Classical Music

With a new series that will bring four orchestras of international repute to downtown San Diego, the La Jolla Chamber Music Society has finally staked a serious claim outside the boundaries of chamber music. For the last two years the organization has been host of a successful downtown series devoted to big-name performers and ensembles, including Sir Georg Solti and the Chicago Symphony.

The society’s orchestral series will open on Sept. 28 with a concert at Symphony Hall by the St. Louis Symphony under its music director Leonard Slatkin. Three concerts will follow in Civic Theatre: the Moscow State Symphony with Yevgeny Svetlanov (Nov. 6); the London-based Royal Philharmonic with Vladimir Ashkenazy conducting (Feb. 13, 1989), and the London Symphony Orchestra with Michael Tilson Thomas on the podium (March 16, 1989).

“We identified a new audience for high-power orchestral music when we presented the Chicago Symphony in last season’s Celebrity Series,” explained Geoff Brooks, executive director of the society. “We think this series will help build audiences for the San Diego Symphony, and it will bring works such as the Shostakovich Ninth and Tenth Symphonies, which have not been professionally performed in San Diego before.”

In addition to these four orchestras, the other downtown series, 1988-89 Celebrity Series, will include a visit by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra with noted British composer Peter Maxwell Davies conducting (Oct. 23), and a performance by the Israel Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta (March 20, 1989).