Composed to acknowledge an honorary degree despite not attending university, a mischievous Brahms penned the tongue-in-cheek Academic Festival Overture, featuring boisterous student drinking songs. Reinecke's Concerto in E minor spotlights the harp in a virtuosic display of shimmering arpeggios and rhythmic optimism. The forced optimism of Symphony No. 5, glorifying Stalin's regime, proved both career- and lifesaving for Shostakovich.

Four notes instantly recognizable across generations welcome back the much-loved Symphony No. 5 to the Kleinhans stage. Dance Symphony's rhythmic jazz motifs were drawn from an evocative Copland ballet about a morbid conjurer who could raise the dead and make them dance. Beethoven expands on Mozart's influence in his Piano Concerto No. 1, featuring challenging key changes and bold harmonies.

A myriad of eclectic instruments—including pots, pans, and metal gadgets—accompany world-renowned percussionist Colin Currie and his acclaimed BPO ensemble in performing Danny Elfman's offbeat, idiosyncratic Percussion Concerto, composed without brass or woodwinds. Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony, once plagued by poor reviews and personal self-doubt, endures as a beloved, emotionally lyrical masterpiece, proving its timeless appeal.

Two English folk songs form George Butterworth's idyllic The Banks of Green Willow, premiered just two years before the promising young composer's demise in the trenches of World War I. German Max Bruch, captivated by Scottish traditions, wove these melodies into his violin showpiece, Scottish Fantasy. Meanwhile, Brahms' expressive Symphony No. 1, finely dubbed "Beethoven's Tenth," gestated for 22 years due to his remarkable perfectionism.

Bacewicz’s six-minute Overture for Orchestra, composed during the German occupation of Poland, offers a perpetually shifting palette of colors. Spaniard Joaquin Rodrigo’s animated Concierto de Aranjuez features elaborate orchestration for classical guitar, while Fauré’s tragic Pelléas et Mélisande Suite was originally composed as incidental music for a dramatic play. Borodin’s colorful Symphony No. 2 evokes the exuberance of Russian folk dances.