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!"
Last season we hinted that a couple of big, sprawling, manic symphonies might be appropriate. This season they have arrived! Pride of place must go to Bruckner's Symphony No. 7: the first performance by the Colorado Symphony. The CSO is also starting a multi-year cycle of Mahler's major orchestral works. The 2008-2009 season features Symphonies No. 1 and 2 and Das Lied von der Erde. Toss in Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5; we have got ourselves a big, sprawling, manic season. Hooray!
Dawn Upshaw!
September 12-14, 2008
Dawn Upshaw joins Maestro Kahane, the CSO Chorus, and the orchestra for an evening of selections from Verdi, Gounod, Mozart, Gershwin, Rogers and Hart, Duke, Nico Muhly, and Johann Strauss. Good times!
Mahler: the Adventure Begins!
September 19-21, 2008
Jeffrey Kahane conducts Mahler's Symphony No. 1. We know the Maestro has a special way with Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, and Rachmaninoff. How will he conduct Mahler? We are eager to find out!
The program includes Beethoven's Overture to Fidelio and Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 (the famous "Elvira Madigan" concerto) with Jonathan Bliss.
Marin Alsop!
October 3-5, 2008
The Maestra's sole appearance in 2008-2009. She opens the concert with Wagner's Prelude to Die Meistersinger, continues it with Dvorak's magical but seldom-played Symphony No. 5, and closes it with Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. Lukas Vondracek is the soloist. As we have said many times before: nobody conducts Tchaikovsky like the Maestra. Nobody.
Autumn Lightning
October 17-19, 2008
Maestro Kahane conducts George Tsontakis's Winter Lightning (from Four Symphonic Quartets), Richard Strauss's Burleske, with Jeremy Denk as the piano soloist, and two pieces by Mozart: Rondo for Piano and Orchestra and Symphony No. 39. The Maestro has excellent taste in modern music, and he knows how to make the classics compelling!
Peter Oundjian!
October 24-26, 2008
Maestro Oundjian is another conductor you don't want to miss! This season he conducts Mozart's Overture to The Magic Flute, Vaughn William's Symphony No. 5 (it's not manic, but it's marvelously good), and Brahms's Violin Concerto with Elina Vahala.
Kahane Conducts Prokofiev 5!
November 21-22, 2008
The Maestro offers us another exciting program: first he conducts and solos in Bach's Piano Concerto in D Major, then he conducts Respighi's version of Rachmaninoff's Five Etudes-Tableaux, and he wraps up the concert with symphonic fireworks: Prokofiev's Symphony No. 5.
Handel's Messiah
December 5-7, 2008
Bernard Labadie conducts, with Karina Gauvin, soprano, Robin Blaze, countertenor, Frederic Antoun, tenor, Neal Davies, bass-baritone, and the fabulous Colorado Symphony Chorus.
Kahane Conducts Golijov!
January 16-17, 2009
The Maestro has established his credentials as a strong advocate for the fascinating music of Osvaldo Golijov. He conducts Azul with the talented Alisa Weilerstein as cello soloist. The program includes Luis Jorge Gonzalez's Pasion incesante from Tangos de una pasion and Beethoven's Symphony No. 8. The Maestro is a strong advocate for Beethoven, too!
Boyd Conducts Ades and Brahms
January 23-25, 2009
Anthony Marwood joins Douglas Boyd and the orchestra for Ades's highly regarded Violin Concerto. The program opens with Haydn's Symphony No. 96, "The Miracle," and ends with Brahms's amazing Symphony No. 4.
Boyd Conducts Mahler!
January 30-31, 2009
Maestro Boyd leads our second Mahler installment: the incredibly intense symphonic song cycle Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth). Soloists: Jane Irwin and Stuart Skelton, who sang Erik in Opera Colorado's stunning concert performance of Wagner's Flying Dutchman.
The program opens with a work by the man who invented the musical form that Mahler turned into an all-encompassing world: Haydn's Symphony No. 6, "Le matin."
Cho-Liang Lin Performs Mozart 4
February 6-7, 2009
Violinist month!
Giancarlo Guerrero conducts Rossini's Overture to The Barber of Seville. The talented Cho-Liang Lin joins him for Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 4. The evening concludes with one of the repertoire's great war horses: Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4.
