Gramophone – September 2019

gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONESEPTEMBER 201947

RESTOFWORLDSEASONPREVIEW201920

Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra

The season kicks o with

a celebration of 70 years of

the People’s Republic of China.

Guest artists for the 20 subscription

concerts include Charles Dutoit,

Eliahu Inbal, Midori, Frank Peter

Zimmermann, Stephen Hough,

Jian Wang, Renée Fleming and Edita

Gruberova, and there is a focus on

Beethoven in his anniversary year.

gso.org.cn/en

Hong Kong Philharmonic

Jaap van Zweden launches the

season with a Russian programme

including Rachmaninov’s Piano

Concerto No 2 and excerpts from

Prokoiev’s Romeo and Juliet, before

conducting Verdi’s Requiem at the

Hong Kong Cultural Centre. He

returns for Shostakovich’s Ninth,

Prokoiev’s Fifth and Beethoven’s

Fourth and Fifth Symphonies.

hkphil.org

NHK Symphony Orchestra

Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra

opens the season in Tokyo with

a splash, and Paavo Järvi goes on

to conduct symphonies by Mahler,

Sibelius and Shostakovich. Herbert

Blomstedt returns for Mozart’s Mass

in C minor and Fabio Luisi takes

on Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben, while

Rafael Payare, Leonard Slatkin, Kent

Nagano and Jukka-Pekka Saraste are

among the other guest conductors.

nhkso.or.jp

Royal Opera House Muscat

Carmen from the Teatro Colón

Buenos Aires, the Opéra de Monte

Carlo’s La bohème, Donizetti’s Anna

Bolena performed by the Opéra

Royal de Wallonie-Liège and Davide

Livermore’s The Magic Flute all grace

the Muscat stage. Meanwhile, the

season of concerts includes visits

from the Philharmonic Orchestra of

La Scala under Myung-Whun Chung,

the LSO under Gianandrea Noseda

and the Orchestra of the Bolshoi

Theatre under Philipp Chizhevsky.

rohmuscat.org.om

Shanghai Symphony Orchestra

Highlights of the season include

semi-staged performances of

La Damnation de Faust and

Semele, the Chinese premiere of

Shostakovich’s Symphony No 13

conducted by Krzysztof Penderecki,

and a focus on composer Zhou

Tian. Visiting artists and orchestras

include the LSO/Simon Rattle, the

Lucerne Festival Orchestra/Riccardo

Chailly, and Collegium Vocale Gent.

sh-symphony.com

Singapore Symphony

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine is Artist-

in-Residence for the season. Themes

include: a British strand that will

explore seafaring; ‘Voices of a City’,

which will focus on music written

in Singapore, New York, Leipzig

and Dresden; and a series, ‘Nature

and the Universe’, celebrating such

phenomena as the aurora borealis

and the make-up of the solar system

through musically related works.

sso.org.sg

Suntory Hall
A season celebrating historic links
between Japan and Austria will
see the Vienna Philharmonic visit
Tokyo for a week-long residency
under Andrés Orozco-Estrada
and Christian Thielemann; the
Orchestra of the Vienna Volksoper is
participating, too. In addition to other
visiting ensembles including the
Leipzig Gewandhaus, local orchestras
oer a rich programme, including
a concert performance of George
Benjamin’s opera Written on Skin.
PHOTOGRAPHY: suntory.com

LISAMARIE MAZZUCCO

REST OF THE WORLD

Romeo and Juliet, both of which

will be recorded. In addition, Jakub

Hrůša and Matthias Pintscher both

make their podium debuts.

pittsburghsymphony.org

St Louis Symphony

America’s second-oldest symphony

orchestra enters its 140th season,

welcoming Stéphane Denève as

Music Director, who will spend

12 weeks on the podium, and will be

joined by his compatriot Jean-Yves

Thibaudet as Artist-in-Residence.

One of Denève’s big dates is with

Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust;

the charismatic French conductor

will also be introducing St Louis

audiences to composer Guillaume

Connesson, whose music he has

championed for many years.

slso.org

San Francisco Symphony

In his 25th and inal season at

the helm of the San Francisco

Symphony, Michael Tilson-Thomas

will place a resounding full stop

at the end of his long exploration

of Mahler; he conducts Mahler’s

Symphonies Nos 6 and 8 and Das

Knaben Wunderhorn. Julia Bullock,

Sasha Cooke and Anne-Sophie

Mutter are Artists-in-Residence.

sfsymphony.org

Toronto Symphony Orchestra

Sir Andrew Davis stewards the TSO

for a season while it awaits incoming

Music Director Gustavo Gimeno,

taking care of the orchestra’s

Beethoven 200 celebrations that

will include Symphonies Nos 58 and

Piano Concertos Nos 35. There is

a taste of things to come as Gimeno

visits for a Russo-French ballet

programme and a Brahms-fest set to

include both piano concertos under

the ingers of Yuja Wang.

tso.ca

Tafelmusik

Elisa Citterio’s third season at

Canada’s period-instrument

orchestra will include her own new

orchestral arrangement of Bach’s

Goldberg Variations, Tchaikovsky

on period instruments, six new

commissions by living composers,

a European tour and a recording –

Citterio’s irst since she joined.

tafelmusik.org

Seattle Symphony

Thomas Dausgaard brings his lair

for unusual musical connections

to the Seattle Symphony. Thus,

the orchestra will pair Beethoven

symphonies with new works,

often composed or created by

local-community musicians.

The season also includes music

by Lotta Wennäkoski and Olga

Neuwirth, symphonies by Mahler

and Nielsen, Stravinsky’s The Rite

of Spring and Bernstein’s Songfest.

seattlesymphony.org

Washington National Opera

Otello opens the season in

Washington in a revival of David

Alden’s production, conducted

by Danielle Callegari and starring

Russell Thomas in the title-role. The

season continues with The Magic

Flute and Don Giovanni. In a new

initiative, the WNO will also present

three brand-new 20-minute operas.

kennedy-center.org

Violinist Rachel Barton Pine is Artist-in-Residence with the Singapore Symphony