Pacific Symphony: September concerts

Septembers are always an eventful time at Pacific Symphony, this year especially so.

The summer season comes to an end, the winter season gets underway, a superstar soloist returns. Here’s a quick run down of the concerts, with clickable access to tickets.

The annual Tchaikovsky Spectacular will be held Sept. 9 at the Pacific Amphitheatre. The latest Van Cliburn gold medalist, Yekwon Sunwoo, the first Korean to win the award, is on hand to perform Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Carl St.Clair conducts the orchestra in a galop by Shostakovich, a march by Prokofiev, and Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet” and the “1812 Overture,” the last ornamented with cannons and fireworks. (Click here for tickets.)

A few days later, St.Clair and the orchestra open the indoor season at Segerstrom Concert Hall with a program featuring Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, Richard Strauss’s “Don Juan” and selections from Wagner’s “Die Walküre,” with bass-baritone Greer Grimsley singing “Wotan’s Farewell.” Sept. 14-16. (Tickets)

The Casual Connections series opens a day later (Sept. 17) with a reprise of the Beethoven symphony and the Wagner excerpts along with explanatory commentary from St.Clair. This matinee concert is presented without intermission. (Tickets)

Then, on Sept. 23, the orchestra presents “An Evening with Joshua Bell,” the popular violinist returning to perform the Violin Concerto by Sibelius. As prelude, St.Clair and the orchestra perform Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World.” (Tickets)