FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT AURA - PAGE 2

One could not fail to notice the elation in Daniel Barenboim's conducting Thursday night when he led his Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the first subscription program of his fall residency at Orchestra Hall. How much this had to do with the recent renewal of his contract as music director (his term now extends through the season of 1999-2000), who can say? It also may have related to the positive response, from the audience and orchestra alike, to York Holler's "Aura," a CSO commission that was enjoying its world premiere in the presence of the German composer.

At last, the mystery will be over. Miles Davis fans soon will be able to hear an album that marks a long-awaited step forward for the 63-year-oldtrumpeter. The Columbia Records release is called "Aura," a lengthy, 10-part tone poem by Danish trumpeter-composer Palle Mikkelborg for trumpet and orchestra that was recorded in Copenhagen in 1984 but never released. Davis himself said in September 1985 that Columbia's refusal to release "Aura"-recorded in part with his own money-was one of the reasons why he left Columbia for Warner Bros.

In a stunning setback for state Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer, a jury Thursday found a former Bank of America broker not guilty of helping a hedge fund improperly trade mutual funds after markets had closed. Theodore Sihpol III was the first person to be charged with criminal offenses as a result of Spitzer's high-profile probes of Wall Street, and he was the first to take his case to