatest pianists of our time.
Nearly 70 years in, Chicago Symphony Chorus gives grand first airing of Haydn C major Mass

1 month ago | chicagoontheaisle.com | Lawrence B. Johnson

Commentary: Haydn’s Mass in C major, performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Manfred HoneckBy Lawrence B. JohnsonNot the least remarkable aspect of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus’ splendid performance of Haydn’s Mass in C major (“Mass in Time of War”) on March 13 was the simple fact the these forces had never before undertaken the work, a masterpiece that stands at the core of the choral repertoire.
In stellar concert with Finnish conductor, CSO extends an impressive string of performances

2 months ago | chicagoontheaisle.com | Lawrence B. Johnson

Review: Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Santtu-Matias Rouvali conducting; Seong-JIn Cho, piano. March 2 at Orchestra Hall. By Lawrence B. JohnsonOn a weeks-long run of concerts memorable for the performances of conductors and soloists alike, to say nothing of the orchestra itself, the Chicago Symphony fashioned one of the most brilliant nights in recent memory.
Romantic bounty shapes Orchestra Hall debut by Tchaikovsky and Gilmore winner Kantorow

Feb 4, 2025 | chicagoontheaisle.com | Lawrence B. Johnson

Review: Alexandre Kantorow, piano. Feb. 2 at Orchestra Hall. By Lawrence B. JohnsonThe French pianist Alexandre Kantorow at age 27 made a striking first impression in his Orchestra Hall recital Feb. 2, his debut in the formidable piano series under the aegis of Symphony Center Presents. The young French virtuoso, gold medalist of the 2019 Tchaikovsky Competition and winner of the Gilmore Artist Award in 2024, is a pianistic lion as serious as he is prodigious.
CSO finale’s convergence of three young stars signaled new energy heading into Mäkelä era

Jul 1, 2024 | chicagoontheaisle.com | Nancy Malitz

Commentary: The concert brought together new-generation pianist Daniil Trifonov, conductor Lahav Shani and composer Mason Bates. By Nancy MalitzThe Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s 2023-24 season, just ended at Symphony Center, has been the most electrifying in recent memory. The 123-year-old ensemble, founded in 1891, opened its season with a fabulous triumph of octogenarians. And yet the vibe has been distinctly young.
Mäkelä, CSO’s maestro-elect, shows his chops with baton and bow in Oslo orchestra concerts

Jun 24, 2024 | chicagoontheaisle.com | Laurence Vittes

Report: On a Vienna tour stop with his Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Klaus Mäkelä played cello in Brahms concerto, led First Symphony. By Laurence VittesVIENNA – It was June 6 and I had come to the Konzerthaus in Vienna to hear Klaus Mäkelä both play cello part and conduct Brahms’ Double Concerto on the Oslo Philharmonic tour fresh from appearances in Amsterdam and Paris.
Haymarket Opera closes out its spring season with early Handel oratorio ‘La Resurrezione’

Jun 21, 2024 | chicagoontheaisle.com | Lawrence B. Johnson

Review: Haymarket Opera Company production of Handel’s oratorio “La Resurrezione” on June 14 at DePaul University. By Lawrence B. JohnsonIn September, the ever-enterprising and always intriguing Haymarket Opera Company will return to its home base, Jarvis Opera Hall at DePaul University, to do what it does with unsurpassed style and relentless devotion: Baroque opera.
In concerto ‘The Elements,’ CSO and violinist mined the potential of composer partnerships

Jun 19, 2024 | chicagoontheaisle.com | Nancy Malitz

Review: Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jurai Valčuha; Joshua Bell, violin. June 13 at Orchestra Hall. By Nancy MalitzPremieres in the classical music world are too often one and done – works that don’t gain enough traction to compensate for the tremendous amount of time and energy that goes into their incubation and mastery.
A valedictory for percussion caps CSO tenure of composer in residence Jessie Montgomery

Jun 4, 2024 | chicagoontheaisle.com | Lawrence B. Johnson

Review: Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Manfred Honeck, May 30 at Orchestra Hall. By Lawrence B. JohnsonA notably productive chapter in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s composer-in-residence program came to a splendid, and certainly resonant, close last weekend with the world premiere of Jessie Montgomery’s “Procession” for percussion and orchestra. It was nothing short of a bang-up success.
Neeme Järvi, elder statesman on the podium, leads CSO in Mahler 2nd of intimate grandeur

May 28, 2024 | chicagoontheaisle.com | Lawrence B. Johnson

Review: Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Neeme Järvi at Orchestra Hall. By Lawrence B. JohnsonIt’s surely unusual to begin a concert review with a statement of full disclosure. But I feel duty-bound to note that I go back a long way with the Estonian conductor Neeme Järvi, who led the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a transcendent performance of Mahler’s Second Symphony at Orchestra Hall on the memorable evening of May 23.