Chee-Yun Performs Prokofiev 2
February 27-28, 2009
Maestro Kahane opens the concert with Stravinsky's Fireworks. Next is Rachmaninoff's Vocalise. We are betting on a violin-piano duet, but almost anything is possible! Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings is third, with the main event following: Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2. Finally, the Maestro conducts Prokofiev's Symphonic Suite from The Love for Three Oranges. An evening jam-packed with fabulous music performed by fabulous musicians!
Bruckner 7!!!
March 6-8, 2009
At long, long last, the Colorado Symphony performs one of Bruckner's Bad Boys: Symphony No. 7, complete with Wagner tubas. Hans Graf conducts.
The concert opens with Mozart's incredibly beautiful Sinfonia concertante performed by two of the CSO's wildly talented musicians: concertmaster YuMi Hwang-Williams and principal viola Basil Vendryes.
The main theme of the Seventh Symphony's Adagio came to Bruckner when he had a premonition that the composer he idolized, Richard Wagner, would soon die. The Adagio builds to a climax, subsides, builds again to a grand climax, subsides once more, and builds to one of the great climaxes in symphonic music. As the glorious sound fades away, Bruckner mourns the death of the genius who befriended and inspired him.
Beethoven's Emperor
March 20-22, 2009
Scott O'Neil conducts Puccini's Preludio Sinfonico, Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements, and Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, "Emperor," with Barry Douglas.
Kahane Conducts Verdi's Requiem!
April 3-5, 2009
Whoa! Hold on to your hats! We're in for a wild ride!
Ana Maria Martinez is the soprano, Nancy Maultsby is the mezzo, Arturo Chacon-Cruz is the tenor, and Nathan Berg is the Bass-Baritone. Of course, the performance includes the awesome CSO Chorus.
Kahane Conducts, Bil Jackson Solos!
April 10-11, 2009
We get not one put two works by contemporary composer Kevin Puts: Two Mountain Scenes and the Clarinet Concerto with our own amazing Bil Jackson as soloist. Kahane finishes the evening with Brahms's Symphony No. 2.
A Classical French Four-Pack
April 17-18, 2009
Four pieces by French composers: Berlioz's Overture to Le corsaire, Saint-Saens's Cello Concerto No. 1, Debussy's Noctures, and Ravel's La valse.
Four particpants: conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni, cellist Daniel Mueller-Schott, the Colorado Symphony, and the CSO Chorus.
Horatio Gutierrez!
May 8-10, 2009
May is pianist month! We get to hear three extraordinary keyboard virtuosi.
Larry Rachleff conducts Barber's Overture to The School for Scandal. The phenomenal Horacio Gutierrez joins him for Gershwin's Piano Concerto. The program concludes with Jennifer Higdon's Loco and Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story.
Jean-Yves Thibaudet!
May 15-17, 2009
Pianist month continues!
James Gaffigan conducts Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik. The phenomenal Jean-Yves Thibaudet joins him for Ravel's Piano Concerto in G Major. The program concludes with Beethoven's Symphony No. 2.
Garrick Ohlsson!
May 29-31, 2009
First Maestro Kahane demonstrates his superb ear for contemporary music. We will hear Pierre Jalbert's In Aeternam.
Next comes an almost equally rare treat: Sibelius's Symphony No. 3. The Maestro knows his Sibelius!
Finally we get the fireworks: Kahane and the amazing Garrick Olhlsson perform Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 2.
There's no getting around it. All the concerts in May are mandatory!
Mahler's Resurrection!
June 5-7, 2009
Mahler's Symphony No. 2, "Resurrection," has always been a mind-bending experience when the Colorado Symphony plays it in Boettcher Concert Hall. Maestro Kahane will join Gilbert Kaplan and Marin Alsop with another legendary performance. Don't miss this one!
Janice Chandler-Eteme is the soprano, Sasha Cooke is the mezzo, and then there's the splendid and powerful CSO chorus!
Postscript on September 20, 2008: We have just returned from hearing Maestro Kahane conduct Mahler 1. Stupendous! The best Mahler we have heard in years! Imagine Mahler conducted by a sensitive, intellectual, 21st century Jewish musician with an exquisite ear for sound and a desire bordering on compulsion to let his wildly talented musicians glory in individual music-making within a compelling whole. Now imagine that sensitive, intellectual, 21st century Jewish musician at the helm of a symphonic apocalypse. Seriously. You don't want to miss Kahane and the CSO in Mahler 2.
Visit the Colorado Symphony and check out all their upcoming concerts.
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