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The Pacific Symphony announced its 2020-21 season today, a 44-concert schedule that marks the beginning of music director Carl St.Clair’s fourth decade with the orchestra. It’s a varied line-up that includes symphonic warhorses, new commissions, full-length opera and a unique and unexpected collaboration with Orange County’s most prominent theater company.
Late Romantic classics are a big part of the season, including Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and Fifth Symphony and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Guest artists are well represented as well: Lang Lang, Emanuel Ax, Jaime Laredo.
But perhaps the most unusual part of the season is a first-of-its kind production combining the forces of Pacific Symphony, South Coast Repertory and the Pacific Chorale. SCR artistic director David Ivers, who portrayed Antonio Salieri to critical acclaim in the Utah Shakespeare Festival production of “Amadeus” in 2015, will play the role again in a unique multi-disciplinary collaboration, “The Mozart Project.”
Here is Pacific Symphony’s 2020-21 season.
2020-2021 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 and dates subject to change.
OPENING WEEKEND: TCHAIKOVSKY’S FIFTH
Sept. 24-26, 2020, 8 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Christina Naughton, piano
Michelle Naughton, piano
OQUIN: “Tower Ascending” (Symphonic World Premiere)
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 10 for Two Pianos
TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 5
BEETHOVEN’S “EROICA”
Oct. 15-17, 2020, 8 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Jaime Laredo, violin
Sharon Robinson, cello
DAUGHERTY: “Route 66”
BRUBECK: “Pas de Deux”for Violin, Cello and Orchestra (West Coast Premiere)
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 3, “Eroica”
TCHAIKOVSKY’S VIOLIN CONCERTO
Nov. 12-14, 2020, 8 p.m.
Teddy Abrams, conductor
Bomsori Kim, violin
NORMAN: “Sacred Geometry”
TCHAIKOVSKY: Violin Concerto
BARTÓK: Concerto for Orchestra
RACHMANINOFF’S PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2
Dec. 3-5, 2020, 8 p.m.
Markus Stenz, conductor
Andrey Gugnin, piano
REBEL:“Le chaos” from “Les élémens”
RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 2
DEBUSSY: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
SCRIABIN: “The Poem of Ecstasy”
EMANUEL AX PLAYS MOZART
Jan. 14-16, 2021, 8 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Emanuel Ax, piano
Soprano to be announced
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major, K. 453
MAHLER: Symphony No. 4
SAINT-SAËNS’ ORGAN SYMPHONY
Feb. 4-6, 2021, 8 p.m.
Edo de Waart, conductor
IPPOLITO: Nocturne for orchestra
MOZART: Clarinet Concerto
SAINT-SAËNS: Symphony No. 3, “Organ Symphony”
JAMES EHNES PLAYS SIBELIUS
Feb. 25-27, 2021, 8 p.m.
Anja Bihlmaier, conductor
James Ehnes, violin
BOULANGER: “D’un matin de printemps”
SIBELIUS: Violin Concerto
BRAHMS: Symphony No. 2
CATHEDRALS OF SOUND
March 18-20, 2021, 8 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Robert Istad, conductor
Elissa Johnston, soprano
Baritone to be announced
Robert Istad, artistic director, Pacific Chorale
TALLIS: “Spem in Alium”
STRAUSS: “Death and Transfiguration”
MACMILLAN: “Fiat Lux”(World Premiere)
VERDI’S RIGOLETTO
April 15, 17, 20, 2021, 8 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Singers and Stage director to be announced
Robert Istad, artistic director, Pacific Chorale
MENDELSSOHN’S VIOLIN CONCERTO
May 6-8, 2021, 8 p.m.
Michal Nesterowicz, conductor
Rachel Barton Pine, violin
KILAR: “Orawa” for string orchestra
MENDELSSOHN: Violin Concerto
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Symphony No. 5
HAOCHEN ZHANG PLAYS RACHMANINOFF
May 20-22, 2021, 8 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Haochen Zhang, piano
RACHMANINOFF: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
SCHUBERT:Symphony No. 9, “The Great”
THE MOZART PROJECT
June 10-12, 2021, 8 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
David Ivers, artistic director, South Coast Repertory
James Sullivan, stage director
Robert Istad, artistic director, Pacific Chorale
MOZART: Overture to “Don Giovanni”
MOZART: Selections from the movie, “Amadeus”
MOZART: Requiem in D Minor
2020-2021 SPECIAL CONCERT ADD-ONS
LANG LANG PLAYS BEETHOVEN
Oct. 4, 2020, 3 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Lang Lang, piano
BERLIOZ: “Romans Carnival” Overture
RESPIGHI: “Pines of Rome”
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 2
HANDEL’S GLORIOUS “MESSIAH”
Dec. 6, 2020, 3 p.m.
Robert Moody, conductor
Robert Istad, artistic director, Pacific Chorale
LUNAR NEW YEAR
Feb. 13, 2021, 8 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Festivities honoring the Lunar New Year. Artists to be announced.
NOWRUZ: IRANIAN NEW YEAR
March 27, 2021, 8 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
Traditional celebration that marks the beginning of spring. Artists to be announced.
2020-2021 SUNDAY MATINEES
INSIDE TCHAIKOVSKY’S FIFTH
Sept. 27, 2020, 3 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
OQUIN: “Tower Ascending” (Symphonic World Premiere)
TCHAIKOVSKY: Symphony No. 5
DISCOVERING THE “EROICA”
Oct. 18, 2020, 3 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 3, “Eroica”
SCHUBERT’S “GREAT” C MAJOR
May 23, 2021 • 3 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
SCHUBERT: Symphony No. 9, “The Great”
MOZART’S REQUIEM
June 13, 2021 • 3 p.m.
Carl St.Clair, conductor
David Ivers, artistic director, South Coast Repertory
James Sullivan, stage director
Robert Istad, artistic director, Pacific Chorale
MOZART: Selections from “Amadeus”
MOZART: Requiem in D Minor
Paul Hodgins is the senior editor of Arts & Culture at Voice of OC. He can be reached at phodgins@voiceofoc.org.