Santa Rosa Symphony kicks off 2022-23 season

As he prepares to launch his fifth season as music director of the Santa Rosa Symphony, Francesco Lecce-Chong has one burning desire: to present all seven concert programs, plus a special performance of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” opera, without missing a beat.

In his first season, the 2018-2019 season, Lecce-Chong was able to conduct only three concerts due to prior commitments. His second season was cut short by the pandemic, and his third pivoted to virtual concerts only.

Last season, the COVID-19 virus caused havoc with the musicians, forcing the symphony to downsize January’s three-concert set from the full orchestra to strings only, then to a recital by Lecce-Chong and his wife, harpist Chloe Tula. He tested positive for the virus before the last concert in May, requiring him to hand over the baton. Yet, despite the obstacles and inconveniences, the upbeat music director remains optimistic about the 2022-2023 season.

“The bad news is that I have yet to be able to present one of the most important jobs of the music director, which is a full season without any external limitation,” Lecce-Chong said. “The good news is … I feel I’m getting a better sense of this orchestra and the community but also my own strengths and interests. So I think this is my most balanced season yet, as far as the familiar and the innovative.”

For audience members who enjoy well-known masterworks, there will be Tchaikovsky’s searing Symphony No. 6, “Pathetique,” in November; Beethoven’s stirring Symphony No. 9 in December; frothy waltzes by Johann Strauss II in March; and, for the first time in the orchestra’s history, a concert production of Mozart’s beloved “The Magic Flute” opera in April.

“It’s very much a community-focused project,” Lecce-Chong said of the Opera in Concert special event. “With the Santa Rosa High School ArtQuest program, we’ll have their singers, actors and dancers, and the visual artists will be designing the lobby and possibly some things onstage.”

Last season, the orchestra was playing catch-up after pandemic-induced pauses in previous seasons, tackling a record number of world premieres that included four new works. This season, the orchestra will present just two world premieres.

As the third installment of the First Symphony Project, the March concert set will offer a new work by rising young Puerto Rican composer Angélica Negrón. In collaboration with last season’s artistic partner, composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, the orchestra will present in May a world premiere of the Two Piano Concerto by Zwilich, who was the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in music. (See related story on the Santa Rosa Symphony’s new CD featuring Zwilich’s music.)

Hollywood music

This season will also mark the second year of the four-year project, “RACH & the Hollywood Sound,” which brings together rarely heard symphonic works by Sergei Rachmaninoff with film music from Hollywood’s Golden Age. In January, the pairing will include Rachmaninoff’s popular Symphony No. 2 and Max Steiner’s score for the classic 1939 film “Gone with the Wind.”

“What’s really special about this season is … we’re still in the midst of two four-year projects, which is very exciting,” Lecce-Chong said. “In the years since we signed her (Negrón) onto the First Symphony project, she has become one of the most well-known composers writing today. So we’re really excited to be able to present the first of her major orchestral works.”

Although he closely scrutinizes how each program fits together, the music director said he takes the 30,000-foot view when planning the entire season. As his tenure in Santa Rosa grows, he’s also thinking about the audience’s long-term experience over the course of five or more years.

“I’m learning to think on many levels,” he said. “I feel like this is the year where I’ll start being able to interact with our audience members that have been a part of previous seasons. So now I’m thinking, ‘What’s the next arc that I can bring? What’s the next journey?’”

Concert programs take place at 7:30 p.m. Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays and 7:30 p.m. Mondays at the Green Music Center’s Weill Hall on the Sonoma State University campus in Rohnert Park. Kids ages 7 to 17 can attend any Classical Series concert for free with a paid adult.

The Opera in Concert will be held one night only, at 7:30 p.m. April 15 at Weill Hall. Tickets are sold separately from the Classical Concert Series.

Classical Concert Series

Here are the highlights of the seven Classical Concert Series concerts in the 2022-2023 season:

“Fantastique,” Oct. 1-3: For the season opener, Lecce-Chong will highlight creativity. The curtain rises with Beethoven’s Overture to “The Creatures of Prometheus” followed by a work by composer-in-residence Angélica Negrón, “Me he perfido (I’ve Been Lost).” Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23, performed by soloist Awadagin Pratt, brings poignant tenderness before intermission. To underscore the unique experience of a live orchestra, Berlioz’s “Symphonie Fantastique” closes the program with sound and fury. “It’s all about extremes,” the conductor said. “The composer was pushing the instruments to their limits and the whole concept of a symphony to its limit.”

