Written for and premiered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2015, Mason Bates’ orchestral setting of Luis Borges’ book is a mythological, colorful triumph. Bates, a critical favorite of both audiences and musicians, has created in the Anthology one of his most expansive and surreal works, one whose idiosyncratic motifs and curious moods breathe existence into each character portrayed in the piece. Serpents slither, sprites dance, and the Zaratan demolishes. Under the baton of the meticulous Riccardo Muti, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra further solidifies Bates career as, indeed, fantastic.