Book Launch and Discussion: Celebrating Chicago Music Critic Andrew Patner
Fri, May 3, 2019 from 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Italian Cultural Institute
500 N Michigan Ave, Suite 1450
A panel discussion celebrating the work of Andrew Patner and the publication of “A Portrait in Four Movements: The Chicago Symphony under Barenboim, Boulez, Haitink, and Muti” (May 2019, University of Chicago Press). This discussion of Patner’s life and work will feature the book’s three contributors, New Yorker music critic Alex Ross, attorney John R. Schmidt, and musicologist Douglas W. Shadle. Presented by the University of Chicago Press, in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago.
Andrew Patner was a Chicago-based journalist, broadcaster, critic, and interviewer. Patner was the celebrated classical music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1991 until his death, at age 55, in 2015. On his weekly radio programs on WFMT, “Critical Thinking” and “Critic’s Choice,” Patner interviewed both renowned and up-and-coming conductors and composers.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has been led by a storied group of conductors. And from 1994 to 2015, through the best work of Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Bernard Haitink, and Riccardo Muti, Andrew Patner was right there. In his career as critic, Patner was able to trace the arc of the CSO’s changing repertories, all while cultivating a deep rapport with its four principal conductors. This book assembles Patner’s reviews of the concerts given by the CSO during this time, as well as transcripts of his remarkable radio interviews with these colossal figures. Featuring a foreword by fellow critic Alex Ross on the ethos and humor that informed Patner’s writing, as well as an introduction and extensive historical commentary by Shadle, this book offers a rich portrait of the musical life of Chicago through the eyes and ears of one of its most beloved critics.
Free and open to the public.