Garden Grove Symphony Shuns Pop for Classical in New Season

Pianist John Browning and actor Patrick Stewart (“Star Trek--The Next Generation”) will be among those joining the Garden Grove Symphony during its 1990-91 season, which was announced Wednesday.

Browning will be the soloist in Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini on May 4, 1991, conducted by Symphony music director Edward Peterson.

Stewart, a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in Great Britain, will narrate in Benjamin Britten’s “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra” on Oct. 27, 1990, on a program of English composers in conjunction with the “Festival of Britain Orange County--1990” being co-sponsored by the South Coast Plaza mall in Costa Mesa and the British consulate in Los Angeles.

The season will begin Sept. 22 with a program led by the season’s sole guest conductor, Won-Sik Lim, music director of the Inchon Symphony in Korea. Korean violinist Elisa Lee Koljonen will be soloist in Tchaikovsky’s “Concerto in D.”

The orchestra has eliminated its two-concert pops series and its annual New Year’s Eve concert in order to focus the audience’s attention on its classical concerts, according to general manager Yaakov Dvir-Djerassi.

The orchestra will present its sixth annual, free “Summer Symphony in the Park” program, to include Tchaikovsky’s “1812” Overture with cannons, on Aug. 25 at the Village Green Park, Euclid and Main streets. A children’s series will be announced.

Dvir-Djerassi said the 1990-91 budget will be $250,000, to be derived equally from ticket sales and grants including a $22,000 grant from the city of Garden Grove.

The season:

* Sept. 22, 8 p.m.: Lim, conductor; Koljonen, violin: Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 5”; Tchaikovsky’s “Violin Concerto”; “Fantasy for Orchestra” by Woo Jong Gap and Shoko Natsuda.

* Oct. 27, 8 p.m.: Peterson, conductor; Stewart, narrator: Britten’s “Young Person’s Guide,” Suite from Elgar’s “Crown of India,” Walton’s “Facade,” “Portsmouth Point Overture,” works by Purcell and Vaughan Williams.

* Dec. 15, 8 p.m.: Peterson, conductor; Mormon Choir of Southern California: Seasonal selections; portions of Handel’s “Messiah.”

* May 4, 1991, 8 p.m.: Peterson, conductor; Browning, piano: Dvorak’s “New World” symphony, Kodaly’s “Dances of Galanta,” Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.”

All four concerts will be given at the Don Wash Auditorium, 11271 Stanford Ave., in Garden Grove, at 8 p.m. Subscriptions range from $40 to $80 ($28 for students and seniors) until June 2, after which prices increase by 12%. Information: (714) 534-1103.