The 2021/2022 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 2021/2022 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.

Note: Revised for expanded season announced on June 28, 2021.

• Official brochure for original season
• Official brochure for expanded season
• Press release for original season
• Press release for expanded season
• Subscribe

This is Thomas Dausgaard’s third season as the Seattle Symphony’s music director, although he was unable to take the podium for his second season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Week	Program		21	13	7A 7B	7C 7D	7E 7F		8G	SU		BW	PO	WL
09/18 2021	Opening Night Gala Reena Esmail: RE|Member¹ R. Strauss: Don Juan Stravinsky: The Firebird Suite (1919 edition)
09/23 2021	Nathalie Dietterich: aoleian dust Ives: Three Places in New England Schumann: Symphony #3 “Rhenish”
10/07 2021	Rossini: Semiramide Overture Francisco Coll: Violin Concerto² Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances
10/14 2021	Ravel: Le tombeau de Couperin Brett Dean: Carlo Adelia Faizullina: Tatar Folk Song Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite
10/22 2021	Handel: Rodrigo (selections) Rameau: Hippolyte et Aricie (selections) Bach: Keyboard Concerto #1 Bach: Brandenburg Concerto #5
11/04 2021	Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto Shostakovich: Symphony #11 “The Year 1905”
11/11 2021	Simon Steen-Andersen: Piano Concerto² Brahms: Symphony #1
11/18 2021	Hannah Lash: The Peril of Dreams¹ Beach: “Gaelic” Symphony
12/02 2021	Price: Andante cantabile from String Quartet #2 Ravel: Piano Concerto in G Joel Thompson: New Work Barber: Symphony #1
12/10	Holiday Pops with N’Kenge
12/30 2021	Viennese New Year Mozart, Lehá, J. Strauss
01/06 2022	John Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine John Adams: Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes? John Adams: City Noir
01/13 2022	Vivaldi: The Four Seasons Traditional Venetian Gondolier Songs
01/21	Aretha: A Tribute
01/27	Kishi Bashi: Improvisations on EO9066
02/03 2022	Ellen Reid: New Work¹ Stenhammar: Piano Concerto #2 Sibelius: Symphony #1
02/10 2022	Walker: Lyric for Strings Walker: Folksongs for Orchestra Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde
02/18 2022	España! Bizet, Ponce, and Albéniz with Troupe Vertigo
03/03 2022	Adolphus Hailstork: Epitaph for a Man Who Dreamed Bartók: Piano Concerto #2 Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherezade Dvořák: Symphony #9 “From the New World”
03/11 2022	Sammartini: Concerto grosso in A major Bach: Viola Concerto Vivaldi: Concerto in D minor, “Madrilesco” Locatelli: Sinfonia funebre Corelli: Concerto grosso, Op. 6, No. 4
03/17 2022	Still: Poem for Orchestra Korngold: Violin Concerto Tchaikovsky: Symphony #5
03/31 2022	R. Strauss: Burleske Mahler: Symphony #6
03/20 2022	Celebrate Asia Toshio Hosokawa: Meditation Tan Dun: Trombone Concerto² Reena Esmail: Violin Concerto¹
04/07 2022	Angélica Negrón: New Work¹ Sibelius: Violin Concerto (original version) Sibelius: Symphony #2
04/15	Count Basie Orchestra
04/21 2022	Glazunov: Violin Concerto Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin Suite
04/28 2022	Stravinsky: Funeral Song Brahms: German Requiem
05/06 2022	The Vinyl Years: A Classic Rock Songbook Symphonic renditions of classic rock favorites
05/20 2022	Muffat: Sonata #1 Armonico tributo Purcell: An Imaginary Suite (arr. Anthony Romaniuk) Handel: Organ Concerto in F major Bach: Sinfonia from Cantata #106 Bach: Harpsichord Concerto #6
06/02 2022	Messiaen: Des canyons aux étoiles… (“From the Canyons to the Stars”)
06/09 2022	Gerschwin: Concerto in F Gerschwin: Second Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra Gerschwin: An American in Paris
06/16 2022	Berio: Requies Puccini: I criseantemi (“Chrysanthemums”) Verdi: Requiem
06/24	Pride Pops with the Seattle Men’s Chorus
Week	Program		21	13	7A 7B	7C 7D	7E 7F		8G	SU		BW	PO	WL

¹ World Premiere
² U.S. Premiere

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

Legend:

21	Masterworks 21-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)
7C	Masterworks 7-concert series C (Thursdays)
7D	Masterworks 7-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)
SU	Untuxed (Fridays, reduced program)
BW	Baroque & Wine (Choice of Fridays or Saturdays)
PO	Pops (Choice of Friday, Saturdays, or Sundays)
WL	Watch and Listen (streaming)

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, 7C and 7D are the same concerts; the only difference is that 7C is for Thursday nights, while 7D is for Saturday nights.

Notes and changes:

• The entire 2020–2021 season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Replacement concerts were held with no audience in the hall and programs compatible with physically-distanced performers. The replacement concerts were streamed live to all subscribers regardless of ticket package. Details are on the 2020/2021 page.
• Live streaming continues for the 2021-2022 season in the form of a new series named Watch and Listen. It includes 13 regular-season Masterworks concerts, plus seven additional concerts from other series. The Watch and Listen series is complimentary for donors at the Friends level or higher. (Technically, you can also buy the series without a membership, but it costs the same, so you may as well get the membership.)
• Only the Opening Night Gala and the Masterworks and Untuxed series were included in the original Spring 2021 announcement. In the Summer 2021 update Pops, Baroque & Wine, In Recital, and Chamber returned to the schedule, as well as two new series. One is the Watch and Listen series noted above. The other is Octave 9, which explores the fusion of music and technology. (Octave 9 was originally planned for the cancelled 2020–2021 season.)
• The 5-concert Friday afternoon Masterworks series has been removed from the schedule.
• Safety measures have been put into place for live performances.
• The Masterworks concert line-up has been reduced from 22 to 21 concerts. This reduces the 8C and 8D series to 7C and 7D.
• The 7[AB], 7[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 21-concert series by taking all three.
• The 13-concert series is the same as the 7[CD] and 7[EF] series combined, minus the March 3 concert.
• Conductor Emeritus Ludovic Morlot returns to the podium for the concerts on the weekend of June 2.
• The web page for the Family Connections program is still up, but I suspect they have suspended it for this season. It provides free symphony tickets for up to two children with the purchase of an adult ticket.
• Avi Avital’s cancelled Four Seasons concert from the 2020/2021 season has been rescheduled for January 13.
• Violinist Ray Chen’s recital from the 2020/2021 season was cancelled, but he’ll try again, this time performing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto on November 4. No relation.
• Khatia Buniatishvili was the scheduled artist in residence for the cancelled 2020–2021 season, so we never got to see her. This year, Yuja Wang performs in recital. (Still waiting for Alice Sara Ott.)
• This year begins a two-year cycle of Sibelius symphonies plus the original version of the Violin Concerto.
• Shouldn’t the February 18 concert be titled ¡España! with the inverted exclamation point?
• Over the years, the format of the Seattle Symphony official brochure has gradually gotten closer and closer to the format of this pocket guide. This makes my job both easier and arguably superfluous.