Sundays at 6:00 pm
Hear live performances by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra every week
The Chicago Symphony presents a full range of orchestral works under the seasoned baton of music director emeritus for life Riccardo Muti. The top-tier soloists and guest conductors complete the series with artists like Yo-Yo Ma, Hilary Hahn, and Daniil Trifonov; as well as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mitsuko Uchida, and Bernard Haitink. The two-hour Chicago Symphony Orchestra broadcasts include dynamic and innovative commentary which takes the listener behind the scenes and into the music.
News: Meet the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's New Music Director
CSO Names Klaus Mäkelä as Music Director
Keegan Morris | April 2, 2024
Harding Conducts The Planets
October 25, 2026, 6:00 pm
This week, Daniel Harding leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Schumann’s Overture to Manfred, Brahms’ Schicksalslied and Holst’s The Planets, featuring the Chicago Symphony Chorus prepared by guest director Jenny Wong. Closing the broadcast, Sir Georg Solti conducts Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms.
Canellakis & Gerstein
April 6, 2025
This week, Karina Canellakis makes the CSO debut in Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben. Opening the program is Augusta Read Thomas’ Brio, followed by Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A Minor, featuring Kirill Gerstein.
Szeps-Znaider & Carpenter
March 30, 2025
Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider leads Poulenc’s Concerto in G Minor for Organ, Strings, and Timpani and Saint-Saëns’s Symphony No. 3, featuring organ soloist Cameron Carpenter. The broadcast opens with Dukas’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and rounds out with Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe and Boléro.
Pierre Boulez at 100
March 23, 2025
The CSO celebrates Pierre Boulez’s 100th birthday! In this broadcast, we hear Pierre Boulez, the CSO’s Helen Regenstein Conductor Emeritus, conducting the CSO in Stravinsky, Scriabin, Varèse, Schoenberg and Bartók. In between, the CSO’s Ninth Music Director Daniel Barenboim conducts Boulez’ Notations VII.
Great Guest Soloists
March 16, 2025
This week, we celebrate some of the guest soloists who have appeared alongside the Chicago Symphony Orchestra over the years. The program begins with Sibelius’ Violin Concerto led by Walter Hendl and featuring Jascha Heifetz, followed by Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer led by Sir Georg Solti and sung by Yvonne Minton. Next, hear Strauss’ Burleske in D Minor, led ...
Celebrating Women’s History Month
March 9, 2025
This week, we celebrate women in composition and performance. Violinist Kyung-Wha Chung performs Berg’s Violin Concerto, led by Sir Georg Solti. Cellist Jacqueline Du Pré has the spotlight in Dvořák’s Silent Woods, led by Daniel Barenboim, who also conducts Ran’s Legends. The program also includes Pierre Boulez conducting Augusta Read Thomas’s … words of the sea… and Sir Georg Solti ...
Muti & the CSO
March 2, 2025
This week, Music Director Emeritus for Life Riccardo Muti leads the world premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s Megalopolis Suite, commissioned by the CSO. The program also includes Donizetti’s Overture to Don Pasquale, Verdi’s The Four Seasons from I vespri scilliani, Chabrier’s España, and Manuel de Falla’s Suite No. 2 from The Three-Cornered Hat. Rounding out the broadcast are selections from Prokofiev’s Romeo ...
Glover & Jacobs
February 23, 2025
Jane Glover makes her CSO subscription debut, leading the orchestra in a program bookended by Haydn’s Symphony No. 71 and Mozart’s Symphony No. 29. Also on the program, Principal Oboe William Welter solos in Mozart’s Oboe Concerto in C Major, and Paul Jacobs performs Handel’s Organ Concerto No. 4 and J.S. Bach’s Sinfonia to Cantata BWV 29. To close, Claudio ...
Afkham & Gluzman
February 16, 2025
On today’s broadcast, David Afkham leads the CSO in Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in A Minor, featuring soloist Vadim Gluzman, followed by Vadim Gluzman’s encore, Serenade by Valentin Silvestrov. Also included in this program are Debussy’s La Mer and two pieces by Ravel: Menuet antique and La valse. Closing out the program, Bernard Haitink conducts Webern’s Im Sommerwind.
