Colorado Symphony Season Highlights
Conductor Alastair Willis to the audience at the start of the Colorado Symphony's post-concert "talkback" on February 28, 2004: "You do know how fortunate you are to have an orchestra of this caliber in Denver."
Audience to Alastair Willis: "Yes, we know!"
This is Maestro Kahane's last season as Music Director. Given his impressive accomplishments in a few short seasons, all his concerts in 2009-2010 no doubt will be wonderful. We are betting that the final concert - Mozart and Mahler 5 - will be incredible!
Kahane and Fliter!
September 11-12, 2009
Ingrid Fliter joins Maestro Kahane and the orchestra for Schumann's Piano Concerto. The evening also includes Adams' Short Ride in a Fast Machine and Respighi's Brazilian Impressions and ever popular Pines of Rome.
Kahane Plays Rhapsody in Blue!
September 17, 19-20, 2009
The Maestro's Gershwin credentials as pianist and conductor are impeccable. You don't want to miss Rhapsody in Blue! The program includes a piece by our superb timpanist, Bill Hill: Four Moments Musical. Add to that Chris Thile's Mandolin Concerto with the composer as soloist, and Copland's Suite from Billy the Kid, and we have another trademark Kahane evening chock full of music!
The Eroica
October 2-4, 2009
Miguel Harth-Bedoya conducts Jimmy Lopez's Fiesta! and Beethoven's Symphony #3. Augustin Hadelich joins him for Mozart's Violin Concerto #5, "Turkish."
Alsop Conducts Bernstein and Shostakovich!
October 9-11, 2009
The Maestra opens with Bernstein's Opening Prayer and Symphony #1, "Jeremiah." After intermission she conducts Shostakovich's Symphony #5. Her last "S5" is still ringing in our ears. This one will be even better! Alsop is also known for her Bernstein. "Jeremiah" will be tremendous!
Kahane! Kern! Rachmaninoff Festival!!
October 16-18 and 23-24, 2009
This is one of the 2009-2010 season highlights! Buy all the tickets you can afford! Rachmaninoff is a Kahane specialty, and when you think how good the Maestro is with all composers, you know you are in for a treat. Olga Kern is a phenomenal pianist, and Rachmaninoff is one of her specialties, too. Did we mention that Kahane and Kern have a special chemistry? 'Nuff said. Here's the line-up.
Friday, October 16
Three Russian Songs with the glorious CSO Chorus
Piano Concerto #1
Symphony #3
Saturday and Sunday, October 17-18
Piano Concerto #3
Isle of the Dead
Rhapsody on a Theme of Pagaini (How can you miss that???)
Friday, October 23
Five Etudes - Tableaux (orchestrated by Respighi)
Piano Concerto #4
Symphonic Dances
Saturday, October 24
"Alleluia" from "Vespers"
The Bells with the CSO Chorus
Piano Concerto #2
Really, how can you miss any of these? Squander time. Squander money. You won't regret it!
Lang Lang!
October 30, 2009
The Maestro conducts Smetana's The Moldau and Sibelius' Symphony #5. His Sibelius 5 is a knock-out! Then Lang Lang performs Beethoven's Piano Concerto #3. Hot stuff!
Kahane! Brewer! Strauss!
November 20-21, 2009
Yes, we are starting to sound like a broken record, but you can't miss this one either. (Does anyone remember LPs? Because a broken digital download just isn't the same thing.) The Maestro conducts and Christine Brewer - yes, the Christine Brewer - sings Strauss' Four Last Songs. Heavenly! The program includes Beethoven's Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus and Brahms' Symphony #1.
Yo-Yo Ma!
December 2, 2009
Does anyone play the Dvorak Cello Concerto better? (Yes, that is a rhetorical question. The answer is No.) Julian Kuerti conducts three other Dvorak compositions: In Nature's Realm, Carnival Overture, and Othello Overture.
Thornton Performs Mozart!
December 4-5, 2009
Our marvelous principal horn Michael Thornton plays Mozart's Horn Concerto #4. A special treat! Julian Kuerti conducts Strauss' Don Juan - another fantastic horn piece - and Beethoven's Symphony #4.
Josefowicz Plays Prokofiev!
January 8-9, 2010
One of Leila Josefowicz's rare Denver performances! Prokofiev's Violin Concerto #1. Cue the broken record: you can miss this one! Edward Gardner conducts Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain in - we hope - the original orchestration and Beethoven's Symphony #7.
Kelly O'Connor Performs Lieberson's Neruda Songs!
January 15-17, 2010
Kelly O'Connor - who gave a magical performance in Ainadamar at the Colorado Music Festival - sings Peter Lieberson's Neruda Songs. Oh dear! We are sorry the record is broken, but you can't miss this one either. Maestro Kahane is conducting, and he has come up with one of his trademark intriguing programs: Berlioz' Overture to Beatrice and Benedict and "Love Scene" from Romeo and Juliet (how often do we get to hear that??) and Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture. Love music, anyone?
