Arts Alive San Antonio

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor —

In the hope that things will eventually return to normal in a few months, the San Antonio Symphony has announced its 2020-2021 season, promising great music performed by great artists.

“We know that the beauty of life will reanimate and continue stronger, with arts even more necessary than before,” said the symphony’s executive director Corey Cowart in the press announcement. “This season will mark a new era for the symphony. We cannot wait to triumphantly return to the stage, and for both musicians and audiences to once again enjoy the gifts this art form offers to us.”

From his lips to God’s ears! We all hope life will revert to its pre-COVID-19 ways.

Without a music director, the symphony has relied on a team effort in putting a season repertoire together, said manager of artistic planning, Katie Brill. The first step is always to find out what dates are available at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, the orchestra’s performing home. Then, special artistic adviser, Gregg Gleasner, steps in to line up guest conductors, with whom the actual programming is subsequently developed. Drafts of plans are then reviewed by the rest of the team, including herself and the executive director.

Judging by the announced classical season, they have all done a good job. Each program promises variety, and most include at least one piece by less known composers, including female composers.

The inaugural concert, “Ravishing Rachmaninoff” on Sept. 25-26, features Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony, with cellist Sterling Elliott as soloist and Jeffrey Kahane as conductor. Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme,” and “Son et Lumiere,” a symphonic poem by American composer Steven Stucky, are also on the program.

The second classical concert on Oct.2-3 sounds equally appealing. Named “Nights in the Gardens of Spain,” it will include Manuel De Falla’s work by the same name, plus Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand, and a piece by the rising-star Mexican female composer, Gabriela Ortiz, titled “Teenek – Invenciones de territorio.” The latter was inspired by the people who speak the Teenek language in the Huasteca region of Mexico and seems to be intended as a tribute to ordinary people everywhere.

And Gabriela has a lot of company. Composer Anna Clyne’s “Within Her Arms” is on the program Nov.6-7, while the April 2-3 concerts will include “Tambor” by Joan Tower. Created in the 1990s, the piece,whose title means “drum,” highlights the power of the percussion section of a philharmonic orchestra, which is rarely the center of attention. Then another Gabriela – Gabriela Lena Frank – will be represented on the Tobin stage by her “Three Latin American Dances” as the opening number of the May 28-29, 2021 concerts.

Women conductors have become more visible in the past 20 years or so, and one, Jessica Cottis, is scheduled to lead the orchestra in mid-January of next year in Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5 and two other works. Lina Gonzalez-Granados will be on the podium May 14-15, 2021.

But don’t worry, the great composers of the past that we all know and love still dominate the programming, from Beethoven and his beloved Fifth Symphony, to Dvoržák, Brahms, Mozart, Schumann, Sibelius, Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky and Shostakovich.

And there’s a special treat: Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana,” the grand choral cantata that just about everyone loves, even people who are not classical music fans. The San Antonio Mastersingers will join the orchestra for the occasion on Nov. 20-21. We predict it will be a sellout. It’s colorful, boisterous, dynamic, sonorous and fun.

Another special, though very different, treat, is an appearance by Tony, Grammy and Emmy-winning artist, Audra McDonald, scheduled for Nov.4.  She and the symphony will take the audience on a musical journey, from Broadway classics to a range of well-known American songs. The event is not part of the Classical Series Subscription, however.

Altogether, twelve guest conductors are slated to lead the orchestra this coming season, eight of them new to San Antonio, and four who have been here before. SAS has been looking for a new music director since Sebastian Lang-Lessing resigned last year, so these visiting conductors may be potential candidates for the job. Lang-Lessing still stays connected, however, as the music director emeritus. Fittingly, he will conduct two concerts in 2021, “Don Quixote,” Jan.29-30, and the season finale that includes Shostakovich’s Symphony N.5 in D Minor, May 28-29, 2021.

Symphony officials are, of course, aware that the plans need to remain flexible since no one can actually predict how long the coronavirus pandemic may last.

“We are prepared to make adjustments if necessary,” said Brill. “We are looking at possible solutions that would keep everyone safe, the musicians and the audience. Maybe some performances will be live and some will have to be online, or possibly both. It all depends on how things develop over the next few months.”

The New York Philharmonic is currently evaluating the feasibility of having live concerts while implementing the 6-foot separation rule, explained Brill. Their performing hall usually accommodates 2,700 people. With the distancing rule, only 380 people would be allowed in. That’s a huge reduction.

Now, let’s all pray that the fabulous concerts mentioned above actually take place.

Go to www.sasymphony.org/sas-20-21-classical-season/ to see details of season and subscribe. Several season ticket packages are available.