Sala: Chicago Symphony Center

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Music Director Designate juxtaposes his Finnish countryman's music on their shared national epic, the Kalevala, with the heroic life limned in the tone poem of Richard Strauss.

A strong world premiere of Aucoin's evocative and immediate Song of the Reappeared, a concerto for voice written for soprano Julia Bullock which sets vivid imagery by a poet who suffered under authoritarianism.

The Austrian conductor's loudest fortes and softest pianos pull together a dramatic arc from the Requiem, other Mozart works and chant. But it's not really a funeral. 

Without a baton, the contemporary-music specialist showcases the Chicago Symphony strings in an intimate program ranging from music of the last decade all the way back to Pergolesi. 

Three hands for two concertos: Alice Sara Ott joins the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Ravel's Piano Concerto for the left hand and the Piano Concerto in G major.

Esteban Batallán, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's top trumpet, plays piccolo trumpet concertos by Telemann and Michael Haydn with the home team, under former CSO music director Riccardo Muti.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and its future Music Director revel in a Brahms piano concerto with ideal collaborator Daniil Trifonov and an energetic Dvořák 7. 

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Music Director Designate, still two years from taking charge, shows himself in command of the whole toolbox available from a great Mahler orchestra.