“Carnegie Hall’s 2019-2020 season, announced Wednesday morning, features celebrations of two major anniversaries—2020 will be the centennial of Isaac Stern’s birth, and the 250th year since that of Beethoven,” writes George Grella in Wednesday’s (1/30) New York Classical Review. “The Stern Auditorium is named in honor of Stern’s tireless efforts to save Carnegie from demolition. The entire season is dedicated to his memory. The season will include performances of Beethoven’s complete symphonies, and more, starting with the October 3 opening night gala [featuring] the Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst.… Yannick Nézet-Séguin, will helm a Perspectives series … leading … the Philadelphia Orchestra, the MET Orchestra, and the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal.… Clarinetist and composer Jörg Widmann will hold the Debs Composer’s Chair.” Ensembles performing at Carnegie in 2019-20 will include American Composers Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, English Concert, International Contemporary Ensemble, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, San Francisco Symphony, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, and West-Eastern Divan Ensemble. Singer-songwriter Angélique Kidjo will hold a season-long residency; mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato will curate her second Perspectives series; Marin Alsop will helm a learning project exploring themes in Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”; and cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason will make his Carnegie Hall debut.
Posted January 31, 2019
In photo: Highlights of Carnegie Hall’s recently announced 2019-20 season, left to right, Beethoven, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Angélique Kidjo, and Isaac Stern.
