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Celebrate Halloween with two ghastly tone poems by Antonín Dvořák: "The Noon Witch" and "The Water Goblin." Plus, we'll see if The Kansas City Symphony can "embrace the madness" of Hector Berlioz's dark and emotional "Symphonie fantastique." We'll also hear Claude Debussy's "Danse sacree et profane" featuring harpist Katherine Siochi.

This week, co-hosts Michael Stern and Dan Margolies celebrate the birthday of the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns. We'll hear his Piano Concerto No. 2 featuring Behzod Abduraimov, his Violin Concerto No. 2 featuring Gil Shaham and his Symphony No. 3 featuring organist Jan Kraybill. Michael and Dan also explore the life and work of Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz and we'll hear her delightful Overture.

This week, hear the Kansas City Symphony perform Giuseppe Verdi's expanded string quartet known as the Symphony in E minor and Percy Grainger's anthropological 'Lincolnshire Posy' featuring the Symphony brass section. We'll also hear the third symphony by American iconoclast Charles Ives, and Howard Hanson's Symphony No. 2, which inspired John Williams' score for "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial."

This week we'll hear the Kansas City Symphony in a recent performance of George Gershwin's perennial favorite, "Rhapsody in Blue," alongside a 21st century Saxophone Concerto written by composer and jazz pianist Billy Childs. We'll also hear a fanfare by Paul Dukás and two works from the under-appreciated Austrian composer Alexander Zemlinsky: his setting of Psalm 23 and a massive symphonic tone poem based on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid."

Co-hosts Michael Stern and Dan Margolies celebrate the birthdays of composers Dmitri Shostakovich and Gustav Holst. We'll hear violinist Mayu Kishima bring warmth to Shostakovich's searing A minor Violin Concerto and Michael Stern conduct's Holst's "Walt Whitman" Overture. Also, guest conductor Teddy Abrams leads the Kansas City Symphony and Symphony Chorus in a recent performance of Holst's celestial audience favorite: "The Planets."

Join co-hosts Michael Stern and Dan Margolies as they honor the birthdays of Giuseppe Verdi and Einojuhani Rautavaara. We'll hear Rautavaara's Fantasia for Violin and Orchestra in a world premiere performance featuring violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, Verdi's Overture to La forza del destino and Verdi's Requiem.

Hear the Kansas City Symphony perform works by Joseph Haydn and Dmitri Shostakovich. Co-hosts Michael Stern and Dan Margolies clear up the myth of Haydn's "Miracle" Symphony No. 96 and explore the emotional depth of Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8 in C minor as arranged for string orchestra. We'll also hear a recent performance of his searing Symphony No. 5 in a performance led by guest conductor Joshua Weilerstein.

The premiere of Aaron Copland's piano concerto was his mother's proudest moment and — as she said — "made all those music lessons worthwhile!" We'll hear that work, plus Copland's "Three Latin-American Sketches," a "Chacony" by Henry Purcell (as arranged by Benjamin Britten), Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's suite from his ballet "Hiawatha" and Stravinsky's timeline altering "Rite of Spring."

This week, co-hosts Michael Stern and Dan Margolies celebrate the birthday of composer Paul Hindemith. We'll hear his 'Trauermusik' featuring Pinchas Zukerman alongside the Walt Whitman-inspired oratorio 'When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd: A Requiem for those we love.' We'll also hear the combined efforts of three Russian masters in Alexander Borodin's posthumously premiered 'Overture to Prince Igor,' and a haunting 21st century work by David Hertzberg.

This week, we'll hear an astounding array of soloists. Pinchas Zukerman and Noah Geller play Bach's "Concerto for Two Violins," and the husband and wife team of Jamie Loredo and Sharon robinson play André Previn's "Double Concerto for Violin and Orchestra." Superstar violinist Augustin Hadelich takes a solo turn in a concerto written by Thomas Adés, and local piano hero Kenny Broberg performs Sergei Rachmaninoff's challenging and lyrical second piano concerto.