Orlando—The Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra is gearing up for its 2022-23 season—it’s 30th year! Some of those performances will be in the city’s remarkable new Steinmetz Hall, renowned for acoustic excellence. Look for Classics, Pops, Focus and Storytime series, plus five summer Serenades concerts and, next February, a Resonate Festival. Ticket prices vary. Details are below.
Classics Series: Steinmetz Hall, Saturday at 7:30 p.m. & Sunday at 3:30 p.m.
Classics 1 – October 1-2, 2022
THE PLANETS
Eric Jacobsen and the Orlando Philharmonic take the stage of fabulous Steinmetz Hall for the grand opening of the 2022-2023 Classics Series! Join in as Adele Anthony (“plays beautifully, with warm, luminous tone…” ~ Gramophone) reveals the graceful melodies and dizzying virtuosity of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. And in Holst’s Planets you’ll hear Mars’s bellicose hammer blows; Venus’s gentle serenity; Mercury’s fleet-footedness; and Neptune’s mysteries with voices singing wordlessly…fading away into the unknown. Plus, works by contemporary composers Colin Jacobsen and James Lee III’s celebratory opener welcoming you to the excitement of hearing music in our new home in our 30th Anniversary Season.
Classics 2 – October 15-16, 2022
ORLI SHAHAM PLAYS MOZART
It was inevitable that 21-year-old Mendelssohn would fall in love with Italy…its sun-drenched landscapes and the warmth of its people. This love found exuberant expression in his “Italian” Symphony (“blue sky in A Major,” he dubbed it.) Orli Shaham (“a commanding, powerful performance” ~ Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) solos in two piano concertos: David Robertson’s in its world premiere and Mozart’s popular 23rd with a ravishing Adagio of haunting depth. Plus, orchestral excerpts from The Anonymous Lover, an opera by 18th century Afro-French composer Chevalier de Saint-Georges.
Classics 3 – November 12-13, 2022
MAJESTIC BRUCKNER /DVOŘÁK GRANDEUR
Enter Bruckner’s expansive soundworld…become one with its sonorities…get carried away by the radiant strings, the majestic brasses, the long-breathed phrases, and, ultimately, the splendor of his music! Now more than ever, Bruckner is a balm for the soul. Leading into the symphony is Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, a work of symphonic grandeur and passion that will showcase the astonishing technique and artistry of Jan Vogler (“…a convincing balance between introspection and drama…” ~ Financial Times). The Romantic vocabulary of Emilie Mayer’s dramatic Overture, exploring Faust’s soul, starts this concert’s journey.
Classics 4 – January 14-15, 2023
YUJA WANG PLAYS RACHMANINOFF
Hang on tight as piano superstar Yuja Wang (“one of the most talented, enthralling, and even mesmerizing performers on the world scene” ~ HuffPost) takes you on a wild ride with Rachmaninoff’s First Piano Concerto! The composer—a virtuoso himself—packed in plenty of fireworks to challenge even the most athletic of pianists. Yuja also solos in another of his “greatest hits”—the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, with the terrifying medieval chant Day of Wrath and the ultra-romantic 18th variation (smelling salts advised in case of swooning!). Plus, Debussy’s iconic (and notorious) masterpiece, from sinuous flute introduction to final languorous bars…erotic reveries in all their voluptuous, ephemeral beauty.
Classics 5 – March 4-5, 2023
RIMMA PLAYS BRUCH
Bruch’s superlative Violin Concerto is at once fiery and romantic, sparkling and seductive—and a showcase for our virtuoso Concertmaster Rimma Bergeron-Langlois. In the Tenth Symphony Shostakovich unleashes his fury against Stalin in a violent, demonic musical battle with pitches equivalent to the initials of his name, D-S-C-H, pounded out like a code that crushes the tyrant in the wild, triumphant finale. Raising the curtain is the OPO premiere of a thrilling new work by Pulitzer Prize-winning Cuban-American composer Tania León, whose music is “infused with a vigorous pluralism” ( ~ The New York Times).
Classics 6 – May 6-7, 2023
MAHLER’S 5TH
How do you say “I love you” if you’re Gustav Mahler? Nothing could surpass the radiant Adagietto movement, scored for strings and harp, of his Fifth Symphony, a gift for his beloved wife Alma. But there’s also raw, intense music and the manic Rondo-Finale that brings this orchestral tour de force to its climax. Love was also in the air in Mendelssohn’s First Piano Concerto, dedicated to an object of his youthful affection. Inon Barnatan (“One of the most admired pianists of his generation” ~ New York Times) is the soloist for this sometimes brilliant, sometimes gossamer, but always romantic, work. Plus, the world premiere of a much-anticipated new composition by former OPO Composer-in-Residence—Orlando’s own—Stella Sung.
POPS SERIES: Steinmetz Hall, Saturday at 3:30 & 7:30 p.m.
Pops 1 – Nov 26, 2022
HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS
Pops 2 – Jan 28, 2023
“SOMETHING WONDERFUL: THE SONGS OF RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN”
Pops 3 – Feb 25, 2023
CHRIS THILE IN CONCERT
Pops 4 – Mar 25, 2023
“SPIES, LIES, AND TREBLE CLEFS”
Pops 5 – May 13, 2023
“LET’S MISBEHAVE – THE SONGS OF COLE PORTER”
FOCUS SERIES: THE PLAZA LIVE, Monday at 7pm
Focus 1 – Oct 24, 2022
Celebrating Puerto Rican Heritage
Focus 2 – Dec 5, 2022
Holiday Brass & Percussion
Focus 3 – Feb 6, 2023
Rimma Plays Mozart
Focus 4 – Mar 13, 2023
Stars of the OPO
Focus 5 – Apr 17, 2023
Dvorak’s 6th
SYMPHONY STORYTIME SERIES: THE PLAZA LIVE, SATURDAY 10 & 11:30 A.M. AND SUNDAY 11 A.M. & 12:30 P.M.
