Commentary: In the Chicago Symphony’s bountiful 2025-26 season, music director-designate Klaus Mäkelä will lead four programs.

By Lawrence B. Johnson

How rich, how embracing and inviting, are the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s newly bruited plans for the 2025-26 season? I went through the detailed chronology of subscription programs to highlight a dozen. Then, after making some hard choices, I counted my picks. There were 20. I’ve been reporting on orchestra seasons for half a century. I don’t recall a horizon more enticing than the CSO’s lineup for the season ahead.

Klaus Mäkelä, the Chicago Symphony’s music director-designate who officially assumes the post in September 2027, will lead four weekends of concerts at Orchestra Hall next season and for the first time lead the band on tour — a brief but high-profile jaunt to Ann Arbor, Mich.; New York’s Carnegie Hall; Washington, D.C., and Boston. Meanwhile, Riccardo Muti, the CSO’s music director emeritus for life, also will make four subscription appearances and lead a tour to the western U.S.

Two features of the season bear particular note: the presence of mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato as the Chicago Symphony’s artist in residence and the three-week, season-ending celebration of American music and musicians in observance of the nation’s 250th birthday July 4, 2026. That final stretch of concerts will include the Midwest premiere of Wynton Marsalis’ Symphony No. 5 (“Liberty”).

Mäkelä first shows up in October with a Berlioz twin bill, the “Symphonie fantastique” and the less familiar but quite marvelous “Harold in Italy,” a sort of travelogue with solo viola (Antoine Tamstit here) invoking the poet Byron’s Childe Harold. The 29-year-old Finnish conductor’s second autumn program, in December, will provide our first hearing of his Beethoven (Seventh Symphony) paired with Schumann’s Piano Concerto and soloist Yunchan Lim, the sensational Cliburn Competition winner.

Muti’s first return of the season to the podium he occupied for 13 years as music director is an October program of Hindemith’s “Mathis der Mahler” and Dvorak’s “New World” Symphony. He stays on for a second week with Brahms’ Fourth Symphony and Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez” with guitarist Pablo Sáinz-Villegas. Both Muti and Mäkelä make two further appearances in the season’s second half.

Although the Chicago Symphony doesn’t have a designated principal guest conductor, it has forged prominent connections with two conductors who essentially have come to fill that role: Esa-Pekka Salonen, music director of the San Francisco Symphony, and Jakub Hrůša, music director-designate of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. As in recent seasons, both will once again preside over two weeks of programs. Their concerts, like those of Muti and Mäkelä, are simply not to be missed. Salonen will lead consecutive weeks in January-February 2026, the first pairing Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 (Daniil Trifonov) and the second an immersion in Debussy: “Images” and “La mer.”

Hrůša’s first appearance, in March 2026, offers Schumann’s Symphony No. 1 (“Spring”) and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Leif Ove Andsnes. But it’s Hrůša’s return the next month that stopped my scanning eye — a sort of evening-length Dies irae: Janacek’s Overture to his opera “From the House of the Dead,” Rachmaninoff’s “The Isle of the Dead,” Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs (with soprano Corinne Winters) and Wagner’s Prelude and Liebestod from his opera  “Tristan and Isolde.”

In a season that fairly glitters with highlights, many more could be cited, among them the season opener, led by conductor and violinist Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, who will pair up with the CSO’s superb new principal viola Teng Li in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, K. 364. Conductor Mikko Franck follows directly with a rare double: Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G and his Piano Concerto for the Left Hand Alone with soloist Alice Sara Ott. Also notable early on is conductor Manfred Honeck’s intriguing slant on Mozart’s unfinished Requiem with the Chicago Symphony Chorus — but only the part of the “completed” work actually written by Mozart, its movements to be interspersed with medieval plainchant.

And though I’m getting to it last, probably near the top of this hits list should be an authentic, eye-popping rarity: Evgeny Kissin, perhaps the most beloved pianist at Orchestra Hall, joining conductor Andrey Boreyko in April 2026 for the Rimsky-Korsakov Piano Concerto. And the Scriabin Piano Concerto. And Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 1. All on the same night, all prefaced by Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Russian Easter Overture.” It’s just that kind of season.

Here’s my Top 20 list of Chicago Symphony concerts for 2025-26:

Thursday, September 18, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, September 19, 2025, 1:30 p.m.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, conductor and violin
Teng Li, viola
MOZART Sinfonia concertante
ELGAR Symphony No. 2

Saturday, September 27, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, September 28, 2025, 3:00 p.m.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Mikko Franck, conductor
Alice Sara Ott, piano
PÉPIN Les Eaux célestes
RAVEL Piano Concerto for the Left Hand
RAVEL Piano Concerto in G Major
BIZET Carmen Suite

Thursday, October 16, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, October 17, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, October 18, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Klaus Mäkelä, conductor
Antoine Tamestit, viola
BERLIOZ Harold in Italy
BERLIOZ Symphonie fantastique

Thursday, October 23, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, October 24, 2025, 1:30 p.m.
Saturday, October 25, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Stefan Asbury*, conductor
Steve Scott, director
STRAVINSKY Fanfare for a New Theatre
STRAVINSKY Septet***
STRAVINSKY Octet
STRAVINSKY The Soldier’s Tale

