Gramophone – September 2019

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NORTHAMERICASEASONPREVIEW201920

A festival of Spanish music will see

Juanjo Mena and friends play music

by composers from Spain and those

inluenced by the country across

three concerts in the spring.

osm.ca

National Arts Center

Music Director Alexander Shelley

will lead a performance of Verdi’s

Requiem at the start of the season,

which will continue to include a

festival featuring the music of John

Williams, and visits from Joshua

Bell (playing the Mendelssohn Violin

Concerto) and the Canadian-Israeli

composer Avner Dorman’s new

Double Concerto for Violin and Cello.

nac-cna.ca

National Symphony Orchestra

Music Director Gianandrea Noseda

opens the season with a concert

of symphonic works inspired by

jazz, before tackling Or’s Carmina

Burana, Act 3 of Wagner’s Tristan

und Isolde (with Stephen Gould

and Christine Goerke), Strauss’s

Also sprach Zarathustra and

Mahler’s Symphony No 4. There are

celebrations for Leonard Slatkin’s

75th birthday and a complete

Beethoven symphony cycle.

kennedy-center.org

New York Philharmonic

Over the course of the season,

Jaap van Zweden’s orchestra

presents 19 commissioned

works celebrating 100 years

of the American constitution’s

19th Amendment. There are ‘city

hot-spot’ focuses on Berlin and

Reykjavik, concert performances

of Duke Bluebeard’s Castle starring

Nine Stemme, and multiple

appearances from Artist-in-

Residence Daniil Trifonov. The

orchestra also celebrates New York

through the eyes of sometime

resident, Gustav Mahler.

nyphil.org

Philadelphia Orchestra

Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s orchestra

oers subscribers the chance to

‘binge’ on Beethoven’s complete

symphonies and piano concertos

in concentrated cycles, with soloists

for the latter including Emanuel Ax,

Yein Bronfman and Daniil Trifonov.

A ‘WomenNOW’ strand will focus

on female composers, conductors,

soloists and thinkers.

philorch.org

Pittsburg Symphony Orchestra

‘We all need to share love, laughter,

sadness and joy,’ says Manfred

Honeck of his new season, in

which one strand will pit violin

concertos by Mozart against those

by more recent composers. Honeck

conducts Beethoven’s Symphonies

Nos 3 and 7 at Heinz Hall, as well as

Bruckner’s Seventh and Prokoiev’s

Handel and Haydn Society

Mozart is a strong presence this

season from Boston’s early music

ensemble. The composer’s Jupiter

Symphony will be conducted by

Bernard Labadie, and his Mass in

C minor and Violin Concerto No 4 by

Music Director Harry Christophers,

while his Symphony No 36 falls

to the guiding hands of Kristian

Bezuidenhout. Baroque staples

Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s St Matthew

Passion and Vivaldi’s The Four

Seasons are also on the schedule.

handelandhaydn.org

LA Opera

Transfers to LA include Adam

Guettel’s musical The Light in the

Piazza (from London and elsewhere)

starring Renée Fleming, and Barrie

Kosky’s production of La bohème

from the Komische Oper Berlin.

Kosky’s The Magic Flute is also

revived, as is David McVicar’s Pelléas

et Mélisande. Filmmaker James Gray

directs a new production of The

Marriage of Figaro at the Dorothy

Chandler Pavilion.

laopera.org

LA Phil

Entering its second century, the

LA Phil plays Beethoven, Bruckner,

Rachmaninov, Stravinsky, Copland

and John Adams in the autumn, all

under the baton of Music Director

Gustavo Dudamel, who welcomes

guest soloists Yuja Wang, Jean-

Yves Thibaudet and Seong-Jin Cho.

On the anniversary of its actual

founding in October, the orchestra

will premiere a new work, requiring

three conductors, by Icelandic

composer Daníel Bjarnason.

laphil.com

Lyric Opera of Chicago

The main event this season is the

conclusion of David Pountney’s

new Ring cycle conducted by

Music Director Andrew Davis, which

reaches its Götterdammerung and

is also given in full. Other works

include Jake Heggie’s Dead Man

Walking, Tchaikovsky’s The Queen

of Spades and productions of Don

Giovanni, Madama Butterly and

The Barber of Seville.

lyricopera.org

Metropolitan Opera

New productions of Porgy and Bess,

Wozzeck and The Flying Dutchman

are made at the Met by directors

James Robinson, William Kentridge

and François Girard respectively.

Gergiev helms the Dutchman,

starring Bryn Terfel and Anja Kampe,

while Music Director Yannick Nézet-

Séguin conducts three productions

including Wozzeck. Simon Rattle

is in the pit for a revival of Robert

Carsen’s Der Rosenkavalier.

metopera.org

Minnesota Orchestra

Thirteen guest conductors join

Osmo Vänskä for the season

in Minnesota, while Associate

Conductor Akiko Fujimoto makes

her debut in the subscription series.

A season highlight is Mahler’s

Symphony No 3, which will be

recorded for BIS, and the orchestra

gives the US premiere of Brett

Dean’s Cello Concerto, performed

by Alban Gerhardt. The season

also launches a new Rachmaninov

project with pianist Kirill Gerstein.

minnesotaorchestra.org

Orchestra Symphonique de

Montréal

Kent Nagano’s inal season as Music

Director includes a Schubert festival

comprising a complete cycle of

the composer’s symphonies, all

under Nagano’s baton. He also

takes on Shostakovich’s Symphony

No 13, Mahler’s Symphony No 5

and Bruckner’s Symphony No 4.

PHOTOGRAPHY:

ANTOINE SAITO

Conductor Kent Nagano celebrates his inal season as Music Director in Montreal with an ambitious Schubert festival