The Arkansas Symphony plans some big musical blasts for its final season in Little Rock’s Robinson Center Music Hall before the building is to undergo a two-year overhaul starting in the fall of 2014.
Plans include:
A performance of Igor Stravinsky’s titanic ballet The Rite of Spring in the Sept. 21-22 season opener.
Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with massed choirs next March.
Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 next April, on a program that also will include the world premiere of a piece the orchestra has commissioned from its 2013-14 composer of the year,Christopher Theofinidis.
Pops concerts focusing on spooky music for Halloween, The Wizard of Oz and the music of singersongwriterJames Taylor.
“It’s a blockbuster season,” said Philip Mann, who conducts the orchestra and put together the season lineup, his third as music director. Orchestra officials announced it to concertgoers Saturday night at Robinson. “It’s set up to continue building and reenergizing our audience.”
The September Masterworks concert program alsowill include Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, with Martina Filjak as soloist, and the Festive Overture by Dmitri Shostakovich.
Violinist Jennifer Frautschi, who played a Mozart concerto with the orchestra in October 2003, will return Oct. 19-20 to solo in the Violin Concerto by Samuel Barber with a guest conductor to be announced. The programalso will include Theofinidis’ Rainbow Body.
Israeli cellist Inbal Segev will be the soloist Nov. 9-10 in Friedrich Gulda’s Concerto for Cello and Wind Orchestra for the orchestra’s annual “Beethoven and Bluejeans” concert. The “Beethoven” part will be the Symphony No. 4; the curtain raiser will the Richard Strauss’ 1945 Suitefrom Der Rosenkavalier. Segev will also be the orchestra’s chamber music “Artist of Distinction,” headlining a Nov. 12 River Rhapsodies Chamber Series concert.
Pianist Norman Krieger played Johannes Brahms’ First Piano Concerto with the orchestra in November 2011; he’ll return to play the Piano Concerto No. 2 next Jan. 25-26, on a program with Antonin Dvorak’s Scherzo capriccioso and a selection of Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances.
The Verdi Requiem will occupy the entire March 1-2, 2014, Masterworks program (choirs and soloists to be announced). The Mahler-Theofinidis pairing will close out the Masterworks season April 12-13, 2014.
The pops series:
Oct. 12-13: “Halloween Spooktacular”
Dec. 20-22: “Happy Holidays”
Feb. 15-16, 2014: A selection of Broadway standards, hits and love songs
March 8-9, 2014: “Oz with Orchestra,” with the orchestra “backing up” the songs from the 1939 MGM film The Wizard of Oz
May 3-4, 2014: “Shower the People: The Music of James Taylor” with Jeans ’n Classics.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 15 on 02/24/2013