A season of change, variety and starry soloists in South Florida

By David Fleshler

Lauren Flanigan will star in Marvin David Levy’s “Mourning Becomes Electra,” which opens Florida Grand Opera’s season Nov. 7 at the Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale. (Photo by Rozarii Lynch: Flanigan and Jason Howard in the 2003 Seattle Opera production of Levy’s opera)

A new leader is putting her stamp on Florida Grand Opera. To the north, Palm Beach Opera will embark on a season of uncertainty and guest conductors as the search continues for a new artistic director. And the New World Symphony, amid the usual parade of star soloists and conductors, is embracing the 21st century technical capabilities of its new hall.

South Florida’s music season will be packed with famous soloists, ensembles and conductors. Visiting violinists will include Joshua Bell, Hilary Hahn, Leila Josefowicz and, of course, the perennial Itzhak Perlman. For pianists, there will be Yuja Wang, Garrick Ohlsson and Emanuel Ax. For singers, we’ll have performances by the star soprano Deborah Voigt and the fast-rising mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard. Orchestras will come from as far away as Haifa and Estonia.

There will be performances of rarely heard (at least in South Florida) symphonies by Bruckner and Mahler, as well as frequently performed works of Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart and Tchaikovsky. Instead of the usual Traviatas and Bohèmes that tend to dominant South Florida opera schedules, audiences will get the chance to attend rarely heard works such as Verdi’s Macbeth, Massenet’s Thaïs, and Mourning Becomes Electra by the American composer Marvin David Levy.

Here’s a look at some of highlights of the upcoming season:

THE NEW WORLD SYMPHONY

The New World Symphony’s season embraces the video capabilities of its new hall, presents lots of contemporary music and offers the usual glittering array of soloists and guest conductors.

The season will open Oct. 5 under the baton of artistic director Michael Tilson Thomas with a concert featuring the pianist Yuja Wang, and the world premiere of a video to accompany a work by Benjamin Britten. Wang will perform Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F. A video by Tal Rosner will accompany Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from the opera Peter Grimes to mark the 100th anniversary of the composer’s birth.

Other video works on the schedule include the world premiere of a video by Adam Larsen to accompany the late composer Lukas Foss’ Phorion (Feb. 15), the world premiere of a digital animation by Emily Eckstein, produced in collaboration with Tilson Thomas, to accompany Stravinsky’s Huxley Variations and a repeat of Eckstein’s video to accompany Stravinsky’s Circus Polka (April 26).

Emanuel Ax wil perform piano concertos by Beethoven and Schumann with the New World Symphony as well as offer a solo recital Nov. xx-yy. Photo:   Lisa-Marie Mazzucco

Emanuel Ax wil perform a Beethoven concerto with the New World Symphony as well as a solo recital and chamber music Oct. 25-27. Photo: Lisa-Marie Mazzucco

A particularly strong set of soloists will perform with the orchestra this season. The pianist Emanuel Ax will spend a busy weekend with the New World, playing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 Friday and Saturday nights and then performing a full recital the following Sunday, capped by a performance of Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 3 with members of the orchestra (Oct. 25-27). A similar feat will be accomplished by the pianist Garrick Ohlsson, who will perform Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 on Friday and Saturday nights with the conductor Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, then perform solo and chamber works the following Sunday (March 28-30).

The American violinist Hilary Hahn will play Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5, giving South Florida listeners the chance to hear a great work that’s usually neglected in favor of its flashier counterparts (Jan. 11). Other soloists on the schedule include Leila Josefowicz in the Stravinsky Violin Concerto (Dec. 14-15), the young Florida-born cellist Matthew Allen in Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme (Feb. 1) and the cellist Sol Gabetta in the Elgar Cello Concerto (March 22-23).

Among the conductors on the schedule are James Gaffigan in Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 (Jan. 10-11) and Osmo Vänska in the Sibelius Symphony No. 2, a work he recorded with his Minnesota Orchestra (Nov. 23-24). The renowned 17th- and 18th-century music specialist Bernard Labadie will join countertenor Damien Guillon for works of Gabrieli, Vivaldi and Mozart (March 1-2).

The season will end with a continuation of Tilson Thomas’ Mahler symphony series, concerts that have become eagerly awaited highlights of the South Florida musical season. This time he will lead the orchestra in the Symphony No. 7, probably the least-frequently heard of the composer’s symphonies and the one considered the most challenging for listeners (May 3-4).

