Review: St. Vincent’s Ravinia performance is a coronation of her latest and greatest self

St. Vincent walked away from her Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut Saturday night with even more fan appreciation … and a friendship bracelet.

After an hour building up a great deal of poise and repose behind the reworked material from her catalog, St. Vincent, whose birth name is Annie Clark, broke through the orchestral fourth wall to rile up the reverent crowd and launch them out of their seats in Ravinia’s Hunter Pavilion.

Strutting down the aisles while singing a few lines from former collaborator Sufjan Stevens’ “Chicago,” she nuzzled security guards’ heads, nearly suffocated someone in the front row with a tight embrace (“you just got a whole lot of breast sweat”) and happily took the bracelet decorated with beads that spelled out “Annie Clark” before carrying on with the show.

St. Vincent performs with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia on Saturday.

Timothy Hiatt/For the Sun-Times

The moment felt like a deserved coronation for an artist arriving at her latest and greatest self in a constant pursuit of transformation.

Since debuting as a solo artist in 2007 with the indie outlaw album “Marry Me,” Clark has shown herself to be a one-of-one talent, the modern GOAT of art rock who never settles down. In time, she’s proved herself as much of a vocal powerhouse as a guitar master, with her own signature line. She’s developed intense characters and intricate worldbuilding with albums like “Masseduction.” She’s collaborated with artists like David Byrne. She released a Spanish-language album, 2024’s “Todos Nacen Gritando.” But in the current symphonic setting, Clark’s work really shines for the complex and experimental body of work it is. And she knows it, too.

“Getting to go around the country and do these shows with these incredible people has been one of the great joys of my musical and personal life. Period,” she said Saturday.

St. Vincent performs with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia on Saturday.

Timothy Hiatt/For the Sun-Times

The appearance at Ravinia (her first since taking the stage with Byrne in 2013) follows a series of collaborations with local orchestras this summer, also including stops at the Detroit Opera House, Atlanta Symphony Hall, Wolf Trap National Park in Virginia and Interlochen in Michigan. It also follows a trail of pop and rock stars who have been flirting with orchestras as of late, with Ravinia taking a spotlight locally. Just a few weeks ago, Lizzo paired up with the CSO for the park’s 2026 grand opening. But witnessing St. Vincent performing alongside the orchestra felt less of a trend and more like she had been incubating on it all along.

The idea originally spawned from Clark’s invitation to BBC Proms at London’s Royal Albert Hall last fall, which begat the well-received “Live in London!” album released earlier this year. Thankfully, she wasn’t done with the project, wanting to bring it to audiences around the country.

Working with conductor Jules Buckley and her touring keyboardist Rachel Eckroth, aka “the woman who made this all happen,” Clark rearranged more than a dozen of her songs to channel the depth and grandeur of a symphony. She also brought along a traditional rock ensemble — guitarist Robert Ellis, bassist Allee Fütterer and drummer John Hadfield — to create an incredibly unique crossover that appealed to both rock and classical bases.

The added swell of strings on “Violent Times” (from 2024 album “All Born Screaming”) brought out its intense noir, making a case for a “James Bond” theme song placement. The chimes and flute on “The Bed” illuminated its soft and wistful nature. And the apocalyptic crescendo of percussion on “Hell Is Near” made you feel like you should probably start praying.

Clark performed a few songs sans her trusted guitar, which allowed her vocals to dominate. But when she added the electric, it was transcendent. No more so than on “Smoking Section” when her guitar’s wailing cry mixed with strings made the harrowing refrain of “it’s not the end” feel like an actual swan song.

This performance wasn’t as much about changing the scope of St. Vincent or her music. She dropped all her mother------ on cue in “New York.” She lit up a cigarette during “Los Ageless.” And her feral spiral on the crowd favorite “Digital Witness” — where a close-gripped microphone smeared her red lipstick to make her look downright bloodthirsty — felt like a repeat of the Riot Fest set in 2024.

Rather, Clark's latest segue is about translating her intense body of work into another language, a romance language, in which she is equally fluent. And by the end of the 85-minute suite, everyone was on their feet again, this time for a deserved standing ovation.

Related

St. Vincent explores ‘new dimension’ in genre-defying collab with orchestras like Chicago Symphony

Set list for St. Vincent performance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia July 25, 2026

We Put a Pearl in the Ground Hell Is Near Reckless Violent Times Black Rainbow Marrow The Bed Smoking Section Now, Now Live in the Dream The Nowhere Inn Digital Witness Los Ageless New York Paris Is Burning

Encore Slow Disco

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