The Philadelphia Orchestra publishes its 2015-2016 seaon

I rarely attend performances by the Philadelphia Orchestra anymore. Concerts are usually scheduled for Thursday and Saturday evenings and Friday afternoons, and I work the 3 to 11 shift at the paper those days.  And it hurts to admit it, but too often, year after year, the programing has been unimaginative. I find I can hear more inspired concert-making by looking around at smaller, less famous or even amateur groups.

I was pleased, though, when I looked through the program guide for 2015-2016 (they’ve tracked me down in Norristown) and found a few programs that will be worth taking a night off for. To be sure, next season has its share of seat-filling pap ― anyone up for Yo -Yo Ma in John Williams’ Cello Concerto?  ― as well as chestnuts, such as the November performance Appalachian Spring. (You know, Copland did write other stuff. I’d like to hear Statements sometime.)  And yet there are some Easter eggs hidden under the straw.

In February, just a little under a year from now, James Levine will lead the orchestra in Ives’s Three Places in New England, which it played under Ormandy years ago and hasn’t programmed since. Levine conducted a memorable performance of the piece at Juilliard a while back, and I’m excited to hear what he can do with the Philadelphians. The program also includes the Brahms Second (yay), and the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony, which I guess is the price we pay for Ives.

Then, in April, Cristian Macelaru will conduct Stravinsky’s complete Soldier’s Tale, with actors, dancers and a narrator.  You don’t get to see that very often. The program also includes The Rite of Spring, which is overplayed, but never gets old.

There will also be four performances of Mahler’s Symphony of A Thousand in March ― and the fourth is even a Sunday matinee. This work has not been performed in Philadelphia since the mid-1970s.

I should also mention the premiere of a new Timpani Concerto by the fine Philadelphia composer Maurice (pronounced Morris) Wright.

Philadelphia Orchestra announces an all-Carter program

The Philadelphia Orchestra announced today it has scheduled a special, non-subscription concert devoted entirely to the music of Elliott Carter. The concert will take place Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 5, the first anniversary of Mr. Carter's death. The program is not final, but advance word is that it will include A Symphony of Three Orchestras, which the orchestra last performed in 1984, and the Flute Concerto, with principal flutist Jeffrey Khaner as soloist.

"We are very excited the board has approved this project," Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the orchestra's music director, said in a press release. "This will be a unique tribute to one of America's great creative minds. Philadelphia has been a mecca for new music since the days of Maestro Stokowski, and it has always taken Mr. Carter to its heart.

"We are expecting a sell-out crowd, and we are confident at least half a dozen people will stay for the whole thing."

You want to know what ticks me off about the Philadelphia Orchestra?

I can sum it up in two words: Alisa Weilerstein.

Alisa Weilerstein is a cellist (and one of those classical string babes) who is about to release this CD:

As you can see, the CD will contain the concertos of Edward Elgar and Elliott Carter. It will be the third recording of recording of Carter's wonderful concerto. I have preordered it at Amazon. It is scheduled to be released at the end of the month and will be my 55th birthday present to myself.

Now, Alisa Weilerstein is slated to appear with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the end of December. She will be playing one of these two concertos. Guess which one. Go ahead. Guess.

Now, after 35 years of following the orchestra, waiting and hoping to be thrown the occasional bone, I have managed to make other arrangements other arrangements to satisfy my modernist jones. You have to, really. Once in a while, though, the frustration of missed opportunities returns to slap me in the face.

And I had to speak French

Last Thursday, Oct. 4, I interviewed both Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the incoming music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and soprano superstar Renée Fleming for a preview of the season opener coming up next week. You can read all about it here. I will add only that both Yannick and Fleming were relaxed and chatty, which went a long way toward making me feel the same way.

At the end of my 25 minutes or so with Yannick, I told him I could not let the opportunity pass without making a request. He chuckled and told me to go ahead. I told him my favorite composer is Charles Ives — “Oh!” I heard him say — and the one symphony by Ives the Philadelphia Orchestra has never played is the Fourth. (It has played the first three, plus the two orchestral sets and the Holidays, but never the Fourth. It also has never played the Robert Browning Overture, but one step at time.)

He seemed surprised by the fact, and he said he would take the suggestion seriously. He has already met with management to discuss major works that do not yet belong to the orchestra’s repertoire, he said, and the Ives should be added to the list. So who knows? Maybe in another couple of years. I told him that if he does schedule the piece, I would attend every performance, which also seemed to amuse him.

In my first attempt to phone Yannick — at home in Montreal — I got the wrong number. A woman answered, and since Fleming, whom I spoke to earlier, had screened my call (someone named Paul answered), I assumed the maestro was doing the same thing. The woman sounded elderly, and for a second I thought maybe it was his mom.

I asked to speak with him, and she said, “Comment?”

So, reaching back to my high school French, I said something like, “Je voudrais parler avec Monsieur Nézet-Séguin.” She mumbled something I didn’t understand, and the line went dead.