McCarter Theatre in Princeton has announced its 2016-17 classical music series.
The season will begin Nov. 9, with a piano concert by Imogen Cooper. Regarded as one of the finest interpreters of Classical and Romantic repertoire, English pianist Ms. Cooper is internationally renowned for her virtuosity and lyricism. Her McCarter program will include music by Beethoven, Schumann, Albeniz, and Debussy.
Stewart Goodyear will bring a holiday treat to McCarer when he performs his arrangement for Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker for solo piano, Dec. 16. Mr. Goodyear will return to McCarter after his 2013 event in which he played all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas in a single day. He returns with another tour-de-force, stripping away the pomp and circumstance of the ballet to which the work is connected.
Inon Barnatan, pianist, Anthony McGill, clariet, and Alisa Weilerstein, cello, will be brought together through a new work by composer Joseph Hallman, Jan. 18. The trio also will perform works by Beethoven and Brahms.
Violinist and conductor Gidon Kremer returns to McCarter with his chamber ensemble Kremerata Baltica (celebrating its 20th-anniversary season this year), Feb. 3.
Comprised of 30 musicians selected by Kremer personally from the Baltic States — Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania — Kremerata Baltica looks beyond the mainstream to incorporate world premieres by composers such as Arvo Part, Philip Glass, Giya Kancheli, and Astor Piazzolla.
Russian pianist Kirill Gerstein will perform at McCarter, Feb. 27. The program will include selections by Bach, Beethoven, and Liszt.
Gutarist Milos Karadaglic will play a concert, titled Bach to Beatles, March 18. Mr. Karadaglic has broken new ground by taking the guitar’s greatest solo masterpieces by composers like Bach, Granados, and Rodrigo and combining those classics with an ensemble of musicians to play arrangements for guitar and strings, including several of The Beatles greatest hits.
McCarter will welcome harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani for a concert on March 19. His repertoire ranges from Baroque (Bach, Scarlatti) to 21st-century (Gorecki, Reich). His McCarter pgoram will feature music by Byrd, Rameau, Couperin, Lou Harrison, Gibbons, and Ligeti.
Violin player Hilary Hahn will perform a concert with pianist Robert Levin, March 20. In a professional career that spans more than two decades, Ms. Hahn has brought classical music lovers 16 albums, won three Grammy Awards, and crafted a robust media presence online including her own dedicated channel on YouTube. Her distinct approach to music, which honors traditional violin literature while expanding listeners’ horizons, has made her an international fan favorite.
McCarter will mark Easter with Bach’s Mass in B Minor, performed by the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart. The chorus, orchestra, and soloists of the Bachakademie Stuttgart (65 members strong) are a world-renowned collection of artists whose live and recorded treatments of Bach’s choral works have set the gold standard in artistic expression.
McCarter Theatre is located at 91 University Place, Princeton. For more information, go to mccarter.org or call 609-258-2787.
