New Irvine Theatre Gets Its First Bookings : Performances: Philharmonic Society announces dates, including those for violinist Itzhak Perlman, pianist Ivo Pogorelich and soprano Kathleen Battle.

Unveiling its 1990-91 season Tuesday, the Orange County Philharmonic Society has become the first performing arts organization to announce specific dates at the new Irvine Theatre. The society’s “Festival Series” includes performances at the new, $17.6-million theater at UC Irvine, scheduled to open in the fall, by the Empire Brass (Oct. 26), soprano Dawn Upshaw (Nov. 15), the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (Feb. 4, 1991), the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet (March 21, 1991) and the duo piano team of Markhan and Broadway (April 6, 1991).

Programs on the society’s nine other series will be performed at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. By offering 10 subscription series in all, encompassing 30 concerts (some of which are on more than one series), the society aims to give ticket buyers a greater range of choices than in the past, a society spokesman said Tuesday.

Artists making their first county appearances are: the Budapest Chamber Orchestra “Franz Liszt” (Oct. 14); the Shanghai Symphony under Chen Xie-Yang, on its first U.S. tour (Oct. 31); the Japan Philharmonic under conductor Ken-ichiro Kobayashi (Nov. 2); the Leningrad Philharmonic under Yuri Temirkanov with pianist Dimitri Alexeev (Nov. 4); the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra under Franz-Paul Decker with soprano Malvina Major (Feb. 26, 1991); the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg under Hans Graf with violinist Ernst Kovacic (March 4, 1991); l’Orchestre de Paris under Semyon Bychkov, with duo pianists Katia and Marielle Labeque; (March 8, 1991); and the English Chamber Orchestra under violinist/conductor Pinchas Zukerman (April 19, 1991).

Violinist Itzhak Perlman (Jan. 14, 1991) and pianist Ivo Pogorelich (March 9, 1991)

will be giving their first recitals in Orange County, while soprano Kathleen Battle (April 18, 1991) will be singing in the county for the first time.

The rest of the society’s 37th season includes performances by: the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly , with mezzo-soprano Jard van Nes and tenor Goesta Winbergh (Sept. 21); London Classical Players under Roger Norrington (Nov. 3); the Andreyev Balalaika Orchestra under Dmitri Khokhlov (Jan. 15, 1991); the U.S.S.R. State Symphony under Yevgeny Svetlanov (Jan. 26, 1991), and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra under pianist/conductor Philippe Entremont (May 3, 1991).

The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra will perform twice, with conductor Iona Brown and pianist Barry Douglas (Jan. 24, 1991) and with conductor Christof Perick and pianist Jeffrey Kahane (March 10, 1991).

Three Los Angeles Philharmonic concerts are on the roster: with conductor Kurt Sanderling (Dec. 1); with tenor/conductor Peter Schreier leading Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion” (April 13, 1991), and with conductor Neeme Jarvi and pianist Zoltan Kocsis (May 4, 1991).

Solo and duo recitals will include pianist Andre Watts (Nov. 30), violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and pianist Cecile Licad (Dec. 10). Also on the schedule are performances by the Canadian Brass (Dec. 2)--a lone non-subscription concert to benefit OCPS Youth Programs--and the Juilliard String Quartet with the Billy Taylor Trio in a program that includes a premiere by jazz musician Billy Taylor (April 30, 1991).

For information on the various series, call the society at (714) 553-2422. Subscribers will receive series information during the first week of March; new subscriber orders will be accepted beginning in April.