The Pacific Symphony cemented its 2011-2012 classical series in stone and sent out the calendar (below) last week. The artists (including singers in La Boheme) and repertoire are all listed.
I’m posting it (complete with the prose descriptions of the concerts that were provided) because it’s easier to read here than on the orchestra’s website. I have some scattered thoughts about the schedule, but I’d rather hear what you think. Please leave your likes and dislikes in the comments section.
Click here to continue reading Pacific Symphony 2011-2012 season calendar …
Classical Series
2011-2012 Gala Opening Night
SARAH CHANG PLAYS MENDELSSOHN
Thursday through Saturday, September 22-24, 8 p.m.
Tickets are $25-$110
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Sarah Chang, violin
Berlioz: Roman Carnival Overture
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto
James Newton Howard: I Would Plant a Tree
Respighi: Pines of Rome
Mendelssohn’s timeless Violin Concerto — fresh, vibrant and soul stirring — is performed by the incomparable Sarah Chang. Berlioz’s overture pairs perfectly with Respighi’s shimmering, alluring music, which is often cited by Hollywood composers as inspiration. Fittingly, then, Howard’s “I Would Plant a Tree” returns for an encore.
2011: A SPACE ODYSSEY
Thursday through Saturday, October 20-22, 8 p.m.
Tickets are $25-$110
Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor
Jeremy Denk, piano
Barry Perkins, trumpet
Jose Francisco Salgado, videographer
Hovhaness: Prayer of St. Gregory
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21
Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra
Strauss, Jr.: On the Beautiful Blue Danube (with visual images)
Thanks to “2001: A Space Odyssey,” the first five notes of Strauss’ tone poem are seared into the cultural fabric. But Director Stanley Kubrick also chose classical music to convey the magnificence of space, including another Strauss’ beautiful “Blue Danube” waltz. Opening the concert: Hovhaness’ Prayer of St. Gregory and Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21.
MAHLER’S MAGNIFICENT FAREWELL
Thursday through Saturday, November 17-19, 8 p.m.
Tickets are $25-$110
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Joseph Horowitz, artistic advisor
Mahler: Symphony No. 9
Mahler’s Symphony No. 9, considered one of his greatest works, is a sweeping musical exposition of the composer’s innermost conflicts ― a profound, lifelong fear of death and a deep yearning for the joys of life. Mahler didn’t live to hear it performed, but left it for us to experience his sadness, torment and finally, his dignified affirmation of life.
Music Unwound – Multi-media and other enhancements allow deeper insight, better understanding and richer enjoyment of the program. Funded by a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
FOUR SEASONS AND MORE
Thursday through Saturday, December 8-10, 8 p.m.
Tickets are $25-$110
Henning Kraggerud, conductor and violin
Corelli: “Christmas” Concerto [Concerto Grosso in G Minor, Op. 6, No. 8]
Grieg: Holberg Suite
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
One of the most beloved works of the Baroque repertoire, Vivaldi’s lyrical masterpiece paints tantalizing pictures of Earth’s changing seasons. Also on the program, Grieg’s Holberg Suite, a collection of delightfully fresh Baroque-style dances originally composed for piano and only later adapted for string orchestra.
TCHAIKOVSKY’S FIFTH
Thursday through Saturday, January 12-14, 2012, 8 p.m.
Tickets are $25-$110
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Dejan Lazić, piano
Golijov: Sidereus
Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5
After the second performance of his Symphony No. 5, Tchaikovsky claimed the work a failure. When Chopin first played his Piano Concerto No. 2, he was proclaimed a national hero. Despite these varied premieres, both compositions have now attained immortality. Composer Osvaldo Golijov’s piece was inspired by a book by Galileo.
BENEDETTI PLAYS BRUCH
Thursday through Saturday, February 2-4, 2012, 8 p.m.
Tickets are $25-$110
Christoph König, conductor
Nicola Benedetti, violin
Debussy: Petite Suite
Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1
Beethoven: Symphony No. 4
One of the most enduring violin concertos in the repertoire, Bruch’s masterpiece soars in the inspired hands of captivating young virtuoso Nicola Benedetti. Debussy’s Petite Suite, written for four-hand piano, will be played in its orchestral arrangement. Under renowned conductor Christoph König, Beethoven’s sublime and lyrical Symphony No. 4 is both profound and quietly joyous.
