Here are details:
Sept. 30, Oct. 2-3: Cleve leads the season opener, featuring Schumann’s Symphony No. 1; Mahler’s “Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of the Wayfarer)” with baritone soloist Eugene Brancoveanu, a former Adler Fellow with San Francisco Opera; and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.
Oct. 16-17: Gregory Vajda conducts a Hungarian-flavored program featuring 19-year-old violinist Lajos Sarkozi, already a veteran of Gypsy jazz bands in Prague and now starting to make the orchestral rounds. He will play Saraste’s “Gypsy Airs” and Ravel’s daunting “Tzigane.” Also on the program: works by Dohnanyi, Kodaly, Bartok and Brahms (three of his “Hungarian Dances”).
Dec. 4-5: Giampaolo Bisanti, a busy conductor in Italy on the big-city opera circuit, leads Symphony Silicon Valley in works by Rossini (Overture to “The Barber of Seville”), Mozart (Horn Concerto No. 2, featuring Meredith Brown, the orchestra’s principal horn, in her debut here as soloist), and Schubert (Symphony No. 3).
Jan. 15-16, 2011: Pianist Adam Golka, only 22 and winning critics’ praise around the United States and in Europe for the sensitivity and panache of his performances, makes his South Bay debut, playing Liszt’s “Totentanz.” The program, conducted by Paul Polivnick, also includes Wagner’s “Siegfried’s Idyll” and Rachmaninoff’s “Symphonic Dances.”
March 24, 26-27, 2011: Vajda returns to lead the orchestra and the Symphony Silicon Valley Chorale, directed by Elena Sharkova, in Brahms’ glorious “German Requiem.”
May 12, 14-15, 2011: The world premiere of jazz great D’Rivera’s “Cape Cod” Concerto for Clarinet, Piano and Orchestra, featuring soloists Jon Nakamatsu (piano) and Jon Manasse (clarinet). They are co-artistic directors of the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, where just last summer they debuted the original duo version of the work, which paid homage to Benny Goodman, marking the 100th anniversary of his birth. D’Rivera has now expanded the work to full orchestra. Nakamatsu will also perform Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, a war horse among war horses — and one Nakamatsu has never before played in the South Bay, his home turf. Leslie Dunner (also a clarinetist) conducts.
June 4-5, 2011: Kuan takes on Dorman’s “Spices,” with help from a couple of key soloists: Galen Lemmon (Symphony Silicon Valley’s principal percussionist) and Steve Hearn (assistant principal timpanist with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra). Cabrillo mainstays, Lemmon and Hearn performed the exotic “Spices” at Cabrillo last summer, under Alsop’s direction. Now it’s time for Kuan. She also conducts Bizet’s “Carmen” Suite and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4.
