A season of old and new

The Florida Orchestra centers on an impressive foursome: an ex-music director and resident conductor, and the next music director and a runnerup for his job.

By JOHN FLEMING, Times Performing Arts Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published September 22, 2002

Russian conductor Pavel Kogan was a strong contender for the Florida Orchestra's music directorship last season after he made a splash with an exciting performance of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. In the end, however, the orchestra decided on Stefan Sanderling as its next music director, starting next season.

But apparently there are no hard feelings on the the part of Kogan, who will be on the podium to open the 2002-03 season with another flashy showpiece, Respighi's Pines of Rome. Kogan also will conduct the 14th and final masterworks program in May, a Romeo and Juliet-themed program with works of Prokofiev, Bernstein and Tchaikovsky.

Sanderling will not be absent this season. In October, the music director-designate conducts an all-Beethoven program and in February and March a program anchored by Sibelius' Symphony No. 2.

Music director emeritus Jahja Ling will be heard from in two programs in February, including performances of Bruckner's Symphony No. 4. Former resident conductor Thomas Wilkins also will be back, leading a program with Brahms' Second Symphony in March.

With the once and future music directors, a runnerup and the popular ex-resident conductor all present and accounted for, the rest of the masterworks concerts will be in the hands of guest conductors.

Michael Christie will lead a rare contemporary work amid the orchestra's standard-heavy programming, John Adams' Harmonlielehre. Vladimir Verbitsky will conduct Tchaikovsky's sensational Manfred Symphony. Joseph Silverstein has the season's one work by Berlioz, marking the 200th anniversary of the composer's birth, with the overture from Beatrice and Benedict as well as Strauss' Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks.

The orchestra has a number of special nonsubscription concerts, including an appearance by Garrison Keillor on Tuesday in the first concert of the season. Keillor, creator and host of public radio's Prairie Home Companion, will narrate a piece he commissioned, the Young Lutheran's Guide to the Orchestra, as well as tell a story or two. Other specials feature jazz singer turned conductor Bobby McFerrin, pianist Lang Lang in recital and a three-piano program by Misha Dichter, Andre-Michel Schub and Orli Shaham.

The schedule includes a pair of choral classics featuring the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay: Haydn's Creation, under the baton of chorus artistic director Richard Zielinksi, and Orff's Carmina Burana, conducted by Boris Brott.

The lineup of soloists this season is topped by five outstanding young violinists: Anne Akiko Meyers (Tchaikovsky Concerto), Jennifer Koh (Glazunov Concerto), concertmaster Amy Schwartz Moretti (Barber Concerto), James Ehnes (Sibelius Concerto) and Lara St. John (Prokofiev Concerto No. 2).

St. John created a stir a few years ago when she posed topless, a violin covering her breasts, for her debut CD of a Bach partita and sonata.

Pianist Pascal Roge leads off the masterworks season this week with Ravel's Concerto for the Left Hand. Other pianists include Horacio Gutierrez (Beethoven Concerto No. 5), Alon Goldstein (Beethoven Concerto No. 2), Stephen Hough (Saint-Saens Concerto No. 4) and Jon Kimura Parker (Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 3).

The pops season begins in October with conductor Keith Brion's Americana program, featuring the Tampa Bay Heralds of Harmony barbershop quartet. The Kingston Trio will perform in January, including Super Bowl Sunday afternoon. With pianist Roger Williams, the orchestra will make its first appearance in Sarasota's Van Wezel Hall with a pops program in April. Marvin Hamlisch returns to conduct hits from Broadway and Hollywood in May.

Under the direction of Wilkins, the Thursday morning coffee concerts in St. Petersburg's Mahaffey Theater at Bayfront Center became highly popular. The orchestra will attempt to replicate that success in Tampa with a new series of three Friday morning concerts at Ferguson Hall of the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. In another new initiative, the orchestra and Master Chorale will give one of their December holiday concerts at the University of South Florida's Special Events Center.

For a brochure of the season, call (813) 286-2403 or toll-free 1-800-662-7286 or see its Web site at www.floridaorchestra.org.

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