October 22-23, 2022 Spooky Sounds of the Season
December 10-11, 2022 Holly Jolly Sounds of the Season
February 11-12, 2023 Just a Lucky So and So
April 29-30, 2023 Peter Rabbit
SUMMER SERENADES: THE PLAZA LIVE, SUNDAY AT 1 P.M., Brunch at Noon
June 19, 2022 Rimma Bergeron-Langlois & Keiko Andrews in Recital
July 10, 2022 Brass Quintet
July 31, 2022 Woodwind Quintet
August 7, 2022 Rimma & Friends Part 1
August 21, 2022 Rimma & Friends Part 2
RESONATE FESTIVAL with Artist-in-Residence ANTHONY MCGILL, clarinet: THE PLAZA LIVE, FEBRUARY 16, 18, 20, 2023
Monday, February 13, 2023, 6 p.m.
PRELUDE PROGRAM: GOLDBERG VARIATIONS
A Prelude Program—J.S. Bach’s epic Goldberg Variations—begins this season’s Resonate Festival in a spectacular way, starring pianist Steven Beck, praised as “exemplary” and “deeply satisfying” by Anthony Tommasini in The New York Times. It’s probably not an exaggeration to call the Variations the “Mount Everest” of the solo piano literature, requiring focus, vision, and stamina. And you, the audience, are invited to approach the theme and its 30 astonishing variations with reverence, abandon, solemnity, introspection, and joy. But whatever emotions you feel, the Goldberg Variations will resonate in your memory long after the last beautiful note has faded into silence.
Thursday, February 16, 2023, 7 p.m.
MCGILL, SAINT-GEORGES & BEETHOVEN
Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges—violin virtuoso, composer, son of an enslaved mother, colonel in Europe’s first Black regiment, and champion fencer—has finally been rediscovered by the classical music world! In an exciting new guise, the transcribed Clarinet Concerto—replete with both technical flamboyance and lyricism—gets its world premiere performance by Anthony McGill. In the same year Bologne passed from this earth, 1799, Beethoven was deeply immersed in creating his First Symphony, a beautiful amalgam of the classical style and—with unexpected key changes, unusual dynamics, and bold tempos—an audacious step into the new century.
Thursday, February 16, 2023, 9 p.m.
DEBUSSY & BEETHOVEN
We dive into Resonate Festival chamber music with Anthony McGill & Co. playing Beethoven’s delightful Op. 11, with our own maestro joining the festivities on cello! Opening the concert is Debussy’s Violin Sonata, the last completed work by a man profoundly affected by war and illness. Still, his swan song captivates— with ferocity, radiant colors, sprinklings of folk music, and, the composer said, “tumultuous joy.” In between, Three Romances by the until-recently-woefully-neglected Clara Schumann—finally out from behind her husband’s shadow—with her last and most popular chamber work. The keyboard part is testimony to her vast talents as a star pianist.
Saturday, February 18, 2023, 7 p.m.
MCGILL, COPLAND & BERNSTEIN
It’s a night of all-American music! First up: Aaron Copland’s Clarinet Concerto with Anthony McGill center stage. Commissioned and inspired by Benny Goodman, it moves from lyrical and serene to an ever-so-brief soliloquy for the soloist to a rollicking final movement fusing jazz, South American folk tunes, and American dance rhythms. From On the Town—his love letter to the Big Apple—a dance-y Broadway show about the adventures of three sailors on shore-leave during World War II—Bernstein extracted a high-spirited suite that will set your feet to dancing, too! In between, Copland’s quintessentially American Appalachian Spring—full of tenderness, hope, and belief in the future. Listen for fiddle tunes and the beloved Shaker melody “Simple Gifts.”
Saturday, February 18, 2023, 9 p.m.
BRAHMS CLARINET QUINTET
We must all be grateful that Brahms came out of self-imposed “retirement” to compose his four late masterpieces that have made him especially beloved of clarinetists, with this Quintet often regarded as his greatest chamber music achievement. The instrument’s sweet tone evokes moods of melancholy and serenity with an exquisitely dark palette that blends beautifully with the strings—all brought out superbly by our Artist-in-Residence Anthony McGill and the musician-artists of the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra.
Monday, February 20, 2023, 7 p.m.
MCGILL & MOZART
Mozart’s love for the clarinet’s mellow sound was inspired by the artistry of Anton Stadler—virtuoso, friend, and fellow-Freemason—and nowhere more so than in his beguiling Clarinet Concerto. And in the hands of Anthony McGill it will enrapture you, too, with its breathtaking beauty and sublime melodies. The concert begins with Mozart’s regal “Jupiter” Symphony—his last in the genre—aptly nicknamed for the king of the gods, with drums and trumpets lending a majestic feel and setting a crown upon the composer’s symphonic canon.
Monday, February 20, 2023, 9 p.m.
EINE KLEINE NACHTMUSIK
Anthony McGill and members of the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra gather for London-born Anglo-African composer Coleridge-Taylor’s magnificent Clarinet Quintet, whose lyrical language is likely to remind you of Brahms and Dvořák. And starting the final chamber concert of this season’s Resonate Festival, one of the most well-known and best-loved works of Classical music, Mozart’s effervescent serenade, “A Little Night Music.” Buoyant, full of life and grace, sparkling! ‘Nuff said!
COMMUNITY PERFORMANCES & EVENTS
June 18, 2022 Liberty Weekend at MCO
December 3 & 4, 2022 Holiday Pops
March 19, 2023 Spring Pops
April 1, 2023 The Springs at The Springs Community, Longwood, FL