The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra has announced a 2013-14 season that includes six world premieres, a Beethoven September and a celebration of Benjamin Britten's centenary.
The SPCO is in the midst of concluding a most-challenging 2012-13 season defined largely by a 191-day lockout of musicians in a labor dispute. There was concern in April that if the SPCO did not return for at least a portion of this year that next year's program would be threatened.
New work by composers John Luther Adams, John Harbison, Aaron Jay Kernis, Kevin Puts, Shawn Jaeger and Mason Bates will be performed by the SPCO.
Outgoing artistic partner Dawn Upshaw will return in October for the Jaeger work — which was a casualty of the lockout. Puts, who won the Pulitzer for his "Silent Night" with Minnesota Opera, will provide a concerto for string quartet and chamber orchestra. On that same program next April, Adams' "Become River" will be performed. Kernis, director of the Minnesota Orchestra's Composers' Institute, brings a new viola concerto, and Harbison's new work in September will be conducted by artistic partner Edo de Waart.
De Waart will open the season in September with one of the things he does best — Beethoven. He will conduct the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth (Pastoral) Symphonies. Pianist Christian Zacharias, another artistic partner, performs Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, also in September.
Throughout the season, the SPCO will perform Bach's orchestra suites, in addition to the Brandenburg Concertos in December. Artistic partner Thomas Zehetmair will explore Britten during three weeks next May. The highlight is the composer's chamber opera "The Turn of the Screw" with tenor Thomas Cooley and soprano Sara Jakubiak.
The SPCO adds a new neighborhood venue, with four concerts at St. Andrew's Lutheran church in Mahtomedi.
Complete season information and tickets are at 651-291-1144 or www.thespco.org.
