The Virginia Symphony’s 2006-2007 season features large Romantic works and choral pieces.
Famed violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg will lead off the Virginia Symphony’s 2006-2007 concert season, performing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto Sept. 8 in the Ferguson Center for the Arts at Christopher Newport University and Sept. 9 in Norfolk’s Chrysler Hall.
Salerno-Sonnenberg came to the music world’s attention as the youngest person to win the Naumburg Violin Competition in 1981. The opening weekend of concerts conducted by JoAnn Falletta also will feature two of the repertoire’s more popular works, Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain” and Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring.”
Subscriptions to the symphony’s two classical series for the 2006-2007 season are now on sale. The orchestra will present 12 concerts in Norfolk and 10 concerts in Newport News. The lineup for the Williamsburg series and Virginia Pops and PB&J; Family concert series in Norfolk will be announced at a later date.
In Newport News, subscribers will have the option of choosing all 10 concerts or one of two mini-series — a seven-concert evening series and a five-concert Sunday series. Two Friday morning “coffee concerts” also will take place next season, though the events are migrating from Ferguson’s smaller Music & Theatre Hall to its larger Concert Hall.
“People on both sides of Hampton Roads are anxious to hear the full orchestra, especially our large Romantic works and choral pieces,” says Symphony Executive Director Carla Johnson. “And because the Ferguson concert hall is so spectacular, it makes for an exciting sonic experience. This is what makes the live concert setting unlike any other.”
Like this season, the upcoming repertoire weighs toward popular works, with selections by Rachmaninoff, Schubert, Dvorak, Brahms and Beethoven. Several large pieces are on the season, including the Mahler Fifth Symphony and the Shostakovich 11th Symphony. Three big concerts planned are Bernstein’s “Chichester Psalms” on March 25, 2007; Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” on April 13-15, 2007; and Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” April 21-22, 2007, around the time of the Virginia Arts Festival.
Other highlights include the premiere of Joan Tower’s “Purple Rhapsody” in October and an all-Gershwin program featuring “Rhapsody in Blue” and “An American in Paris” in November. Subscriptions prices range from $105-$560 in Newport News and $105-$629 in Norfolk. Individual tickets go on sale in August. Subscriptions may be purchased by calling 892-6366 or online at www.virginiasymphony.org.
Here’s are some highlights of the Newport News concerts:
Sept. 8 — Opening night with violinist Nadja Solerno-Sonnenberg
Sept. 23 — Rachmaninoff, Second Piano Concerto, with pianist Andrew von Oyen; Dvorak, Seventh Symphony
Oct. 27 — Beethoven, Violin Concerto, with violinist Leila Josefowicz; Shostakovich, Eleventh Symphony
Nov. 5 & 11 — Gershwin, “Rhapsody in Blue” and “An American in Paris”
Dec. 15 — Handel’s “Messiah”
Jan. 28 — Handel, “Water Music,” and works by Vaughan-Williams, Bruch and Elgar
March 2 & 4 — Beethoven, Fifth Symphony and Haydn, Symphony No. 103
March 25 — Bernstein, “Chichester Psalms”
March 30 — Mahler, Fifth Symphony
April 15 — Mussorgsky, “Pictures at an Exhibition” *
