ESO announces classics, pops concerts
Using the general theme "Fill Your Life with Music," the Elgin Symphony Orchestra's 61st season will offer important masterworks by the world's greatest composers on its 2010-11 Classics Series, along with faces both familiar and new for its Pops Series, details to be announced today.
If one composer stands out, it's Beethoven. The German master's Ninth ("Choral") Symphony will open the eight-concert Classics season under the baton of music director Robert Hanson the weekend of Oct. 1-3, and his Triple Concerto will cap the Classics Series weekend of April 29, 30 and May 1, 2011. The latter will feature a return visit of three instrumental soloists appearing earlier in the 2010-11 season: pianist Inon Barnatan, violinist Chee Yun and cellist Alisa Weilerstein, with guest conductor Kazem Abdullah on the podium.
The Beethoven Ninth will include selected area high school singers comprising the Beethoven Festival Chorus, joining with the Elgin Choral Union to create a chorus of some 150 voices.
"We had great success with this last time, and it's a wonderful opportunity for these kids to perform with a professional orchestra in one of the greatest of all choral masterpieces," Hanson said.
The Classics Series will continue Nov. 6-7 when associate conductor Stephen Squires marks his 20th anniversary with the ESO with a program including Mozart's 39th Symphony, Serge Prokofiev's "Lt. Kije" Suite and Claude Debussy's "Sacred and Profane Dances for Harp and Orchestra," with ESO principal harpist Stephen Hartman. Also on the program is Gustav Mahler's "Songs of a Wayfarer," in celebration of the 150th anniversary year of Mahler's birth.
Other Classics Series highlights:
• Jan 7-9, 2011: Hanson welcomes guest soloist Alisa Weilerstein for Haydn's Cello Concerto in D Major, the concert also including Anton Bruckner's Second Symphony.
• Feb. 4-6, 2011: In a concert titled "Night on Bald Mountain," Hanson conducts an all-Russian program that includes that Mussorgsky work made famous in Walt Disney's "Fantasia." Inon Barnatan will be soloist in Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2, and Hanson will also conduct music from Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" ballet, along with Alexander Borodin's Symphony No. 2.
• March 4-6, 2011: Hanson will conduct a varied program that holds Mozart's "Don Giovanni" Overture, Richard Strauss' symphonic poem "Don Juan" and Antonin Dvorak's Eighth Symphony.
• April 2-3, 2011: "Simple Gifts" is the name of this program, the title taken from the Shaker hymn featured in Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring" ballet, whose suite is on the concert. Hanson will also conduct music by Mendelssohn, Eduard Lalo and Peter Maxwell Davies.
• April 29, 30 and May 1, 2011: The aforementioned Beethoven Triple Concerto will be joined on the program by Paul Hindemith's "Mathis der Maler" Symphony.
• June 10-12, 2011: The final Classics Series concerts will feature another all-Russian program, with Tchaikovsky's Sixth ("Pathetique") Symphony and Sergei Rachmaninoff's dramatic Piano Concerto No. 3, the latter with soloist Alexander Toradze.
"Getting Toradze as a soloist is a real coup for our orchestra," Hanson said. "In addition to his reputation as one of the world's great concert artists, he is one of today's most in-demand educators. Young pianists, from Eastern Europe in particular, are flocking to him at his studio in Indiana."
Pops Series:
The 2010-11 ESO Pops Series will open Oct. 15-16 with the Philadelphia-based string trio Time for Three (two violins and double bass) in a program blending classics, pops, bluegrass and jazz.
The next Pops series concerts Nov. 19-21 will mark conductor/entertainer Rainer Hersch's ESO debut. Called "today's Victor Borge," Hersch will offer a program blending serious music with comedy, given a special British touch.
Longtime ESO favorite Rich Ridenour will be back Feb. 18-20, 2011, the pianist joining guest conductor Michael Berkowitz in a program titled "Great Movies, Grand Piano." Included will be the "Warsaw Concerto" and music by John Williams, Nelson Riddle and others.
The grand finale to the Pops Series season will be an all-Gershwin concert April 15-17, 2011, to be conducted by Squires. The major work will be excerpts from "Porgy and Bess," with soprano soloist Ollie Watts Davis.
The majority of the concerts are at Elgin's Hemmens Theatre, with the four-concert Friday Schaumburg Series on Jan. 7 and April 29, 2011 (Classics Series), and Oct. 15 and Feb. 18, 2011 (Pops Series).
Subscriptions for the 2010-11 season are now on sale in various Classics Series packages of six, eight and 12 concerts priced from $129 to $207, depending on seat location. The four-concert Schaumburg series package is being offered at a three-year-low price of $159. The Pops Series (four concerts) start at $89. The 2010 holiday concert, titled "Radio Holly-Days," will feature the vocal ensemble Five By Design, with ticket prices for the Dec. 11 (two performances) and Dec. 12 concerts starting at $20.
For more information or to subscribe, call (847) 888-4000, or visit elginsymphony.org. Single-concert tickets will go on sale in midsummer.