When Riccardo Muti stepped down from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra last season, after 13 years as its conductor, the ensemble promptly turned around and named him music director emeritus for life. In a two-part season opener at Carnegie Hall this week, it was easy to hear why. Under Muti, the Chicago Symphony is all power and finesse with no unsightly edges.

On Wednesday, in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” the orchestra’s playing, strong yet nimble, drew on reserves of unforced power and charm. The following night, in an Italian-themed collection of programmatic works by Felix Mendelssohn, Johann Strauss and Philip Glass, a certain politesse crept into an otherwise classy performance.