Christian Lindberg, the world's foremost classical trombone soloist, composed the work on commission from the CSO as a concerto for Charles Vernon, the orchestra's bass trombonist. The names of the piece's seven movements are as colorful as the overall title: Vivid City, Fort Dearborn, Chicago Butcher, Frogs at Hawthorn Woods, Prohibition, Morning with Orange Juice, and Wind and Mortar. Lindberg was inspired to write (and name) the piece by the poems of Carl Sandburg and by the Swedish author Jan Olof Olsson's book Chicago as well as by his own visits to the city. Vernon will play alto, tenor and bass trombones during the course of the piece, and at one point he'll be joined by his section colleagues Jay Friedman and Michael Mulcahy.

Miguel Harth-Bedoya conducts the concert, which also features Ravel's La Valse and Saint-SaêŠns's "Organ" Symphony (No. 3). The program will be repeated tomorrow evening and Tuesday, October 3.

The CSO holds its season-opening gala on Saturday, September 30, with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and soprano Cyndia Sieden joining the orchestra and Harth-Bedoya for a program including the overture to Rossini's L'italiana in Algeri, Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky's Night Music: Voices in the Leaves, Stravinsky's Le Rossignol ("The Nightingale") and Dvoršk's Cello Concerto.

Information on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's upcoming programs is available at www.cso.org.