Highlights of the 23-24 season, by the numbers

In September, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will open its 133rd season. Between that line-up and the ensemble’s Symphony Center Presents series and other supplementary offerings, audiences will have scores of diverse musical events to enjoy. Let’s break that down — by the numbers.

1. Riccardo Muti begins his first season as Music Director Emeritus for Life, with a Sept. 21-26 program that includes the Suite from Igor Stravinsky’s beloved ballet, The Firebird. He also leads the annual Symphony Ball gala on Sept. 23.

2. Lowell Liebermann’s Flute Concerto No. 2, written for Principal Flute Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson, will be one of four works by American composers that receive their world premieres by the CSO in 2023-24. It will be be performed March 21-24, under Susanna Mälkki.

3. Famed violinist Hilary Hahn extends her tenure as CSO artist-in-residence for a third year, joining guest conductor Mikko Franck on Dec. 7-9 and presenting a chamber-music concert June 9 with friends.

4. Felix Mendelssohn wrote five symphonies, including his Lobgesang (Hymn of Praise), which he described as a “symphony-cantata” and publishers later labeled as his Symphony No. 2. The CSO will perform the composer’s Symphony No. 4 (Italian), which he called the “jolliest piece” he ever wrote, on Sept. 28-30.

5. Few if any classical works are more instantly recognizable than Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, which guest conductor Jaap van Zweden, will lead on Oct. 12-15.

6. As surprising as it might sound, there are still works by Mozart that the CSO has never previously performed. One of those, Six German Dances, K. 509, will open a set of concerts Nov. 30 to Dec. 5, with guest conductor Michael Tilson Thomas.

7. Gustav Holst’s The Planets (1914-17) has seven movements, each dedicated to the known planets in the solar system at the time. The popular work will anchor a set of concerts Nov. 2-7 under guest conductor Daniel Harding.

8. The Symphony Center Presents Piano Series features eight concerts with some of brightest lights in the keyboard world, including Hélène Grimaud (Feb. 4), Benjamin Grosvenor (March 10) and Bruce Liu, winner of the 2021 International Chopin Competition (June 2).

9. Daniel Barenboim, the CSO’s ninth music director, returns to Symphony Center for his first Chicago podium appearance since 2018. He is scheduled to lead the Staatskapelle Berlin as part of the Symphony Center Presents Orchestra Series on Nov. 28.

10. Beethoven’s nine symphonies became something of a psychological barrier for certain subsequent composers, who didn’t dare write more works in the form than the towering 19th-century master. Dmitri Shostakovich had no such reservations, writing 15 such pieces, including his Symphony No. 10, which will be featured April 4-6.

11. Eleven years ago, pianist Conrad Tao won an Avery Fisher Career Grant, marking him as an artist to watch. His career has exploded since, and he will make his CSO subscription series debut Oct. 19-24.

12. Mozart’s 21 piano concertos rank among the composer’s greatest achievements. Pianist Orion Weiss joins the CSO on Nov. 30 to Dec. 5 for performances of No. 12 in A Major, K. 414, written in 1782 in Vienna.

13. Lahav Shani, who won the 2013 International Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition and is now music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, joins the CSO on June 20-23 in a program featuring Daniil Trifonov as soloist in the ensemble’s first performance of the Piano Concerto by Mason Bates, CSO Mead Composer-in-Residence from 2010 to 2015.

14. When Russian pianist Yulianna Avdeeva joins the CSO on April 18-21, for Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1, it will have been 14 years since she received first prize at the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw.

15. Written to celebrate the inauguration of a new organ at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, Samuel Barber’s exuberant concerto, Toccata festiva (1960), runs about 15 minutes and will be featured May 2 and 4 with famed organist Paul Jacobs as soloist.

16. Daniel Harding was appointed music director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra 16 years ago and added the title of artistic director in 2018. The British maestro joins the CSO for concerts Nov. 2-7.

17. One of the first big concerts for the brothers, Lucas and Arthur Jussen, came 17 years ago when they were 10 and 13, respectively, and joined the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic for a performance of Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra. Now a renowned piano duo, they will appear Jan. 21 on the Symphony Center Presents Piano Series.

18. Three musicians best known as soloists — pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, violinist Lisa Batiashvili and cellist Gautier Capuçon — have toured occasionally as an all-star trio since 2018. The three will appear Oct. 22 as part of the Symphony Center Presents Chamber Music Series.

19. Jazz at Lincoln Center’s permanent home, the Frederick P. Rose Hall, opened 19 years ago, a key milestone for the organization’s big band. The center’s namesake group will join its leader, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, and the CSO for concerts April 25-27.

20. Superstar pianist Yuja Wang had many important early career milestones, including making her European debut 20 years ago with Zurich’s Tonhalle Orchestra. She returns to the CSO on April 4-6 as soloist in Béla Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 2.

21. Sir Andrew Davis, the internationally renowned conductor who served 21 years as music director at Lyric Opera of Chicago and now holds the title of music director emeritus, will lead the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Handel’s Messiah on Dec. 21-23.

22. In June 2022, the esteemed Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra named Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä first as artistic partner and then chief conductor starting in 2027-28. He leads the CSO on April 4-6.

23. When Estonian-born conductor Paavo Järvi takes the Orchestra Hall podium Feb. 15-18, it will have been 23 years since he became music director of the Cincinnati Symphony, where he remained through 2011. He now serves as chief conductor of Zurich’s Tonhalle Orchestra.

24. Although just 24 years old, British cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason has become much sought-after soloist worldwide since becoming the first Black artist to win the BBC Young Musician competition in 2016. He will make his CSO debut Feb. 15-18, serving as soloist in Edward Elgar’s ever-popular Cello Concerto.

25. Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas stepped down as music director of the San Francisco Symphony in 2020 after 25 years in that position. Although he is being treated for brain cancer, he continues to conduct and is to return to Symphony Center on Nov. 30 to Dec. 5.