The 2019/2020 Seattle Symphony subscription season at a glance

For many years, I’ve put together a little pocket guide to the Seattle Symphony subscription season for my symphony friends to help them decide which ticket package they want. At some point, we may start subscribing again, but for now, we pick-and-choose individual concerts.

Here’s the at-a-glance season guide for the 2019/2020 season, still with no comments from me because it’s not worth trying to rate every piece to help my friends pick one concert. If you’re my friend and want recommendations, just call. Besides, you can probably preview nearly all of the pieces nowadays (minus the premieres) by searching on YouTube.

• Official brochure. It’s called the “1920 season” because it’s short for “2019/2020”, not because it’s the year 1920.
• Press release
• Season highlights

This is Thomas Dausgaard’s inaugural season as the Seattle Symphony’s music director, taking over from Ludovic Morlot who steps down after eight seasons. Dausgaard had been the symphony’s principal guest conductor since 2014.

Week	Program		22	13	7A 7B	8C 8D	7E 7F		8G	5A		SU	BW
09/19 2019	Lotta Wennäkoski: Flounce Brahms: Piano Concerto #2 Mahler: Symphony #1
09/26 2019	Wagner: Overture and Venusberg Music from Tannhäuser Dvořák: Cello Concerto Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (Ravel)
10/10 2019	Bach: Brandenburg Concerto #4 Olga Neuwirth: Aello – ballet mécanomorphe² Mozart: Symphony #41 “Jupiter”
10/17 2019	Takemitsu: Requiem for String Orchestra Hartmann: Concerto funèbre Mozart: Requiem
10/24 2019	Anna Clyne: Within Her Arms Schumann: Piano Concerto Mendelssohn: Symphony #3 “Scottish”
10/31 2019	Berlioz: Three fragments from La damnation de Faust Brahms: Violin Concerto Brahms: Symphony #2
11/14 2019	Britten: Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes Angelique Poteat: Cello Concerto¹ Rachmaninov: Symphony #2
11/21 2019	Scriabin: The Poem of Ecstasy Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
01/09 2020	Elena Langer: Figaro Gets a Divorce Suite¹ Beethoven: Piano Concerto #5 “Emperor” Mendelssohn: Symphony #4 “Italian”
01/16 2020	Beethoven: Violin Concerto Mozart: Minuet in C, K 409 Mozart: Symphony #38 “Prague”
01/24 2020	Albinoni: Sinfonia à cinque Locatelli: Concerto grosso, Il pianto d’Arianna Scarlatti: Concerto grosso in F minor Valentini: Concerto in a minor Vivaldi: Violin Concerto L’amato bene Dall’Abaco: Concerto Op 6 No 12
01/30 2020	Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite #1 Shostakovich: Violin Concerto #1 Nielsen: Symphony #1
02/06 2020	Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture Weinberg: Violin Concerto Dvořák: Symphony #8
02/27 2020	Mozart: Concerto for 2 Pianos in E♭ Ryan Wigglesworth: Mozart Variations² Haydn: Symphony #103 “Drumroll”
03/06 2020	J.C.Bach: Symphony in D major Telemann: Viola Concerto CPE Bach: Flute Concerto in D minor (orig. violin) J.S. Bach: Opening Chorus and Jesus bleibet meine Freude from Cantata #147 J.S. Bach: Cantata #134
03/12 2020	Prokofiev: Classical Symphony Price: Violin Concerto #2 Tchaikovsky: Symphony #5
03/19	R. Strauss: Salome
04/04 2020	Gershwin: Concerto in F Gershwin: Second Rhapsody Gershwin: An American in Paris
04/16 2020	John Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine John Adams: Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes? John Adams: City Noir
04/23 2020	Daniel Kidane: “Dream Song”² Hanna Lash: Double Harp Concerto¹ Bernstein: Songfest
04/30	Haydn: The Creation
05/15 2020	Muffat: Sonata #1, Armonico tributo Rebel: Les élémens Handel: Organ Concerto in F major J.S. Bach: Vor deinem Thron tret’ ich, “Deathbed Chorale” CPE Bach: Keyboard Concerto in D major
05/22	Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto #3
06/11 2020	Angelique Poteat: New Work for Youth Chorus & Orchestra¹ Beethoven: Symphony #1 Beethoven: Symphony #3 “Eroica”
06/12 2020	Tyshawn Sorey: New Work for Cello & Orchestra¹ Beethoven: Symphony #2 Beethoven: Symphony #7
06/18 2020	Janice Giteck: Potlatch Symphony 2020¹ Beethoven: Symphony #8 Beethoven: Symphony #6 “Pastoral”
06/19 2020	Charles Corey: New Work¹ Beethoven: Symphony #4 Beethoven: Symphony #5
06/25 2020	Beethoven: Choral Fantasy Beethoven: Symphony #9 “Choral”
Week	Program		22	13	7A 7B	8C 8D	7E 7F		8G	5A		SU	BW

¹ World Premiere
² U.S. Premiere

Update: Concerts in gray were cancelled due to the 2019/2020 coronavirus pandemic.

Insider tip: Click a column header to focus on a specific series. (This feature has been around for several years, actually.)

Legend:

22	Masterworks 22-concert series (Choice of Thursdays or Saturdays)
13	Masterworks 13-concert series (Choice of Thursdays or Saturdays)
7A	Masterworks 7-concert series A (Thursdays)
7B	Masterworks 7-concert series B (Saturdays)
8C	Masterworks 8-concert series C (Thursdays)
8D	Masterworks 8-concert series D (Saturdays)
7E	Masterworks 7-concert series E (Thursdays)
7F	Masterworks 7-concert series F (Saturdays)
8G	Masterworks 8-concert series G (Sunday afternoons)
5A	Masterworks 5-concert series A (Friday afternoons)
SU	Untuxed (Fridays, reduced program)
BW	Baroque and Wine (Choice of Fridays or Saturdays)

For those not familiar with the Seattle Symphony ticket package line-ups: Most of the ticket packages are named Masterworks nX where n is the number of concerts in the package, and the letter indicates the variation. Ticket packages have been combined if they are identical save for the day of the week. For example, 8C and 8D are the same concerts; the only difference is that 8C is for Thursday nights, while 8D is for Saturday nights. For some reason, they renamed the 5H series to 5A this year.

Notes and changes:

• The 7[AB], 8[CD], and 7[EF] concert series do not overlap, so you can create your own pseudo-series by taking any two of them, or recreate the 22-concert series by taking all three.
• The 13-concert series is the same as the 8[CD] and 7[EF] series combined, minus the Febuary 6 and June 25 concerts.
• Composer John Adams conducts a concert of his works.
• Not included above are other regular series that do not overlap with the Masterworks series: Pops, Recitals, [untitled] (contemporary music), Chamber music, Family Concerts, and Tiny Tots.
• At some point, the Distinguished Artists series was dropped. I failed to note when this happened. I just remembered that there used to be one, and it’s not there any more.
• For the first time in many seasons, there is no overlap between the Baroque and Wine series and the Masterworks series. Technically, this means it wouldn’t be eligible for the chart above, but I keep including them out of habit.
• In June, you can binge the complete symphonies of Beethoven. Because, c’mon, you know you want to.
• There are always one-off concerts scattered through the year. Of special note is a a two-concert Rach Fest covering all four piano concerti.
• The Seattle Symphony Family Connections program is still going. It provides free symphony tickets for up to two children with the purchase of an adult ticket.