“Jazz Greats and Tchaikovsky,” Nov. 5-7: It’s all about contrasts in this program, with Gershwin’s “Promenade (Walking the Dog)” cleansing the palate as an opener while Tchaikovsky’s inward-looking Symphony No. 6 will close the show on a more serious note. “Tchaikovsky withheld so much and bottled it up, and it all comes out in this symphony,” Lecce-Chong said. Before intermission, Wynton Marsalis’ Violin Concerto in D major, performed by Bulgarian-American violinist Bella Hristova, provides all the gravitas of a major concerto, but its all-American content is a fresh musical mashup of jazz, bluegrass and fiddle music.

“Beethoven’s Ninth,” Dec. 3-5: After a hiatus of two years, the annual choral concert is back in a big way with Beethoven’s beloved Symphony No. 9 featuring vocal soloists and the SSU Symphonic Chorus. As a solo vehicle for principal violist Elizabeth Prior, who serves as this season’s artistic partner, the symphony will present Ralph Vaughan Williams’ beautiful “Flos Campi (Flower of the Field)”: Suite for Viola, Orchestra and Chorus, which also features a wordless choir. Jessie Montgomery’s 12-minute “Soul Force” opens the concert.

“RACH & the Hollywood Sound,” Jan. 21-23: Contrast was also on Lecce-Chong’s mind for this program, as the orchestra tackles Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2, one of the composer’s largest orchestral works, paired with Max Steiner’s Symphonic Suite from “Gone with the Wind” and Franz Waxman’s Suite from “The Nun’s Story,” a 1959 film starring Audrey Hepburn. “These core works represent the evocative, rich sound of the Golden Age of Hollywood,” the conductor said. “With ‘Gone with the Wind,’ I am trying to rescue the music from a movie that is unwatchable at this point. With ‘The Nun’s Story,’ not only does it have a great score, but it’s a great movie. I’m hoping people will want to check it out.”

“Bruno Returns!,” Feb. 18-20: Conductor Laureate Bruno Ferrandis will fly in from Paris to serve as guest conductor for a program of mostly French music, from Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major performed by South Bay pianist Jon Nakematsu to Debussy’s “La Mer.” “It’s the French classics that (Ferrandis) does so well and that the audience loved him for,” Lecce-Chong said. “As a request from me, he’s taking on two miniature masterpieces by Lily Boulanger. … You could put her with the Ravel and Stravinskys of that time, but she certainly has her own voice.”

“Blue Danube,” March 25-27: The yet-to-be-named First Symphony of Angélica Negrón, the season’s resident composer, will be the highlight of this program. “The ethereal sound she gets from the orchestra is incredibly beautiful,” the conductor said. “Her music is very familiar and yet incredibly fresh, because she works with a lot of electronics and homemade instruments.” To bookend the world premiere, Lecce-Chong choose two familiar waltzes by Johann Strauss II, which are often heard in pops concerts but rarely in a regular season. The Saint-Saens Violin Concerto in B minor, performed by Jennifer Frautschi, will close the program with a splash of color.

“Opera in Concert,” April 15: A Santa Rosa Symphony first, this special concert production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” had to be postponed due to the pandemic. That gave Lecce-Chong plenty of time to tap the resources of Bay Area music educational organizations for opera singers. He also has come up with creative ways to celebrate this groundbreaking opera. “I’ve crafted my own script that features actors that will represent the perspective of the characters in the opera,” he said. “It preserves the comedy and the romance but also the subversive and revolutionary aspects of the opera.” The community celebration will include student artists, actors, singers and dancers from the Santa Rosa High School ArtQuest program.

“Two Piano World Premiere,” May 6-8: The season finale will offer two special projects, including a world premiere of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Two Piano Concerto, performed by sisters Christina and Michelle Naughton. “It’s a huge coup for our orchestra to commission such a large work from Ellen, because at this point, she only takes on passion projects,” Lecce-Chong said. The conductor also is excited about the first-ever Santa Rosa Symphony performance of Richard Strauss’ Alpine Symphony, which requires one of the largest orchestras the symphony has ever amassed onstage. “I can’t wait to see our players throw themselves at this,” he said. “It’s incredibly fun. You really feel like you’re hiking in the Alps.” Mussorgsky’s nightmarish “A Night on Bald Mountain” will serve as the curtain-raiser.