Thursday, October 30, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, October 31, 2025, 1:30 p.m.
Saturday, November 1, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Riccardo Muti, conductor
J. STRAUSS, JR. Overture to The Gypsy Baron
HINDEMITH Symphony, Mathis der Maler
DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 9 (From the New World)

Thursday, November 6, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, November 7, 2025, 1:30 p.m.
Saturday, November 8, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Riccardo Muti, conductor
Pablo Sáinz-Villegas, guitar
STRAVINSKY Divertimento, Suite from The Fairy’s Kiss
RODRIGO Concierto de Aranjuez
BRAHMS Symphony No. 4

Thursday, November 20, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, November 21, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, November 22, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, November 23, 2025, 3:00 p.m.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Manfred Honeck, conductor
Jeanine De Bique, soprano
Avery Amereau*, mezzo-soprano
Ben Bliss, tenor
Stephano Park, bass
Chicago Symphony Chorus
BEETHOVEN Coriolan Overture
HAYDN Symphony No. 93
MOZART Requiem

Thursday, December 18, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, December 19, 2025, 1:30 p.m.
Saturday, December 20, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Klaus Mäkelä, conductor
Yunchan Lim, piano
CHIN subito con forza
SCHUMANN Piano Concerto
WIDMANN Con brio
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 7

Thursday, January 29, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, January 30, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, January 31, 2026, 7:30 p,m.
Sunday, February 1, 2026, 3:00 p.m.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor
Daniil Trifonov, piano
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 2
BRUCKNER Symphony No. 4 (Romantic)

Thursday, February 5, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, February 6, 2026, 1:30 p.m.
Saturday, February 7, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor
Gabriel Cabezas, cello
DEBUSSY Images
SMITH Lost Coast
DEBUSSY La mer

Thursday, February 19, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, February 20, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, February 21, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Klaus Mäkelä, conductor
SIBELIUS Lemminkäinen
R. STRAUSS Ein Heldenleben

Thursday, March 5, 2026 7:30 p.m.
Friday, March 6, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Klaus Mäkelä, conductor
MILHAUD Le Bœuf sur le toit
GERSHWIN An American in Paris
STRAVINSKY The Rite of Spring

Thursday, March 12, 2026 7:30 p.m.
Friday, March 13, 2026, 1:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 14, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Jakub Hrůša, conductor
Leif Ove Andsnes, piano
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3
SCHUMANN Symphony No. 1 (Spring)
SMETANA Selections from The Bartered Bride

Thursday, March 19, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, March 20, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 21, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Riccardo Muti, conductor
Lidia Fridman*, soprano
Francesco Meli, tenor
Chicago Symphony Chorus
VERDI Sinfonia from La battaglia di Legnano
VERDI Prelude to I Masnadieri
GIORDANO Amor ti vieta from Fedora
CATALANI Ebben?…Ne andrò lontana from La Wally
VERDI O Signore, dal tetto natio from I Lombardi
VERDI Patria oppressa from Macbeth
VERDI Overture to Nabucco
VERDI Va, pensiero from Nabucco
PUCCINI Intermezzo from Manon Lescaut
PUCCINI Act IV from Manon Lescaut

Thursday, April 2, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, April 3, 2026, 1:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 4, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Paavo Järvi, conductor
Ksenija Sidorova*, accordion
BRAHMS Variations on a Theme by Haydn
TÜÜR Prophecy
SIBELIUS Symphony No. 2

Thursday, April 9, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, April 10, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 11, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, April 12, 2026, 3:00 p.m.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Jakub Hrůša, conductor
Corinne Winters, soprano
JANÁČEK Overture to From the House of the Dead
RACHMANINOV The Isle of the Dead
R. STRAUSS Four Last Songs
WAGNER Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and
Isolde

Thursday, April 16, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 18, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Andrey Boreyko, conductor
Evgeny Kissin, piano
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Russian Easter Overture
SCRIABIN Piano Concerto
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV Piano Concerto
LIADOV Kikimora
PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No. 1

Thursday, June 4, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, June 5, 2026, 1:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 6, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop, conductor
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
J. ADAMS The Rock You Stand On*** [CSO Co-
commission]
COPLAND Suite from Appalachian Spring
MARSALIS Liberty (Symphony No. 5)*** [CSO Co-
commission]

Thursday, June 11, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, June 12, 2026, 1:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 13, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
James Gaffigan, conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
The Apostolic Church of God Sanctuary Choir
GERSHWIN Overture to Girl Crazy
WEILL (ARR. R. R. BENNETT) Lady in the Dark, Symphonic Nocturne
BERNSTEIN Symphony No. 2 (The Age of Anxiety)

Thursday, June 18, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 20, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, June 21, 2026, 3:00 p.m.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Joshua Weilerstein, conductor
MONTGOMERY Banner
MARTINŮ The Rock
COPLAND Lincoln Portrait
IVES Three Places in New England
ELLINGTON Harlem

Subscriptions are now on sale for the CSO’s 2025-26 season. Patron Services representatives are available to assist by web chat at cso.org, by calling (312) 294-3000 (Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.) or by emailing patronservices@cso.org. Groups of 10 or more may call (312) 294-3040. Single concert tickets go on sale in August.