March 14, 2010
LJS&C Announces 2010-2011 Season – “Face the Music”
La Jolla, Calif. (March 14, 2010) — The La Jolla Symphony & Chorus (LJS&C) announces its 2010-2011 season – Face the Music: Experiences for the Ears and the Eyes. Cornerstones of the season are Beethoven’s monumental work for chorus, vocal quartet, and orchestra Missa Solemnis in December, and Bach’s powerful The Passion According to St. Matthew in late April. Filling out the 56th season are exciting guest artists performing works both familiar and new, visiting composers, two commissions, multimedia experiences, and a florist!
“Nearly every concert has something to look at as well as to listen to, images that help sharpen the sound,” says LJS&C Music Director Steven Schick.
The season opens the weekend of October 30- 31 with Steven Schick conducting a program resplendent with many colors, beginning with the sassy Candide Overture by Leonard Bernstein. Alexandre Scriabin’s Prometheus follows, featuring Noriko Kawai on piano. “Noriko is a Scriabin specialist with great sensitivity of touch and color, which is why I thought of her for the Prometheus,” says Schick. True to the composer’s vision (Scriabin indicates color accompaniment on the score), the LJS&C will perform Prometheus with color organ projections designed by local visual artist Ross Karre. The concert concludes with Gustav Mahler’s mighty Symphony No. 1 (Titan).
December 4-5 offers Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, one of the most substantial works in the orchestra and choral repertoire. Written in his later years around the time of his Ninth Symphony, it has similar sounds and requires powerful operatic soloists, full chorus and large orchestra. This concert is a rare opportunity for audiences to hear what Beethoven considered his greatest work.
On February 5-6, we present a concert of contrasts with established works by Debussy bookending two contemporary pieces. The program begins with Debussy’s Jeux and concludes with two of his nocturnes: Nuages and Fêtes. In between is the premiere of Phil Kline’s A Dream and Its Opposite, commissioned and performed by the trio Real Quiet with cellist Felix Fan, pianist Andrew Russo, and percussionist David Cossin. Composer Phil Kline joins us for this concert. The San Diego premiere of Iannis Xenakis’ Metastasis, written for large orchestra, follows. “Xenakis was an architect as well as composer,” says Schick. “A lot of people would surmise he took his architecture to music, but it was the other way around. His design of the Philips Pavilion at the Brussels World Fair was inspired by the rise of the string glissandi in this score.”
The March 12-13 concert features three concertos. Fifteen-year-old Hannah Cho, winner of our 2009 Young Artists Competition, is soloist in Sergei Prokofiev’s Concerto #2 for Violin. We conclude with the greatest orchestral concerto of them all, Bela Bartok’s noble Concerto for Orchestra. In between, a complete surprise: we present the premiere of Mark Applebaum’s Concerto for Florist and Orchestra. Creating the floral design segments on stage during the concerto will be ornamental horticulturist James DelPrince. Composer Mark Applebaum joins us for this concert.
On April 30-May 1 we offer one of the great monuments of music, Bach’s The Passion According to St. Matthew. Calling for two orchestras, vocal and instrumental soloists, and a radiant role for the Evangelist, Bach’s Passion is almost operatic in its spectacle and impact. LJS&C Choral Director David Chase conducts.
The season ends on June 4-5 with a program that explores the music of Haydn and the meaning of classicism in general. Chase conducts Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by Haydn followed by Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 1 led by Assistant Conductor Nicholas Deyoe. The program and season conclude with Chase conducting Haydn’s final mass, the resounding Harmonie-Messe for soloists, chorus and orchestra.
Performances take place in Mandeville Auditorium at University of California, San Diego. Subscriptions are available through the LJS&C office by calling (858) 534-4637
