CLASSICAL MUSIC : International Series Targets L.A. Philharmonic Patrons

Seeking the increasingly elusive orchestra subscriber seems to be the toughest challenge of music administrators in the 1990s. For its 1990-91 season, the San Diego Symphony is offering no fewer than eight series to lure patrons to Symphony Hall on a regular basis.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic announced last week that, after 69 years of playing a San Diego series, it is throwing in the towel, blaming scheduling difficulties at Civic Theatre and a serious downturn in subscribers.

Only a few years ago, prospective patrons to the local Philharmonic series had to join a waiting list to purchase a subscription. The Philharmonic’s April 28 Civic Theatre concert will be its swan song in San Diego.

Not one to overlook an opportunity, Neale Pearl, executive director of the La Jolla Chamber Music Society, quickly dispatched his glossy brochure for the society’s 1990-91 International Orchestra series to local Philharmonic subscribers. Pearl hopes to sign up disappointed Philharmonic fans for the society’s upcoming performances of four guest orchestras in Symphony Hall.

The third season of the society’s series of imported orchestras will open Jan. 28, 1991, with the return of the Moscow State Symphony, under Yevgeny Svetlanov. Duo-pianists Katia and Marielle Labeque will play the Poulenc Concerto for Two Pianos with the Orchestra de Paris on March 6, 1991. (The last time the sisters Labeque visited San Diego, they were memorable more for their wardrobe than their music-making.) Maestro Kurt Masur and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra will perform April 22, 1991. To complete the ambitious series, pianist and conductor Philippe Entremont will lead the Vienna Chamber Orchestra on May 4, 1991.

Pearl noted that the society’s orchestra series is the hardest to sell. Even with the undeniable cachet of the Philadelphia Orchestra capping the 1989-90 orchestra series, subscription sales were just under Pearl’s prudent projections.

On the other hand, the society’s other downtown series, the tony brand-name Celebrity Series at Civic Theatre, is a promoter’s dream. Soprano Kathleen Battle’s Nov. 17 recital opens the series, followed by pianist Emanuel Ax in a solo recital. Soviet-born pianist Yefim Bronfman, who made a strong impression on local audiences in SummerFest ’89 concerts, will return in concert with the Guarneri Quartet on Feb. 16, 1991.

Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter will play an all-Brahms recital Feb. 21, 1991. The series winds up with the English Chamber Orchestra and violinist Pinchas Zukerman in the dual role of soloist/conductor. Zukerman will solo in J. S. Bach’s E Major Violin Concerto.

SONOR kudos. When UC San Diego’s contemporary music ensemble SONOR made its New York City debut the last week of March, New York Times critic Bernard Holland gave the group two thumbs up. Performing their most demanding repertory--Ferneyhough, Xenakis, Reynolds, Erickson and Yuasa--SONOR was lauded for a well-conceived, well-played program. In Reynolds’ most recent composition, a violin concerto titled “Personae,” soloist Janos Negyesy was praised for his authority in executing the composer’s bravura passages. The SONOR performance was given at Columbia University’s Kathryn Miller Theater.

Felix turns judges into fans. On March 29, 15-year-old Felix Fan won the grand prize and the first prize among cellists in the National Solo Competition of the American String Teachers Assn. The competition was held at the University of Maryland, and Fan’s awards were in the precollege division. Fan, a student at the Bishop’s School in La Jolla, was awarded $2,000 for his exemplary performance of Bartok’s “Rumanian Folk Dances” and Saint-Saens’ A Minor Concerto.