Female composers, Beethoven, movies featured in symphony’s ’19-’20 season
The 2019-2020 Wichita Symphony Orchestra season has a decidedly female slant.
The 11-concert schedule includes a season-long homage to women composers and a showcase of the work of women rockers. Also on the season are two live movie scores, a multimedia natural photography showcase and a unique tribute to the Beatles.
The 76th season, much like its current diamond season, features several anniversary tributes, most notably the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven.
Pianist Stewart Goodyear, featured during performances last season, will perform all five Beethoven piano concertos in a single weekend, Feb. 21 and 23.
“Since he is renowned for doing Beethoven and is an excellent pianist, it should be one of the highlights of the season,” musical director and conductor Daniel Hege said.
If the format sounds familiar, it is the same tact that French pianist Lise de la Salle accomplished recently with Rachmaninoff’s piano concertos as a guest with the Wichita Symphony.
“The fact that we have this brand-spanking new Steinway piano, we’re giving it its trial,” Hege said of last year’s acquisition. “We want to feature the piano in a very spectacular way, and (both de la Salle and Goodyear) is a way to do that.”
The composer also will be celebrated in a Young Peoples Concert featuring “Beethoven Lives Upstairs,” by the award-winning Classical Kids Live.
To commemorate the centennial of the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote, several modern female composers – Jessie Montgomery, Anna Clyne, Stacy Garrop and Jennifer Higdon – are featured throughout the season.
“I think that’s significant,” Executive Director Don Reinhold said. “It’s not like we haven’t done some, but we haven’t done them in this level of concentration.”
Hege said he looked at many compositions by women before making his decisions on what to program.
“The quality of work is the No. 1 concern. Every composer is evaluated on an equal level,” he said. “There simply aren’t as many female composers out there, but that’s the way it is in many lines of work.”
Praising the success of “The Wizard of Oz” last December, the symphony has two more live film scores to perform as the movies are projected over the orchestra: “Apollo 13” and “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial.”
“Apollo 13” will be a double-anniversary, Reinhold said, as it is the 25th anniversary of the movie directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks; as well as the 50th anniversary of the mission that landed men on the moon.
“E.T.” was one of the top-two vote-getters in a survey after “Oz” last year, Reinhold said.
“It’s pretty big score, at least as big as ‘Wizard of Oz’,” Reinhold said of John Williams’ music for the 1982 film.
Hege said showing movies with a live film score bring in a new audience to symphonies.
“Live cinema is something many orchestras are looking at as a valuable way for people to enjoy symphonic music,” he said.
It may not have a film attached, Hege and Reinhold said, but another attraction on the schedule plays out almost like a movie soundtrack.
“The Rose of Sonora,” a violin concerto featuring Holly Mulcahy, was composed by George S. Clinton, who has created the scores for the “Austin Powers” and “Mortal Kombat” movies. It plays out in five scenes, telling the fictional story of a Western woman that is the composite of several real Wild West trailblazers.
“Two of three of them actually have a relationship with Wichita. A lot of them went to school here, one of them was associated with an outlaw gang,” Reinhold said. “They weren’t the most savory characters.”
A short excerpt, which featured a “cowboy chorus,” was previewed by audiences at Wichita Symphony’s January concerts.
“It went over extremely well,” Hege said. The second half of that April concert will include the photography of WestwaterArts, featuring multiple projections of photography choreographed to the music.
The son-in-law of photographer James Westwater is on stage timing the projections to the music, which includes Samuel Barber’s “Reflection of the Spirit,” showing work from the desert Southwest; and Aaron Copland’s “Rodeo,” showing scenes of cowboys and the Wild West.
“It’s almost like he is a soloist,” Reinhold said of the on-stage projectionist.
“It’s not quite like a motion picture, but the images move in such a way that in syncs well with the music,” Hege added.
The season also includes cellist Zuill Bailey performing Michael Daugherty’s “Tales of Hemingway” (Daugherty was in attendance at the Wichita Symphony last month when they performed one of his works), pianist Natasha Paremski (performing Ravel’s “Piano Concerto in G Minor”) and harpist Yolanda Kondonassis, featured in Higdon’s “Harp Concerto,” which recently debuted with the Chattanooga Symphony.
“She’s really one of the few harpists I know of who’s really made the rounds as a soloist,” Hege said of Kondonassis.
Two pops concerts are on the season: “Women Rock” features symphonic accompaniment to three singers who perform the hits of Carole King, Tina Turner, Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklin and others; and “Revolution: The Beatles Symphonic Experience” features the Fab Four’s songs.
The latter is not, Reinhold said, a “Beatle clone show.” It features projections of rarely seen home movies and photographs.
“It celebrates the music as music,” featuring two male and one female vocalists. “You’re getting into the purity of the music, rather than ‘Oh, that looks like Ringo Starr up there.’”
The 2019-2020 season marks Hege’s 10th year with the Wichita Symphony.
“I feel like it’s a very nice, familial, relationship I have with the board and the staff here and the audience,” Hege, who is contracted through at least 2022, said. “To be honest, it gets better and better.”
WICHITA SYMPHONY 2019-2020 SEASON
Masterworks
Sept. 21-22, 2019: “Starburst” by Jessie Montgomery, Bach’s “Concerto for Two Violins” (soloists to be announced) and Bruckner’s Symphony No. 6
Oct. 26-27, 2019: “Masquerade” by Anna Clyne, “Tales of Hemingway” by Michael Daugherty (Zuill Bailey, cello) and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade”
Nov. 23-24, 2019: “Pandora Undone” by Stacy Garrop and “Carmina Burana” by Carl Orff
Jan. 25-26, 2020: “Concerto for Harp and Orchestra” by Jennifer Higdon (Yolanda Kondonassis, harp) and Dvorak’s “From the New World”
Feb. 21, 23, 2020: The Five Beethoven Piano Concertos, featuring Stewart Goodyear
March 14-15, 2020: Ravel’s “Piano Concerto in G Major” (Natasha Paremski, piano) and Brahms’ “Symphony No. 2”
April 4-5, 2020: John Williams’ “Cowboy Overture,” George S. Clinton’s “The Rose of Sonora” (Holly Mulcahy, violin), Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” and Copland’s “Rodeo,” featuring WestwaterArts
Pops
Oct. 5, 2019: “Women Rock”
Dec. 7-8, 2019: “E.T. The Extraterrestrial” in concert
Feb. 8, 2020: “Revolution: The Beatles Symphonic Experience”
April 18, 2020: “Apollo 13” in concert
May 29, 2020: Twilight Pops (program TBA), Kennedy Center Plaza
Youth orchestra
Nov. 9-10, 2019
Family concerts
Nov. 14, 2019: “The Magic of Mexico,” featuring WestwaterArts
Dec. 10, 2019: “The Spirit of the Seasons” holiday concert
Jan. 28-30, 2020: “Beethoven Lives Upstairs,” featuring Classical Kids Live