4 • THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2019 ARTS GUIDE
Classical offerings run the gamut this season
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Classical music concerts
in Pittsburgh this season
will encompass an immense
range of repertoire, from all
the way back in the ninth
century up to world and
local premieres. Most of
the performers will be local
musicians, including the
world-class Pittsburgh Symphony
Orchestra, but many
organizations including the
symphony bring in touring
artists and ensembles.
The Pittsburgh Symphony’s
20 weeks of BNY Mellon
Grand Classics is the core
of the season and offers
the most concert variety in
Western Pennsylvania. It
also presents seven weeks of
Pops concerts and will make
a five-country, 11-concert
European tour in October
and November.
The symphony, like other
major orchestras around the
world, begins a two-season
celebration of the 250th
anniversary of Ludwig van
Beethoven’s birth in 1770.
Highlights this season include
two big but rarely performed
masterpieces with
the Mendelssohn Choir—
Beethoven’s opera “Fidelio”
(Jan. 24 and 26, 2020) and the
Missa solemnis (April 17 and
19). Music director Manfred
Honeck will conduct both,
as well as the composer’s
Violin Concerto with soloist
Anne-Sophie Mutter at a special
single concert (June 13).
Honeck’s repertoire this
season includes the local
premiere of Julia Wolfe’s
“The Fountain of Youth,”
a PSO co-commission first
performed earlier this year
by the New World Symphony
in Miami. Other fall Honeck
highlights include two weeks
of tour repertoire including
Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony
(Oct. 11 and 13), Dmitri
Shostakovich’s Symphony
No. 5 (Oct. 18 and 19), Anton
Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9
(Oct. 20). Pianist Igor Levit
will play Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.
22 and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s
Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini
at these concerts.
The highlights of the music
director’s 2020 concerts
include extended excerpts
from Sergei Prokofiev’s
ballet “Romeo and Juliet”
(Jan. 17-19). which will be recorded,
Robert Schumann’s
Piano Concerto with soloist
Helene Grimaud and Johannes
Brahms’ Symphony
No. 3 (April 24-26), and
Beethoven’s Piano Concerto
No. 4 with soloist Yefim
Bronfman and Bruckner’s
Symphony No. 7 (June 19-21),
which will be recorded.
The other most notable
symphony concerts this
season include
Osmo Vanska
conducting Carl
Nielsen and Jan
Sibelius with
violin soloist
Augustin Hadelich
playing
Mozart and
Thomas Ades (Dec. 6 and 8),
Vanska conducting “Messiah”
(Dec. 7), Vasily Petrenko
conducting Edward Elgar
and Maurice Ravel with Ray
Chen playing the Sibelius Violin
Concerto (Feb. 14-16), Sir
Mark Elder leading Sibelius’
Symphony No. 1 with soloist
Yulianna Avdeeva playing
Edvard Grieg’s
Piano Concerto
(March 6 and 8),
and conductor
Jakub Hrusa
making his
local debut with
Brahms’ Symphony
No. 1
(March 13 and 15).
The symphony’s Pops
season includes tributes to
Aretha Franklin (Oct. 4-6)
and The Beatles (Nov. 15-17),
Blockbuster Broadway (Feb.
7-9), Bugs Bunny at the Symphony
(March 20-22), and The
Doo Wop Project (June 5-7).
The Westmoreland Symphony
Orchestra’s season
begins with a Russian program
featuring Prokofiev’s
Violin Concerto No. 2 with
soloist Alexi Kenney (Oct.
12), “Parisian Valentine”
(Feb. 15), “Irish Rhapsody”
with Pittsburgh Symphony
principal flute Lorna Mc-
Ghee as soloist (March 14),
and Italian Opera Fest (April
25)—all conducted by music
director Daniel Meyer.
Chamber music is sometimes
overlooked by people
who enjoy orchestral
concerts, but generally
composers who write great
orchestral music also write
chamber music of comparable
scope, beauty and
intensity. The Orion String
Quartet opens Chamber Music
Pittsburgh’s season with
a program including Fritz
Kreisler’s beautiful String
Quartet and Beethoven’s only
String Quintet (Oct. 7). The
Brooklyn Rider String Quartet
(Jan. 6) will offer a series
of intriguing modern pieces
before concluding with
Beethoven’s String Quartet
No. 15, an amazing masterpiece
written after recovering
from a serious illness.
Similarly, the Gryphon Trio
will performmodern pieces
with Nordic Voices before
concluding with Beethoven’s
biggest Piano Trio, known as
the “Archduke” (Feb. 3).
Early music, including the
popular Baroque era, is mainly
carried by Chatham Baroque,
a period-instruments
ensemble which merged
in 2017 with Renaissance
and Baroque, a presenting
organization. Highlights of
its season include “Foreign
Accents,” featuring great
composers such as Bach
and Handel writing cantatas
in other languages than
their mother tongues, with
soprano Pascale Beaudin,
Chatham Baroque and The
Four Nations Ensemble
(Sept. 20-22), “Haydn in
London” with Sylvia Berry
playing on a restored 1806
Broadwood piano (Oct. 5),
“Charms, Riddles and Elegies
from the Middle Northlands”
with Benjamin Bagley and
Sequentia performing music
from as early as the ninth
century (Jan. 14), “Vivaldi
and the Apotheosis of the
Concerto in the 18th century”
performed by the Venice Baroque
Orchestra (Feb 20) and
“Les Nations,” a program of
French baroque music with
guest artists including flutist
Stephen Schultz (April 3-5).
Mark Kanny is a Tribune-Review
contributing writer.
by MARK KANNy
Avdeeva
Vanska
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