In the spring of 2013, Jaap van Zweden and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra took a multi-city tour across Europe. In April of 2016, they’ll do it again, returning to some of the same cities they hit in 2013 (i.e. Amsterdam, Vienna) as well as stopping in several new countries.
The announcement of this tour, which includes performances in the Netherlands, Scotland, England, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Spain, comes as part of the orchestra’s 2015/2016 season announcement. In subscription concerts at the Meyerson Symphony Center next season, Dallas audiences will hear van Zweden and the DSO perform all of the works they’re programming on the tour, including Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, Mozart’s 24th Piano Concerto (with soloist David Fray), Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony, and the complete first act of Wagner’s Die Walküre (with soloists Michelle DeYoung, Clifton Forbis, and Kristinn Sigmundsson).
In addition to this touring repertoire, next year’s DSO season continues this orchestra’s tradition of presenting more than its fair share of standard orchestral repertoire. Familiar box office draws like Orff’s Carmina Burana, Ravel’s orchestration of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Pictures at an Exhibition, and Holst’s The Planets, are plentiful on next season’s calendar. Big, standard symphonies by Mozart (#39), Brahms (#1), Schumann (#4), Bruckner (#5) and Mahler (#1) will also be showcased.
Peppered among all of this standard rep are a few noteworthy world premieres. Conrad Tao, the DSO’s current Artist-in-Residence will premiere a new piece next season that was commissioned by the orchestra. This will be Tao’s second composition written specifically for the Dallas Symphony; his first DSO commission, The World is Very Different Now, was premiered in November of 2013 during the JFK Memorial Concerts. Dutch composer John Borstlap’s Solemn Night Music (Feierliche Abendmusik), a joint commission of the DSO and the Hong Kong Philharmonic, will also be premiered next season. And finally, spotlighting the DSO’s principal oboist Erin Hannigan, the orchestra will premiere Serenada Concertante for Oboe and Orchestra, a piece composed by Jeremy Gill specifically for Hannigan.
In addition to familiar faces at the podium like James Gaffigan and Ton Koopman, two conductors will make their DSO debuts next season, and both will lead the orchestra through music they’ve never performed before. This November, Simone Young (Music Director of the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra) will conduct works by Glass and Pfitzner, both of which are DSO premieres, in a program that also features Holst’s The Planets. Long Yu (Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the China Philharmonic Orchestra) will present yet another DSO premiere (Qigang Chen’s The Five Elements) alongside a Rachmaninoff piano concerto and other standard romantic repertoire.
Big name guest soloists on the bill for next season include Pinchas Zukerman (performing at the DSO Gala on September 26th), Midori (playing Sibelius’ Violin Concerto), Katia and Marielle Labèque (playing Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra), and Louis Lortie and Stefan Engels in an interesting concert featuring both Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto Number Five and the same composer’s “Organ Symphony.”
Next season marks Jaap van Zweden’s eighth year with the DSO. Together over those eight years, van Zweden and the DSO have performed seven of Mahler’s 10 symphonies (numbers one through six and number nine). I keep waiting for the orchestra to announce a performance of Mahler’s eighth symphony, the so-called “Symphony of a Thousand” because of its massive choral and orchestral demands. But we will have to keep waiting on that. Instead, the 2015/2016 season will open with van Zweden again leading the orchestra through Mahler’s First Symphony (they last performed it in 2009), and also feature Mahler’s lesser-known Das klagende Lied.
Next season, the orchestra’s ReMix series will continue, as will the popular DSO on the Go series. Although no program has been announced yet, the first ReMix series of the season looks interesting, promising a selection of chamber works performed exclusively by DSO musicians. Opus 100, the new organ recital series featuring the Lay Family Concert Organ will continue with three more concerts next year. The orchestra’s pop series will celebrate Sinatra’s 100th birthday next year, and SOLUNA, the “International Music & Arts Festival” that will debut this spring, will be back for a second go-around next year.
You can check out the DSO’s full 2015/2016 schedule here.
