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who’s been called a ‘globe-trotting Tristan’ with ‘electrifying muscular power’, and soprano Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet, who is returning for her fifth production with the company. dallasopera.org

MIAMI New World Symphony From Russia with Love (February 17 & 18) The New World Symphony – a cultural icon in the heart of Miami Beach established back in 1987 – considers itself America’s orchestral academy. Last year, the orchestra inaugurated their lavish new campus, the New World Center, which was designed by architect Frank Gehry and features numerous spaces for performance and presentation. Conceived as a laboratory for conservatory-trained classical musicians, the New World Symphony presents world-class programmes under the baton of its visionary founder and artistic director, Michael Tilson Thomas. One such series in February showcases the orchestra’s talent alongside guest violinist Gil Shaham, who performs two concerts nicknamed From Russia with Love. On February 17, Shaham, MTT and the orchestra perform Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No 2 and Rachmaninov’s Symphony No 2. What’s more, you don’t have to be in the auditorium to watch the concert, as there’s a high-tech 7000-square-foot projection screen and sound system outside the building for the entertainment of those who might prefer to linger outdoors. The following day at the Adrienne Arsht Center they all perform the same programme, but with the addition of Tchaikovsky’s Marche solennelle. nws.edu

PITTSBURGH Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra with Nikolaj Znaider Music as Inspiration/Stucky premiere (February 17-19) The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra present a programme of three ‘inspirational musical pieces’ intended to make you ‘pause and reflect on the preciousness of life’. It includes the Sibelius Violin Concerto played by the masterful violinist Nikolaj Znaider, and Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique Symphony. The concert opens with a world premiere by American composer Steven Stucky, a PSO commission that marks the 50th anniversary of Pittsburgh

Alan Gilbert in new York: as inventive as ever in his programming i C k r Y A n p A t r

:P h O T O G r A P h Y

environmentalist Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. Published in 1962, the book is credited with helping to launch the environmental movement in the United States, focusing on the harmful effects of chemical pesticides to the environment. Once a bestseller, it’s now considered a landmark non-fiction work of science and social criticism, so it will be intriguing to see how the book has inspired Stucky’s imagination. The conductor is Manfred Honeck. pittsburghsymphony.org

NEW YORK New York Philharmonic Stucky, Berlioz, Mussorgsky (orch Ravel) (February 23, 25 & 28) By now New York audiences are getting used to maestro Alan Gilbert’s inventive programming. In this series of concerts with the New York Philharmonic, the conductor smartly juxtaposes an early work by American composer Steven Stucky, Son et lumière (a 10-minute orchestral burst of impressionism), with Berlioz’s colourful and romantic song cycle Les nuits d’été, which evokes a midsummer night’s dream in all its languid beauty. The scintillating mezzo Joyce DiDonato performs the songs. Gilbert concludes the concert with a classic from the canon – Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s masterpiece Pictures at an Exhibition, which Gilbert considers to be a ‘kaleidoscopic’ piece of music. There’s also another connection – between Berlioz and Mussorgsky: both works started out for solo piano and were later orchestrated. Gilbert will wrap all these evocative strands together to bring us the orchestral equivalent of a vivid rainbow. nyphil.org

CHICAGO Chicago Symphony Orchestra Schoenberg: Pierrot lunaire (February 24 & 26) Audiences may be thankful that Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire, an undeniably difficult masterwork for voice and chamber ensemble, gets some much-needed explanation here, thanks to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Beyond the Score series. The series was started a few years ago for seasoned concertgoers and newcomers alike to offer a multimedia examination of the score in question, placing it within the context of history and the composer’s life. Pierrot lunaire, which was premiered in 1912, is Schoenberg’s miniature drama for one singer and five instruments. To its astonished first listeners, this strange and beautiful music sounded like nothing they’d heard before. In these performances, this musically daring work is presented by an appropriately intellectual coterie of performers, led by Pierre Boulez. Pierre-Laurent Aimard plays the piano, joining musicians of the CSO and soprano Kiera Duffy, who delivers the poems in the Sprechstimme (speech-song) style that the piece demands. cso.org

Previews by Damian Fowler

VI GRAMOPHONE FEBrUArY 2012

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