Classical season kicks off in Zurich

Zurich's foremost centre for classical music, the Tonhalle, has announced its highlights for the 2000/2001 season. Among the main attractions will be works by Bach, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Strauss.

The season starts with four symphonies from Brahms, followed by five of Beethoven’s piano concertos.

The Tonhalle orchestra will also be working on four major performances with the Swiss Chamber Choir over the season. Scheduled performances are Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s St Johns Passion, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis and the more contemporary work of György Ligetis’s Requiem.

Special concert programmes are also being arranged over the year covering subjects as diverse as the Stanley Kubrick film “2001” to spring.

Swiss composers will not be overlooked with performances also scheduled of Arthur Honegger’s Semiramis and his choral work Bandbreite.

The orchestra will also be travelling to Stuttgart in Germany and Milan in Italy, where it will perform the Beethoven concertos.

There will also be some new music on the programme. Three new music days are being set aside in which compositions from younger composers, written in the last few years, will be featured.

by Tom O’Brien.