Zander speaks

And other symphonic highlights

by Lloyd Schwartz

BSO highlights

I'm eager to hear guest conductor Edo de Waart's Gunther Schuller (January 2-4); Jeffrey Tate's Mozart (with pianist Elizabeth Leonskaya) and Bruckner (January 30, 31, February 1 and 4); James Conlon's Ravel, Prokofiev (with violinist Maxim Vengerov), and Janácek (March 6-8); the marvelous Hans Graf's Mozart (with pianist Leif Ove Andsnes) and Stravinsky (March 20-22 and 25); and Bernard Haitink conducting Russian violist Yuri Bashmet in a new work by Sofia Gubaidulina (April 24-26 and 29) and a Stravinsky/Tchaikovsky program (May 1-3). What will surely get the most attention is the celebration of Mstislav Rostropovich's 70th birthday, with Seiji Ozawa leading the birthday boy in a program that includes Richard Strauss's Don Quixote and new works by Augusta Read Thomas and her husband, Bernard Rands (April 3-5). Call 266-1492.

Zander speaks

The Boston Philharmonic's music director is not only an exciting conductor but also a superb speaker. Anyone over 12 can attend "Classical Fever!", the Philharmonic's free concert/talk. The music is by Mozart, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky (January 11, Jordan Hall; January 12, Sanders Theatre). Call 868-6696.

Pearlman's Mozart

That refined early-music specialist (and contemporary composer) Martin Pearlman is conducting two Mozart operas. For the Boston Lyric Opera he's doing Mozart's early lyrical The Shepherd King (Il re pastore), in English, at the Emerson Majestic Theatre, January 15, 17, 19, 21, 24, and 26. Call 542-6772. For his own Boston Baroque, he'll be leading two performances of Don Giovanni, with Met soprano Marvis Martin and the prizewinning (and gifted) Boston bass Stephen Salters, April 24 and 25 at Sanders Theatre and Jordan Hall. Call 641-1310.

Visitations

These top my list of offerings by the Celebrity Series. Pianist Russell Sherman's recital (Jordan Hall, January 17) includes two warhorses (Beethoven's Appassionata and the Liszt B-minor Sonata), and world premieres by George Perle and Ralph Shapey. The Cleveland Orchestra under Christoph von Dohnányi brings German baritone Olaf Bär to Symphony Hall on January 29, in seven Schubert lieder orchestrated by (among others) Brahms and Webern; also on the program is the Mahler First. And who wouldn't want to hear the popular Italian coloratura mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli, at Symphony Hall (April 4)? Call 482-2595.

Flutings

Our best-loved Baroque-flute player, Christopher Krueger, both plays and conducts music from the court of Frederick the Great, for the Handel & Haydn Society (Symphony Hall, January 17 and 19). Call 262-1815. BSO flutist Fenwick Smith plays the new John Harbison Flute Concerto with the Boston Civic Symphony (Jordan Hall, March 9). Call 469-2002.

Emerging

The Celebrity Series's prescient Emerging Artists Series presents Boston's Favella Lyrica, an early-music piano-and-vocal ensemble with soprano Pamela Murray, mezzo-soprano Pamela Dellal, and harpsichordist Michael Beattie (Jordan Hall, January 19). Call 482-2595.

Best series

If I were going to give someone a subscription, it would be to the remaining concerts at Jordan Hall by the distinguished and adventurous Cantata Singers, conducted by David Hoose. Concerts include a Schubert Mass and the Andante from his unfinished 10th Symphony, and Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht, with the Lydian String Quartet (January 24 and 26); Bach's St. John Passion, with Karl Dan Sorensen, Paul Guttry, and heavenly Janet Brown (March 21 and 23); and Haydn's Creation and Marjorie Merryman's recent Jonah (May 9 and 11). Call 267-6502.

Handel (and Dallapiccola) with care

Craig Smith and Emmanuel Music have given us our most enthralling performances of Handel. This year it's the brilliant pageant of Solomon, with Mary Westbrook-Geha in the title role, D'Anna Fortunato (the Queen of Sheba), Carole Haber, Kendra Colton, Pamela Murray, William Hite, and Donald Wilkinson (March 14 and 16 at Emmanuel Church). Emmanuel's Luigi Dallapiccola Festival at both Smith College (April 11) and Emmanuel Church (April 13) includes music from 1937 to 1964 with soprano Jane Bryden, bass Donald Wilkinson, and pianist Randall Hodgkinson. Both Craig Smith and John Harbison will conduct. Call 536-3356.

Intimate voices

Oboist Peggy Pearson has a superb new chamber series at that octagonal acoustical gem in Lexington, the Follen Church. A spring Bach program features the lovely soprano Jayne West in the Wedding Cantata and Pearson herself (March 24). Call 734-7076.