As more and more details of the 2002-2003 season come in, it looks like area music lovers will find plenty of enticements. Here are a few of them:
The Baltimore Chamber Orchestra will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a mix of the familiar and off-beat. Founding music director Anne Harrigan, who just announced she will be stepping down in two years, will get things started in October at Goucher College's Kraushaar Auditorium with Copland's Appalachian Spring (which was played in the ensemble's inaugural concert) and two concertos for two pianos and orchestra - Mozart's and Poulenc's.
The soloists in the latter will be the husband-and-wife team of Valentina Lisitsa and Alexei Kuznetsoff, whose triumph at the 1991 Murray Dranoff International Two Piano Competition put them quickly and boldly on the map.
In February, the orchestra will take a dual look at Mozart - his Marriage of Figaro Overture will be complemented by Tchaikovsky's elegant homage to the composer, the Orchestral Suite No. 4, Mozartiana. Two other backward-glancing works, Stravinksy's Pulcinella and Ravel's Le tombeau de Couperin, will also be on the bill.
Jonathan Carney, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's new concertmaster, will be the soloist in Vivaldi's evergreen Four Seasons in March on a program that includes two fine British pieces for strings, Vaughan Williams' Five Variants of 'Dives and Lazarus' and Elgar's Introduction and Allegro. Isaiah Jackson will be the guest conductor.
Harrigan will be back on the podium in May to lead an eclectic sampling of her own favorites - Mozart's Symphony No. 39 and works by George Butterworth and Anton Webern. Chris Norman, the wooden flute virtuoso, will be the guest artist in his own compositions.
The BCO season also offers a family concert in November at Goucher, a holiday program in December at Second Presbyterian Church, and a night of silent film comedies at the Senator Theatre with live orchestral accompaniment in April.
Call 410-308-0402.
Blast from the past
The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland, College Park, will continue to put its distinctive mark on the regional music scene with a dynamic lineup for 2002-2003.
Highlights include a return by Opera Lafayette, which will follow up on this season's concert version of Gluck's Orphee with another rare blast from the past, Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie, in February, again featuring remarkable tenor Jean-Paul Fouchecourt.
Lots of chamber music is slated. October boasts two groups pairing the old and the recent - the Artemis String Quartet with Beethoven and Luigi Nono, the Left Bank Quartet with Brahms and George Crumb. The noted Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, marking its 25th anniversary, will visit in November with the world premiere of a work by colorful American composer David Del Tredici commissioned by the Smith Center, as well as trios by Beethoven and Brahms.
Also coming in November will be the Tokyo String Quartet playing Beethoven and Schubert; the group will also be joined by eminent pianist Alicia de Larrocha in a chamber version of a Mozart piano concerto. And a wind quintet, Ensemble Wien-Berlin, made up of former Vienna and Berlin philharmonic members, is due in February.
Much-touted pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin will give a recital in April, as will another keyboard virtuoso, Andre Watts. Sarah Chang, one of the bright young violinists on today's scene, will team up with pianist Lars Vogt in March.
New music fans will want to note a concert in March by the Bang on a Can All-Stars with vocalist/composer Meredith Monk. A new work by Ysaye Barnwell, a member of the popular Sweet Honey in the Rock vocal quintet, will get its area premiere in October; based on poetry of Langston Hughes, Suite Death will feature baritone Stephen Salters and various D.C. choral groups.
Also on the vocal front: The top-notch Boston Camerata will focus on choral music of 13th century Spain in November; a program of duets will be sung by soprano Linda Mabbs and mezzo Delores Ziegler in November; Ars Nova, an a cappella ensemble from Scandinavia, will offer music by Nordic composers in February; and soprano Dana Hanchard, perhaps best known for her work in early music, will devote a recital in March to music by Ecuadorian composer Diego Luzuriaga.
"Voice of a People: The Jewish Soul," featuring violinist Daniel Heifetz, soprano Carmen Balthrop and the Classical Band, looks at the story of American Jews through music in April. And members of the famed Guarneri String Quartet will pair off as soloists with the UM Symphony Orchestra in May.
There is much more to the Clarice Smith schedule. Call 301-405-2787.
BSO salute
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra saluted bassist Elizabeth Ferrell following Friday's performance of Mahler's Third Symphony. She is retiring after 37 years in the BSO.
The Delaware native, who studied at the Eastman School of Music, also had affiliations with the Rochester Philharmonic, San Antonio Symphony, Houston Symphony, Santa Fe Opera Orchestra and Baltimore's Pro Musica Rara (she was a founding member) during her career.