STORY AND LINK: Major orchestras dominate OC Philharmonic 2011-2012 season

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News

The Orange County Philharmonic’s Society 2011-2012 season at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall at the Orange County Performing Arts Center will include performances by eight orchestras from the U.S. and overseas, beginning with the Marinsky Theatre Orchestra led by Valery Gergiev on Oct. 13 (Tchaikovsky’s second and fifth symphonies) and 17 (the same composer’s third and fourth symphonies.

Other ensembles (all appearing in 2012, which will make for a blockbuster spring) will include:
• Chicago Symphony, led by its new music director, Riccardo Muti, on Feb. 17
• St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra (not to be confused with the far-better known St. Petersburg Philharmonic) on March 23
• Baltimore Symphony, conducted by Music Director Marin Alsop (in her OC debut) on March 28
• Cleveland Orchestra under the baton of Music Director Franz Welser-Most
• The Academy of St.-Martin-in-the-Fields on April 26 in a program featuring Joshua Bell as soloist in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto
• Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Rafael Frubeck de Burgos, on April 28
• New York Philharmonic, conducted by Music Director Alan Gilbert, on May 8 with Yefim Bronfman as soloist in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3.

The list of recitals for the season includes tenor Charles Castronovo, who made such a strong impression in the title role in Los Angeles Opera’s world-premiere production of Daniel Catán’s Il Postino last Sept. Castronovo, a Cal State Fullerton alumnus, appears April 1 in the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

To read the complete release, click HERE.
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(c) Copyright 2011, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.