The orchestra’s Sounds of the Times series will bring strong outside ensembles to Miami Beach. The Chicago-based sextet eighth blackbird will perform works that it commissioned, including Steve Reich’s Double Sextet and Jennifer Higdon’s On a Wire, as well as John Adams’ Guide to Strange Places (Dec. 7). Soloists from Ensemble Modern will perform György Kurtág’s Double Concerto for piano, cello and two chamber ensembles and György Ligeti’s Double Concerto for Flute and Oboe (Jan. 18).

Other contemporary works on the schedule include Gary Kulesha’s The Devil’s Dictionary (Sept. 12), the American composer Kevin Puts’ Two Mountain Sketches, a 2007 orchestral showpiece inspired by the Rocky Mountains of Colorado (Sept. 21) and Inverno in-ver by the late Italian composer Niccolò Castiglioni (Oct. 17).

OPERA

Florida Grand Opera

This season, Florida Grand Opera‘s new general director Susan Danis begins to deliver on her promise of restoring excitement and a sense of adventure to a company that was getting a reputation for stodgy, predictable programming. Of the four operas scheduled this season, the first she has planned since taking over last year, just one is heard with any frequency in South Florida.

The season opens with Mourning Becomes Electra, a 1967 work by longtime Fort Lauderdale resident Marvin David Levy. The opera is based on Eugene O’Neill’s reworking of Aeschylus’ Oresteia trilogy, which transports the ancient Greek drama to a New England town during the Civil War (Nov. 7-23). The work received positive reviews on its premiere at the Metropolitan Opera and raves in a 1998 revival by the Lyric Opera of Chicago and 2003 coproduction by Seattle Opera and New York City Opera. The role of Christine will be sung by the soprano Lauren Flanigan, whose performance in the Lyric Opera production was praised by the New York Times as “mesmerizing, poignant and sometimes terrifying.”

Mara Guleghina will star in FGO's "Nabucco" in January.

Mara Guleghina will star in FGO’s “Nabucco” January 25-February 8.

Following that will be Verdi’s early opera Nabucco, with veteran soprano Maria Guleghina as Abigaille, a role she sang at the Metropolitan Opera in 2011 (Jan. 25-Feb. 8). Then comes Puccini’s Tosca (March 29-April 12). The season ends with Massenet’s rarely heard Thaïs, performed by the company for the first time in 38 years, with local favorite Eglise Gutierrez in the title role (May 3-17).

In addition to the main-stage operas, the company will continue its “Unexpected Operas in Unexpected Places” series with a presentation in South Beach of the 2008 opera No Exit. Based on the play by the French Existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, the opera by Andy Vores tells the story of three people condemned to hell, who discover as they converse that they are to be each others’ tormenters. The opera will be performed Feb. 27-March 1 at the NoWhere Lounge on Washington Avenue.

Palm Beach Opera

Palm Beach Opera enters the season without an artistic director, after the abrupt and controversial departure last year of longtime conductor Bruno Aprea. The company has named two guest conductors so far for its three-opera season, as it continues the search for a permanent replacement.

David Stern, music director of the Israeli Opera and son of the late violinist Isaac Stern, will lead performances of Verdi’s Macbeth (Jan. 24-26). The veteran French operatic conductor Patrick Fournillier will lead performances of Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann (March 21-23). Acclaimed Italian tenor Giuseppe Filianoti will appear in the title role with the four villains portrayed by bass-baritone Mark Delavan, who this year sang Wotan in the Metropolitan Opera’s Ring productions.

For Rossini’s Barber of Seville (Feb. 21-23), the company has not yet named a conductor. As Figaro the company will bring in the Russian baritone Rodion Pogossov, whose performance of the role at the Metropolitan Opera was praised by the New York Times as “a Figaro of robust voice, sure comedic instincts and a winning swagger.”

Miami Lyric Opera

Miami Lyric Opera, South Florida’s alternative opera company, will perform a slate of works that are rarely heard in South Florida, along with a couple of frequently performed ones. The company, which offers young singers a chance at leading roles, will offer a double bill of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Puccini’s Suor Angelica (Sept 21-22), followed by Mascagni’s L’Amico Fritz (March 15-16), Verdi’s Ballo in Maschera (May 17-18) and Donizetti’s Don Pasquale (June 28-29).

CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA

For lovers of the classics, there’s Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5. For those who enjoy music that’s racy and Romantic—in style if not in era – there’s Hollywood film composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Violin Concerto. And for fans of contemporary music, there’s the 2005 Percussion Concerto by Jennifer Higdon.

