Pacific Symphony 2019-20 Season Announcement
Carl St.Clair, music director of Pacific Symphony and John Forsyte, the Symphony’s president, announce programming for the orchestra’s 2019-20 season. Pacific Symphony will celebrate Carl St.Clair’s 30th year as music director of the orchestra and pays homage to Beethoven to honor the 250th anniversary of the great composer’s birth. This landmark season commences on Thursday, Sept. 26 with Maestro St.Clair conducting the combined forces of Pacific Symphony and Pacific Chorale in a program featuring two great blockbusters: Beethoven’s “Choral Fantasy,” a forerunner to his mighty Ninth Symphony along with Carl Orff’s popular masterpiece “Carmina Burana,” the most frequently performed choral work of the 21st century.
Comprising 18 programs, the 2019-20 classical season features the Maestro’s preferred composers, works and performing artists that he has enjoyed over the past three decades. He has carefully selected artists, repertoire and new works by contemporary composers he’s worked with in the past. The season also reflects the orchestra’s diverse repertoire—from core symphonic works to world premieres to full-length operas.
Pacific Symphony President John Forsyte commented: “We are fortunate to have had Carl St.Clair guiding and building Pacific Symphony for 30 years. He is the longest-tenured music director of America’s leading orchestras and only the second music director in Pacific Symphony’s 40-year history. The people of Orange County have enjoyed the benefit of this brilliant musician’s singular vision for the orchestra. For three decades, in which we have experienced Pacific Symphony’s tremendous growth, he has creatively shaped the musical taste of Orange County audiences and has expanded their listening horizons.”
“My musical experiences with the incredible musicians of Pacific Symphony has been an incredible gift,” acknowledged Carl St.Clair. “It has been my pleasure to work with these brilliant artists over the past 30 years, and I have selected for the 2019-20 season particularly meaningful repertoire that showcases their virtuosity and humanity as well as our shared musical history.”
St.Clair continued, “I see my 30th season as music director with Pacific Symphony as a time to reflect and also celebrate. I am pleased that long-time friends and recently discovered collaborators will be sharing the stage with me during this special season: for instance the French Canadian pianist Alain Lefèvre and Benjamin Pasternack, who has played more with Pacific Symphony than any other pianist, as well as new friends such as Alexander Romanovsky, the brilliant young Ukrainian pianist, who will be joining us for an immersive weekend where together we’ll traverse all five of Beethoven’s piano concertos. I’m also gratified to include world premieres written especially for this season at my request. Elliot Goldenthal, who composed “A Vietnam Oratorio” for my first recording with Pacific Symphony, agreed to write a new work especially for this season. My dear friend and USC colleague Frank Ticheli will also be writing a new work to be premiered with us this season. And, of course, my 30th season wouldn’t be complete without including special works by composer John Williams, who was so instrumental in encouraging me to come to Pacific Symphony in the first place.”
Pacific Symphony guest soloists during the 2019-20 season include pianist Benjamin Pasternack playing Beethoven’s “Choral” Fantasy and on the same program soprano Celena Shafer, tenor Christopher Pfund and baritone Hugh Russell are the soloists for both the Beethoven and Orff’s “Carmina Burana” (Sept. 26-28); Pacific Symphony’s concertmaster Dennis Kim performing Ravel’s virtuosic “Tzigane” (Oct. 17-19) and Beethoven’s Romances Nos. 1 and 2 (March 20, 2020); Vadym Kholodenko performing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 (Dec. 5-7); Alain Lefèvre playing Ravel’s Concerto in G Major (Feb. 6-8); Augustin Hadelich performing Paganini’s First Violin Concerto (Feb. 27-29, 2020); and Alexander Romanovsky performing all five Beethoven Piano Concertos (March 19-21, 2020).
Soloists making their Pacific Symphony debuts are pianist Aaron Diehl, performing Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and Florence Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement (Nov. 14-16), Clara-Jumi Kang, an award-winning young pianist in demand throughout Europe, performing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto (Jan. 16-18, 2020); and Metropolitan Opera star Carl Tanner as Otello (April 23, 25 and 28, 2020).
2019-20 HAL AND JEANETTE SEGERSTROM FAMILY FOUNDATION CLASSICAL SERIES
All concerts at Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall at Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
Programs, artists, dates and prices subject to change.
OPENING WEEKEND:
CARMINA BURANA
Sept. 26-28, 2019 • 8 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Celena Shafer, soprano
Christopher Pfund, tenor
Hugh Russell, baritone
Benjamin Pasternack, piano
Pacific Chorale — Robert Istad, artistic director
Beethoven: “Egmont” Overture
Beethoven: “Choral” Fantasy
Orff: “Carmina Burana”
TCHAIKOVSKY’S “PATHETIQUE”
Oct. 17-19, 2019 • 8 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Dennis Kim, violin
Williams: “Tributes! For Seiji”
Ravel: “Tzigane”
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, “Pathétique”
RHAPSODY IN BLUE
Nov. 14-16, 2019 • 8 p.m.
Mei-Ann Chen, conductor
Aaron Diehl, piano
Chadwick: “Jubilee” from Symphonic Sketches
Price: “Dances in the Canebrakes”
Price: Piano Concerto in One Movement
Gershwin: “Rhapsody in Blue”
Gershwin: “An American in Paris”
BEETHOVEN’S SEVENTH
Dec. 5-7, 2019 • 8 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Vadym Kholodenko, piano
Goldenthal: Adagio for Carl’s 30th (World premiere)
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7
BEETHOVEN’S VIOLIN CONCERTO
Jan. 16-18, 2020 • 8 p.m.
Christian Arming, conductor
Clara-Jumi Kang, violin
Beethoven: Violin Concerto
Dvořák: Symphony No. 8
SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE
Feb. 6-8, 2020 • 8 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Alain Lefèvre, piano
Ravel: “Tombeau de Couperin”
Ravel: Piano Concerto in G Major
Berlioz: “Symphonie Fantastique”
HADELICH PLAYS PAGANINI
Feb. 27-29, 2020 • 8 p.m.
Michael Francis, conductor
Augustin Hadelich, violin
Rouse:”Prospero’s Rooms”
Paganini: Violin Concerto No. 1
Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 3
Beethoven Immersion Weekend
BEETHOVEN’S PIANO CONCERTOS
Mar. 19-21, 2020 • 8 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Alexander Romanovsky, piano
Dennis Kim, violin
THURSDAY:
Beethoven: Overture to “Coriolan”
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 1
Beethoven: Overture to “Prometheus”
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4
FRIDAY:
Beethoven: Romance No. 1 in G Major
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2
Beethoven: Romance No. 2 in F Major
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3
SATURDAY:
Beethoven: Symphony No. 8
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5, “Emperor”
OTELLO
April 23, 25, 28, 2020 • 8 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Kelebogile Besong, soprano
Carl Tanner, tenor
Greer Grimsley, bass-baritone
Pacific Chorale — Robert Istad, artistic director
Verdi: “Otello”
SCHUMANN’S SYMPHONY NO. 4
May 7-9, 2020 • 8 p.m.
Jose Luis Gomez, conductor
Joyce Yang, piano
Carreño: “Margariteña”
Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Schumann: Symphony No. 4 (1851 version)
TAO PLAYS MOZART
May 28-30, 2020 • 8 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Conrad Tao, piano
Ticheli: New work to be announced (World premiere)
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor
Brahms: Symphony No. 4
SYMPHONY OF A THOUSAND
June 11-13, 2020 • 8 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Pacific Chorale — Robert Istad, artistic director
Mahler: Symphony No. 8, “Symphony of a Thousand”