9 in ’99

Beethoven’s nine symphonies form the bedrock of classical repertory. They span the balanced, ordered, classical world of Haydn and Mozart, and the emotionally expansive romantic world that followed.

Listening to them provides a pleasant and complete education in what a symphony is and how it works. And they do that without sacrificing the moral force that hardly any music before or after Beethoven has equaled.

So the Orange County music event of 1999 probably will be a series of concerts in which all nine Beethoven symphonies are played, one right after another, over a week in May by the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique, led by John Eliot Gardiner at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

The performances, sponsored by the Philharmonic Society, begin May 17 and continue through May 22. Gardiner also will speak about the composer and his times, and a collection of historical instruments and first-edition manuscripts will be exhibited to provide wider context at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana.

This is music festival material and should be approached as a feast.

Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich often is regarded as the Beethoven of the 20th century--at least as far as symphony writers are concerned.

One of the first events of the new year will be Kurt Masur conducting his New York Philharmonic in Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony at the center Friday. (Masur and the orchestra will repeat the work Saturday in Royce Hall at UCLA, pairing it with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.)

Shostakovich’s Fifth is the work that restored the composer to official favor after his opera, “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk,” was bitterly denounced in the party newspaper Pravda in 1936 for being “muddle instead of music.”

There has been some controversy about the last movement. Is it meant to be a full-blown affirmation or something more manic? If it is an affirmation, of what? The Soviet system--as the politicians believed--or the composer’s will? You decide.

Masur’s program in Orange County also will include two tone poems by Richard Strauss: “Don Juan” and “Death and Transfiguration.”

Other Russians coming this year include conductor Misha Rachlevsky and the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, Jan. 13 at the Irvine Barclay Theatre. No Russian music is scheduled, however. The program will include Grieg (Two Elegiac Melodies), Schoenberg (“Verklarte Nacht”), Puccini (“Crisantemi”), Barber (Adagio for Strings) and Dvorak (Serenade for Strings in E). The program is co-sponsored by the Laguna Chamber Music Society.

Another visiting chamber group sponsored by both groups comes via Canada. I Musici de Montreal, with guest clarinetist Charles Neidich, will play March 1 at the Irvine theater. The program includes Turina (Serenade), Jose Evangelista (“Airs d’Espagne”), Copland (Clarinet Concerto), Mozart (Divertimento in F, K. 138) and Beethoven (Quartet No. 11).

A visitor from the Golden State will be the San Francisco-based Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, led by Nicholas McGegan, Feb. 9 and March 23 at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach. This group consistently offers lively, spirited performances of whatever it chooses to play.

Narrowing the focus to smaller ensembles, take notice of the Alexander Quartet, Feb. 1 at the Irvine Barclay (playing Beethoven quartets that the audience has selected), the Emerson String Quartet, March 29 at the Irvine theater (works by Beethoven and Shostakovich) and the Mendelssohn String Quartet augmented by two guests, April 11 at Founders Hall at the center (sextets by Strauss, Brahms and Tchaikovsky).

Voices

Voice aficionados will have some wonderful choices this year.

Canadian tenor Ben Heppner will make his Orange County debut Jan. 17, and mezzo-soprano Angelika Kirchschlager returns to Orange County on March 16. Both recitals will take place at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, which co-sponsors the Heppner recital with the Philharmonic Society.

This young tenor is making headlines in musical circles. He will sing works by Beethoven, Liszt, Strauss and other composers.

Kirchschlager made her smashing local debut in 1997. She will sing songs by Beethoven and Kurt Weill.

Major instrumental recitalists will include pianists Peter Serkin, Jan. 28 in Founders Hall at the center; Radu Lupu, Feb. 8 at the Irvine theater, and composer Terry Riley, March 2, playing his own music, also in Irvine.

Opera

Opera Pacific begins the new year Jan. 19 with Wagner’s “Der Fliegende Hollander” (The Flying Dutchman), a work inspired by a storm that arose during a sea voyage the composer took.

His music continually refers to the power and grandeur of the ocean. The Minnesota Opera production, directed by Keith Warner, will run through Jan. 24.

Our local opera company will follow that with a double bill of Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci” and Orff’s “Carmina Burana” (Feb. 23-28), and Donizetti’s comic “La Fille du Regiment” (Daughter of the Regiment) with its daunting tenor high C challenges in April. “Pagliacci” and “Carmina” are a rare pairing. Maybe for good reason.

But if that’s not enough opera, don’t forget that the Royal Opera Orchestra of Covent Garden, led by Edward Downes, will offer two different programs of operatic excerpts March 10 and 11 at the center.

Dance

Nineteenth century operas usually included ballets, most often in the second acts. But there also were, of course, full-evening works just for dance lovers. American Ballet Theatre will present one of those classic though seldom seen works, “Le Corsaire,” Feb. 2-7 at the center.

Still other 19th century ballet classics are bound for the center: “Swan Lake” (and mixed repertory) June 15-20, as danced by the Royal Swedish Ballet, and “Giselle” Oct. 6-10 by the San Francisco Ballet.

For a respite from tutus and pointe shoes, check out Hubbard Street Dance Chicago in a repertory new to Southern California, March 19-21 at the Irvine Barclay Theatre; the Mark Morris Dance Group with superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma, April 8 and 9 at the Irvine theater, and Momix there May 6-9.

In a class of their own are the “Mystical Arts of Tibet” programs, Jan. 15 and 16 at the Irvine theater (which co-sponsors these events with the Philharmonic Society). Nine Buddhist monks will perform mystical masked dances and play temple music on traditional instruments.

Local Talent

Local groups also will be front and center.

John Alexander will lead the Pacific Chorale in a program of Mexican and other baroque music March 21 at the center. And William Hall will conduct his Master Chorale in Bach’s “St. John Passion” April 11 at the center.

Vladimir Feltsman will serve as pianist with and conductor of the Pacific Symphony in a Bach program at the center March 24 and 25.

Pacific music director Carl St.Clair will conduct his orchestra in Mahler’s valedictory Ninth Symphony to close the Santa Ana-based orchestra’s season, May 26 and 27 at the center. Summer concerts, not yet announced, will follow at Irvine Meadows.

While this is hardly an exhaustive list, it gives an idea of the music and dance riches ripe for sampling in the new year.