“Eckart Preu will lead the Portland Symphony Orchestra as its music director beginning in the fall, and Saturday he announced what his first season will look and sound like,” writes Bob Keyes in Saturday’s (1/26) Portland Press Herald (Maine). “On Saturday, the orchestra offered a preview of its 2019-2020 season, which will open Sept. 22 and conclude June 23…. In a statement, Preu said music of the season would be uplifting, exciting and touching, ‘and sometimes it might just blow your socks off.’ Preu will fill his first season with the music of Beethoven, Schubert, Tchaikovsky and Brahms, as well as with music written by composers who Preu believes should be performed more frequently: Jean-Féry Rebel, William Boyce, Lilian Elkington and György Ligeti. He’s also programmed the music of living composers, including Robin Holcomb, who is writing a piece …. that the orchestra will perform in January 2020…. Preu … will close his inaugural season June 23 with a performance of Brahms’ Fourth Symphony.” Holcomb’s new work is commissioned via the League of American Orchestras’ Women Composers Readings and Commissions program, which is administered by American Composers Orchestra (ACO) and supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
Posted January 29, 2019
