Guest conductor Iván López Reynoso returns to the MSO to conduct Brahms’s second symphony, a serene and light-filled work that nevertheless carries a tinge of Brahms’s signature melancholy. Pianist Joyce Yang, also no stranger to the Bradley Symphony Center, brings her “agility, balance and velocity” (Washington Post) to Gershwin’s ambitious and jazzy Concerto in F. … Continued

Let’s have a little fanfare, shall we? Handel composed his Music for the Royal Fireworks for a monumental occasion: the celebration of the end of an eight-year war and the signing of a treaty of peace. Per King George II, this triumphant music should have “no fidles,” so Handel wrote his festive Fireworks for a … Continued

“I conceived of it as glorifying the grandeur of the human spirit . . . praising the free and happy man,” said Prokofiev of his uplifting fifth symphony, composed against the backdrop of World War II; guest conductor Delyana Lazarova, who specializes in Eastern European and Russian repertoire, conducts this masterwork. Pianist Simon Trpčeski, whom … Continued

Zlatomir Fung, the youngest cellist to win first prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition, takes the stage with Shostakovich’s first cello concerto, one of the finest pieces in all of the cello repertoire. Shostakovich dedicated his chamber symphony (originally his eighth string quartet, performed here with Rudolf Barshai’s orchestration for strings) “in memory of victims … Continued

The 2026-27 season opens with bravura to the tune of Copland’s patriotic Fanfare for the Common Man. Brahms’s double concerto for violin and cello follows, with the MSO’s own Concertmaster Jinwoo Lee and Principal Cello Susan Babini collaborating on this unusual and impassioned combination. Guest conductor Michael Sanderling concludes this dramatic opening concert with Tchaikovsky’s … Continued

The MSO welcomes the return of guest conductor Bernard Labadie. Best known as an expert in Baroque and Classical repertoire, Labadie is an ideal conductor for Beethoven’s first symphony, which is awash in inspiration from Mozart and Haydn. Benedetto Lupo, a pianist recognized for blending “meticulous technique with romantic sensitivity” (Birmingham News), performs Beethoven’s third … Continued