TCHAIKOVSKY’S VIOLIN CONCERTO
Thursday through Saturday, February 23-25, 2012, 8 p.m.
Tickets are $25-$110
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Vadim Gluzman, violin
Paul Jacobs, organ
Daugherty: Work for organ, brass and percussion (World premiere)
Barber: Adagio for Strings
Daugherty: Radio City for Orchestra (A musical fantasy on Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra (1937-54)) (American premiere)
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto
Tchaikovsky’s dazzling violin concerto is a test of skill for any violinist, but Vadim Gluzman, who performed Brahms last season in Orange County, is up to the task. In only eight minutes, Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” will take listeners from the depths of sadness to the heights of joy. And we’ll hear two exciting premieres from Michael Daugherty, including a musical fantasy on the radio broadcasts of Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony in NBC Studio 8-H in New York City’s Rockefeller Center (1937-54).
RACHMANINOFF’S MIGHTY THIRD
Thursday through Saturday, March 1-3, 2012, 8 p.m.
Tickets are $25-$110
Michael Stern, conductor
Joyce Yang, piano
Rossini: Overture to “Semiramide”
Bartok: Suite from “The Miraculous Mandarin”
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3
Korean pianist Joyce Yang offers Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto, one of the repertoire’s most powerful, most demanding and most popular works. Rossini’s “Semiramide” is seldom performed in full, but the overture and arias have received constant acclaim. “The Miraculous Mandarin” is Bartok at his most colorful and dramatic.
American Composers Festival 2012
NOWRUZ―CELEBRATING SPRING
Thursday through Saturday, March 22-24, 2012, 8 p.m.
Tickets are $25-$110
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Farhad Mechkat, conductor
Hila Plitmann, soprano
Shams Ensemble
Pacific Chorale — John Alexander, artistic director
Traditional Persian Music
Danielpour: “A Time for Peace” (Ecclesiastes) (world premiere)
The traditional Persian New Year — marking the arrival of spring —has been celebrated since ancient times. This year, join your neighbors in a program of festive Persian music. Then, celebrate another world premiere: Richard Danielpour’s Peace Oratorio was commissioned by Pacific Symphony as part of this year’s American Composers Festival.
Music Unwound – Enhancements thanks to a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
LA BOHEME
Thursday, April 19, 2012, 8 p.m.
Saturday, April 21, 2012, 8 p.m.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012, 8 p.m.
(Friday evening subscribers will attend Sunday’s performance)
Tickets are $25-$110
Carl St.Clair, conductor
A. Scott Parry, stage director
Hei-Kyung Hong, Mimi
David Lomeli, Rodolfo
Georgia Jarman, Musetta
Pacific Chorale — John Alexander, artistic director
Southern California Children’s Chorus — Lori Loftus, artistic director
Puccini: La Boheme
Carl St.Clair enjoys a stellar reputation as an opera conductor in Europe. Now he showcases that talent as Pacific Symphony presents one of Puccini’s most popular and heartbreaking operas, “La Boheme,” in a semi-staged production. Carefree Bohemians and star-struck lovers — penniless, hungry and ill — will fill the concert hall with their astonishing voices as Puccini’s sad tale unfolds.
SCHUBERT’S NINTH
Thursday through Saturday, May 10-12, 2012, 8 p.m.
Tickets are $25-$110
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Andrew von Oeyen, piano
Prangcharoen: Sattha for Strings, Piano and Percussion
Mendelssohn: Piano Concerto No. 1
Schubert: Symphony No. 9, “The Great”
East meets West with Thai composer Narong Prangcharoen’s Sattha. Then young superstar Andrew von Oeyen performs a classic piano concerto written by another young superstar, Felix Mendelssohn. Franz Schubert was never a superstar in his short life, but he wrote nine symphonies, the last of which has been called “The Great” for the last 200 years.
BEETHOVEN’S NINTH
Thursday through Saturday, May 31-June 2, 2012, 8 p.m.
