Celebrity Series to offer a rich variety of artists, ensembles in 2019-20 season
The Celebrity Series will welcome the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and a number of high-profile soloists and chamber ensembles to Boston in the 2019-2020 season.
The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra will return to town in a series of concerts as part of its ongoing relationship with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which was announced by the BSO in March. In an event co-sponsored by the Celebrity Series and the BSO, Andris Nelsons will lead his Leipzig players in Brahms’ Double Concerto, which will feature violinist Leonidas Kavakos and cellist Gautier Capuçon as soloists (October 27 at Symphony Hall).
The Los Angeles Philharmonic comes back to Symphony Hall November 23 when Gustavo Dudamel leads the local premiere of John Adams’s new concerto Why Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes, featuring Yuja Wang as soloist.
The other orchestra to come to town will be the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, which will perform Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 and Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1, spotlighting Joshua Bell (February 23, 2020 at Symphony Hall).
Vocal artists to make their appearances in Boston next season include soprano Renée Fleming, who will join forces with pianist Evgeny Kissin for a recital April 26 at Symphony Hall. Soprano Angela Gheorghiu will perform music by Pergolesi, Rameau, Bellini, Tosti, and Brediceanu (April 17 at Jordan Hall). Other singers include soprano Ying Fang in her Celebrity Series debut (February 12 at Pickman Hall); Aoife O’Donovan in Songs and Strings, which will feature voice and string quartet (March 12 at Sanders Theatre); and bass-baritone Davóne Tines in songs by Brahms, Eastman, Schubert, and Shaw (April 1 at Pickman Hall).
The chief classical offering on next season’s Stave Sessions will be the celebrated Kronos Quartet in a program entitled Music for Change—The Banned Countries, which will focus upon music from the seven countries affected by President Trump’s travel ban. Performances will run March 17-21 at 160 Mass Ave. in Boston.
Several groups and musicians will offer performances of Beethoven’s music in celebration of the 25oth anniversary of the composer’s birth. Audiences will get a triple dose of Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge in performances by the Calidore Quartet (March 4 at Pickman Hall), the Danish String Quartet (May 3 at Jordan Hall), and the Lyon Opera Ballet, which will perform choreography to the bold music (March 27-29 at the Boch Center Shubert Theatre).
Beethoven’s music will also be the focus of a concert given by members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center on November 17 at Jordan Hall. In that same concert, pianist Wu Han, cellist David Finckel, violist Paul Neubauer, and violinist Arnaud Sussmann will also traverse music by Dohnányi and Brahms.
Pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard will present two recitals focusing on Beethoven’s music. On March 28, he will offer the “Appassionata” Sonata, the composer’s Sonata No. 7, Schoenberg’s Five Piano Pieces, Op. 23, and Stockhausen’s Klavierstück IX. On March 29, Aimard will perform music by Sweelinck, Benjamin, Berg, and Beethoven’s Sonata, Op. 110. Both concerts will take place at New England Conservatory’s Plimpton Shattuck Black Box Theatre.
Other pianists to appear include Daniil Trifonov in a program of Bach and settings of Bach’s music by Liszt and Rachmaninoff on March 15 at Symphony Hall. Steve Osborne and Paul Lewis will offer a four-hands recital on February 21 at Jordan Hall. The program will include Fauré’s Dolly Suite, Poulenc’s Sonata for Piano Duet, Debussy’s Six Épigraphes antiques and Petite Suite, Stravinsky’s Trois Pièces faciles, and Ravel’s Mother Goose.
Richard Goode will bring a program of Bach, Bartók, Debussy, and Chopin to Jordan Hall on November 9. And Joyce Yang will also make her Boston debut with music by Schumann, Vine, and Liszt on December 4 at Pickman Hall.
Instrumentalists and other chamber groups to perform next season include cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and his sister, pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason, in music by Beethoven, Barber, Rachmaninoff, and Lutosławski on December 13 at Jordan Hall. Violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja and cellist Jay Campbell will be heard in their Celebrity Series debuts with a program of Ravel, Kodaly, Widmann, Xenakis, Ligeti, and others in two performances January 23 and 24 at Pickman Hall. The Jerusalem String Quartet will offer music by Haydn, Bartók, and Brahms in a recital October 26 at Jordan Hall.
Guitarist Sérgio Assad, pianist and vocalist Clarice Assad, and Third Coast Percussion will perform a program entitled Archetypes on January 25 at Jordan Hall. Guitarist Milos will offer a wide-ranging recital of Bach, Granados, Piazzolla, and the Beatles in with string quartet March 6 at the same location. Mandolinist Chris Thile will perform a solo concert on March 18 at Sanders Theatre. His repertoire will be announced at a later date.
Rob Kapilow’s What Makes it Great will delve into the backstories of popular Christmas songs by Jewish composers in time for the holiday season, December 8 at Jordan Hall.
Highlights from next season’s jazz offerings include Chick Corea, bassist Christian McBride, and drummer Brian Blade (October 20) and the Wynton Marsalis Quintet (November 10). Both performances will take place in Symphony Hall.
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will make its annual return to Boston in performances running from April 30 to May 2 at the Boch Wang Theatre.
Subscriptions for the 2019-2020 season will go on sale 9 a.m. Wednesday. celebrityseries.org; 617- 482-6661
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