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Streaming broadcasts are available for six weeks after the original radio broadcast.

Bio - Riccardo Muti

Riccardo Muti

World-renowned conductor Riccardo Muti made his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival in July 1973. Read more > 

Bio - Ildar Abdrazakov

Ildar Abdrazakov

The Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov was born in Ufa, Russian Federation, in 1976, where he studied at the Institute for Arts under Professor Murtazina. Read more > 

Bio - CSO Brass

CSO Brass

Now in its sixth year, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Brass program has become one of the most highly anticipated traditions at Symphony Center each December.
Read more > 

Prokofiev - The Meeting of the Volga and the Don

Sergei Prokofiev

Prokofiev was a logical choice to write music to celebrate the completion of the Volga–Don canal, as he had proven before that he could provide appropriately ceremonial music that met with official Soviet approval. Read more > 

Shostakovich - Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti

Dmitri Shostakovich

The major compositions of Shostakovich’s last years are permeated with thoughts of death—in particular the fourteenth and fifteenth symphonies, the fifteenth string quartet, and two works from his final year, a viola sonata and these setting of poems by Michelangelo, that were written after the cancer diagnosis. Read more > 

Translation of Michaelangelo's Poems

Dmitri Shostakovich

Shostakovich set Michelangelo’s poems in a Russian translation by A.M. Efros, who only had access to a German edition of the poems when he made his translation. The texts printed in this week’s program book include the original Italian poems by Michelangelo, a recent English translation of those, and the Russian text that Shostakovich set to music. Read more > 

Beethoven - Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67

Ludwig van Beethoven

This is the symphony that, along with an image of Beethoven, looking agitated and disheveled, has come to represent greatness in music. Read more > 

Prokofiev - Three Scenes from Romeo and Juliet

Sergei Prokofiev

During Sergei Prokofiev’s last trip to Chicago, in January 1937, he led the Chicago Symphony in selections from his new, stillunstaged ballet, Romeo and Juliet.
Read more >