Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra goes big for 125th anniversary season
Share this post:
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has gone all-out in planning its 125th anniversary season in 2020-21.
The 20 weekends of Mellon Grand Classics concerts will feature many world premieres and 10 artist debuts, complementing exploration of the standard repertoire, and many returning popular guest soloists. Among these is cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who will play a special concert with music director Manfred Honeck and the orchestra (April 24), as part of his residency here.
The PNC Pops will offer seven weekends of concerts, three led by new principal pops conductor Byron Stripling.
In addition, the orchestra next season will engage in an unprecedented range of collaborations with other local performing arts groups, along with a major series of outreach concerts in communities around Pittsburgh.
“This anniversary is a time for intensifying our connections to our community in vibrant ways,” says symphony president and CEO Melia Tourangeau.
For example, members of Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre will dance “The Rite of Spring” while Honeck and the orchestra perform Igor Stravinsky’s music (Oct. 16-18). Members of Pittsburgh Public Theater will add William Shakespeare’s words to Honeck’s performances of music from Sergei Prokofiev’s ballet “Romeo and Juliet” (Feb. 12-14). And the CLO will add dimension to the Pops’ celebration of George Gershwin (March 26-28). Symphony strings will also perform at the Manchester Craftsman’s Guild in its jazz subscription series on a program of music by Carlos Jobim (May 1).
The big initiative outside of the Cultural District will be a two-pronged “Beethoven in Your Neighborhood: Extraordinary Concerts in Extraordinary Places,” a big part of the second year of the symphony’s celebration of the 250 th anniversary of his birth. First, members of the string section will form ensembles to play all of Ludwig van Beethoven’s 16 string quartets at branches of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh where the audience can be up close to the musicians, mid-September to mid-November. There is no better music than Beethoven quartets.
Second, Honeck and the orchestra will play all nine of Beethoven’s Symphonies in the week of Nov. 30 at locations around Pittsburgh, such as the Carnegie Science Center.
The five premieres are by Michael Dougherty (Sept. 25-27), Mason Bates (March 5, 7) James MacMillan (April 16-18), Gloria Isabel Ramos Triano (April 23, 25) and Stacy Garrop (June 18, 20). All but the Bates are world premieres and all were commissioned or co-commissioned by the symphony. Dougherty, Bates and MacMillan have enjoyed past successful Heinz Hall premieres, while the two women composers will be new to the orchestra. Honeck will also introduce his newest operatic suite, which is from “Salome” by Richard Strauss (June 11-13).
There also will be two pieces by African-American composers on the classical series: “Lyric for Strings” by George Walker, the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize for music, and Wynton Marsalis’ new Violin Concerto with Nicola Benedetti as soloist (March 19, 21).
The somewhat increased role for African-Americans and women will improve the balance and inclusivity of musical voices at Heinz Hall. “It is certainly a very intentional focus and will be moving forward,” says Tourangeau.
Some Pittsburgh premieres are of new music, but some are of older music. Honeck will conduct the first local performance of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 (Feb. 26-28). The piece is sometimes call “Symphony of a Thousand” because of the immense musical forces that Mahler conducted at its 1910 premiere in Munich, Germany. It is scored for huge orchestra, many vocal soloists, two adult choirs plus children’s chorus, organ and extra off-stage brass.
“Mahler himself said it was the best work he ever composed,” says Honeck, who will be conducting it for the first time. “I have played it myself (as a member of the Vienna Philharmonic) at the Salzburg Festival under Seiji Ozawa. The gigantic sound and power of the orchestra and the biggest choir you can have is amazing. Nobody will go out of Heinz Hall feeling this is not one of the best pieces in the world.”
For sound, audiences will also be listening to the symphony’s new Steinway concert grand piano, which will be heard the first of 10 times this season on opening weekend when Emanuel Ax will play John Adams’ “Century Rolls” (Sept. 25-27).
Honeck and the orchestra are scheduled to record two weekends of concerts in their Grammy Award winning series: April 16-18, which includes the music director’s unique presentation of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem called “Mozart’s Death in Words and Music,” and June 11-13 which includes Honeck’s new “Salome” Suite and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5
Finally, Honeck and the orchestra will make a 12-concert, five-country European Festivals Tour in August and September that includes being the only American orchestra at the centenary season of the Salzburg Festival in Austria, and being part of the opening weekend of the Beethoven Festival in Bonn, Germany, where Beethoven was born.
Classical subscriptions cost $102 to $1,470. Single tickets will go on sale in August.
Pops subscriptions cost $133 to $658. Single tickets will go on sale in July.
