Ravel Opera, AIDS Benefit Heart of Symphony Series : Music: Director Carl St. Clair says the Pacific Symphony offers a far-reaching musical diet for the ‘91-92 season.

A concert version of Ravel’s one-act opera “L’Enfant et les Sortileges” and a “Symphony for Life” program to benefit local AIDS service organizations will highlight the Pacific Symphony’s 1991-92 classical series.

“We’re trying to unfold a season which can help our audiences better understand and appreciate and love the music that we all love and cherish,” music director Carl St. Clair said at a press conference Thursday.

“What we’ve tried to do this season is provide a musical diet from Gabrieli . . . to music written by living and breathing composers. . . . We tried to cover a wide gamut, but the basis of our programming next year, of course, is deeply rooted in the Austrian-German repertoire--the Beethoven, the Brahms, Mozart, Haydn symphonies.”

The Ravel opera will be given May 6 and 7, 1992, in association with the Los Angeles Music Center Opera, which will provide and coach the singers, according to executive director Louis G. Spisto. Although it will be a concert version, there will be some staging.

The AIDS benefit concert on Dec. 19 will enlist conductor Catherine Comet and guitarist Christopher Parkening. The centerpiece of the program (also on Dec. 18) will be the West Coast premiere of John Corigliano’s Symphony No. 1. Spisto described the work as “a very personal piece written about the death of three friends of his from AIDS.”

The orchestra will donate $10,000 from concert proceeds to local AIDS agencies to be determined by an orchestra committee. Spisto said he hopes to multiply the impact of the money through matching grants from corporations and individuals. The Westin South Coast Plaza hotel in Costa Mesa has offered to underwrite the post-concert reception, he said.

“It’s our way of saying that we care about this problem and it’s our way of giving something back,” he said. “This is not a fund-raiser of which one penny will come back to us. It’s just a way we can get involved with something that is very important. . . .

“Our hope is that this problem will not exist in the years ahead, but if if continues to exist, we’ll continue to try to do things.”

(This is the second effort by the orchestra to benefit AIDS. In 1989, the orchestra raised $3,000 from a Tommy Tune concert for the Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center of Orange County.)

Soloists for the season will include soprano Benita Valente (Oct. 17 and 18), violinist Joshua Bell (Nov. 13 and 14), guitarist Christopher Parkening (Dec. 18 and 19), pianists Yefim Bronfman and Ruth Laredo (Jan. 29 and 30, 1992, and April 15 and 16, respectively); and James Kanter, the orchestra’s principal clarinetist (May 27 and 28).

“Most of them are friends of mine, most of them are people I have performed with before,” St. Clair said. “They have been selected . . . to perform works that I feel are particularly good for them, pieces I know they can perform well. . . . A lot of them are very young, but the Pacific Symphony is a young organization, I’m a young conductor and Orange County is relatively young.”

(Valente came in on one day’s notice for St. Clair’s concerts in January, 1989, at which he was trying out for the music director’s post.)

Guest conductors include Catherine Comet, music director of the Grand Rapids Symphony and American Symphony Orchestra and co-recipient of the 1988 Seaver/National Endowment for the Arts Conductors Award (the same award given to St. Clair in 1990); David Atherton, co-founder of the London Sinfonietta and recently appointed music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic (Jan. 8 and 9, 1992); and Sixten Ehrling, the distinguished Swedish conductor (April 15 and 16, 1992).

In addition to Corigliano’s Symphony, the season will include West Coast premieres of Christopher Rouse’s “Infernal Machine” (Nov. 13 and 14) and Toru Takemitsu’s “From Me Flows “What You Call Time” (March 26 and 27, 1992). Additionally, it includes about 12 works from the standard repertory that the orchestra has never played, among them Brahms First Symphony, Beethoven Third and Eighth and Sibelius Second symphonies.

“It’s the first time we will have ever played a Sibelius symphony,” St. Clair said.

The orchestra’s pops and family concerts seasons, as well as the annual “Messiah” program, will be announced by March, according to Spisto.

Series concert tickets will be available in April. (Prices have not been set.) All concerts will be at 8 p.m. at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa. St. Clair will conduct, except where guest conductors are indicated.

The 1991-92 season:

* Oct. 17 and 18: Benita Valente, soprano; Pacific Chorale: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 8, Strauss’ “Vier letzte Lieder,” Suite No. 2 from Ravel’s “Daphnis and Chloe.”

* Nov. 13 and 14: Joshua Bell, violin; Christopher Rouse’s “Infernal Machine,” Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 (“Turkish”), Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.

* Dec. 18 and 19 (Dec. 19: “Symphony for Life” AIDS Benefit Concert): Catherine Comet, conductor; Christopher Parkening, guitar: Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez,” Corigliano’s Symphony No. 1.

* Jan. 8 and 9, 1992: David Atherton, conductor: Mendelssohn’s “Hebrides” Overture, Haydn’s Symphony No. 90 and Stravinsky’s “Petrushka” (complete 1947 version).

* Jan. 29 and 30: Yefim Bronfman, piano: “A Ride to Castle Yonder” from Oliver Knussen’s “Higglety Pigglety Pop!”, Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3, and Brahms’ Symphony No. 1.

* March 26 and 27: Nexus percussion ensemble: Gabrieli’s Canzon Septimi Toni No. 2 for two brass choirs; Toru Takemitsu’s “From Me Flows What You Call Time” for five percussionists and orchestra, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”).

* April 15 and 16: Sixten Ehrling, conductor; Ruth Laredo, piano: Overture to Berlioz’s “Benvenuto Cellini,” Saint-Saens Piano Concerto No. 2, Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2.

* May 6 and 7: Soloists of the Los Angeles Music Center Opera, Pacific Chorale; Paul L. King, stage director: Selections from Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker” ballet; Ravel’s “L’Enfant et les Sortileges.”

* May 27 and 28: James Kanter, clarinet: Overture to Mozart’s “Die Zauberflote,” Copland’s Clarinet Concerto, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5.