Mariinsky Orchestra

Daniil Trifonov made his Carnegie Hall debut in a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra. He reunites with them for another composer’s first concerto—his own. Trifonov’s Piano Concerto has pianistic flash, but also introspection and great tenderness. Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 6 looks inward too—especially in the anguished central Largo—but also excites with powerful outer movements. Strauss’s Don Juan is pure excitement: Sumptuously scored, brilliantly melodic, it’s the tone poem that propelled him to the front rank of composers.

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

A mere 20 years separate the composition of these two symphonies, yet their musical journeys take us in completely opposite directions. After a Beethoven-like struggle with Fate, Tchaikovsky’s symphony banishes all doubts with a thrilling, no-holds-barred coda that sets the heart racing. Ives startles us with glimpses of American folk and band music, concluding with what can only be likened to a short, tart Bronx cheer.

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

Mahler’s five-movement Symphony No. 7 has its share of shadows, especially in its two mysterious “night music” movements, but all is not gloom. The massively scored symphony—it includes cowbells, mandolin, and guitar—culminates in a wildly exuberant finale where snippets of operetta, a reference to the opening of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger, and a Turkish march joyously swirl together.