For Utah Symphony music director Keith Lockhart, programming Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 as this year's season opener was a natural choice. Lockhart announced his upcoming departure in 2006 and will step down from his post next May after 11 years at the orchestra's helm. Tradition holds that each Utah Symphony season begins with Beethoven, and nothing the composer wrote suits the beginning of an ending better than his biggest symphony.

"There is obviously the temptation to make your last season a summation," Lockhart said, "but you have to balance that against the responsibility to make a great season for the listeners without too much personal indulgence."

Lockhart allowed himself the pleasure of inviting some of his favorite musical friends for return engagements this season, a list that includes pianist Olga Kern, who will perform Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 in February, and cellist Alban Gerhardt, who will play Dvorak in April.

But Lockhart reserved particular affection for pianist Garrick Ohlsson, who will perform Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 at next weekend's concerts. He calls Ohlsson "one of the greatest pianists of this generation," a claim the artist's résumé supports. The New York-born pianist achieved international fame in 1970, and in recent seasons he has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra, as well as many performances with the Utah Symphony.

For Lockhart, an early 1990s performance with Ohlsson cemented their friendship. "It was one of my first big concerts with a big orchestra,"Lockhart said of his then-new post as the Cincinnati Orchestra's associate conductor. "[Ohlsson] was really there for me and was wonderfully supportive of his younger colleague. We've enjoyed working together ever since. . . .

"He's a musical pianist who is good at playing just about anything. Plus, he's just a really nice guy. You don't have to like the people you work with, but it helps."

Ohlsson recalls his concerns about being programmed with a green associate conductor at the podium. Those worries evaporated as he recognized Lockhart's grasp of the music and saw the respect accorded to him by the orchestra's players. Impressed, Ohlsson recommended Lockhart sign with his own manager. Soon after, Lockhart rose to prominence as conductor of the Boston Pops.

"I had noticed this young conductor who then became very famous," Ohlsson said. "I'm very proud of his classical commitment. He's not just a Boston Pops star, but really wants to do serious works with orchestra."

Ohlsson looks forward to performing Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto. "We think of Beethoven as this heroic figure shaking his fist at the heavens, embracing millions in his Ninth Symphony, overcoming musical and personal crises and seizing fate by the throat," he said. "But here, he sings like a bird for 29 minutes nonstop, pouring forth endless ecstatic melody."

Starting the season with Beethoven and Ohlsson is a treat for Lockhart, but he also looks forward to finishing it in May with a Utah Symphony premiere of Leonard Bernstein's monumental Mass. In between, an obvious highlight is an April performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 9, which completes the cycle Lockhart promised soon after accepting his Utah Symphony post in 1998.

The symbolic nod to the orchestra's early claim to fame - its groundbreaking Mahler cycle under Maurice Abravanel's baton - "importantly completes the first go-round of a Mahler cycle with the orchestra in 30-some years," Lockhart said.

The season will feature fewer appearances by Lockhart - seven of the 18 classical concerts - in favor of appearances by guest conductors being considered for the Utah post. Management won't identify which guests are considered official candidates, citing the need to protect their privacy and current positions.

Yet the influx will offer a season with great variety. Allowing the conductors to choose their own repertoire creates a "level playing field" for the audition process, Lockhart said.