The Cleveland Orchestra‘s eighth season in Miami offers a mix of the familiar and the offbeat, showing some creativity in programming while not neglecting listeners who understandably  want to hear a great orchestra perform the great works of the repertoire.

Gil Shaham will perform the Korngold Violin Concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra January 24-25. Photo: Luke Ratray

The season opens under the baton of music director Franz Welser-Möst with Schubert’s Symphony No. 2, Korngold’s Violin Concerto with soloist Gil Shaham and a selection of Strauss waltzes and polkas (Jan. 24-25).

Welser-Möst will lead the second concert, featuring Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the work’s riotous 1913 premiere in Paris (Jan. 31-Feb. 1). Also on the program are Strauss’s Don Juan, Debussy’s rarely heard incidental music from Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien and the baritone Simon Keenlyside in songs of Strauss and Duparc.

Giancarlo Guerrero, principal guest conductor for the Miami residency, will lead the next concert, featuring Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 and Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the German violinist Arabella Steinbacher (Feb. 21-22). The final program, also conducted by Guerrero, will include the Higdon Percussion Concerto with the Scottish solo percussionist Colin Currie, for whom the 2005 work was composed (March 21-22). Also on the program is Holst’s The Planets, with high-definition NASA images projected above the stage.

CHORAL MUSIC

Patrick Dupre Quigley and Seraphic Fire open their season October 16 with music of the Renaissance.

Seraphic Fire

With its national profile higher than ever, the Miami-based choir Seraphic Fire will present a season of classics and rarities, while changing performance venues in downtown Miami and Miami Beach.

The choir signed on earlier this year with Columbia Artists Management Inc., which represents leading classical soloists and ensembles, an achievement that comes on top of last year’s two Grammy nominations and the announcement of a recording distribution deal with Naxos.

Among this season’s performances will be a new completion of Mozart’s Requiem, a work left unfinished on the composer’s death. Many composers have attempted to fill in the missing parts of this towering work, and this season Seraphic Fire will give the world premiere of a completion by the award-winning American composer Gregory Spears. The first performance will be Nov. 15 in Fort Lauderdale, with additional performances Nov. 16 and 17 in Coral Gables and Boca Raton.

Other major works on this season’s schedule include Haydn’s Seven Last Words of Christ with the Chicago-based Spektral Quartet (April 9-13), Bach’s Magnificat (Feb. 14-16) and Handel’s Messiah (Dec. 20-22). Seraphic Fire will also present its popular candlelight Christmas concerts (Dec. 11-15), as well as concerts  focused on the French Baroque (Jan. 15-19), Renaissance music (Oct.16-20), music for solo countertenor (March 12-16) and African-American spirituals (May 7-11).

The choir will drop performances at St. Jude Melkite Church in Miami this season because of construction work, moving its downtown Miami performances to St. Sophia’s Greek Orthodox Cathedral on Coral Way. The choir will also move its Miami Beach concerts from Miami Beach Community Church to All Souls Episcopal Church at Arthur Godfrey and Pine Tree drives.

Master Chorale of South Florida 

This season will see the debut of the Master Chorale of South Florida’s new artistic director and conductor, Brett Karlin, who will hopefully bring stability to an ensemble that saw its previous leader last only a year

A Palm Beach County native who served as director of choral studies at Hillsborough Community College and as assistant conductor of the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay, Karlin will lead the choir in performances in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.

The chorale plans two programs with the orchestra now known as The Symphonia (formerly the Boca Raton Symphonia). The first will feature Purcell’s Ode to St. Cecilia, Handel’s Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day and Haydn’s Cäcilienmesse, also known as the Missa Cellensis (Nov. 22-24). The second will include short works by Mendelssohn and Mozart, as well as the Schubert Mass in G major (April 25-27).

PERFORMING ARTS CENTERS

Olga Kern will perform music of Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at the Arsht and Kravis Centers in February.

Olga Kern will perform music of Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at the Arsht and Kravis Centers in February.

Arsht Center for the Performing Arts
Despite Anton Bruckner’s significance as a composer and the grandeur of his symphonies, his works are rarely heard in South Florida. So one Arsht Center concert definitely worth attending will be the performance by the Israel Philharmonic under music director Zubin Mehta of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8, one of his greatest works and a sprawling symphony that will take up the entire program (March 23).

