TSO Season 2015/16

So the upcoming TSO season has just been announced.  You can start here and eventually click through the season.  I'm going to be honest and say it looks ok, but kind of scaled back and not particularly adventurous.  In fact, it is basically a very boring season.

I am glad they will be doing Beethoven's 5, and as a Sunday matinee, so I will most likely take the kids to that.  They are doing two Shostakovich Symphonies and the Montreal Symphony is coming in with a third.  I'll plan on making all those.  I did miss out on Second City's Guide to the Symphony, which was apparently terrific, so I'll try to go this year.  I did not manage to make it to Dvorak's 9th Symphony (it was when we were on a quick trip to Chicago).  They are doing a one-night stand of Dvorak's 8th, but I will probably pass, having seen that done in the previous two years with various symphonies.

I'm a bit torn on the Beethoven Symphony #3 paired with Piano Concerto #3 with Yefim Bronfman.  The issue is I've already seen him do the whole Piano Concerto cycle, so it just feels unnecessary, even though I am sure it will be a fine concert.  They are also bringing in James Ehnes to do the Elgar Violin Concerto (paired with Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring), but I saw Ehnes doing this piece with VSO in 2014 (in a concert line-up that I liked better).  I'm sure this will be a great concert, but I feel I've already done it.

I'll be able to put together a subscription package, but there is very little that excites me, aside perhaps for the Shostakovich and Angea Hewitt coming in to play Bach.  I guess there is Prokofiev's 5th Symphony, which I do like, but I've seen several times already.  I'll go again anyway, since it is paired with Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F, which is not played very frequently.

I guess I don't really know what I want.  I do like seeing familiar works every couple of years, but there is so little on offer here that is a bit off the beaten path.  But when they do have something just a bit unusual, like Strauss's An Alpine Symphony, I find it isn't quite to my taste and I don't go.  I'm just a bit fickle and fairly demanding.  That's what happens when you live in a place like Chicago and get totally spoiled for choice.  I don't even dare look at Chicago's 2015/16 season, as I probably would just get depressed.