Hollywood Bowl’s Plate Is Full for 75th Anniversary

Celebrating its 75th year, the Hollywood Bowl season will be pretty much the same as ever--big stars (with debuts by Randy Newman and Quincy Jones), showcase orchestral concerts (highlighted by concerts by the Kirov Orchestra and Kirov Opera Chorus led by the charismatic Valery Gergiev) and, of course, fireworks.

The reopening of an expanded Hollywood Bowl Museum will be the season’s newest feature, with a multimedia exhibition that includes rare footage of Bowl rehearsals and performances as well as interactive exhibits.

Phase 2 of the renovation project that started in 1994 will reveal expanded and new restroom facilities and new concession stands, particularly in the upper levels.

Concerts begin in April with pop and rock shows, and a two-day Mariachi U.S.A. event. First up is a two-night stand by Rod Stewart. The Moody Blues, Chicago (playing with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra) and Steely Dan are also on the schedule of pop and rock events.

The traditional summer offerings begin June 28 with John Mauceri leading the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra as part of the pre-subscription series events, which include John Denver in his first Bowl appearances July 2-4 in Independence Day fireworks programs. Mauceri’s contract with the Bowl orchestra has just been extended through 1998.

Other Bowl debuts this season with Mauceri include Carol Burnett singing Broadway show tunes, and Patrick Stewart and Jennifer Larmore as King Arthur and Guinevere in selections from Lerner and Loewe’s “Camelot.”

Jones, who produced the Academy Awards show this year, will be part of a Henry Mancini tribute concert June 30, which will also serve as the 75th Anniversary Season Gala. Jones will be joined by Trisha Yearwood and Andy Williams, among other artists.

To complete the pre-subscription season programming, Lukas Foss will conduct the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra in a marathon concert from 6 p.m. to midnight on July 6. Foss will lead works by Bach, Mozart and Stravinsky, ending the concert with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s 10-week concert series opens July 9 with Robert Shaw leading the orchestra in Mahler’s Eighth Symphony (“Symphony of a Thousand”). Shaw, who is celebrating his 80th birthday, will conduct Verdi’s “Requiem” two days later.

Other conductors include Esa-Pekka Salonen, Gergiev, Simon Rattle, Nicholas McGegan, Lawrence Foster, Victor Borge, John Williams and Jun’ichi Hirokami, who is making his Bowl debut.

Classical soloists making their Bowl debuts include sopranos Angela Gheorghiu and Sylvia McNair, mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina, tenor Roberto Alagna, violinists Julian Rachlin and Martin Chalifour (Philharmonic principal concertmaster), pianist Nikolai Lugansky and fortepianist Robert Levin.

Returning soloists include violinists Sarah Chang and Leila Josefowicz, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianists Leon Bates, Emanuel Ax, Garrick Ohlsson and John Browning, among other artists.

Mauceri will lead 21 concerts, with guests Burnett, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Bernadette Peters, Stewart, soprano Diana Soviero, mezzo-soprano Larmore and tenor Richard Leech.

There are two shorter classical series. A five-concert Wednesday night series will include pianist Andre Watts, flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal, Gergiev and the Kirov Orchestra and Opera Chorus, Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra (with soprano Sylvia McNair), and Garrison Keillor with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra (led by Philip Brunelle).

A four-Sunday evening series will present Mauceri and his orchestra in a Gershwin and an opera program (with Gheorghiu and Alagna); Gergiev and the Kirov (with Lugansky) and Newman conducting the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra in an evening devoted to his own compositions.

The American Airlines Jazz at the Bowl series kicks off Aug. 7. Artists include Ray Charles, Mel Torme (celebrating his 20th season at the Bowl), Manhattan Transfer, Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, Chick Corea and Friends, the Shirley Horn Trio, Turtle Island String Quartet, Herbie Hancock and Gonzalo Rubalcaba. Etta James and Grover Washington Jr. are among other jazz artists scheduled to appear at the Bowl.

The third annual Hollywood Salsa and Latin Jazz Festival will return to the Bowl on Sept. 28, with a lineup of artists to be announced.

The Chamber Music at the Ford series, across the freeway at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, will offer four concerts to be announced.

For a Bowl brochure, call (213) 850-2000.