During its 2013/2014, season the Dallas Symphony Orchestra will commemorate the anniversary of JFK's assassination with a memorial concert, welcome back Music Director Emeritus Andrew Litton (DSO conductor from 1994-2006), and celebrate the music of Beethoven.
The DSO's upcoming season, released yesterday, features many familiar classical works by Beethoven (3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th symphonies), Dvorak (The New World Symphony), Stravinsky (Firebird) and others. The programming doesn't look to be exceptionally adventurous or creative (performing Beethoven's 5th two seasons in a row feels a little lazy), but rather continues a focus on reinvigorating classics and bringing exceptional talent to Dallas.
In September, as previously announced, opera diva and vocal superstar Renée Fleming will join the DSO for its 2013 Gala concert. Pianist Yefim Bronfman, who played Mozart here last week, will return to perform Beethoven's Emperor Concerto as part of a 3-week long Beethoven festival at the end of the season.
If you're a fan of Beethoven, this three-week festival is going to be a good one. In addition to a full performance of the enormous 9th symphony, the new City Performance Hall is getting in the game with performances of Beethoven's chamber works performed by Dallas favorites Alessio Bax and Chee-Yun, as well as DSO concertmaster Alexander Kerr and cellist Christopher Adkins.
The most interesting concert on the books for next year is the JFK memorial concert scheduled to coincide exactly with the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's assassination (Nov. 21-24). The concert features the world premier of composer Conrad Tao's "The World Is Very Different Now," an orchestral piece commissioned by the DSO in commemoration of the anniversary. This new reflection on the event will be juxtaposed with another memorial piece, Darius Milhaud's "Murder of a Great Chief of State," a piece composed in 1964 just a year after Kennedy's assassination. Popular violinist Joshua Bell will join the DSO for this concert.