The Pittsburgh Symphony’s 2020-21 season of BNY Mellon Grand Classics, followed by the season of PNC Pops:
Sept. 25-27
Manfred Honeck, conductor
Emanuel Ax, piano
Michael Dougherty: “Fifteen” for orchestra (world premiere)
John Adams: “Century Rolls”
Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov: “Scheherazade”
Oct. 16-18
Honeck, conductor
Simone Porter, violin
Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 1
Sergei Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1
Esa-Pekka Salonen: Lachen Verlernt
Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
Oct. 23, 25
Gianandrea Noseda, conductor
Francesco Piemontesi, piano
Antonin Dvorak: “Noonday Witch”
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 27
Hector Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique
Oct. 30, Nov. 1
Rudolf Buchbinder, piano and conductor
Beethoven: the five Piano Concertos
Nov. 13, 15
Karina Canellakis, conductor
Cedric Tiberghien, piano
Jean Sibelius: “The Oceanides”
Maurice Ravel: Piano Concerto in G major
Benjamin Britten: Sinfonia da Requiem
Sibelius: Symphony No. 7
Nov. 27, 29
Honeck, conductor
Maria Duenas, violin
Micah Wilkinson, trumpet
Niccolo Paganini: Violin Concerto No. 1
Franz Joseph Haydn: Trumpet Concerto
Strauss family favorites
Jan. 15, 17, 2021
David Afkham, conductor
Vadim Gluzman, violin
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto
Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10
Jan. 22, 24
Dima Slobodeniouk, conductor
Inon Barnatan, piano
Johann Sebastian Bach/Leopold Stokowski: Toccata and Fugue in D minor
George Gershwin: Piano Concerto in F major
Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra
Feb. 5, 7
Vasily Petrenko, conductor
Daniel Lozakovich, violin
Beethoven: Violin Concerto
Edward Elgar: Symphony No. 2
Feb. 12-14
Honeck, conductor
Helene Grimaud, piano
Pittsburgh Public Theater
George Walker: Lyric for Strings
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20
Sergei Prokofiev: Suite from “Romeo and Juliet”
Feb. 26-28
Honeck, conductor
Vocal soloists
Mendelssohn Choir and other choirs
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 8
March 5, 7
Honeck, conductor
Gil Shaham, violin
Antonin Dvorak: Symphony No. 7
Samuel Barber: Violin Concerto
Mason Bates: Philharmonic Fantastique (Pittsburgh premiere)
March 19, 21
Pablo Heras-Casado, conductor
Nicola Benedetti, violin
Wynton Marsalis: Violin Concerto
Manuel de Falla: The Three-cornered Hat (ballet)
April 9, 11
Sir Mark Elder, conductor
Kian Soltani, cello
Beethoven: Fidelio Overture
Haydn: Cello Concerto in C major
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4
April 16-18
Honeck, conductor
Christian Tetzlaff, violin
James MacMillan: world premiere
Alban Berg: Violin Concerto
Mozart: Requiem, Mozart’s Death in Words and Music
April 23, 25
Honeck, conductor
Matthias Goerne, baritone
Gloria Isabel Ramos Triano: world premiere
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5
Richard Wagner: sung by Goerne
May 14-16
Juraj Valchua, conductor
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
Giacomo Puccini: Preludio Sinfonico
Camille Saint-Saens: Piano Concerto No. 5 (“Egyptian”)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 4
May 21, 23
Fabien Gabel, conductor
Jonathan Biss, piano
Hector Berlioz: “Beatrice and Benedict” Overture
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 9
Paul Dukas: “La Peri” Fanfare and Ballet
Ravel: Une Barque sur l’ocean
Ravel: La Valse
June 11-13
Honeck, conductor
Yulianna Avdeeva, piano
Strauss/Honeck: “Salome: Suite for Orchestra
Franz Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5
June 18, 20
Honeck, conductor
Yefim Bronfman, piano
Stacy Garrop: world premiere
Saint-Saens: Piano Concerto No. 2
Ottorino Respighi: Trittico Botticelliano
Respighi: Feste Romane
PNC Pops 2020-21 season:
Oct. 9-11
Byron Stripling, conductor
Swingin’ at the Club
Nov. 6-8
Steven Reineke, conductor
Rajatan, vocalists
Music of ABBA
Dec. 12-14
Daniel Meyer, conductor
Highmark Holiday Pops
Feb. 19-21, 2021
Stewart Chafetz, conductor
CLO
S’Wonderful Gershwin
March 26-28
Stripling, conductor
Dancin’ in the Streets: Music of Motown
May 7-9
Stripling, conductor
Paul Simon Songbook
June 4-6
Jack Everly, conductor
To Marvin, with Love