Pittsburgh Symphony sets Classics series
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra will present 20 weekends of BNY Mellon Grand Classics concerts in the 2016-17 season, half of them led by music director Manfred Honeck.
The season's theme is “Around the World With the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra,” achieved through concerts focused on great cities, including Rome, New York, Paris, St. Petersburg, Prague, Los Angeles and Vienna. The 200th anniversary of the incorporation of Pittsburgh will be honored with celebratory encores at every concert.
“I think it's an incredibly strong season from the audience point of view, as well an artistically challenging and fulfilling season for the orchestra,” say chief executive officer Melia Tourangeau. “I am thrilled with the lineup of artists we have coming in and I think the theme of great cities provides an arc or theme to the structure of the season.”
The symphony's subscription season begins and ends later than usual, Oct. 7 to June 25, 2017
The annual gala, the symphony's largest fundraising event of the year, will be held Sept. 17. Honeck will conduct “Moonlight Masquerade,” which features violinist Gil Shaham.
Honeck will conduct all three pieces by composer of the year Sir James MacMillan. The Scottish composer is no stranger to Heinz Hall. Most recently Honeck conducted his “Women of the Apocalypse” here in May 2014 and took it to Carnegie Hall in New York City.
The season opens, Oct. 7 to 9, with MacMillan's “Britannia,” a 14-minute fantasia on patriotic themes. This concert also features the return of violinist Pinchas Zukerman.
The following week, Oct. 14 to 16, Honeck and the orchestra will give the U.S. premiere of MacMillan's Symphony No. 4. This concert also will offer “Cosmos — a HD Odyssey,” a video that will be shown while Honeck and the orchestra play Antonin Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 (“From the New World”).
Principal timpanist Edward Stephan will be the soloist in MacMillan's “Veni, Veni, Emanuel,” Feb. 10 and 12, 2017 on a program with music by Sergei Prokofiev and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Other highlights of Honeck's programming include Franz Joseph Haydn's “The Creation,” Dec. 2 and 4, Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 8, April 30, and Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2 (“Resurrection”), June 2 to 4, which will be recorded for commercial release.
The roster of guest conductors is led by the return of Christoph von Dohnanyi, the former music director of the Cleveland Orchestra who will conduct Robert Schumann's Symphony No. 4 and Johannes Brahms' Symphony No. 2, April 7 and 9.
All four Brahms Symphonies will be performed next season. Honeck will conduct No. 1 for the first time in Pittsburgh with Midori playing Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto, Feb. 3 and 5, and No. 4 to close the season, June 23 to 25. David Zinman will lead Symphony No. 3 in his return to Heinz Hall, May 19 and 21, on a program with “Don Quixote” by Richard Strauss.
Yan Pascal Tortelier will celebrate music of Paris, his hometown, including Igor Stravinsky's “Petrouchka” and Maurice Ravel's “Bolero,” May 17 to 19.
Gianandrea Noseda will lead the Roman program, including Ottorino Respighi's “The Fountains of Rome” and the local premiere of Nino Rota's Symphony No. 3, Nov. 11 and 13. This concert also will feature principal oboe Cynthia DeAlmeida Koledo performing Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Oboe Concerto.
Young Israeli conductor Omer Meir Wellber, who made a very impressive debut last fall, will conduct music by New York City composers Aaron Copland, George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein, Feb. 24 to 26.
One of China's most prominent conductors Long Yu will make his Heinz Hall debut, March 31 and April 2, in a program consisting of Modest Mussorgsky's “Pictures at an Exhibition,” a piece by Nicolo Paganini featuring principal violist Randolph Kelly and excerpts from Giacomo Puccini's opera “Turandot,” which is set in Beijing.
Russian conductor Vasily Petrenko will make his debut, June 9 and 11, by conducting Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 with pianist Behzod Aburaimov, also making his local debut, and Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 8.
The complete season
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's 2016-17 season of BNY Mellon Grand Classics. Friday and Saturday concerts start at 8 p.m., Sunday concerts at 2:30 p.m., at Heinz Hall, Downtown.
