“The wait is finally over for the San Diego Symphony, its listeners and its new music director, Rafael Payare, who will officially assume his new position when the orchestra kicks off its 2019/2020 season this fall,” writes George Varga in Saturday’s (3/16) San Diego Union-Tribune. “Payare … will be featured for a full 10 weeks in the upcoming season.… He will conduct … two symphonies each by Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich, along with Mahler’s epic Symphony No. 5, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 and a semi-staged performance of Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream…. Seven contemporary pieces will be performed, including John Adams’ Violin Concerto and the U.S. premiere of a new, borders-leaping trumpet concerto [featuring trumpeter Pacho Flores] co-commissioned by the symphony … by Paquito D’Rivera…. The season will also feature significant works by Lili Boulanger and Sofia Gubaidulina…. Edo de Waart—the symphony’s new principal guest conductor—will conduct seven concerts during the orchestra’s fifth annual January Festival … titled ‘Beethoven: Iconoclast, Innovator, Genius.’ … San Diego Symphony CEO Martha Gilmer said, ‘Our marketing for the new season will absolutely focus on Rafael. We hope nobody misses the fact that he’s arriving here in October.’ ”
Posted March 22, 2019
