The arrival of fall means the onset of a whole slew of new musical seasons — though if you’re as obsessive as me you’ve been scrolling through the new concert schedules for a couple months by now.
But no need to worry if you haven’t yet jumped on a season subscription. The windows for individual concert purchases only recently opened, so you’re still right on schedule.
As for what’s on offer in coming months, it’s varied, enticing and extensive.
The Florida Orchestra, Tampa Bay area’s best-known ensemble, returns to the Mahaffey Theater in St. Pete, Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater and the Straz Center in Tampa with its usual array of attractive and inventive musical offerings. Down at the other end of the bay, the Sarasota Orchestra’s latest music director, Giancarlo Guerrero, commences his first full season of concerts —in the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall and elsewhere around town — after a long and successful tenure with the Nashville Symphony.
And the region’s various other orchestras and opera groups also will be in full swing any time now.
So, here’s a sampling of what our many music ensembles have in store between now and spring, leaning toward the most prominent pieces on concert schedules and some of my personal favorites.
The Florida Orchestra will present Richard Strauss’ tone poem, “An Alpine Symphony” on Oct. 3-5 to kick off its 11th season under maestro Michael Francis. The “Alpine” is arguably a work that tends to make more musical sense in concert than in record form.
For me, it’s sometimes a challenge to hang on through its compositional slalom if I’m at all distracted when listening at home. But in person, one simply buckles up and enjoys the ride.
On Nov. 7 and 8, TFO will present Bernstein’s moving “Kaddish Symphony,” in partnership with the Florida Holocaust Museum and narrated by the family of Holocaust survivor Samuel Pisar. The Kaddish isn’t performed all that frequently, but when presented it’s a work well worth taking in for its special musical pathos. On the same program, the glorious Master Chorale of Tampa Bay gets its season going by joining TFO in Beethoven’s “Choral Fantasy.”
In what’s being billed as a “centerpiece concert” on TFO’s season schedule, Gustav Mahler’s unique arrangement of Beethoven’s chorale masterpiece, his Symphony No. 9, is set for March 27-29.
Some of the works I’m personally most eager to have come around include Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 15 on Jan. 9-11; a performance of Anton Bruckner’s 4th Symphony, set for Feb. 6-7; and the oh-so-lovely “Mississippi Suite” by Ferde Grofé, tucked into a program to be led by TFO’s talented resident conductor, Chelsea Gallo, on April 10-12.
I’m also greatly looking forward to a program set for May 1-3, featuring Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, one of a group of siblings much followed on the musical scene these days. She will perform Beethoven’s challenging Piano Concerto No. 3, with TFO also set to perform Jean Sibelius’ gorgeous Symphony No. 2.
Sarasota sounds
Guerrero, who led just two Sarasota Orchestra concerts last season, will conduct several tasty programs in its Masterworks series, which begins and ends with particularly impressive offerings.
On Nov. 7-9, the orchestra will perform Jennifer Higdon’s “blue cathedral,” Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Symphonic Dances” — pieces that I would call touching, virtuosic and powerful, respectively.
And to wrap up the season, the orchestra on April 17-19 will present Bernstein’s “Serenade (after Plato’s ‘Symposium’)” — a five-movement work for solo violin, strings harp and percussion — and Mahler’s triumphant Symphony No. 5.
Back up in St. Pete and Tampa, we also will have the value-priced concerts of the Tampa Bay Symphony, a thoughtful group of mostly semi-pro musicians with programs in the fall, winter and spring. Its autumnal offerings — set for Nov. 4, 7 and 9 — will feature, most notably, Anton Dvorak’s marvelously entertaining 8th Symphony. Performances are set for the Straz, the Palladium and the New Tampa Performing Arts Center.
Speaking of affordable concerts, the thoroughly professional Palladium Chamber Series this season will run from Dec. 10 through April 15, with ticket prices starting at an incredible $15. Accomplished area musicians will populate most of the groupings, with some prominent out-of-towners occasionally joining in. Among the latter are Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, founding violist for the Dover Quartet, as part of the Jan. 14 program, and touring violinist Stefan Jackiw on March 25.
“I’m really happy with the mixture of personalities this season,” enthuses Jeffrey Multer, TFO concertmaster and a co-founder of the chamber series. “We have a lot of people from outside of the area coming in for the first time, but then we also have maybe the most-ever members of The Florida Orchestra participating in our series programs.”
Elsewhere around the bay area, community ensembles such as the Suncoast Symphony Orchestra of Clearwater and the Pinellas Park Civic Orchestra also soon will be posting their latest concert calendars.
Opera options
Opera seasons tend to start a little later than orchestral offerings, but on Oct. 31-Nov. 15, Sarasota Opera kicks off in style with the Mozartian masterpiece, “Cosi fan tutte.” Its season-capper comes mid-March, with Carlisle Floyd’s contemporary opera, “Susannah,” running through month’s end.
Opera Tampa launches its season with Benjamin Britten’s operatic adaption of Henry James’ “The Turn of the Screw” on Nov. 21 and 23 at the Straz Center. The season will conclude with Giuseppe Verdi’s “Macbeth,” on April 24 and 26, also at the Straz.
And St. Pete Opera will present its usual mix of popular and classic operatic performances, with a “Broadway Cabaret” show at Opera Central starting things off on Oct. 4 and Giacomo Puccini’s timeless operatic gem, “La Boheme,” wrapping up the season with performances on June 5, 7 and 9 at the Palladium.
More information about the bay area’s concert bounties can be found on the various organizations’ websites. Happy listening, and drop me a line about your musical adventures.
Carl DiOrio is a longtime journalist and a lifelong music lover. He can be reached at carldiorio@gmail.com. •
