Classical music, dance offerings abound in Pittsburgh in 2020
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Music and dance shift back into high gear after the mid-winter break, with many alluring and important performances coming up.
The Pittsburgh Symphony, for example, will present 15 weekends of classical music from January to June. Among the many highlights are two full-evening masterpieces by Ludwig van Beethoven – “Fidelio” and “Missa solemnis” – which have not been performed at Heinz Hall for more than a quarter century. Pittsburgh Opera will stage four works, including both “Carmen” and “Norma.”
In dance, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and Pittsburgh Dance Council will conclude their 50 th anniversary seasons with programs celebrating respectively the genius of choreographer George Balanchine applied to the music of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and the enduring power and relevance of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre.
There are many valuable classical music concert series in Western Pennsylvania, but the Pittsburgh Symphony is in a class by itself for its combination of breadth of repertoire and world-class standards of performance. Music director Manfred Honeck will start the second half of the 2019-20 season with Bela Bartok’s popular Concerto for Orchestra and Maurice Ravel’s even more popular “Bolero,” Jan. 17-19. Then he’ll picked up the celebration of the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth by conducting his opera “Fidelio,” about a wife’s efforts to free her political prisoner husband, Jan. 24 and 26.
Honeck also will conduct the “Missa solemnis” with four vocal soloists, the Mendelssohn Choir and the orchestra, April 17 and 19. Written near the end of his life, right before the Ninth Symphony with its “Ode to Joy” choral finale, the “Missa solemnis” is Beethoven’s most neglected masterpiece.
The other most notable Honeck concerts include a pairing of music by Johannes Brahms and Robert Schumann, with pianist Helene Grimaud, April 24-26, and Beethoven with pianist Yefim Bronfman paired with Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 to close the season, June 19-21.
Other particularly appealing symphony programs will be led by guest conductors Jakub Hrusa, March 13 and 15, Juanjo Mena, May 8-10, and Pablo Heras-Cassado, May 15 and 17. Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra artistic director Daniel Meyer will lead all three remaining concerts of the season, starting with “Parisian Valentine” with pianist Maxim Lando, Feb. 15, continuing with “Irish Rhapsody” featuring Pittsburgh Symphony principal flute Lorna McGhee and Robert Schumann’s irresistible “Spring” Symphony, March 14, and concluding with a rousing Italian Opera Fest, April 15. The Mendelssohn Choir will present what is sure to be one of the most unusual concerts of the year when it gives the world premiere of “Satan’s Fall” by rock drummer and founder of “The Police” Stewart Copland, Feb. 7 and 8.
Two other concert series will also present exceptionally appealing programs. Chamber Music Pittsburgh will present four concerts by different kinds of ensembles, all featuring music by Beethoven juxtaposed with other contrasting music. And Chatham Baroque will offer two guest ensembles offering Medieval era music, plus the great Venice Baroque Orchestra (Feb. 29), and conclude with a French program called “Les Nations,” April 3-5.
Pittsburgh Opera will present four shows, starting with George Frideric Handel’s baroque opera “Alcina,” Jan. 25, 28, 31 and Feb. 2. It will present a contemporary opera “The Last American Hammer,” Feb. 22, 24, 28 and March 1, before concluding with two very popular operas – Georges Bizet’s “Carmen,” March 28, 31, April 3 and 5 and Vincenzo Bellini’s “Norma,” April 25, 28, May 3 and 5.
Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s 50th anniversary season is also the farewell for its artistic director Terrence Orr. Its three shows are “Beauty and the Beast” to Tchaikovsky’s music, Feb. 14-23, a contemporary program called “Here and Now” featuring two Pittsburgh choreographers, March 20-29, and “Balanchine and Tchaikovsky” with live performances of Tchaikovsky’s music by the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre Orchestra, April 17-29
Pittsburgh Dance Council, which brings in top dance groups from around the country and the world, begins its 2020 concerts with Sarah Reich tap dancing with a jazz ensemble in a nightclub setting, Jan. 16-18. The Cuban Malpaso Dance Company, Feb. 22, will be followed by Spanish choreographer Rocio Molina’s contemporary perspective on flamenco, March 25. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, May 5, which was the first group presented by dance council 50 years ago, will perform its signature piece “Revelations” to complete the anniversary season.