Tickets are $25-$110
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Vocalists TBA
Pacific Chorale — John Alexander, artistic director
Ticheli: Radiant Voices
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9
“Ode to Joy” has thrilled listeners around the world for nearly two centuries. When it premiered in 1824, conducted by Beethoven himself, he heard not a note, so profoundly deaf was he. Nor did he hear the five standing ovations for the most epic choral work ever composed! Frank Tichelli’s “Radiant Voices” provides a sweet choral appetizer.
Music Unwound – Enhancements thanks to a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
classical life 
I’ll start the comments … the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto again??? They play it EVERY year.
Joyce Yang is a FANTASTIC pianist. Don’t miss her in March 2012.
The selection of concertos is very stale across the board. I don’t understand why it has to be like that. I look forward to hearing Denk’s Mozart, though.
Okay, since you asked, here are my random thoughts:
– Overall, no single concert is jumping out at me and screaming, “You absolutely must drive down to Segerstrom and see me!!!”
– The Persian music concert is certainly unique, especially when paired with the Danielpour world premiere. Other than that, there seems to be a decent smattering of new music, but no complete concert that is particularly forward thinking or challenging.
– There seems to be a lot more overlap between the PSO’s season and the LA Phil than usual: 7 of the 12 PSO concerts include pieces played by both orchestras. You’d expect it with the big show pieces like Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn violin concertos, but there’s also Zarathustra, Tchaikovsky 5, Mahler 9, Miraculous Mandarin, and Schubert 9.
– The “2001: A Space Odyssey” theme night seems a bit cliché because, well, it is. The first half of the concert is at least less trite: After enjoying Jeremy Denk’s take on the Beethoven 1st this past season with the LA Phil, I’d be very curious to find out what he’d do with an even more ubiquitous concerto; the Hovhaness is at least different, I’m always up for a trumpet concerto, and I’m sure Berry Perkins will play the heck out of it.
Biggest promotional puffery: concerts played Feb 2-4, 2012.
– The “Benedetti Plays Bruch” title is innocuous enough, but . . .
– you get assaulted with repeated hyperbole before you finish the first sentence of the copy: “the most enduring” . . . “masterpiece” . . . “inspired” . . . “captivating”
– Then, my favorite: ” . . . renowned conductor Christoph König . . . ” Um, no offense to the guy, but, “renowned?” Really?
– No Brahms or Wagner: I am pleasantly surprised.
Yes, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Mr. Konig — no offense to him. I don’t get around that much.
The three Ninth Symphonies — by Mahler, Schubert, Beethoven — are part of the orchestra’s explanatory and exploratory Music Unwound series. They’ll all be occasions for “learning,” though I’m not always in the mood for such when I go to a concert. I also fear that the Ninth evenings will turn into tragic affairs, emphasizing the doleful aspects of the composers’ lives, which sometimes gets to be a bit much. (There’s always a lot of talk from the stage, trying to get the audience to understand the “feelings” in the music.) But you never know — sometimes the “Music Unwound” nights are terrific.
You know, I really would like to hear the soloists play something else … something that everyone else doesn’t play. And why does it always have to be the “mighty” Rachmaninoff Third?
Definitely could have used some variety in the concertos. On some level, I understand that it’s good to have some warhorses during the season, especially when the soloists aren’t especially household names. But does Sarah Chang really need to play the Mendelssohn again (and again and again)?
Here is my humble suggestions for other violin concertos played a little less frequently that Ms. Chang or any of the other soloists could have programmed and probably still would send even novice concert-goers home happy and duly impressed:
– Barber
– Shostakovich
– Stravinsky
– Prokofiev 1
– Korngold
– Mozart 5
– Salonen (ok, a stretch, but one can wish)
As far as piano concertos go, the season offerings seem a little bit less typical than the violin concertos: you don’t necessarily see the Chopin 2nd or the Mendelssohn 1st every season. Still, they could have gone for at least one concerto from the 20th century. Ever since the Shostakovich 2nd was featured in Fantasia 2000, I figured it would be played more often; I’ve been mistaken.
All that said . . . There’s got to be a first time for everyone to hear the big concertos live, and it is, of course, a thrilling and important event. A couple of years ago, my niece, a budding violinist who had learned to play the first movement of the Mendelssohn concerto, was planning a visit from out of town. We tried hard to plan her trip to coincide with a performance of the same concerto at WDCH. Turned out the scheduling didn’t work and she had to “settle” for the world premiere of the Salonen violin concerto instead. As amazing as that concert was, she still is a little sad that she has never had a chance to hear the Mendelssohn in person.