Another great but rarely heard work is Bach’s Violin Concerto in E Major, to be played by Joshua Bell and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (March 15). Also on the program is Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1, Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending and Schubert’s String Quartet No. 14, known as Death and the Maiden, arranged for string orchestra.

Other performers on the Arsht series are the star soprano Deborah Voigt (Nov. 15) and violinist Itzhak Perlman (Dec. 19), with both programs to be announced. Finally the Detroit Symphony Orchestra led by Leonard Slatkin will perform Brahms’ Symphony No. 4, Copland’s Three Latin American Sketches and Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, with pianist Olga Kern (Feb. 28).

Kravis Center for the Performing Arts

The Kravis Center again fields the biggest lineup of classical concerts (www.kravis.org), with a mix of the well-known and the offbeat.

Among the more prominent ensembles are the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in an all-Beethoven program (Jan. 19), with the Coriolan Overture, Symphony No. 2 and Piano Concerto No. 5 with soloist Nobuyuki Tsujii, the pianist who has been blind since birth and went on to tie for the Gold Medal in the 2009 Van Cliburn Competition.

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin will present two concerts with the pianist Olga Kern. On Feb. 25 she will play Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and on a matinee the next day she will play Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 1. The violinist Joshua Bell will both solo with and conduct the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields in the Brahms Violin Concerto and Beethoven Symphony No. 3 (March 16). And the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta will be joined by the violinist Pinchas Zukerman and cellist Amanda Forsyth for the Brahms Double Concerto (March 24).

Among the other orchestras on the schedule are the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra in the Brahms Symphony No. 2 and Dvořák Cello Concerto with soloist Narek Hakhnazaryan, the young Armenian cellist who won the Gold Medal in the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition (Nov. 13). Others include the Moscow City Symphony (Jan. 13) and the Haifa Symphony Orchestra (Jan. 28-29) in a concert that will include the viola concerto Melodies for Mount Carmel by the Israeli composer Uri Bracha (Jan. 28) and the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 (Jan. 29). The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra will perform two concerts, presenting the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 with the French pianist Philippe Bianconi (Feb. 9) and the Mozart Clarinet Concerto with soloist Ricardo Morales, one of the world’s leading clarinetists (Feb. 10).

The violinist Itzhak Perlman will play recitals Dec. 16 and 18, with the programs yet to be announced.

Broward Center for the Performing Arts

Despite bringing high-quality classical soloists and ensembles to Fort Lauderdale, the Broward Center has often failed to fill the majority of the seats in its main hall. As a result, three of the five classical performances scheduled this season will take place in the smaller Amaturo Theater, which is adjacent to the larger hall.

The Estonian National Symphony Orchestra will open the series Nov. 16 with the Overture No. 2 by the contemporary Estonian composer Veljo Tormis, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 and the Dvořák Cello Concerto with soloist Narek Hakhnazaryan. The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra will present an all-Beethoven program Jan. 20, the same program it will play the previous day at the Kravis Center.

The St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Russia’s oldest orchestra, will present excerpts from Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with soloist Denis Kozhukhin and al Niente, by the contemporary Georgian composer Giya Kancheli (Feb. 18).

The British violinist Daniel Hope will play a recital inspired by the 19th century violinist Joseph Joachim, friend of Brahms, Schumann and other great figures of the era (March 18).

FESTIVAL MIAMI

After years of emphasizing jazz and Latin music, Festival Miami will offer a somewhat beefed-up classical lineup with a genuine superstar to open the month-long series at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music.

Violinist Joshua Bell will join double-bass player and composer Edgar Meyer for the Florida premiere of Meyer’s Double Concerto for Violin and Double Bass, with the Frost Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Thomas Sleeper (Oct 4).

The soprano Hila Plitmann, a contemporary music specialist, will perform the Grammy-winning composer Michael Daugherty’s Labyrinth of Love with the Frost Wind Ensemble (Oct. 6). Miami soprano Elizabeth Caballero will sing a concert of arias and duets by Mozart, Puccini, Verdi and others, joined by members of the Frost faculty (Oct. 18).

The pianist Cecile Licad will perform works by piano virtuosi of the 19th and 20th centuries, including rarely heard pieces by Edward MacDowell, Ferruccio Busoni, Cecile Chaminade, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, William Mason and Leo Ornstein (Oct. 20).

The conductor and composer José Serebrier, founder and first artistic director of Festival Miami, will lead two concerts by the Costa Rica National Symphony Orchestra, with the U.S. premieres of works by Latin American composers and the world premiere of Serebrier’s Music for an Imaginary Film (Oct. 22-23).

