The Pittsburgh Symphony is without a music director this season. “Most significant will be how the orchestra fares as it steps out on its own for the first time since Mariss Jansons arrived seven years ago. This is not the first time the PSO has been without an active music director. It happened from 1948 to 1952, when Fritz Reiner left for the Chicago Symphony, from 1984 to 1987 after Andre Previn departed and in the 1996-97 season before Jansons arrived. In each of these cases, the PSO survived, and even benefited from the exposure to new conductors.”