By Lawrence Toppman
What will the old-timers say?
What will people in their 70s, who have followed the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra (CSO) for nearly five decades and gotten used to a diet mainly of long-dead white male composers, think of a Classical Series that whooshes them into their own lifetimes?
No Bach, no Brahms. No Mozart or Haydn or Schubert. No Elgar or Vaughan Williams. No Mahler or Sibelius or Wagner or Rachmaninov. A Classical Series that kicks off with a piece by Bay Area composer Mason Bates and moves on to two works by Dmitri Shostakovich, his emotional Cello Concerto No. 1 and mordant Symphony No. 5.
Well, as someone in the group I just described, I say, “Right on.” (We old people still say that.)
The symphony has moved gradually in that direction by playing pieces, almost always shorter ones, by female composers and composers of color. Yet the first season shaped by new music director Kwamé Ryan represents not just a sea change but a realignment of planets.
The CSO announced that 2025-26 season today. There’s much to take in outside the Classical Series, including a first-time screening of “Black Panther” in the Movie Series and a Pops Series concert titled “Dolly Parton’s Threads: My Songs in Symphony,” where the 79-year-old country icon will talk in a filmed presentation about her work and introduce hand-picked singers to perform “Jolene,” “I Will Always Love You” and the like.
Yet the Classical Series, where Ryan will conduct at least six of 12 concerts plus a pre-season gala, generates the most excitement for this veteran listener. The only wholly conventional programming comes in the Sept. 18 gala, where Gil Shaham will play Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and Ryan will lead Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 1. After that come Bates and Shostakovich on Oct. 10-11, and we’re off to the races.
The CSO has made two programing innovations this time: It’s building the season loosely around the concept of “Home,” which ties into the 250th anniversary celebration of our very divided nation in 2026, and a Spotlight Series devoted to composer/singer/pianist Gabriel Kahane, one of the least classifiable musicians in America.
“Home” clearly means such pieces as Dvorak’s “New World” Symphony or Samuel Barber’s “Knoxville: Summer of 1915,” which Ryan will conduct on March 27-29 in a concert with soprano Janai Brugger. An orchestral suite from Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” and the Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story” (on April 24-25), connected to Charleston and New York City respectively, also fit.
Malek Jandali, who graduated from Queens University and UNC Charlotte, has written an irresistible clarinet concerto that will get its N.C. premiere on March 6-7, with CSO principal clarinet Taylor Marino soloing. In that concert, even Ravel will mean home to us: Christopher James Lees will conduct “Bolero” to a film of images from iconic Charlotte locations.
The final concert May 15-16 will be completely devoted to the concept, from Jennifer Higdon’s “Skyline” (a tribute to Atlanta, where she spent her first 10 years) to a suite from Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” to Kahane’s “Emergency Shelter Intake Form.” That oratorio-style piece features Kahane on vocals and guitar; a choir of community members affected by homelessness, eviction or housing insecurity will sing about their lives.
Kahane appears on three programs. His short piece “Judith” will precede Amy Beach’s piano concerto (played by Sara Davis Buechner) and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 on Oct. 24-26, and Kahane will sing and play piano in “Pattern of the Rail: Six Orchestral Songs from Book of Travelers” on Feb. 13-14. That work, composed after he made a cross-country train journey following the 2016 election, fits in between Dani Howard’s brief “Argentum” and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5. (The CSO says Ryan has embarked on a multi-season Tchaikovsky cycle.)
The Charlotte Master Chorale will of course do Handel’s “Messiah” Dec. 5-7. More interesting assignments come on Nov. 14-15, when it sings Duruflé’s Requiem in a program with Respighi’s “Pines of Rome” and “Fountains of Rome,” and on April 10-11, when it sings the U.S. premiere of Anna Clyne’s “The Years,” the British-born composer’s response to the COVID pandemic. The latter evening includes Marianna Martines’ Sinfonia in C Major and Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto, featuring the soloist I’m most excited to see: pianist Inon Barnatan, who played a landmark chamber concert with cellist Alisa Weilerstein here 10 years ago.
Traditionalists may now be begging, “Please tell us there’s at least one concert consisting entirely of Classical Music’s Greatest Hits.” Well … kinda.
Concertmaster Calin Ovidiu Lupanu will play Ravel’s “Tzigane” in a Jan. 9-10 program that also includes short works by Liszt, Johann Strauss II and Richard Strauss, but Lupanu’s other solo will be Ernest Chausson’s lesser-known “Poème.”
And Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 2, part of a Schumann symphonic cycle, comes up on Jan. 30-Feb.1. It’s paired with Prokofiev’s fiery Piano Concerto No. 3. There the wild card is Charles Ives’ “The Unanswered Question,” in which a trumpet poses “The Perennial Question of Existence” and a woodwind quartet of “Fighting Answerers” tries vainly to provide an answer, growing more frustrated until they give up. Not easy fare, even for 10 minutes.
The CSO will provide easy fare in the Family Series (“Peter and the Wolf”), the Movie Series (the return of “Home Alone”) and the Pops Series (“Holiday Pops: A Carolina Christmas,” which for once will include music relevant to Hannukah and Kwanzaa). But you’ll have to work a little to fully absorb the challenging Classical Series. Lazy ears, as Ives described people who couldn’t appreciate contemporary music, need not apply.
Pictured: Maestro Kwamé Ryan.