Season Finale: Pianist Kirill Gerstein, violinist Leila Josefowicz, cellist Paul Watkins, and clarinetist Carol McGonnell perform Olivier Messiaen’s haunting “Quatour pour la fin du temps” (Quartet for the End of Time).

Banner works by Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Prokofiev headline Muti’s three CSO residencies, ahead of the conclusion of his tenure with Beethoven’s Missa solemnis.

It’s been a strange, difficult year for the music world, which is all the more reason to celebrate musical excellence.

It will mark Muti’s tenth-anniversary season as music director as well as the 250th birthday of Beethoven. Muti conducts all of Beethoven’s symphonies over the course of the season, culminating in the triumphant Symphony No. 9 in June 2020.

The summer festival’s 2018 season of concerts runs for 10 weeks from June 13 to August 18.

Kirill Gerstein described the experience of performing as a soloist with a major orchestra like the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as nothing short of “magical.” But how do you practice a concerto without an orchestra? Gerstein shares his tips.

Pianist Kirill Gerstein performed Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor the way the composer originally intended – a version not been heard in the United States since Tchaikovsky’s U.S. tour in 1891.

Riccardo Muti will conduct ten weeks of subscription programs at Symphony Center and lead the orchestra on two U.S. tours, to the West Coast in October and to the East Coast in February 2018.