Experience the ferocity of “Mars,” the golden song of “Jupiter,” the eerie calm of “Saturn” and the haunting off-stage vocals of the ethereal “Neptune.”

Maestros Barenboim, Boulez, and Solti conduct the CSO with the Chicago Symphony Chorus under the direction of chorus founder Margaret Hillis.

Michael Tilson Thomas leads the CSO in Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto with soloist Jeremy Denk.

Pipa virtuoso Li Jia’s performs the concerto Little Sisters of the Grassland.

Turning point works by Johannes Brahms, Claude Debussy, and Brett Dean — whose piece Twelve Angry Men features a dozen cellos.

Music by Lalo, Brahms, and Lindberg (a CSO co-commission).

Ma’ayan Kertcher plays the music of Reena Esmail and Johannes Brahms, joined by Shirley Trissell on piano.

An interview with the prodigious French pianist in advance of her recital at Symphony Center.

Today, a piano recital from Samuel Lam presenting works by Domenico Scarlatti, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Béla Bartók, and Tan Dun.

Classical concertos are a great entry point for beginners. High-flying, exciting, virtuosic, they are often a pinnacle of solo performance.

Another packed summer of live music awaits.

Italian conductor Guido Cantelli — Toscanini’s appointed “spiritual heir” — leads works by Brahms, Debussy, and Tchaikovsky.

Introductions welcomes a return guest for a full clarinet recital: Louis Auxenfans of Chicago’s South Loop neighborhood.

Seminal orchestral works by Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart make up this performance led by music director laureate Edo de Waart.

German conductor and composer Wilhelm Furtwängler leads works by Beethoven and Brahms.

Works by Mozart, Brahms, and Janáček.

Violinist Nathan Meltzer and pianist Umi Garrett perform music by Bach and Brahms, live from the Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago.

Alan Gilbert leads a program featuring violin concertos by Vivaldi and Berg as well as the Symphony No. 8 by Beethoven and the Symphony No. 4 by Brahms.

In an ode to the wonder of our natural world, this program ponders fate, resolve, and reverence.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason, the first Black musician to win the BBC Young Musician Award, is the soloist in Dvořák’s Cello Concerto.

We all came to love classical music in different ways. Here are some of the musical first loves of our WFMT listeners, in their own words.

Cuban-American pianist Jorge Bolet performed music by Brahms, Schubert, Godowsky, Liszt, Chopin, and Moszkowski at the University of Maryland on August 7, 1979.

Guest conductor Rafael Payare leads music by William Grant Still and Johannes Brahms before welcoming German soprano Dorothea Röschmann to perform Richard Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder.

Bernard Haitink leads Beethoven’s Seventh and Brahms’ Second symphonies, plus Weber’s Overture to Der Freischütz and Webern’s Passacaglia for Orchestra.

Simone Lamsma joins the LA Phil and guest conductor Otto Tausk to play Bruch’s landmark first violin concerto. We also hear a world premiere LA Phil commission by Helen Grim and a Brahms staple.