Review: ‘Salonen Conducts Daphnis and Chloe’ at the CSO: Looking forward by glancing backwards

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Chorus perform Maurice Ravel's"Daphnis and Chloe" under the direction of Esa-Pekka Salonen at Symphony Center on June 2, 2022, in Chicago.

Even so, that “Daphnis” was no slouch. The CSO’s decadeslong rapport with their guest maestro was audible from the ballet’s opening bars, Salonen’s pinpoint beat coaxing a perfectly cohesive, so-soft-you-could-be-imagining-it whisper from basses and harps. Ravel’s woodwind writing, always ravishing but especially so in “Daphnis,” showcased standout playing by English horn Scott Hostetler and guest alto flute Kelly Zimba Lukić, visiting from the Toronto Symphony.

One hopes Salonen will soon consider recording his take on Ravel’s most ambitious orchestral score — even if the honors go to the San Francisco Symphony, which he’s led as music director since 2020. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Chorus perform Maurice Ravel's"Daphnis and Chloe" under the direction of Esa-Pekka Salonen at Symphony Center Thursday.

But in his scan of the audience, Salonen likely noticed plenty of even younger faces. As confirmed by a CSO administrator earlier this season, student attendees have been a core pillar of the CSO’s post-shutdown audience — a data point that tracks anecdotally most nights at Symphony Center, and which doesn’t appear to have been affected by the CSO’s quiet lifting of its vaccine mandate on May 17. Those demographics seemed even more pointed during Salonen’s residency.

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