Highlights from Carnegie Hall’s 2020-2021 season
announces the new season (c) Bruce Hodges)
Carnegie Hall’s upcoming 2020-2021 season will include more than 170 concerts, and feature performances by many of the greatest artists in classical, world, jazz and pop music from around the globe.
The season launches on 7 October with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, led by Gustavo Dudamel, with music by John Adams and Grieg and appearances by Lang Lang and Liv Redpath. This marks the first time the orchestra has played at Carnegie Hall in 30 years.
A centerpiece of the season is a citywide festival, Voices of Hope: Artists in Times of Oppression, which examines the role played by artists during periods of injustice, and the works they create under appalling circumstances. Beginning in March 2021, 16 concerts and events across the city — at more than 40 partner institutions — will explore how the arts have been used as a tool for solidarity and hope.
The participating artists include Rhiannon Giddens and Friends, the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, the Kronos Quartet, Kinan Azmeh Cityband, Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Jerusalem Quartet, and the all-star trio of Evgeny Kissin, Joshua Bell and Steven Isserlis.
Among the 19 American and international orchestras scheduled throughout the season are Kirill Petrenko and the Berlin Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Mariinsky Orchestra (with all four Rachmaninoff piano concertos in a single evening), Galilee Chamber Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, musicAeterna, Louisville Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and The English Concert.
Recitals – piano and instrumental – will play an important role, and featured artists include Leif Ove Andsnes, Emanuel Ax, Hélène Grimaud, Yefim Bronfman, Marc-André Hamelin, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Gabriela Montero, Maurizio Pollini, Sir András Schiff, Alexandre Tharaud, Daniil Trifonov, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Lisa Batiashvili, Pinchas Zuckerman, Yefim Bronfman, the Danish String Quartet, the Hagen Quartet and many more.
Vocal recitals are also prominent, with Mark Padmore and Mitsuko Uchida in an all-Schumann program, Anne Sofie von Otter and Kristian Bezuidenhout, and Lisa Davidsen and James Baillieu, among others.
Popular and world music concerts include Yo-Yo Ma and Chris Thile in ‘Not Our First Goat Rodeo’, a celebration of the Lunar New Year with the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra, and conductor Steven Reineke and The New York Pops in a five-concert series.
Other highlights include:
Perspectives: Rhiannon Giddens, Jordi Savall and Yannick Nézet-Séguin
For the 21st season of Perspectives, three renowned artists will each curate a season-long series.
Rhiannon Giddens — singer-songwriter, banjo and fiddle player — will curate five concerts shedding light on the shared history of musical traditions around the world. One of four banjo-playing African American women in the group Songs of Our Native Daughters, Giddens and her colleagues will perform the opening concert of the Voices of Hope festival.
In four concerts, Jordi Savall will celebrate pillars of early music, and programs of his own creation. The November events are devoted to Monteverdi, and two in the spring—part of Voices of Hope — highlight the Balkans, as well as the Roma and Armenian diasporas.
Returning for a second year in Perspectives, Yannick Nézet-Séguin curates seven concerts which will include the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Westminster Choir. In June he will lead an all-Berlioz program with the MET Orchestra, and frequent collaborator, mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato.
Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair: Andrew Norman
The New Yorker called Andrew Norman a ‘master of a uniquely dazzling and mercurial style’. Among the works to be performed during his nine-concert residency will be the New York premiere of his Begin with the American Composers Orchestra.
Across the Stars: The Music of John Williams
Joined by violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, guest conductor-composer John Williams leads the Philadelphia Orchestra in a gala January concert of special adaptations of his scores for Schindler’s List, Star Wars, Harry Potter and more.
Annual Isaac Stern Memorial Concert
Pinchas Zuckerman and Yefim Bronfman will play sonatas by Beethoven, Shostakovich and Franck in this 20 October memorial.
For more about what is on at Carnegie Hall click here.