I’ve been mulling over various aspects of this. In general, I think it would probably be better for orchestras and other ensembles to make programs for listeners who regularly attend concerts — the regulars — rather than first-timers and novices. You know, for folks who are actually engaged in the art form. For an orchestra, that is your base. The pieces like Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and Rachmaninoff’s Paganini Variations and “La Boheme” would come around every now and then, as a matter of course, and the first-timers would have their opportunities. And then if you played something like a Martinu violin concerto, or an orchestral piece by Chabrier (other than Espana), or a symphony by Berwald — everyone would be first-timers.
What’s more, two local groups that follow this philosophy — Long Beach Opera and the Ojai Festival — have very healthy audience bases, made up of faithful, sophisticated and curious listeners.
I also wonder if this orchestra will ever play anything by the likes of Boulez, Carter, Stockhausen, Ligeti, Lutoslawski, Feldman, etc., etc. Audiences here simply wouldn’t allow it.
Stravinsky is barely on the radar here, as far as this orchestra is concerned. They’ve performed one piece by Webern in my recollection, one by Schoenberg (in a chamber concert) and I think the Berg violin concerto. The moderns they play are generally audience friendly, or the minimalists. I was witness to some annoying protests when they dared to perform Reich’s Music for Pieces of Wood. The orchestra’s hands are tied, I think.
Incidentally, the violin soloists for the weekend of the Mendelssohn concerto that my niece missed: Sarah Chang.
How much is the aversion to the composers you mention is due to St.Clair’s own preferences for other repertoire? Or has he (and/or the orchestra management) been wanting to been wanting to program something like “Clocks & Clouds” or even something more accessible like “Petrushka” but fear an empty house? The Germanic repertoire seems to be in both conductor’s and audience’s wheelhouse — how about “Gurrelieder” (forgive me my spelling is off)?
I surprised that aversion to Stravinsky is still prevelant. I remember attending the Eclectic Orange Festival concert with Slatkin & the National Symphony doing “Oedipus Rex.” If memory serves, the concert was well attended?
Ahh, Eclectic Orange. . . . Okay, nevermind, I think I see what you mean.
I believe that St.Clair would conduct anything the audiences would like to hear. He’s done quite a lot of contemporary music in his career.
The Stravinsky the Pacific Symphony has performed includes The Firebird Suite, the Rite of Spring, the Piano Concerto and the Symphony in Three Movements. The latter two were done on a Stravinsky concert they did during the opening weeks of the new hall. I can’t remember what else they’ve done of Igor’s. He’s a tough sell here.
The Philharmonic Society of Orange County — which presented Eclectic Orange — has a different audience than the Pacific Symphony. They tend to be a little more cosmopolitan and musically savvy. Still, in recent seasons, the Phil Society concerts have been pretty conservative as well, especially the touring orchestra concerts.
I’ve spoken to the movers and shakers here over the years, and off the record they will admit to being frustrated by the audience’s aversion to anything outside of the standard repertoire. It’s not universal by any means, but the majority are fully satisfied with the three B’s and Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky. It’s probably not much different than in other suburban areas in the U.S. though.
Forgive the repitition and typos. That’s what I get for trying to type a longer reply on my phone.
I’m a bit of a humbug when it comes to the repetitive nature of the LA Phil programming but the coming season at the PSO looks particularly dreary. There are a few interesting morsels like the Hovhaness and the Persian music, but is there nothing to differentiate this orchestra from it’s neighbors? Can someone from the PSO justify this unimaginative season?
And I trust following next year’s orgy of Mahler at the LA Phil that a moratorium will be placed on that wonderful composer’s music for all the local performing ensembles.
CK Dexter Haven, I attended Sarah Chang playing the Mendelssohn, and it was fantastic. If schedule allows, we’ll go see her play it again.
What you all are saying about hearing the same old things over and over is true, but some pieces are worth hearing over and over, especially when different orchestras and conductors are performing them.
Give the Pacific some credit for trying different approaches. We attended the flamenco concert a few months ago. It didn’t really work, but it was different and worth a try. It was a fun night out.