Oct. 7 and 9: Pinchas Zukerman, violin; Manfred Honeck, conductor. James MacMillan's Britannia, Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1, Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations
Oct. 14-16: Honeck, conductor. Ludwig van Beethoven's Egmont Overture; “Cosmos – a HD Odyssey, featuring Antonin Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 (“From the New World”); MacMillan's Symphony No. 4
Nov. 4 and 6: Simone Porter, violin; Leonard Slatkin, conductor. Samuel Barber's “School for Scandal” Overture and Adagio for Strings, Violin Concerto; John Williams' Sound the Bells; Slatkin's “Kinah”; “Gershwin: A Symphonic Picture of ‘Porgy and Bess' ”
Nov. 11 and 13: Cynthia DeAlmeida Koledo, oboe; Gianandrea Noseda, conductor. Hector Berlioz's Roman Carnival Overture; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Oboe Concerto; Ottorino Respighi's “The Fountains of Rome”; Nino Rota's Symphony No. 3
Nov. 25-27: Helene Grimaud, piano; Honeck, conductor. Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major; Strauss family waltzes and polkas
Dec. 2 and 4: Vocal soloists, Mendelssohn Choir; Sam Helfrich, stage director; Honeck, conductor. Franz Joseph Haydn's “The Creation”
Jan. 13 and 15, 2017: Jukka-Pekka Saraste, conductor. Beethoven's Symphony No. 7; Jan Sibelius' Symphony No. 5
Feb. 3 and 5: Midori, violin; Honeck, conductor. Mozart's Symphony No. 35 (“Haffner”); Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto; Johannes Brahms' Symphony No. 1
Feb. 10 and 12: Edward Stephan, percussion; Honeck, conductor. Sergei Prokofiev's Symphony No. 1 (“Classical”); MacMillan's “Veni, Veni, Emanuel”; Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's “Sleeping Beauty” Suite
Feb. 24-26: Jon Kimura Parker, piano; Omer Meir Wellber, conductor. Aaron Copland's Symphony No. 3; George Gershwin's “Rhapsody in Blue”; Leonard Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story”
March 10 and 12: Francesco Piemontesi, piano; Juraj Valchua, conductor. Bedrich Smetana's “The Moldau”; Dvorak's Piano Concerto and Carnival Overture; Mozart's Symphony No. 38 (“Prague”)
March 17-19: Yan Pascal Tortelier, conductor. Igor Stravinsky's “Petrouchka”: Jacques Offenbach's “Gaite Parisienne”; Ravel's “Bolero”
March 31 and April 2: Randolph Kelly, viola; Long Yu, conductor. Modest Mussorgsky's “Pictures at an Exhibition”; Nicolo Paganini's Sonata per la Grand Viola; Giacomo Puccini's “Turandot” excerpts
April 7 and 9: Christoph von Dohnanyi, conductor. Robert Schumann's Symphony No. 4; Brahms' Symphony No. 2
April 21-23: Till Fellner, piano; Honeck, conductor. Beethoven's Piano Concerti Nos. 2 and 3
April 28: Rudolf Buchbinder, piano; Honeck, conductor. Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20; Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5
April 30: Honeck, conductor. Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 8
May 19 and 20: Maximilian Honung, cello; Randolph Kelly, viola; David Zinman, conductor. Brahms' Symphony No. 3; Richard Strauss' “Don Quixote”
June 2- 4: Christina Landshamer, soprano; Gerhild Romberger, mezzo-soprano; Mendelssohn Choir; Honeck, conductor. Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2 (“Resurrection”)
June 9 and 11: Behzod Aburaimov, piano; Vasily Petrenko, conductor. Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1; Shostakovich's Symphony No. 8
June 23-25: Frank Peter Zimmermann, violin; Honeck, conductor. Beethoven's Violin Concerto; Brahms' Symphony No. 4
Subscriptions cost $114 to $1,410. Single tickets will go on sale in July.
Details: 412-392-4900 or pittsburghsymphony.org