CHAMBER MUSIC

The Ehnes Quartet performs in Coral Gables September 23 for Friends of Chamber Music.

The Ehnes Quartet performs in Coral Gables September 23 for Friends of Chamber Music.

Friends of Chamber Music of Miami

Most Friends of Chamber Music performances this season will be at Coral Gables Congregational Church, a historic Spanish-style building that has long had an active arts program. Just three performances will be at the series’ old home at the University of Miami’s Gusman Hall.

Like the schedules of prior seasons, this one is weighted heavily toward musicians who have performed previously on the series. The Ehnes Quartet, whose performance last year was a season highlight, will open the series with Schubert’s String Quartet No. 14, known as Death and the Maiden, Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 1 and Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 7 (Sept. 23).

The pianist Anton Kuerti will continue his series of all-Beethoven recitals, performing a mix of sonatas and shorter works (Oct. 17). The pianist Valentina Lisitsa, whose YouTube performances have  made her one of the most popular pianists on the Internet, will return to perform Schubert, Liszt, Prokofiev and Shostakovich (Nov. 19). The work of Brahms will be the focus of a concert by the clarinetist Ricardo Morales, violist Roberto Diaz and pianist Joseph Kalichstein, with the program ranging from Brahms’ early Piano Sonata No. 2 to the late sonatas for clarinet and piano, one of which will be performed on the viola. As usual, the estimable Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio will make an appearance, performing Schubert, Mendelssohn and Dvořák (Feb. 9).

Sunday Afternoons of Music

A pair of rising young stars and a few veterans will perform on the Sunday Afternoons of Music series at the University of Miami’s Gusman Hall.

The 29-year-old cellist Joshua Roman opened the series this past Sunday. Another rising star on the series is the mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard (May 18), who just won the prestigious Richard Tucker Award for American singers (past winners include Joyce DiDonato, Deborah Voigt and Renée Fleming). Leonard, who will be making her South Florida debut, is taking leading roles on the stages of the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera and other top houses.

South Florida’s own Amernet Quartet, in residence at Florida International University, will be joined by the violist Michael Tree, formerly of the Guarneri Quartet, for a performance of works by Mozart, Janacek and Dvořák (Jan. 12). Other concerts include the Gay Men’s Chorus of South Florida (Dec. 15), violinist Ray Chen, who gave a terrific recital two seasons ago on the series (Feb. 16), and the pianist Richard Goode (March 16).

Broward College

Broward College’s Bailey Concert Hall will offer a couple of strong programs. The pianist Gustavo Romero will perform the complete solo piano works of Ravel (Sept 27-28). And the Kronos Quartet, which despite its youthful reputation is celebrating its 40th anniversary this season, will perform Nov. 12 in a concert that will feature the Florida premiere of a new work by Philip Glass.

Society of the Four Arts

One of the strongest and busiest concert seasons will take place in the elegantly appointed rooms of the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach.

The pianist Jeffrey Siegel will offer three programs in his Keyboard Conversations format, in which he gives informal talks about the works and composers, with examples, before performing entire compositions. The programs will focus on Schubert (Jan. 8), Chopin, Liszt, Schumann and Brahms (Feb. 2) and Mozart (March 16).

The series will offer five well-known string quartets, the Brentano (Jan. 12), Calder (Jan. 19), St. Lawrence (Feb. 16), Elias (March 9) and Jerusalem (March 23). Although not all programs are yet available, the Calder’s looks particularly interesting, with Webern’s Five Movements for String Quartet and Vexed Man by the American film composer Don Davis, as well as Mozart’s String Quartet No. 14 and Schubert’s String Quartet No. 14, known as Death and the Maiden.

The tenor Jay Hunter Morris, who has sung the role of Siegfried at the Metropolitan Opera’s productions of Wagner’s Ring for the past two seasons, will present a recital Jan. 22, with the program to be announced. Among the other performers on the schedule are the young British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor (Feb. 9), the period-instrument ensemble Europa Galante (Feb. 12) and the Brazilian pianist Arnaldo Cohen (March 12).

And for those for whom hearing Itzhak Perlman play isn’t enough, you can hear him talk on the Society’s lecture series. The event, “An Afternoon with Itzhak Perlman,” will be Feb. 4.

SOUTH FLORIDA ORCHESTRAS

Miami Symphony Orchestra
Celebrating its 25th anniversary this season, the Miami Symphony Orchestra has planned an imaginative series of programs, with unusual works, world premieres and several classics.

