Back in 1986, as the Chicago Bears football team approached an NFL championship, ‘Bears Fever’ delightfully invaded Orchestra Hall. At the end of a Tchaikovsky-Liszt orchestral concert with music director Sir Georg Solti conducting, applause kept the maestro returning to center stage.
Suddenly, members of the
Chicago Symphony Chorus—wearing Bears sweatshirts—streamed onstage, and Solti led the Orchestra and Chorus in a rousing rendition of the Bears’s fight song,
Bear Down, Chicago Bears. The audience joined in singing, and in the two repeats of the concert, the same thing happened with even more ‘performers’ onstage. Backstage people, Chicago Symphony Orchestra staff, and others—including Lady Valerie Solti—crowded in to sing along.
Get into the spirit of 2007 Bears football and
download a copy of this wonderful recording for free now. Just right-click on the link, and save to disk...
(Thanks to
Sports Syndicate for the heads-up)