This week, we hear Jakub Hrůša’s CSO debut concert program, Smetana’s Má vlast. Opening the broadcast is Pierre Boulez conducting Mahler’s Totenfeier from a 1996 Deutsche Grammophon recording.

This valedictory score contains the many hallmarks of Mahler’s symphonies — their grand scale, profound emotions, and folk dance themes — capped by an ethereal finale that achieves a sense of transcendent rapture.

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association has announced its 2024–2025 season, a full year of concerts in its mainstage subscription series, as well as chamber, solo, family, and other programming.

Hrůša also conducts music by Barber and Coleridge-Taylor.

Next year’s lineup of six mainstage operas offers choices for traditional and contemporary opera fans alike.

The season will be the first following the departure of Riccardo Muti as music director. But the maestro will be close at hand as he continues his association with the CSO.

Banner works by Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Prokofiev headline Muti’s three CSO residencies, ahead of the conclusion of his tenure with Beethoven’s Missa solemnis.

It’s been a strange, difficult year for the music world, which is all the more reason to celebrate musical excellence.