SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE
ESO launches new season of classical and pop hits
The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra has announced its 2020-2021 season, featuring 66 concerts ranging from the classics to the pops.
There’s an interesting mix of soloists, too, from internationally known figures to young up-andcoming stars, and — so good to see — regular solo performances by members of the orchestra themselves.
“This is a season of incredible emotional breath, vital colour, and ferocious, unrelenting and unapologetic energy, embracing all aspects of our lives,” says chief conductor Alexander Prior. “Truly a season, and a symphony orchestra, for everyone!”
As always, the season opens with the Labour Day weekend mini-festival that is Symphony Under the Sky (Sept. 3-6), conducted by the ever-popular Robert Bernhardt. Dave Bennett, the clarinet jazz virtuoso who also plays electric guitar, piano, drums, and vocalizes, opens the proceedings on Sept. 3. The traditional Friday classical concert sees another popular Edmonton visitor, Sara Davis Buechner, play Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.9, alongside Beethoven’s Symphony No.7 (Sept. 4).
Saturday is Hollywood night, complete with music from The Rise of Skywalker and The Adventures of Indiana Jones. Sunday’s closing concert includes a work by John Mcpherson, and concludes, as always, with Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture.
Both current and former principal conductors give concerts of their core repertoire. Prior conducts a late Romantic program of very emotive (and very beautiful) music on Nov. 13-14: Debussy’s Prélude à l’aprés-midi d’un faune, the suite from Wagner’s Parsifal, and a work that really shows an orchestra’s skills, Strauss’ Rosenkavalier Suite.
He finishes the Masters series with a concert of magical Russian music by Rimsky-korsakov, Rachmaninoff, Mussorgsky, and a memorable work by the less well-known Kursk-russian Georgy Sviridov (May 28-29, 2021).
Conductor Emeritus William Eddins opens the Lighter Classic series on Oct. 15 with a concert of the kind of music he is so good at: Gershwin (including An American in Paris) and Bernstein. A concert not to miss for Eddins aficionados.
There’s a wide variety of concertos this season. Robert Uchida plays the Beethoven Violin Concerto, in a program that includes a rare chance to hear symphonic music by the late 19th-century Austrian composer Hans Rott (Oct. 2-3).
Rachmaninoff is well served. Marc-andré Hamelin plays the Piano Concerto No.3 with Jean-marie Zeitouni conducting (Oct. 31) in a program that includes the equally popular suite from Lieutenant Kijé by Prokofiev. The Piano Concerto No.2 turns up in a Traditional Classics concert (March 4, 2021), played by the Georgian-canadian Alexander Korsantia.
The Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini can be heard in a Sunday Showcase concert (April 25, 2021) with soloist Jongyun Kim, followed by the ESO’S Allene Hackleman playing Strauss’ Horn Concerto No.2. With Dvorak’s Symphony No.9 rounding off the evening, this concert promises to be something of a blockbuster. Prior conducts.
Laura Jackson, the music director of the Reno Philharmonic, conducts the Grieg Piano Concerto with another young American prize winner, Andrew Tyson, as soloist (Nov. 19). This concert has a most attractive program, including Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture, and the ESO’S own Tatiana Warszynski playing Svendsen’s popular Romance for Violin.
The ESO’S Eric Buchmann will play Glazunov’s violin concerto, less well-known, perhaps, but one that always gives pleasure (Jan. 10). The young Canadian-american violinist Timothy Chooi plays Bruch’s ever-popular Violin Concerto No.1 on Nov. 26.
It’s good to have Rodrigo’s Concerto Aranjuez, probably the world’s most famous guitar concerto, back at the Winspear, played by the award-winning Spanish guitarist Pablo Sáinz Villegas (Feb. 19-20).
Principal cellist Rafael Hockman plays Shostakovich’s compelling first Cello Concerto (March 6, 2021), with a work by the former Edmontonian Vivian Fuchs also in the program. The American organist Paul Jacobs returns to the Winspear on March 27, where he will play Saint-saëns’ Symphony No. 3 “Organ.” The sensation of this concert will surely be the grand but gorgeously and romantically tuneful 1902 Organ Concerto by the American Horatio Parker
The ESO’S principal trumpet Robin Doyon will be playing the Haydn Trumpet Concerto, and Maxim Lando, the exciting 17-yearold award-winning American pianist, performs Liszt’s arrangement of Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy on
March 18, 2021. Assistant conductor Cosette Justo Valdés conducts.
Eddins’ concert on May 8, 2021 features the sensational Latvian accordionist Ksenija Sidorova playing a bouncy concerto by Piazzolla and the Accordion Concerto No.2 “Viva Voce” by the Russian Efrem Podgaits, which she has championed with some of the great orchestras in the world.
It’ll be interesting, too, to hear Stamitz’s 1777 Symphony in G conducted by Justo Valdés (April 22, 2021). Other highlights look to be Rautavaara’s Symphony No.7 “Angel of Light” conducted by Jose-luis Gomez. It’s imaginatively paired with Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, led by the young Canadian violinist Blake Pouliot (Feb. 6).
The Richard Eaton Singers provide the choir for the one big choral concert, Dvořák’s Stabat mater, with tenor John Tessier among the soloists and Leonard Ratzlaff conducting.
The short evening Perfect Parings are back, where the music is paired with appropriate drinks, drawing younger audiences for classical music with three concerts featuring music from the main season concerts (Oct. 29, Feb. 4, May 7).
The pops concerts include hits from Broadway musicals (Sept. 25-26), Justo Valdés conducting music with the Mambo Kings (Jan. 22-23), and a concert of music from the Roaring Twenties, conducted by William Waldrop, which the ESO enigmatically tells us, “contains adult themes and imagery and is not intended for patrons under the age of 16” (May 14-15, 2021).
There are the usual Symphony for Kids concerts, including three special events. Bernhardt conducting The Music of Harry Potter (Dec. 10-12) will doubtless sell out almost immediately. Justo Valdés leads a Family Christmas Concert (Dec. 21-22), and perhaps best of all, the acclaimed show Beethoven Lives Upstairs, loved by children and parents alike, celebrates Family Day (Feb. 13).