The opening concert under music director Eduardo Marturet (Oct. 20) will feature pianist Andreas Boyde playing Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto. New Zealand conductor Gemma New will lead the orchestra in “A Valentine Fiesta,”with romantic works by Ravel, Rachmaninoff, Gershwin and Prokofiev, as well as the South Florida premiere of Danzón No. 3 for Flute and Guitar by the Mexican composer Arturo Márquez (Feb. 15-16).

Other notable programs include the Brahms Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, with the orchestra’s concertmaster Daniel Andai and Brian Manker, principal cellist of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (March 2); the world premiere of South Florida composer Orlando Jacinto Garcia’s Voces Celestiales for Two Double Basses (April 5-6), and Scriabin’s Prometheus: The Poem of Fire, which calls for the use of a color organ, an instrument that represents musical tones as colors (May 4).

The Symphonia

The former Boca Raton Symphonia enters the season with a new name, just The Symphonia. Aside from the name change, the most notable thing about the ensemble’s four-concert season is the quality of the guest conductors.

James Judd, former music director of the defunct Florida Philharmonic, will lead a concert that will include Barber’s Serenade for Strings, Haydn’s Symphony No. 94 (“The Surprise”) and the Beethoven Violin Concerto with soloist Elmar Oliveira (March 16). Gerard Schwarz, former music director of the Seattle Symphony,  will lead an all-Mozart program, including the Clarinet Concerto with soloist Jan Manasse (April 6).

Symphony of the Americas

This season’s Symphony of the Americas series will emphasize soloists, with concertos dominating the concert schedule.

The Russian pianist Alexander Kobrin, 2005 winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, will play Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor (Nov. 12). A concert of concertos will take place Feb. 11, with the pianist Ciro Fodere performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Iris van Eck, the orchestra’s principal cellist, playing the Elgar Cello Concerto. And the young Dominican-born violinist Aisha Syed will perform the Beethoven Violin Concerto (March 11).

Miami City Ballet

This is the first season planned by Miami City Ballet‘s new artistic director Lourdes Lopez, who took over after the abrupt and controversial departure of Edward Villella, the company’s founder.

The four programs offer something for everyone. For aficionados of contemporary ballet there are Jardí Tancat, a work inspired by Catalan folk songs by the Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato and Symphonic Dances by choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, a work previously commissioned by the company to music by Rachmaninoff (Jan. 10-Feb. 2). Also the company will perform Polyphonia by Christopher Wheeldon to piano music by György Ligeti (Oct. 18-Nov. 17).

The company will give its first-ever performance of West Side Story Suite by Jerome Robbins (Feb. 14-March 2). And there are several works by George Balanchine, with whom both Villella and Lopez had worked at the New York City Ballet. Among these are Ballo Della Regina to music from Verdi’s Don Carlos, (Oct. 18-Nov. 17), Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux and Episodes to music by Anton Webern (Feb. 14-March 2), as well as Concerto Barocco to Bach’s Double Concerto for two violins (Jan. 10-Feb. 2). The company will give several Christmas performances of Balanchine’s The Nutcracker (Dec. 19-Jan. 5). The season ends with the full-length Russian story ballet Don Quixote (March 21-April 13).

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4 Responses to “A season of change, variety and starry soloists in South Florida”

  1. Posted Sep 12, 2013 at 11:44 am by Mario

    Looks like an exciting season. Thank you for the recap. Do you happen to which Mahler symphonies have already been done by MTT and the New World Symphony? I am aware of #5, #6, #9, #3 and #4. Thank you

  2. Posted Sep 15, 2013 at 3:29 pm by Jeremy

    Maestro MTT also performed Mahler #1, Franz Welser Most the 3rd. last year with Bernarda Fink and James Judd with the Florida Philharmonic did 1, 2*with Petra Lang, 3 with Maureen Forrester, 4 with Helen Donath,5,6, 7 , 9 and Das Lied von der Erde… only the 8th is missed here in Miami…

  3. Posted Sep 15, 2013 at 5:20 pm by Dave Rosenbaum

    Unless I’m mistaken, I don’t think MTT and the New World did Mahler 3; that was Cleveland last year.

  4. Posted Sep 20, 2013 at 7:28 am by Mario

    That’s right…the 3rd was done by Cleveland during their MIami residency in 2013. It wasn’t MTT and NWS. thanks for the information.

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