The countdown to the June culmination of Riccardo Muti’s 13-year music directorship of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra took a surprising turn Thursday evening with the first in a set four concerts.
To celebrate the end of such a significant era, it would be natural to expect the conductor and the orchestra to present big, blockbuster works or attention-grabbing premieres like they did last week with a program that included Rachmaninoff’s massive Symphony No. 2.
