Season Finale: Soloist Hilary Hahn joins conductor Alain Altinoglu and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra to perform one of her staple pieces: Beethoven’s violin concerto. Paired with the concerto is the eight symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich, a work which the composer described as “an attempt to reflect the terrible tragedy of war.” Some have also called it a requiem to …

This week, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and Wynton Marsalis collaborate with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra! Giancarlo Guerrero conducts Adams’ The Chairman Dances, Shostakovich’s Suite for Variety Orchestra No. 1, Prokofiev’s Selections from Romeo and Juliet, and Marsalis’ “All American Pep” from Swing Symphony. In between, we hear Ellington’s Big Fat Alice’s Blues, Amad, and The Mooch.

Marking 50 years since Dmitri Shostakovich’s death, Peter van de Graaff hosts a special two-hour exploration of this hugely consequential composer and his music through the eyes of people who knew and worked with him, and hear from Shostakovich himself.

On April 2, 2024, Klaus Mäkelä was named Zell Music Director Designate of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. This week, we feature performances from that special moment, beginning with Zinovjev’s Batteria. Next, we hear two works by Shostakovich: The First Cello Concerto with Sol Gabetta, followed by a powerful reading of the Tenth Symphony.

In 1937 at the height of the Stalinist purges, Shostakovich was in disgrace – an outcast who feared for his life. (He slept in the stairwell outside his apartment so that his family might be spared if he were arrested.) In these darkest moments, he somehow found the courage to write his Fifth Symphony, publishing it with the ironic subtitle …

Manfred Honeck, the longtime music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, leads music by Anton Bruckner and Dmitri Shostakovich.

We visit Lyadov’s Enchanted Lake and Swan Lake of Tchaikovsky before hearing the Symphony No. 10 by Dmitri Shostakovich. Alan Gilbert conducts.

Polish conductor Krzysztof Urbański also leads the orchestra in the gripping Symphony No. 10 by Dmitri Shostakovich.

A retrospective on Leonard Bernstein’s revolutionary concert series, which introduced countless listeners to classical music. And Jamie Bernstein, daughter of the influential conductor-composer, reflect on her father’s legacy.

Were these composers doomed or divinely inspired? Decide for yourself!

Works embodying the more private, personal, and experimental facets of Shostakovich’s musicianship.

Sol Gabetta, whose “enthusiastic music-making and animated style are completely infectious” (Classical Voice), makes her CSO debut in Shostakovich’s captivating Cello Concerto No. 1 — a riveting journey through themes of defiance, sorrow, and triumph. Electrifying conductor Klaus Mäkelä frames the program with Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony, a searing portrait of the composer’s tormented life in Stalinist Russia, and the U.S. …

Russian conductor Kirill Petrenko leads the Berlin Phil — of which he is chief conductor — in two landmark Shostakovich symphonies.

Featuring conductors Leonard Bernstein and Kurt Masur.

Written under threat by the tyrant Joseph Stalin, the Fifth Symphony is as satisfying as it is subversive. Giancarlo Guerrero conducts.

Plus chamber music and a live score for a silent film.

Part two of an exploration of a fruitful collaboration features works by Beethoven, Bloch, and Shostakovich.

Conductor Cristian Măcelaru leads the San Francisco Symphony in Dmitri Shostakovich’s madcap First Symphony and Wynton Marsalis’ celebration of Black history and folklore, Blues Symphony. San Francisco Symphony English horn player Russ de Luna stars in Outi Tarkiainen’s Milky Ways.

Exploring the Soviet-Russian composer’s chamber works.

Take out the high courts and bring in the dancing elephants: here are some of the strangest opera plots that have ever been put to paper.

Pianist Yuja Wang joins the Oslo Philharmonic and its Chief Conductor Klaus Mäkelä for a program of 20th-century masterpieces by Ravel and Shostakovich.

A journey from brooding despair to rousing triumph, Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony rescued him from the grips of official Soviet disfavor.

Some classics from the New York Philharmonic’s storied discography.

Another packed summer of live music awaits.

David Afkham returns to the CSO podium to lead Debussy, Ravel, and Shostakovich.