“The announcement of the new classical season at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra is always an event to celebrate. But the season opening Oct. 4 also marks Orchestra Hall’s 100th anniversary,” writes Michael Hodges in Friday’s (1/25) Detroit News. “Fittingly, the 2019-20 season will kick off by reprising the very first program ever played on the hall’s august stage, back in 1919 under the direction of the legendary Ossip Gabrilowitsch [with] Weber’s Overture to Oberon, Mozart’s E-flat Concerto for Two Pianos, Bach’s Concerto No. 2 for Three Pianos and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 …. Something well worth anticipating will be an original centennial brass fanfare the orchestra commissioned from married composers Kristin Kuster and William Lucas. The latter is a member of the DSO trumpet section.… New works commissioned by the DSO this year include pieces by American composers Mohammed Fairouz, Michigan-born James Lee III, Nkeiru Okoye and Julia Wolfe.… Lee’s commissioned work is ‘Amer’ican,’ a response to [Dvořák’s] ‘New World’ [Symphony].… The yearlong centennial celebration will also nod to Orchestra Hall’s incarnation as the Paradise Theatre from 1941-51, when the DSO was performing in other venues.… The Duke Ellington Orchestra will perform in December as part of the DSO’s Paradise Jazz Series.”
Posted January 28, 2019
