By Andrew Patner
Among many successful efforts by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to broaden its audiences and spread the gospel of concert music, the Afterwork Masterworks series has taken longer to grow than some others. But Wednesday night’s performance and the large, enthusiastic audience there and at the reception and artists’ Q&A that followed showed that this experiment in earlier hour, intermissionless formats is paying off.
With a 6:30 p.m. start time and a goal of a 60-minute program, the series draws many newcomers to Orchestra Hall without watering down the repertoire. Wednesday’s all-Russian concert, repeated on this week’s subscription dates, held a real rarity, Rachmaninoff’s final symphony, the Third, in A minor, Op. 44., as well as that well-certified warhorse, the First Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto in B-flat minor, Op. 23.
