Welcome to this digital edition of Phillip Huscher's Program Notes for upcoming concerts by the CSO Feb 23-25. The collaboration between Sergei Prokofiev and director Sergei Eisenstein was one of the most brilliant in 20th-century art. Riccardo Muti leads the CSO and Chicago Symphony Chorus in Prokofiev's music from Eisenstein's epic film Ivan the Terrible, the riveting story of a bloodthirsty tyrant, with narration by internationally renowned actor Gérard Depardieu.

Welcome to this digital edition of Phillip Huscher's Program Notes for upcoming concerts by the CSO Feb 16-18. Rossini's Overture to Semiramide opens this performance featuring Yefim Bronfman in Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto. One of Mendelssohn's grandest symphonic works, the Reformation Symphony was written to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession, the creed of the Lutheran Church.

Vivica Genaux brings her "astounding ability to wind her way through some of Vivaldi's hair-raising obstacle courses of notes at lightning-speed tempos" (Los Angeles Times) to this concert with violinist and conductor Fabio Biondi. Genaux will perform several show arias by Vivaldi and his contemporaries, accompanied by a selection of Vivaldi's violin concertos and two of Corelli's Concerti grossi.

Bramwell Tovey, "one of the most versatile and charismatic musicians in the world” (MusicalAmerica.com), makes his CSO subscription series debut with a program featuring Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, the composer's famous theme and variations that spotlight each section of the ensemble. Tchaikovsky's music from Act 2 of Sleeping Beauty contains one of his most beloved waltzes.

Michael Tilson Thomas conducts his own arrangement from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. Complementing this are Stravinsky's diverting Scènes de ballet and Saint-Saens' Cello Concerto No. 1, performed by acclaimed French cellist Gautier Capucon.

Neeme Jarvi, known for his interpretations of Sibelius, leads the CSO in the composer’s Suite from Karelia and the majestic Fifth Symphony. Vadim Gluzman, praised for his tremendous intensity and great expressive range (Seattle Times) is the soloist for Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1.

George Frideric Handel was a master composer of both orchestral and choral music, penning some of the most influential vocal compositions of the Baroque era. Nicholas Kraemer, a leading specialist in Handel's music, conducts an all-Handel program of works ranging from the stirring anthem Zadok the Priest to the jubilant Music for the Royal Fireworks.

French conductor Emmanuel Krivine conducts a program featuring Liszt's dazzling symphonic poem Les preludes and acclaimed pianist Denis Kozhukhin in Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2. Dvorak's Symphony No. 8 is full of charming sounds of nature.

Of Brahms' A German Requiem, Clara Schumann wrote, "It is a truly tremendous piece of art which moves the entire being in a way little else does." Jaap van Zweden returns to lead the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in this emotional work. Mozart's Masonic Funeral Music and Wagner's groundbreaking Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde open the program.

James Levine makes his long-awaited return to the CSO podium with three masterpieces of orchestral color. Schoenberg described his Five Pieces for Orchestra as a "ceaseless flow of colors, rhythm and mood." Levine ends the program with Berlioz's epic Symphonie fantastique.