March 22, 2005

Ignat Solzhenitsyn opens his exciting second season as Music Director of The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia on September 25 and 26, 2005, with an All-Beethoven performance featuring the monumental Fifth Symphony and the renowned Eroica Trio in the "Triple" Concerto. The 2005-2006 season concludes in May with a three-concert "Ultimate" Mozart cycle celebrating the composer's 250th Birthday with the overtures to his final three operas, his final three piano concertos and his final three symphonies.

Maestro Solzhenitsyn conducts seven of the ten programs in the Kimmel Center's intimate Perelman Theater and leads the ensemble from the keyboard in the final three Mozart Piano Concertos in May's "Ultimate Mozart" celebration. Ransom Wilson conducts as piccolo and flute soloist in works by Vivaldi and Bach. Conductors Otto-Werner Mueller and Jahja Ling return by popular acclaim to lead the ensemble. Violinists Jennifer Frautschi and Judith Ingolfsson are featured in concertos by Schumann and Mozart. Baritone Wolfgang Holzmair and clarinetist David Shifrin also perform as featured soloists.

Click here for the online listing.

Click here for a PDF of the 2005-2006 Season Brochure.

The season opens with a special All-Beethoven program on September 25 & 26, 2005. The acclaimed Eroica Trio - pianist Erika Nickrenz, violinist Adela Peña and cellist Sara Sant'Ambrogio - perform their signature piece, the "Triple" Concerto. One of the most sought-after guest artists today, the Eroica Trio perform the "Triple" more frequently than any other trio in the world. The New York Times notes that, "They play chamber music for the concert hall. There is an edge of the seat intensity to every note they produce." Maestro Solzhenitsyn also leads the ensemble in the overture Consecration of the House, Op. 124, and the magnificent Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67.

Famed conductor Otto-Werner Mueller leads the orchestra on October 16 & 17, 2005 in Dvorak's Serenade in D Minor, Op. 44 and Haydn's "Surprise" Symphony No. 94 in G Major. Soloist Judith Ingolfsson joins the ensemble in Mozart's "Turkish" Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Major. The Cleveland Plain Dealer said of her: "Judith Ingolfsson touched the soul of Mozart in her performance."

Maestro Solzhenitsyn returns to the podium on December 4 & 5, 2005 in a program featuring baritone Wolfgang Holzmair joining the ensemble in Bach's Cantata No. 82 "Ich habe genug." The New York Times said of Holzmair: "…[his] intimate and direct singing seems the kind of thing you might have heard in a 19th century drawing room: communicative, straightforward, delicately nuanced." The program also features a World Premiere Commission, What Dreams May Come? by Bruce Adolphe, Stravinsky's L'histoire du soldat: Suite and Mendelssohn's Sinfonia No. 2 in D Major. Maestro Solzhenitsyn commissioned this new work from Mr. Adolphe in commemoration of the composers's 50th Birthday.

Jahja Ling, Music Director of the San Diego Symphony and director of the Cleveland Orchestra's Blossom Festival, returns as guest conductor for the January 8 & 9, 2006, performances, leading the ensemble in Copland's "Appalachian Spring" (chamber version) and Haydn's Symphony No. 88 in G Major. Clarinetist David Shifrin is the soloist in Weber's Clarinet Concerto No. 2 in E-Flat Major, Op. 74. Mr. Shifrin is an artist member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Artistic Director of Chamber Music Northwest (Portland, OR).

On January 29 & 30, 2006, Maestro Solzhenitsyn showcases his Orchestra in two outstanding symphonies: Haydn's mercurial Symphony No. 100 in G Major, "Military," and one of Western Civilization's seminal masterpieces, Schubert's "Great" Symphony in C Major.

It's All-Schumann in March in commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of the composer's death, with Maestro Solzhenitsyn conducting the "Manfred" Overture and Symphony No. 1 in B-Flat Major. Jennifer Frautschi is the soloist in the Violin Concerto in D Minor on March 12 & 13, 2006. The Chicago Tribune said Ms. Frautschi "sports a vibrant, steely tone, dressed with an intense vibrato that sometimes narrows to a tense quiver." She last performed with The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia as a last-minute replacement for Kyung-Wha Chung in the Beethoven Violin Concerto during the 2003-2004 season.

Ransom Wilson takes the podium on April 2 & 3, 2006, leading the ensemble in Hovhaness' Alleluia and Fugue, Op. 40a, Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite No. 3, and Britten's Simple Symphony, Op. 4. He also performs as soloist in Vivaldi's Piccolo Concerto in C Major and J.S. Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B Minor, BMV 1067. Maestro Wilson is artistic director of Oklahoma's famed OK Mozart Festival, music director of the Idyllwild Arts Academy Orchestra and music director of Solisti New York.

The season concludes with "Ultimate Mozart" - three programs in six weeks celebrating the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. These concerts will feature the master's final three symphonies, the overtures to his final three operas, and his final three piano concertos, performed and led from the keyboard by Maestro Solzhenitsyn.

In the words of the Philadelphia Inquirer from the 2004-2005 season: The "Chamber Orchestra makes Mozart fresh again… the music has regenerated itself at the hands of young musicians who connect with it in different ways… the concert was a fresh experience from beginning to end."

April 30 & May 1's program features the Overture to Cosi fan tutte, K. 588, the Piano Concerto No. 25 in C Major, K. 503, and the Symphony No. 39 in E-Flat Major, K. 543.

On May 14 & 15 it's the Overture to Die Zauberflöte, K. 620 (The Magic Flute), the Piano Concerto No. 26 in D Major, K. 537, and the Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550.

The season concludes on June 4 & 5 with the Overture to La clemenza di Tito, K. 621, the Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-Flat Major, K. 595, and the Symphony No. 41 in C Major, K. 551.

The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia performs ten concert pairs - Sunday matinees at 2:30 p.m. and Monday evening at 7:30 p.m. - from September through June in the Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. The Orchestra offers subscriptions in five-, seven- and ten-concert packages from as little as $160. Details may be found in the 2005-2006 Season Brochure, which may be requested by calling 215-545-1739 or joining the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia e-mail list at www.chamberorchestra.org. Single tickets - ranging from $20 to $77 each (plus applicable venue fees and handling charges) - will go on sale to the public on Tuesday, September 6.

For information and/or to order, please contact The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia Box Office at 215-545-1739 or visit www.chamberorchestra.org.

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