11 CSO CONCERTS TO SEE THIS SEASON

Since relocating to Chicago, I’ve been having fun exploring what makes each city’s performing arts organizations unique including the CSO – Chicago Symphony Orchestra. I’ve combed through the 2025-2026 Chicago Symphony Orchestra season. After careful consideration, I’ve curated what I think are the 11 CSO concerts to see this season.

Here they are:

RAVEL PIANO CONCERTOS & SUITE FROM CARMEN – September 25^th – September 28^th

Pianist Alice Sara Ott will be performing both of Maurice Ravel’s piano concertos: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand and Piano Concerto in G Major. These were the composer’s only piano concertos and they were composed in 1930 and 1931. These two works serve as the centerpiece of these concerts.

The performances will open with contemporary composer Camille Pépin’s Les Eaux célestes (Celestial Waters) which was composed in 2023. The concerts will conclude with a suite of music from Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen. (Perfect for those who are going to the Joffrey Ballet’s current production and for those who aren’t.)

Mikko Franck conducts.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

MÄKELÄ CONDUCTS SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE – October 16^th – October 18^th

Incoming Music Director Klaus Mäkelä leads an all-Berlioz program that opens with Harold in Italy. The four-movement work was composed in 1834 and features the viola as the musical substitute for this story of a man walking through Italy. Antoine Tamestit is the featured soloist for this work.

The second half of the concert features the immensely popular Symphonie fantastique. There are five movements in this work that was composed in 1830. It’s a showy work that runs approximately 50 minutes. Symphonie fantastique depicts an artist’s life who, not finding love with the woman of his dreams, decides to numb his pain with opium.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

THE SOLDIER’S TALE – October 23^rd – October 25^th

In collaboration with The Goodman, the CSO is presenting a semi-staged production of Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale. The libretto was written by Charles Ferdinand Ramuz. These performances will feature a new translation by Liz Diamond. Steve Scott is the director.

This 1918 work is a rather minimalist affair. It calls for three actors (Jordan Arredondo, Cindy Gold and John Lister), a couple of dancers and seven musicians. 

The concerts open with three other works by Stravinsky: Fanfare for a New Theatre, Septet and Octet. Stefan Asbury conducts.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

TILL EULENSPIEGEL & BULLOCK SINGS AUCOIN – December 4^th – December 7^th

The main attraction here is the world premiere and CSO Commission of Song of the Reappeared by composer Matthew Aucoin. Soprano Julia Bullock, for whom the work was written, performs this song cycle which uses the poetry of Raúl Zurita, a Chilean writer.

The concert opens with Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 3 composed in 1883. After Song of the Reappeared, the concert will close with Richard Strauss’s tone poem Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks which was composed in 1894-1895 and had its world premiere in Cologne in May of 1985.

Petr Popelka conducts.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

SALONEN CONDUCTS LA MER – February 5^th – February 7^th

Contemporary composer Gabriella Smith finds her music sandwiched between two works by Claude Debussy in this concert where nature is a major inspiration.

The program opens with Debussy’s Images which premiered in Paris in 1913. It’s a work for a large orchestra that uses the composer’s musical depiction of his time in England and also Spain (the second of the three movements is entitled Ibéria). The last movement is entitled Rondes de printemps (Round dances of spring) and is based on folk tunes.

Smith’s Lost Coast follows and features cellist Gabriel Cabezas. She wrote this piece for him. It’s a 26 minute work that was inspired by a solo backpacking trip she took along the coastline of Northern California. The work had its world premiere in May of 2023 by the LA Philharmonic who commissioned it.

The ever-popular La Mer by Debussy closes out the program.

Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

JOYCE DiDONATO IN EMILY – NO PRISONER BE – February 10^th

Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato is serving as CSO’s Artist-in-Residence this season. She appeared in the opening weekend’s concert and has two additional programs this season. This is the first of those.

