Susanna Phillips sings opening night for Boston Baroque.
It all begins with if.
Most of the major Boston-area classical music presenters announced their 2020-21 seasons this past week—with caution. Nobody knows what concert-going will be like in just a few months. But similarly, nobody can avoid hope.
Boston Baroque (boston.baroque) hopes its upcoming season begins Oct. 16, with the splendid soprano Susanna Phillips singing Handel arias, in a program that also includes that composer’s “Water Music.” Regular presentations of “Messiah” and the annual New Year’s concerts, will be followed by two major programs: Bach’s “Magnificat” in February, and Mozart’s semi-staged “Così fan tutte” to close the season.
Boston Lyric Opera (blo.org) forges ahead optimistically as well. Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” starts its season in October on a traditional note, followed by Philip Glass’ ominous “Fall of the House of Usher” in November. James Darrah directs that production, with BLO favorites Chelsea Basler and Jesse Darden singing the lead roles. Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel,” directed by Shura Baryshnikov, gets staged in March, and Terence Blanchard’s jazz opera “Champion”—the tale of boxer Emile Griffith—closes the season in May. By appearances, it’s a splendidly balanced set of works.
Handel & Haydn Society (handelandhaydn.org) pairs Brahms’ “A German Requiem” with a short vocal work by Clara Schumann to begin its 206th season, Sept. 25 in Symphony Hall. Harry Bicket conducts that evening, and Jonathan Cohen conducts an Oct. Vivaldi/Bachs program with some incredible vocal soloists: Amanda Forsythe, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Nicholas Phan and Tyler Duncan.
The packed H&H season also includes “Messiah,” Mozart’s “Great” Mass, Handel’s oratorio “Israel in Egypt,” and Haydn’s “The Creation.”
The Boston Early Music Festival 2020–21 season will culminate with the biennial early music festival next June—of all the events to hope for, this is surely the largest. With musicians, instrument makers, support artists of all kinds, scholars, publishers, recording and other industry types and general hangers-on coming from all parts of the world to Boston—well, if this happens, you know the world will be a different place in June, 2021. Desmarest’s “Circé” will be the centerpiece opera.
In the meantime, BEMF—the presenter version—brings Jordi Savall back in November, the highlight of a nine-concert season. Juilliard 415, Nevermind and Ensemble Castor join regulars Stile Antico and Tallis Scholars. The annual Thanksgiving weekend opera presentation, a double-bill, has Telemann’s “Pimpinone” with Hasse’s “La Finta Tedesca” (bemf.org).
Andris Nelsons conducts the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Symphony Hall. Marco Borggreve photograph
The Boston Symphony Orchestra will get through all nine Beethoven symphonies by Oct. 1, so let’s not complain about too much Beethoven during this desultory 250th anniversary season. Nelsons conducts them all, as well he should after recording the complete cycle with the Vienna Phil.
The BSO wraps up its own recordings of the Shostakovich cycle, smashingly, with his opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” in April. Lots of Strauss, Scriabin’s light-show “Prometheus,” scads of Sibelius find the Symphony Hall stage next season.
Kevin Puts’s Georgia O’Keeffe opera “The Brightness of Light,” with Renée Fleming and Rod Gilfrey; Julia Wolfe’s premiere “Her Story,” featuring Lorelei Ensemble; Gubaidulina’s “Prologue”; and works by Tower, Julia Adolphe, Brett Dean, Victoria Borisova-Ollas, Detlev Glanert and Outi Tarkiainen highlight new works. Thomas Adès brings back his piano concerto with Kirill Gerstein, thankfully.
Trifonov? DiDonato? Berlin Phil? Wynton, Weilerstein, Kissin, Denk, and Perlman? And hot artists like Tines, Tao, and Burton too? I’m in. The Celebrity Series (celebrityseries.org) reliably delivers great stars—with great fees, expectations and (usually) results.
It also reliably delivers artists who think about their profession and want to change it—expertly. Like Davóne Tines, and Conrad Tao. And others. Next March’s Stave Sessions looks great as well.
Back Bay Chorale (bbcboston.org) sings Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” in November to begin its four-concert season. White Snake Production’s September premiere of Elena Ruehr’s “Cosmic Cowboy” remains on the schedule. The conservatories are still closed, and many other organizations are waiting to announce.
Incomplete details lead to incomplete results. But, continuing what we have done in all such previews recently, an unscientific tally shows that woman composers wrote nine of the 113 works in the upcoming season.