VSO aims to shake things up next season
Assortment of guest conductors on tap, plus solo favourites and newcomers
In March, professional orchestras release plans for their next seasons.
The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra has revealed what's in store for 2024-25 while some of the best offerings of the current season are still yet to come. Specifically, Augustin Hadelich playing Britten's Violin Concerto, April 11 and 14, then John Adams' extraordinary Harmonielehre, April 26-27, and Mahler's incomparable Das Lied von der Erde June 7-8.
From the classical perspective next season, three series do most of the musical heavy lifting: the two six-pack Masterworks series and the long-running Musically Speaking programs with five concerts, all in the Orpheum Theatre. It's VSO practice to repackage some of these events as suburban runouts to Surrey and the North Shore, plus the matinee series that runs on five Sundays at the Orpheum.
Showcasing important soloists is always a significant part of the game plan. From the piano standpoint, there's a mix of new stars and old favourites, such as Stephen Hough playing the Grieg Concerto next April. Making VSO debuts are Javier Perianes playing Saint-Saëns' Egyptian Concerto next February, and Behzod Abduraimov, who offers Beethoven's Emperor concerto next May.
Violin talents include Anne Akiko Meyers and Leila Josefowicz. Josefowicz plays Stravinsky's infrequently heard Violin Concerto, a work from his neoclassical phase. Meyers brings us a hot new concerto called Fandango, written for her by Mexican composer Arturo Márquez — yes, the guy whose flashy Danzón No. 2 has become a Gustavo Dudamel calling card.
Music director Otto Tausk will be on hand to conduct roughly half the classical offerings. In late November he conducts Prokofiev's quirky Seventh Symphony, then in early December he pays homage to the three grand old men of American minimalism with a concert combining music of Philip Glass, Steve Reich and John Adams. Bartók's magisterial Music for Strings Percussion and Celesta is on the docket next May, and the Richard Strauss behemoth tone poem An Alpine Symphony ends the Masterworks Gold series later that month.
Tausk will also lead repertoire standards like Dvorak's New World symphony, Tchaikovsky's Pathetique symphony, and Beethoven's Ninth.
A generous assortment of guest conductors will be entrusted with a number of important and unusual works. Andrew Litton is paired with Akiko Meyers in Márquez's concerto plus two works of Ravel in October; Dutch visitor Anthony Hermus offers Bruckner's expansive Sixth Symphony in November; Daniel Raskin will give us Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks' Musica Serena and the Second Symphony of that great Dane, Carl Nielsen next February; and Andrey Boreyko makes Zemlinsky's The Mermaid the anchor of his program later in May.
There's quite a bit of Rachmaninov on offer: the Second and Third Piano Concertos, the former played by Alexei Volodin next February, the Third Symphony essayed by guest conductor Stanislav Kochanovsky next April, plus the wonderfully gloomy From the Isle of the Dead tucked in with Mahler and Zemlisky next May.
There is a notable commitment to new music by Canadian women, starting with the late Jocelyn Morlock on the first Masterworks program in September. Kelly-Marie Murphy's fantasia on the theme of Glenn Gould, Curiosity, Genius, and the Search for Petula Clark, rounds out the Musically Speaking concerts next May.
One major change: The VSO has vacated UBC's Chan Centre except for the traditional holiday offering of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Chamber orchestra-scaled concerts at the Chan are to be replaced by a new downtown Friday night series of pre-dinner Orpheum concerts, at 6:30 p.m. A new dating strategy for younger listeners? Why not.
Guest conductors offer an interesting mix of the adventurous and the staid, three 80-minute programs performed without intermissions offered at philanthropically low ticket prices.
On that score, the VSO has many multiple ticket schemes, all offered at deep discounts with the ability to exchange tickets if needed.
For all the details, check out vancouversymphony.ca.