Kevin Puts, who composed the opera The Hours in which DiDonato appeared, has set 24 poems by Emily Dickinson to music. The accompaniment is by Time for Three string trio.  

Time For three is comprised of Nick Kendall on violin and vocals; Ranaan Meyer on double and vocals and Charles Yang on violin and vocals.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

For DiDonato fans, she will also be performing Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs in shows on May 7^th – May 9^th.

MÄKELÄ CONDUCTS THE RITE OF SPRING – March 5^th – March 6^th

There are a few options to see Klaus Mäkelä this season, but this is one of the most interesting.

Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring feels almost like a rite of passage for conductors to show how they can bring their unique perspective to this work that still sounds fresh more than 112 years after its debut. This work closes these two concerts.

They open with Darius Milhaud’s Le Bœuf sur le toit , a 15-minute work the composer hoped would be used by film star Charlie Chaplin with one of his movies. It ended up being used for a ballet choreographed by Jean Cocteau.

That is followed by George Gershwin’s An American In Paris. Certainly, you’re familiar with that work which is well known for the Academy Award-winning movie that shares its name with Gershwin’s work.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

MUTI CONDUCTS TCHAIKOVSKY & ROTA – March 26^th – March 29^th

In 1995, Riccardo Muti released an album with the Milan La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra of music composed by Nino Rota for two films: La Strada and Il Gattopardo (The Leopard) and Rota’s Concerto for Strings. Fellini directed La Strada and Visconti directed Il Gattopardo. Both are excellent movies. This is an album I’ve always loved.

He’ll be performing music from Il Gattopardo and The Godfather in these concerts. Opening them is Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 3 which was composed and premiered in 1875. It stands out amongst Tchaikovsky’s symphonies as the only one in a major key.

The CSO will perform concerts at Symphony Center on March 26^th, 28^th and 29^th. For tickets and more information, please go HERE. They will perform this program on March 27^th at Wheaton College. For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

ALSOP CONDUCTS ADAMS, COPLAND & MARSALIS – June 4^th – June 6^th

Marin Alsop conducts music by American composers in this concert that opens with The Rock You Stand On composed by John Adams. The CSO co-commissioned this 10-minute work that has its world premiere with the Philadelphia Orchestra on October 3rd with Alsop conducting. Adams composed The Rock You Stand On for Alsop.

Aaron Copland’s Suite from Appalachian Spring is up next. The concerts close with the Chicago premiere of Wynton Marsalis’ Symphony No. 5 (“Liberty”) which has its world premiere with the Philadelphia Orchestra along with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra on May 28^th in Philadelphia. 

The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra will join the CSO for these concerts, too. They also have their own concert on June 2^nd.

I planned my spring vacation so that I can be back for one of these performances – that’s how much I think this concert is worth seeing.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

LINCOLN PORTRAIT & ELLINGTON HARLEM – June 18^th – June 21^st

The CSO season closes with Joshua Weilerstein leading the orchestra in performances of Copland’s Lincoln Portrait and Duke Ellington’s Harlem. Rather obvious with the title.

Also on the program is Banner by Jessie Montgomery, an 8-minute work for solo string quartet and string orchestra composed in 2014. That is followed by Bohuslav Martinů’s The Rock which was composed in 1957 as a “Prélude symphonique.” They both precede Lincoln Portrait. No word yet on who will be serving as narrator.

Between Copland and Ellington’s works is Charles Ives’ Three Places in New England. 

Ellington’s Harlem was first performed at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1951. It runs approximately 14-15 minutes and fans of Ellington’s music will recognize it as his straight away.

For tickets and more information, please go HERE.

There are many more concerts I think that are worth seeing at the CSO. Many of them are artists who are touring. I’ve selected the concerts that I think are unique to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s 2025-2026 season. But you can find the whole season HERE and pick your own!

Main Photo: Klaus Mäkelä (Photo ©Todd Rosenberg/Courtesy CSO)