After my recent conversation on Connections with Evan Dawson talking to Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra's Music Director Ward Stare and CEO Curtis Long about the RPO’s 2018-2019 season, I started thinking, "What if I were in charge? What would be my dream season for the RPO?"
I could take a whole year or two to think about it, but in an hour or so --- and off the top of my head --- here’s a season of fourteen concerts (in no particular) that includes music by a diverse group of composers to please my omnivorous heart:
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Finlandia by Jean Sibelius
Violin Concerto No. 2 (the rediscovered one) by Florence Price
Billy the Kid by Aaron Copland
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Flying Fish by Trevor Weston
Firebird by Igor Stravinsky
Symphony in D minor by César Franck
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Rose Absolute by Karen Tanaka
Piano Concerto No. 23 by W.A. Mozart
Symphony No. 2, “Romantic” by Howard Hanson
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The Moldau by Bedrich Smetana
Styx by Octavio Vazquez
Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 97, "Rhenish" by Robert Schumann
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A Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams
Smothered by Sky (2017) by Loren Loiacono
Any Violin Concerto by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges
Miraculous Mandarin by Bela Bartok
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Estampes: 1.Pagodes (orchestrated version) by Claude Debussy
Cantus Arcticus, Op. 61, by Einojuhani Rautavaara
Symphony No. 9 in C major by Franz Schubert
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Symphony No. 2 by Kevin Puts
Piano Concerto by Clara Schumann
Ma mère l'Oye by Maurice Ravel
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Delights & Dances for String Quartet and String Orchestra by Michael Abels
Concerto for violin, horn, and orchestra by Ethel Smythe
Symphony No. 1 by Johannes Brahms
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The Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin
The things left unsaid by Caleb Burhans (cello octet)
Any Concerto (Elgar? Dvorak?) featuring cellist Steven Doane
Symphony No. 2 by Alexander Zemlinsky
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Overture to Candide by Leonard Bernstein
Violin Concerto by Jennifer Higdon
Symphony No. 6 by Ludwig van Beethoven
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A Simple Symphony by Benjamin Britten
Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten by Arvo Part
Symphony No. 7 by Ludwig van Beethoven
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Major choral/operatic works
Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi
Symphony No. 2 by Gustav Mahler, “Resurrection”
Eleni (an opera) by Cary Ratcliff
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What's on your list?
See the REAL details of the RPO's upcoming season here.
Watch classical915.org for details of the RPO 2017-18 season broadcasts coming in the spring of 2018.
