Big, Bold and Spectacular!
Classic Series concerts at Tucson Music Hall feature the full orchestra, prominent guest artists, and often the TSO Chorus. See all eight of these spectacular performances, choose the Winter Series to see the final four, or pick 2 – 4 as part of a Create Your Own (CYO) package that you tailor just for you. Complimentary “Concert Comments” with the conductor and guest artist take place one hour before the performance and give you insight into what you’re about to hear.
Parents: we encourage you to bring children, as you deem appropriate. Child subscriptions are 50% off the full price. Call the box office at 882-8585 to order.
Download the Classic Seating Chart.
Opening Night: Victorious Shostakovich! - Classic 1
Jennifer Frautschi
Friday, October 4, 2013 at 8:00 PM
Sunday, October 6, 2013 at 2:00 PM
George Hanson, conductor
Jennifer Frautschi, violin
Shostakovich: Festive Overture
Glazunov: Violin Concerto
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7, “Leningrad” TSO PREMIERE
Grammy® nominee and Avery Fisher career grant recipient Jennifer Frautschi makes her TSO debut opening the season with the technically brilliant and joyful Glazunov Violin Concerto, his most popular work. It is between two of Shostakovich’s major works, the Festive Overture, a lively melodic composition in the classical style and his Symphony No. 7, “Leningrad,” one of his most beloved works written at a time when the country was withstanding the Nazi onslaught.
Rach 2 Rachmaninoff - Classic 2
Guillermo Figueroa
Friday, October 25, 2013 at 8:00 PM
Sunday, October 27, 2013 at 2:00 PM
Guillermo Figueroa, guest conductor and violin
Cordero: Insula Tropical TSO PREMIERE
Bartók: Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin
Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2
Guillermo Figueroa returns to the TSO for the first time since 2008 to play and conduct a piece that was written for him, Cordero’s Insula Tropical, a contemporary composition reflecting the cultural aspects of the flora and fauna of Puerto Rico. Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2, one of his most popular, is loved for its glorious harmonies and rich melodies including the familiar tune used in the hit pop song, “Never Gonna Fall in Love Again.” Bartok’s The Miraculous Mandarin, in its time a very controversial work, sizzles with mystical qualities and elaborate melodies.
Dancing with Glass and Beethoven - Classic 3
Tim Fain and Wendy Sutter
Friday, November 15, 2013 at 8:00 PM
Sunday, November 17, 2013 at 2:00 PM
Andrew Grams, guest conductor
Tim Fain, violin
Wendy Sutter, cello
Adams: The Chairman Dances: Foxtrot for Orchestra
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7
Glass: Double Concerto for Violin and Cello TSO PREMIERE
All three works show how repeated rhythms and speeds shape our perception of the passing of time; all three are also “easy on the ears” tonally which makes concentrating on the rhythmic patterns more enjoyable. Rising star Tim Fain, who accompanied actress Natalie Portman in Black Swan, teams with Wendy Sutter, “one of the great leading cellists of the classical stage,” (Wall Street Journal) to perform Glass’ Double Concerto with its intimate, elegant duets between each movement. The Chairman Dances is from Adams’ popular opera, Nixon in China, and Beethoven’s Seventh features one of the most famous allegrettos in the entire symphonic repertoire.
Bach, Bees & Beethoven - Classic 4
Gabriela Martinez
Friday, December 6, 2013 at 8:00 PM
Sunday, December 8, 2013 at 2:00 PM
Tania Miller, guest conductor
Gabriela Martinez, piano
Pärt: If Bach Had Raised Bees… TSO PREMIERE
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5, “Emperor”
Sibelius: Symphony No. 1
“Compelling, elegant, and incisive,”(The New York Times) Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Martinez makes her TSO debut performing Beethoven’s most popular Piano Concerto, the Fifth, demonstrating the technical abilities of the pianist and the prowess of Beethoven. Brilliant Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s Wenn Bach Bienen Gezüchtet Hätte rings with beauty, and Sibelius’ shimmering First Symphony, with its glowing woodwind and string solos featured from the very first beat, is an appropriately spectacular finale.