Mozart Extravaganza
January 22-24, 2010
Bernard Labadie, who gave us an exquisite Messiah, turns his remarkable talents to Mozart: Chaconne from Idomeneo, Piano Concerto #18 with Benedetto Lupo (all the Mozart piano concertos are fantastic), Overture to La clemenza di Tito, and Symphony #40.
Van Cliburn Competition Gold Metal Winner
February 19-21, 2010
The competition winner performs an as yet unspecified piano concerto. Scott O'Neil conducts Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition orchestrated by Ravel.
Kahane! Brahms German Requiem!
February 26-28, 2010
Karin Gauvin, soprano, Brett Polegato, baritone, and our amazing CSO Chorus. Last season Kahane's Verdi Requiem was simply incredible. We expect no less with Brahms. :-)
(Parenthetical note: Knowing Maestro Kahane's many talents, we can't help hoping there's a Britten War Requiem in his future with the Colorado Symphony.)
Kahane!! Watts!! Grieg!! Sibelius!!
March 5-7, 2010
Andre Watts is one of our favorite pianists. He has colossal technique combined with exquisite sensitivity - not to mention tremendous raw power. That's a recipe for a Grieg Piano Concerto that we won't be able to forget. Miss this concert at your peril! The rest of the program is all Sibelius, and Sibelius is a Kahane specialty. You know what that means: an evening of amazing music. If you had not noticed, Kahane and the Colorado Symphony love to make music together. The bill of fare: Finlandia, Nightride and Sunrise, Swan of Tuonela, and Lemminkainen's Return.
Oundjian! Paremski!
March 12-14, 2010
We've been rooting for Oundjian to perform Bruckner's Symphony #8 (write, e-mail, or call the Colorado Symphony, folks! Bruckner 8 is a stunner), but we will have to settle for hearing his remarkable conducting talent in Borodin's Overture to Prince Igor, Rimsky-Korsakov's Schherazade, and Chopin's Piano Concerto #2 with Natasha Paremski.
Litton! Tchaikovsky!
April 2-3, 2010
Wagner's Overture to The Flying Dutchman, Bernstein's Serenade with violin soloist Karen Gomyo, and Tchaikovsky's Symphony #6, "Pathetique." We have heard shattering performances of "T6" by Alsop and Kahane - very different, and yet devastatingly powerful. We think Andrew Litton will continue the Colorado Symphony tradition of scorching perormances of the most tragic of tragic symphonies.
Boyd! Kirshbaum! Shostakovich!
April 9-11, 2010
The obvious highlight is Douglas Boyd conducting and Ralph Kirshbaum soloing in Shostakovich's Cello Concerto #1. Can you spell I N T E N S E? We thought you could. :-) The other works are Sibelius' Pelleas and Melisande and Dvorak's Symphony #9, "From the New World."
Boyd! Hwang-Williams!
April 16-17, 2010
Our remarkably talented concertmaster Yumi Hwang-Williams teams up with our remarkably talented principal guest conductor for Vaughn Williams' The Lark Ascending and Ravel's Tzigane. The other works are Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin and Elgar's ever-popular Enigma Variations.
Baroque Masterpieces
May 14-16, 2010
Nicholas Kraemer, conductor and harpsichord, performs Purcell's Suite from The Fairy Queen, Bach's Orchestral Suite #3, Corelli's Concerto grosso #6, and Handel's Concerto grosso #2 and Music for the Royal Fireworks.
Kahane!! Adams!! Beethoven 9!!
May 28-30, 2010
The program starts with Adams' moving tribute to the victims of September 11, 2001: On the Transmigration of Souls, with the magnificent CSO Chorus and the Colorado Children's Chorale. The concert then concludes with what will no doubt be a season high point: Beethoven's Symphony #9, "Choral," with Charlotte Dobbs, soprano, Barbara Rearick, mezzo-soprano, Benjamin Butterfield, tenor, Robert Gardner, baritone, and the CSO Chorus. Kahane's next-to-last concert as Music Diurector. Really, how can any Denver music lover miss this concert?
Kahane!!!!! Mahler 5!!!!!
June 4-6, 2010
This will be one of the year's great concerts. No, not one of Denver's great concerts - one of the world's great concerts. The Maestro has proven himself a master Mahler interpreter. We can't wait to hear him in Mahler 5. We think the problematic finale will be a special highlight of an unforgettable performance. To make the concert even more bittersweet, the Maestro will perform and conduct Mozart's Piano Concerto #27. Evenings like this happen once in a lifetime.
Visit the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and check out all their upcoming concerts.
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