“Orchestras … often coax lazy-eared concertgoers gently into the 20th century-let alone the 21st,” writes Lawrence Toppman in Sunday’s (2/4) Charlotte Observer (North Carolina). “But the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra will apply the spurs for the 2018-19 season: Sixteen of the pieces in its dozen classical concerts come from that era, including five by living composers…. They’ll get plenty of Brahms and Dvořák, concerts devoted entirely to Beethoven and Mahler, Mozart’s exquisite Requiem (paired with a happy surprise) and Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Scheherazade’ … the most traditional offerings this time come in the six-concert Pops season-lots of film and Broadway music, the return of Pink Martini, and in two big galas, a season-opener with violinist Joshua Bell and a first-ever New Year’s Eve concert full of music by Gershwin and Strauss.” Christopher Warren-Green is the orchestra’s music director. Concerts will include a pairing of Holst’s “The Planets” with Eric Whitacre’s 2015 “Deep Field;” a program of Copland’s “Billy the Kid” Suite, Michael Daugherty’s “Trail of Tears,” and Tchaikovsky’s suite from “The Sleeping Beauty;” and Ravel’s “Bolero” and “Tzigane,” Saint-Saens’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Grieg’s “Peer Gynt” Suite No. 1, and Edgar Meyer’s recent “New Piece for Orchestra.”
Posted February 5, 2018
