“To address concerns about COVID-19 variants and case counts, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has had to limber up as it prepares to launch the 2021-22 season on Friday,” writes Jeremy Reynolds in Thursday’s (9/23) Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “To that end, capacity won’t be limited, but concerts will be 90 minutes and intermissionless…. Listeners will be required to show proof of vaccination prior to each performance in Heinz Hall…. And when the Allegheny County is in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s ‘substantial’ or ‘high’ community transmission levels, all listeners will be required to mask up…. So when music director Manfred Honeck takes to the stage Friday to give the downbeat for the fall season, he’ll likely be masked up as well…. The season opens with Glinka’s Overture to ‘Ruslan and Ludmilla.’ … French pianist Helene Grimaud [in] Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major [and] Tchaikovsky’s programmatic Symphony No. 4…. ‘Tchaikovsky’s fourth of course has the famous fate theme in the beginning,’ Honeck said. ‘It is rather like COVID, this unstoppable thing that we all experienced. But then, the next movement is dreamier, like stasis, and then the third is light, and the fourth transforms to joy again.’ ”
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