Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Florida Orchestra season a balancing act

By JOHN FLEMING
Published February 26, 2006

Mozart and Shostakovich will open the Florida Orchestra's 2006-07 masterworks season, announced today. Czech pianist Ivan Moravec will make his debut with the orchestra in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 on a program that also has Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 (Leningrad).

Stefan Sanderling, who will conduct the opening concerts Oct. 7-8, has taken a balanced approach to his fourth season as music director. This season, the orchestra programmed all nine Beethoven symphonies as a theme. "After the Beethoven cycle, we decided not to do anything, because you can't top it,'' Sanderling said. There will, however, be a pair of minifestivals, one for Tchaikovsky in two programs in January, the other for Brahms in two programs in April and May.

Beethoven addicts need not fear withdrawal. The orchestra plans several special nonsubscription Beethoven programs, including Peter Rosel playing all five of the piano concertos over two nights in February. The orchestra and the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay will again team up on Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 for the holidays.

In another special concert, Van Cliburn will play the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 on Sept. 25 at Mahaffey Theater. Twice postponed this season, Cliburn's appearance will celebrate the reopening of the St. Petersburg hall.

Sanderling will be on the podium for 10 of the 14 masterworks programs, including Bruckner's Symphony No. 8, Sibelius' Symphony No. 3 and the Adagio from Mahler's Symphony No. 10. He will conduct the orchestra and Master Chorale in Schubert's Mass No. 6.

Twenty works will be played for the first time by the orchestra, including Scottish composer James MacMillan's The Confession of Isobel Gowdie. Associate conductor Susan Haig will conduct the premiere of Benjamin Lees' Piano Concerto, with soloist Ian Hobson.

"We try to lure people in with music they know, and then they get something they don't know and will like,'' Sanderling said.

Hall problems continue to plague the orchestra, which plays masterworks and pops programs at Mahaffey in St. Petersburg, Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater and the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center in Tampa. This season, with Mahaffey under renovation, the orchestra has been forced to play its St. Petersburg concerts at Pasadena Community Church, and attendance has suffered.

For the past two seasons, the orchestra has played masterworks programs on Monday nights at TBPAC in order to have access to Morsani Hall, but attendance slipped. Next season, the series will return to Fridays in Tampa, divided between Morsani and the smaller Ferguson Hall. "We got the message that people don't want to do it on Monday,'' Sanderling said.

Two masterworks programs will not even be played in Tampa, including the season opener in October, when a Broadway show will occupy Morsani. Masterworks concert times have also been changed back to 8 p.m., instead of the 7:30 start of the past two seasons.

With all three of its halls having their own seasons, the orchestra has trouble finding space in which to rehearse as well as give concerts. Uncertainty over the availability of hall dates also affects artists and repertoire. By the time the orchestra gets its dates, many soloists are already booked.

"Our main problem is how late our process is,'' Sanderling said. "Most orchestras book two years in advance. We do it one year ahead. It's hard to make this work. It's gambling with halls, with artists.''

One of the most prominent soloists tentatively booked for next season, violinist Ilya Gringolts in the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, dropped off the schedule last week.

One consequence - and not a bad one - of booking problems is that orchestra principals get a chance to be featured. Next season, principal viola Ben Markwell will play the Brahms Viola Concerto, which is actually something of a misnomer; the piece is the Brahms first viola sonata, orchestrated by Samuel Adler. Principal cello James Connors will be the soloist in the Schumann Cello Concerto.

Several popular guest artists will make return appearances: pianist William Wolfram in Stravinsky's Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments and Messiaen's Oiseaux exotiques; pianist Pascal Roge in the Poulenc Piano Concerto; and violinist Anne Akiko Meyers in Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending.

Guest conductors include Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, former music director of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra; Kenneth Montgomery; and Scott Yoo in an all-Mozart program.

The 2006-07 pops season, with principal pops conductor Richard Kaufman leading four of the eight programs, features Jack Jones, Roger Williams, Marvin Hamlisch and other familiar names.

The orchestra also plans a pair of chamber orchestra programs, including works of Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and others, to be played in St. Petersburg and Tampa at locations to be announced.

Here are the orchestra's masterworks and pops schedules. For more information, call (813) 286-2403 or toll-free 1-800-662-7286; or go to www.floridaorchestra.org.

MASTERWORKS

OCT. 7-8: Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 23; Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7 (Leningrad); Stefan Sanderling, conductor; Ivan Moravec, piano.

OCT. 27-30: Mozart: Serenade No. 12; Stravinsky: Concerto for Piano & Wind Instruments; Messiaen: Oiseaux exotiques (with solo piano); Dvorak: Serenade, Op. 44; Stefan Sanderling, conductor; William Wolfram, piano.

NOV. 3-5: Mahler: Adagio from Symphony No. 10; Schubert: Mass No. 6; Stefan Sanderling, conductor; vocalists TBA; Master Chorale of Tampa Bay.

NOV. 17-19: Brahms: Viola Concerto (orch. by S. Adler); Dvorak: Symphony No. 5; Kenneth Montgomery, conductor; Ben Markwell, viola.

JAN. 12-14: Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring; Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 (Pathetique); Stefan Sanderling, conductor.

JAN. 19-21: Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 3; Schnittke: Klein Sommernachtstraum; Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto; Stefan Sanderling, conductor; TBA, violin.

FEB. 9-11: Bruckner: Symphony No. 8; Stefan Sanderling, conductor.

MARCH 2-4: Skrowaczewski: Concerto for Orchestra; Beethoven: Symphony No. 2; Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, conductor.

MARCH 16-18: Haydn: Symphony No. 85 (La reine de France); Poulenc: Piano Concerto; Milhaud: Le Carnaval d'Aix, Fantasy for Piano & Orchestra; Sibelius: Symphony No. 3; Stefan Sanderling, conductor; Pascal Roge, piano.

MARCH 24-25: Mozart: Divertimento, K. 136; Concerto TBA; Symphony No. 40; Scott Yoo, conductor; soloist TBA.

April 13-15: Debussy: L'isle joyeuse; Lees: Piano Concerto; Debussy: La Mer; Susan Haig, conductor; Ian Hobson, piano.

April 27-29: Hindemith: Concert Music for Strings and Brass; Schumann: Cello Concerto; Brahms: Symphony No. 2; Stefan Sanderling, conductor; James Connors, cello.

May 4-6: Hindemith: Kammermusik No. 1; Schumann: Symphony No. 3; Brahms: Violin Concerto; Stefan Sanderling, conductor; Viviane Hagner, violin.

May 25-27: MacMillan: The Confession of Isobel Gowdie; Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending; Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3 (Scottish); Stefan Sanderling, conductor; Anne Akiko Meyers, violin.

POPS

Sept. 28-30: A Night on the Red Carpet: Movie Music; Richard Kaufman, conductor.

Oct. 19-21: Flash Cadillac: Rockin' at the Pops.

Nov. 10-12: Rodgers and Hammerstein Celebration; Richard Kaufman, conductor.

Dec. 1-3: Christmas Spectacular; Richard Kaufman, conductor.

Jan. 5-8: Arturo Sandoval in Concert; Richard Kaufman, conductor.

Feb. 1-3: Jack Jones: Love Songs and More.

Feb. 23-25: Roger Williams, piano.

May 18-20: Marvin Hamlisch, conductor and piano.