Salonen & Kuusisto
February 9, 2025
This week, Esa-Pekka Salonen leads the CSO in Ravel’s Mother Goose, Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements, and Dessner’s Violin Concerto, featuring soloist Pekka Kuusisto. Rounding out the program, Sir George Solti conducts Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra.
Kanneh-Mason Plays Elgar
February 2, 2025
On today’s broadcast, Paavo Järvi leads the CSO in Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3, followed by Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E Minor, featuring Sheku Kanneh-Mason. Rounding out the program is Nielsen’s Symphony No. 5.
Hannu Lintu & Ray Chen
January 26, 2025
Hannu Lintu returns to lead Brahms’ Fourth Symphony, Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole for Violin and Orchestra featuring Ray Chen, and the world premiere of Magnus Lindberg’s Serenades, a work co-commissioned by the CSO. The broadcast opens with Nielsen’s Helios Overture from Lintu’s debut with the CSO in February 2020.
Mälkki, Liebermann & Mahler 4
January 19, 2025
This week, guest conductor Susanna Mälkki leads the world premiere of Lowell Liebermann’s Flute Concerto No. 2, a CSO-commissioned work featuring Principal Flute Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson. Opening the program is Wagner’s Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin, and closing the program is Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 in G Major, featuring soprano Ying Fang. To open the broadcast, we celebrate Mozart’s ...
Muti, Montgomery & Rachmaninoff 2
January 12, 2025
Music Director Emeritus for Life Riccardo Muti conducts the world premiere of Transfigured to Grace, the CSO commissioned work by former Mead Composer-in-Residence Jessie Montgomery. Wagner’s Overture to Tannhäuser and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2 bookend the program. Rounding out the broadcast, we hear the U.S. premiere of Coleridge-Taylor’s Solemn Prelude from 2022 Symphony Ball concert.
Zhang & Trpčeski
January 5, 2025
Xian Zhang leads the CSO in Prokofiev’s Sixth Symphony and Nokuthula Ngwenyama’s Primal Message. In between, Simon Trpčeski joins her in Grieg’s Piano Concerto. Opening the program, Sir Georg Solti leads the CSO in Brahms’s Variations on a Them by Joseph Haydn, Op. 56a from a 1997 London recording.
The Song of the Earth
December 29, 2024
The CSO celebrates the spring in music by Schumann, Goldmark and Mahler. Opening the program, Daniel Barenboim conducts Schumann’s Spring Symphony. Next, Frederick Stock conducts Carl Goldmark’s In Springtime. Rounding out the broadcast is Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde under Fritz Reiner’s baton.
Blomstedt Conducts Dvořák 8
December 22, 2024
This week, Herbert Blomstedt leads Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 and Cello Concerto, featuring Romanian cellist Andrei Ioniţă. Plus, hear the 1959 RCA recordings of Respighi’s Fountains of Rome and Johann Strauss, Jr.’s Thunder and Lightning Polka, led by Fritz Reiner.
Reiner Rarities
December 15, 2024
This broadcast celebrates the CSO’s sixth music director Fritz Reiner! Starting out the broadcast is Kabalevsky’s Colas Breugnon Overture, followed by Haydn’s Symphony No. 88. Next on the program are Weinberger’s Polka and Fugue from Schwanda the Bagpiper and Liebermann’s Concerto for Jazz Band and Orchestra. Concluding the broadcast, Lisa Della Casa joins in Mahler’s Symphony No. 4.
Harding Conducts The Planets
December 8, 2024
Daniel Harding conducts Schumann’s Overture to Manfred and Holst’s The Planets, and the Chicago Symphony Chorus joins for Brahms’s Schicksalslied. Plus, former Music Director Sir Georg Solti leads in a 1997 recording of Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms featuring the Chicago Symphony Chorus.
Musicians of the Orchestra
December 1, 2024
This week, musicians from the Orchestra – including Dale Clevenger, Adolph Herseth, Arnold Jacobs, Donald Peck, and Ray Still – step into the soloist spotlight.
Boulez Conducts Mahler, Bartók & Stravinsky
November 24, 2024
Principal Guest Conductor Pierre Boulez leads the CSO in Stravinsky’s The Firebird. Opening the broadcast is Mahler’s Totenfeier. In between, we hear Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta.