Carnegie Hall Announces Programming Additions for the 2021–2022 Season
Just-Announced concerts include Complete Beethoven Cycle with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and The Philadelphia Orchestra, Plus Performances by Angélique Kidjo & more.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Aug. 19, 2021
As Carnegie Hall prepares to kick off its much-anticipated 2021-2022 season, the Hall today announced new concert offerings that have been added to its schedule, including a complete Beethoven symphony cycle by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and The Philadelphia Orchestra presented over five concerts, which will be launched with the Hall's Opening Night celebration on October 6. Just-announced concerts in coming months also include exciting performances by Angélique Kidjo, Pedrito Martinez, Orchestra of St. Luke's with Bernard Labadie, and the return of The MET Orchestra Chamber Ensemble as well as The Eyes of the World: From D-Day to VE Day, a musically driven multimedia production created by historian and narrator John Monsky that tells the dramatic story of the last 11 months of World War II.
"As we prepare to welcome audiences back to Carnegie Hall, we are thrilled to continue to build on our upcoming season, adding these terrific performances," said Clive Gillinson, Carnegie Hall's Executive and Artistic Director. "It will be deeply meaningful to be together again, enjoying concerts and once again sharing in the power of live music."
Beethoven Symphony Cycle with The Philadelphia Orchestra
Throughout this landmark season at Carnegie Hall, Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin and The Philadelphia Orchestra will perform a complete cycle of Beethoven's nine symphonies over five concerts. Four of the programs will present the symphonies in dialogue with music of today. Performances include works by Philadelphia Orchestra Composer-in-Residence Gabriela Lena Frank, and Iman Habibi, Jessica Hunt, and Carlos Simon, selected composers from Frank's Creative Academy of Music, each commissioned by the orchestra. Maestro Nézet-Séguin and The Philadelphia Orchestra were originally scheduled to perform a complete Beethoven symphony cycle at Carnegie Hall in spring 2020 in celebration of the composer's 250th anniversary, concerts that were unable to take place due to COVID-19.
The Beethoven cycle kicks off on Wednesday, October 6 at 7:00 p.m. when Maestro Nézet-Séguin and the orchestra open Carnegie Hall's 2021-2022 season with a gala performance culminating with the composer's Symphony No. 5. The Opening Night program begins with a new work by Valerie Coleman titled Seven O'Clock Shout, an anthem commissioned by the orchestra and written in response to COVID-19, honoring frontline workers. Yuja Wang will join Maestro Nézet-Séguin and the Orchestra as soloist for Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2 (replacing the previously announced Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2.) to be followed by Bernstein's Overture to Candide. A highlight of the performance will be another topical Philadelphia commission-Iman Habibi's Jeder Baum spricht-a rhapsodic reflection on the climate crisis written in dialogue with Beethoven's music. This Opening Night performance will be heard by listeners around the world, launching the eleventh annual Carnegie Hall Live broadcast and digital series with a live radio broadcast on WQXR 105.9 FM in New York, also streamed on wqxr.org and carnegiehall.org/wqxr.
The cycle continues on Wednesday, October 20 at 8:00 p.m. with Maestro Nézet-Seguin and the Philadelphians returning for Beethoven's symphonies nos. 4 and 6 ("Pastoral").
The next concert in the cycle, on Tuesday, November 9 at 8:00 p.m., features Beethoven's symphonies nos. 1, 7, and 8 presented alongside a new work by Carlos Simon. Inspired by a journal entry penned by Beethoven in 1815, Simon-a 2021 Sphinx Medal of Excellence recipient-wrote Fate Now Conquers, a series of musical gestures that represent fate's unpredictability.
The orchestra and Mr. Nézet-Séguin return on Tuesday, December 7 at 8:00 p.m., pairing Beethoven's Second and Third Symphony ("Eroica") with Jessica Hunt's Climb, a piece composed to celebrate Beethoven at 250, which draws inspiration from Beethoven's own personal struggles and relates them to Hunt's own experience living with chronic illness.
The cycle concludes on Tuesday, January 11 at 8:00 p.m. with Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with soloists and chorus to be announced. Also on the program is Gabriela Lena Frank's Pachamama Meets an Ode, composed in response to the First and Ninth symphonies and set to original text by the composer that imagines a meeting between Beethoven and his Peruvian contemporaries from the Cusco School of Painters, with implications for the current environmental crisis.
Additional Classical Concerts
In addition to the Beethoven symphony cycle performances, the following classical music concerts have just been announced on Carnegie Hall's 2021-2022 season schedule:
On Thursday, October 14 at 8:00 p.m., Orchestra of St. Luke's returns to Carnegie Hall for an evening of beloved works under the leadership of Principal Conductor Bernard Labadie, one of the foremost interpreters of Baroque-era music. The orchestra's program includes Charpentier's Prelude to Te Deum in D Major, H. 146; Handel's complete Water Music; and J. S. Bach's An imaginary concerto for violin (with excerpts from the composer's Easter Oratorio, BWV 249 and Sinfonia in D Major, BWV 1045) featuring violinist Benjamin Bowman.
Throughout the 2021-2022 season, Carnegie Hall audiences will enjoy six Weill Recital Hall performances by The MET Orchestra Chamber Ensemble, featuring the stellar musicians of The MET Orchestra. Artists and programs for these performances will be announced later this fall. (See program listings below for complete schedule.)
Pop, Jazz, and Musical Theater
Three exciting performances have been added to Carnegie Hall's pop, jazz, and musical theater offerings this fall:
Angélique Kidjo takes to the Carnegie Hall stage on Friday, November 5 at 8:00 p.m. with a brand-new program that draws from her latest album, Mother Nature, written while in quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic. This one-of-a-kind evening-performed in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage with special guests to be announced-is a rallying cry for our city and our planet, exploring the great importance of human beings to each other and to the natural world. Through a diverse blend of West African music, American R&B, jazz, and funk, Kidjo asks us to honor Mother Nature and pays timely tribute to the resilient New Yorkers who make our city thrive.
Following sold-out Zankel Hall shows in 2018 and 2019, historian John Monsky returns to Carnegie Hall with The Eyes of the World: From D-Day to VE Day in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage on Wednesday, November 10 at 8:00 p.m. Through the eyes of Ernest Hemingway, LIFE magazine war photographer Robert Capa, and Vogue model-turned-photojournalist Lee Miller, Monsky tells the dramatic story of the final 11 months of World War II in Europe. Presented on the eve of Veterans Day, this musically driven, multimedia lecture tells the story of those who have served and sacrificed for our country, including the young men who landed on the beaches of Normandy and the all-Black 761st Tank Battalion. Ian Weinberger (Hamilton) conducts Orchestra of St. Luke's in music from Saving Private Ryan to the works of Glenn Miller-all of which he arranged exclusively for this production.
Pedrito Martinez, the Cuban-born, New York-based composer, vocalist, bandleader, and virtuoso percussionist, returns to Zankel Hall with his band on Saturday, December 4 at 9:00 p.m., bringing their unique and irresistible intersection of Afro-Latin music with jazz and funk. In this special performance, Martinez and his band include elements of Yoruba-the religious music with which he is deeply connected-by incorporating bata drumming and the singing of Orisha chants that serve to call down and pay tribute to the deities.
Program Information for Newly-Added 2021-2022 Season Performances
Wednesday, October 6, 2021 at 7:00 PM
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Carnegie Hall'S OPENING NIGHT GALA
THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Music Director and Conductor
Yuja Wang, Piano
Dmitri Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major, Op. 102
Leonard Bernstein Overture to Candide
IMAN HABIBI Jeder Baum spricht
Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67 Opening Night Gala Lead Sponsor: PwC Opening Night Gala Dinner Sponsor: Kirkland & Ellis LLP
Thursday, October 14, 2021 at 8:00 PM
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
ORCHESTRA OF ST. LUKE'S
Bernard Labadie, Principal Conductor
Benjamin Bowman, Violin
Johann Sebastian Bach An imaginary concerto for violin (with excerpts from Easter Oratorio, BWV 249 and Sinfonia in D. Major, BWV 1045)
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL Water Music (complete)
Wednesday, October 20, 2021 at 8:00 PM
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Music Director and Conductor
Symphony No. 4 in B-flat Major, Op. 60
Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68, "Pastoral"
Friday, November 5, 2021 at 8:00 PM
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO
Additional artists to be announced
Mother Nature: Songs for New York and the World Beyond
Tuesday, November 9, 2021 at 8:00 PM
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Music Director and Conductor
Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Op. 93
CARLOS SIMON Fate Now Conquers
Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92
Wednesday, November 10, 2021 at 8:00 PM
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
THE EYES OF THE WORLD: FROM D-DAY TO VE DAY
John Monsky, Historian, Creator, and Narrator
Orchestra of St. Luke's
Ian Weinberger, Conductor
Kate Rockwell, Vocalist
Peter Flynn, Director
Additional artists to be announced
John Williams "Revisiting Normandy" from Saving Private Ryan
Woody Guthrie "What Are We Waiting On"
JOSEPH GARLAND / WINDY MANONE / Andy Razaf "In the Mood"
ERSKINE HAWKINS / JULIAN DASH / Bill Johnson / BUDDY FEYNE "Tuxedo Junction"
Mack Gordon / Harry Warren "Chattanooga Choo"
John Philip Sousa / HAROLD ARBERG "The Caissons Go Rolling Along"
Jeffrey Klitz / Robert Cary "Too Young to Say Goodbye"
ÉDITH PIAF / LOUIGUY / Marguerite Monnot "La vie en rose"
FRIEDRICH HOLLAENDER / Frank Loesser "The Boys in the Back Room"
Michael Kamen "Discovery of the Camp" from Band of Brothers
John Williams "Hymn to the Fallen" from Saving Private Ryan
Saturday, December 4, 2021 at 9:00 PM
Zankel Hall
PEDRITO MARTINEZ
Pedrito Martinez, Percussion and Lead Vocals
Issac Delgado Jr., Keyboard and Vocals
Sebastian Natal, Electric Bass and Vocals
Manuel Marquez, Percussion and Vocals
Xito Lovell, Trombone and Vocals
Tuesday, December 7, 2021 at 8:00 PM
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Music Director and Conductor
JESSICA HUNT Climb
Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55, "Eroica"
Tuesday, January 11, 2022 at 8:00 PM
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
THE PHILADELPHIA ORCHESTRA
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Music Director and Conductor
Soloists and chorus to be announced
Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125
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