“It’s not every year that a symphony orchestra turns 100,” writes Valerie Scher on Monday (2/8) on the San Diego News Network website. “The San Diego Symphony will celebrate the occasion in a big way by loading the 2010-11 Jacobs’ Masterworks Centennial Season with classical music superstars and audience-pleasing masterworks. … In addition to pianists Lang Lang, Garrick Ohlsson and Emanuel Ax, the [guest artist] list includes cellist Yo-Yo Ma, flutist James Galway and percussionist Evelyn Glennie along with a variety of other virtuosos. Ma will play one of his specialties—Dvorak’s much-loved Cello Concerto in B Minor—during the ‘Opus 2010 Centennial Concert,’ slated for December 3 at downtown’s Balboa Theatre. The post-concert celebration … will take place at the nearby U.S. Grant Hotel, where the ensemble that became the San Diego Symphony made its debut on December 6, 1910. … [Music Director Jahja] Ling will conduct all but eight of the 42 core performances in the Centennial Season. … The Centennial Season repertoire ranges from the world premiere of ‘America’s Finest,’ composed by Principal Pops conductor Marvin Hamlisch, to Saint-Saëns’ mighty ‘Organ Symphony’ … and Humperdinck’s opera ‘Hansel and Gretel,’ with soprano Heidi Grant Murphy and mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer.”
Posted February 9, 2010