Moeckel plays The Red Violin - Classic 5
Steven Moeckel
Friday, January 17, 2014 at 8:00 PM
Sunday, January 19, 2014 at 2:00 PM
George Hanson, conductor
Steven Moeckel, violin
Corigliano: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra The Red Violin TSO PREMIERE
Mahler: Symphony No. 5
Film music takes center stage as former Concertmaster Steven Moeckel returns to the TSO to perform the popular and powerful concerto John Corigliano composed and Joshua Bell performed in The Red Violin. Mahler’s brilliant Fifth Symphony, with its plaintive, engrossing and moving Adagietto, was popularized by the classic film, Death in Venice.
The Damnation of Faust - Classic 6
Jennifer Johnson Cano, William Burden, Jordan Bisch
Friday, February 14, 2014 at 8:00 PM
Sunday, February 16, 2014 at 2:00 PM
George Hanson, conductor
Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-soprano
William Burden, tenor
Jordan Bisch, baritone
Berlioz: The Damnation of Faust TSO PREMIERE
Hector Berlioz composed The Damnation of Faust after being inspired by Goethe’s Faust and it is his rendering of the opus into musical form. The composition is divided into five parts- from the time Méphistophélès seduces Faust with the purity of Marguerite, her seduction by Faust, her pending execution and Faust’s pact with the devil to save her. A wonderful performance piece and a once in a lifetime event in Tucson with the TSO.
George Hanson calls this, “the single biggest project of this artistic and musical level that has ever been done in Tucson.” A collaboration with the Tucson Desert Song Festival, The Damnation of Faust will star some of the biggest names from the Metropolitan Opera today:
Jennifer Johnson Cano
“Effortlessly likable, but in both her voice and her manner there is also a hint of something steely. Ms. Johnson Cano has an honesty and assurance so impressive that you want to call it bravery.” The New York Times
William Burden
An outstanding reputation in a wide-ranging repertoire throughout Europe and North America, he has appeared at the Met, San Francisco, Seattle, New York City and Santa Fe Operas, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera and La Scala.
Jordan Bisch
“A beautifully chocolaty yet well-focused bass.” Dallas Morning News. A graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, he made his main stage debut there in Parsifal, and has since appeared in productions of Aida, Idomeneo, Roméo et Juliette and the new English language production of Il barbiere di Siviglia.
In partnership with the Tucson Desert Song Festival
Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto - Classic 7
Amit Peled
Friday, March 14, 2014 at 8:00 PM
Sunday, March 16, 2014 at 2:00 PM
Edwin Outwater, guest conductor
Amit Peled, cello
Bates: Alternative Energy TSO PREMIERE
Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto No. 1
Debussy: La Mer
A work by Chicago Symphony Composer-in-residence, Mason Bates, Alternative Energy incorporates contemporary electronic sounds into the orchestra’s performance. A montage of time travel from 1896 through 2222, the four movements alternate from whimsical to moving and eerie. Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No.1 is a work designed to show every capability of the cello and one which grabs the listener’s attention from the first few bars with its mellifluous melodies. Hearing the ocean from a thousand miles away in La Mer, Debussy’s imaginative, dramatic symphonic tone poem, is a fitting end to this exhilarating program.
The Ring Without Words - Classic 8
Jeremy Denk
Friday, April 4, 2014 at 8:00 PM
Sunday, April 6, 2014 at 2:00 PM
Jeremy Denk, Piano
George Hanson, conductor
Wagner: Prelude, Act III, from Lohengrin
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 25 TSO PREMIERE
Wagner: Ring without Words TSO TSO PREMIERE
A frequent collaborator with Joshua Bell, The New York Times claims Denk is “a pianist you want to hear no matter what he performs, in whatever combination.” He makes his TSO debut performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25, one of the most complex that Mozart wrote for the piano and considered one of his greatest works. The program opens with Prelude to Act III, from Lohengrin, perhaps Wagner’s most recognizable prelude, and concludes with his massive Ring Cycle distilled into the high points of the entire composition.
