After a two-year absence, the La Jolla Music Society's Piano Series will return next season with recitals by Vladimir Feltsman, Jonathan Biss and Olga Kern at La Jolla's Sherwood Auditorium.
The series is part of the just-announced 2006-07 lineup that also includes conductor Christoph Eschenbach and the Philadelphia Orchestra, violinists Joshua Bell and Sarah Chang, and the local debut of the Grammy-winning period instrument ensemble Il Giardino Armonica.
It will be the first full season overseen by the society's new president and artistic director, Christopher Beach, who arrived in December as the successor to Mary Lou Aleskie, who now runs Connecticut's Arts & Ideas New Haven.
Though Aleskie booked two of the visiting orchestras (the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, with Bell) and two of the chamber music ensembles (the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio and St. Lawrence String Quartet), the majority of the season was arranged by Beach, the former director of the Performing Arts Center at New York's Purchase College.
“One of the great joys of the job is the variety of theaters,” he says, referring to music society venues ranging from downtown's Copley Symphony Hall and renovated Stephen and Mary Birch North Park Theatre to La Jolla's Neurosciences Institute and Carlsbad's Dove Library, whose 221-seat auditorium is the site of the new three-concert North County Series.
“I've tried to pick the theater that is best suited to each program,” he adds, citing such examples as the Neurosciences Institute and Dove Library, which he considers “ideal for young artists. And Sherwood is perfect for intimate chamber music and piano recitals.”
Beach is particularly enthusiastic about reviving the piano series at Sherwood, where the repertoire will include works by composers as different as Scarlatti, Beethoven, Chopin and Webern.
“The Piano Series is something that people had loved for years,” he says of the offering that was presented for six seasons, from 1998 to 2004. “I'm certain this can be a success.”
The series was launched in the fall of 1998 by then-executive director Neale Perl, who said at the time, “there are many, many people in San Diego who love piano music – they come out of the woodwork to hear it.”
Unfortunately, the first season was affected by ailing pianists – the Labeque sisters had to be replaced when one of them suffered a neck problem and Richard Goode's program was postponed because of his tendinitis.
In addition, attendance wasn't always as high as the society had hoped. While the celebrated Emanuel Ax filled the 492-seat hall when he made his Piano Series debut in 1998, he fell short of a sellout in 2001.
The high ticket prices for Ax's 2001 recital – $40 to $85 – could have been a factor. By contrast, single tickets for next season's Piano Series range from $25 to $75.
During the 2003-04 season, when Aleskie was president and chief executive officer, Sherwood keyboard recitals became part of the chamber music lineup as the Revelle Chamber Music and Piano Series. Then, the Piano Series was dropped entirely, and piano recitals at the hall were incorporated into the Revelle Series.
Until now, that is.
Beach is confident about attendance, given the positive response to the society's recent Sherwood recitals by pianists Mikhail Pletnev and Richard Goode, which were presented on the Revelle Series.
“They both sold out. So I know that there's an audience for great piano music,” he says.
The Russian-born Feltsman, who last appeared under the society's auspices five years ago, launches the lineup Nov. 17 with the music of Beethoven and Chopin. Kern – the 2001 gold medalist in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition – performs works by Scarlatti, Beethoven and Liszt on April 13, 2007.
The youngest of the three featured pianists is 25-year-old Biss, a New York-based native of Bloomington, Ind., whose March 2 recital consists of compositions by Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Webern and Perle. The son of violinists Miriam Fried and Paul Biss, he has appeared with such prominent orchestras as the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic and given recitals in both Europe and the United States He recently signed a recording contract with EMI that calls for an all-Schumann CD to be released in January.
Biss is a firm believer in the benefits of piano recitals, for both pianists and audiences.
“They provide such an opportunity for self-expression. There's something very beautiful about one person being responsible for the nature of a program,” he says. “And the bond you make with an audience is much stronger than if you're playing a concerto with an orchestra.”
The Piano Series is part of a season whose projected budget is $3.1 million, approximately the same as the current budget, which also includes SummerFest.
Under Beach's guidance, the non-summer fare will continue to accent artistic variety, spanning accomplished early music ensembles (including Musica Antiqua Köln, co-presented by the San Diego Early Music Society) as well as a Jazz Series that showcases such groups as Max Raabe and the Palast Orchester, a retro-chic group that highlights popular music of the 1920's and 1930s.
The greatest star power will be cast by the Celebrity Series, which has been split into an Orchestra Series and a Recital Series, both at the 2,252-seat Copley Symphony Hall, the Music Society's largest venue.
In addition to the first local performances by music director Paavo Järvi and the Cincinnati Symphony and music director Christoph Eschenbach and the Philadelphia Orchestra, the roster includes such successful virtuosos as pianist Lang Lang, violinist Chang and conductor-violinist Bell.
As Beach knows, audiences value superstars.
“People like celebrities,” he says. “And it's exciting for us to have them.”
Valerie Scher: (619) 293-1038; valerie.scher@uniontrib.com
