Mester to Conduct Pasadena Concerts

Jorge Mester, music director of the Pasadena Symphony, will lead the orchestra in all five of its 1996-97 season concerts in Pasadena Civic Auditorium. The season opens at 8 p.m. (note new time) Oct. 19, when Mester will lead a program consisting of Samuel Barber’s “Essay No. 2,” the Grieg Piano Concerto with soloist Jorge Federico Osorio and the D-minor Symphony by Cesar Franck.

The season will continue Nov. 23, with soloists violinist Elmar Oliveira and cellist Nathaniel Rosen playing Brahms’ Double Concerto. Also on the program are to be works by William Schuman and Sergei Prokofiev. Pianist Dmitri Ratser will be soloist on the Feb. 1 program, when Mester is to conduct Dohnanyi’s “Ruralia Hungarica,” Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Beethoven’s Second Symphony.

Mahler’s Fifth Symphony will comprise the entire concert on April 5. The season will close May 3, with Mester leading the Requiem by Hector Berlioz. Assisting the orchestra will be the Pacific Chorale and tenor soloist John Aler.

Information: (818) 793-7172.