Sundays at 8pm

Photo by Todd Rosenberg
Hear live performances by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra alongside selections from the orchestra’s expansive catalog of recordings. Find out the fascinating stories found inside the music; get insights from the CSO musicians, guest artists, and composers themselves; and learn more about the music and programmatic themes highlighted during the CSO’s concert season. Hosted by Lisa Simeone.
Schedule
June 29
Sokhiev & AvdeevaThis week, guest conductor Tugan Sokhiev conducts the CSO in Tchaikovsky’s Winter Dreams Symphony. Opening the program is Panufnik’s Heroic Overture, followed by Chopin’s first Piano Concerto, featuring Yulianna Avdeeva.
Andrzej Panfunik
Heroic Overture
Frédéric Chopin
Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 11
Yulianna Avdeeva pianoPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Symphony No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 13 (Winter Dreams)
Tugan Sokhiev conductorRichard Wagner
Prelude to Tristan and Isolde
Daniel Barenboim conductor
July 6
Salonen & ApkalnaThis week, Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts his own composition, Sinfonia Concertante for Organ and Orchestra, with soloist Iveta Apkalna. The program also includes Richard Strauss’ Don Juan and Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra. Opening the broadcast, Pierre Boulez leads Stravinsky’s Four Studies for Orchestra.
Igor Stravinsky
Four Studies for Orchestra
Pierre Boulez conductor
1992 (DGG)Richard Strauss
Don Juan, Op. 20
Esa-Pekka Salonen
Sinfonia Concertante for Organ and Orchestra
Aivars Kalejs
Toccata on the Chorale “Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr”
Iveta Apkalna organ
ENCOREBéla Bartók
Concerto for Orchestra
Esa-Pekka Salonen conductor
July 13
Composers’ Early SuccessesMost of the music on this program was written by teenagers: Mendelssohn was seventeen years old when he composed his Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Rachmaninov completed his First Piano Concerto, and Strauss his First Horn Concerto at age eighteen, and nineteen-year-old Shostakovich submitted his First Symphony as a graduation exercise from the Petrograd Conservatory. The overture to Rienzi, early triumph for Wagner, complete the program.
Richard Wagner
Overture to Rienzi
Daniel Barenboim conductorRichard Strauss
Horn Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major, Op. 11
Dale Clevenger horn
Daniel Barenboim conductorIgor Stravinsky
Fireworks, Op. 4
Pierre Boulez conductorSergei Rachmaninov
Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp Minor, Op. 1
Byron Janis piano
Fritz Reiner conductorFelix Mendelssohn
Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 21
Jean Martinon conductorDmitri Shostakovich
Symphony No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 10
Leonard Bernstein conductor
July 20
Solti Conducts Beethoven and LisztThis week, we hear two Grammy Award-winning recordings of Sir Georg Solti and the CSO. Opening the broadcast is Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2, featuring Vladimir Ashkenazy. Next, we hear Liszt’s A Faust Symphony, featuring vocal soloist Siegfried Jerusalem and the Chicago Symphony Chorus.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 19
Vladimir Ashkenazy piano
Sir Georg Solti conductorFranz Liszt
A Faust Symphony
Siegfried Jerusalem tenor
Margaret Hillis director, Chicago Symphony Chorus
Sir Georg Solti conductor