Ravinia 2026 Issue 2

When Emanuel Ax and Itzhak Perlman released their recording of violin sonatas by Gabriel Fauré and Richard Strauss in 2015, the duo brought a live performance of those works (plus a Mozart sonata) not to the Martin Theatre or Bennett Gordon Hall—Ravinia’s traditional venues for chamber music—but instead to the Pavilion stage, anticipating the large audience for their concert. One of Ax’s earliest recordings was Brahms’s First Piano Concerto with Levine and the Chicago Symphony. It happens to have immense personal sig- nificance for Ax. “That was an incredible adventure in every way. My daughter was born two days before that; it was crazy. I had taken an entire month off because we didn’t know exactly when she would be born. Levine was available only the particular days agreed to, but we thought it would be fine because she was due two-and-a-half weeks earlier. We were waiting and waiting and going absolutely crazy, and she finally arrived. And I ran off to Chicago the next morning!” Ax led a master class at Ravinia’s Steans Institute last year, but it’s been a few years since he has performed at the festival. One special milestone is that Ax was the first guest artist to extend Ravinia’s concert calendar beyond the summer, giving a recital in the newly opened Bennett Gordon Hall in October 1988, “a great honor.” “My Ravinia memories are mainly of the great conductors I got to play with. [Gennady] Rozhdestvensky was one of them. He was a great conductor and a major artist. I remember one time when we rehearsed Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Concerto, every time we would arrive at a point where he had to come in or I had to come in, everything was fine. For the rest he would say, ‘Why rehearse? Not necessary.’ He just didn’t like rehearsals. He had a thing about it. “Sometimes you see that with people like Itzhak [Perlman] and so forth, they have a built-in prejudice against rehears- als because they feel it somehow kills a little bit of spontaneity. I always was exactly the other way around. I thought the more you rehearse, the more free- dom you will have to do different things in performance. “I played the ‘Emperor’ Concerto with Itzhak at Ravinia, and that was very special. I had worshipped his playing since I was a little kid, you know, and it was amazing to play with him as con- ductor. Quite wonderful. “I’ve done a lot of stuff there over the years with Christoph von Dohnányi and various great people at Ravinia. A cou- ple of things with [then-Music Director] James Conlon. It’s been a nice time for me. I was very lucky. “I remember very well being with [then-Executive Director] Zarin Mehta many times and getting fabulous hot dogs and French fries. That was an incredibly great memory. The food at Ravinia was always fantastic. Now, it’s not nearly as bad for your health as it used to be, but then it was cheddar cheese French fries and hot dogs. It was fabulous. I loved that so much.” What has been Ax’s journey with the John Williams piano concerto that he is bringing to Ravinia? “It’s very straightforward. John Williams mentioned in some interview a couple of years ago that he wanted to RAVINIAMAGAZINE • JULY 20 – AUGUST 2 , 2026 26 RAVINIA/PATRICKGIPSON(2015);RAVINIA/ROBERTLIGHTFOOTIII(1975)