MUSIC: My 2011-12 LA Philharmonic season

So, after the annual trip to Disney Hall to exchange a few subscription tickets and buy a few extras, I have tickets for 11 concerts this season. I will no doubt miss at least one or two to the other demands of life, but it's a good mix. Very little Dudamel, though, for two reasons -- nearly half of his subscription concerts this season are spent in his month-long slog through the Mahler symphonies, and I would rather have half-a-dozen root canals; and though Dudamel as music director programs a lot of the new and contemporary music that I enjoy, Dudamel as conductor isn't conducting much of it, at least not this season.

My season includes:

• Dudamel; Johannes Moser, electric cello / Adams: Tromba lontana; Chapela: Magnetar (concerto for electric cello - world premiere); Prokofiev: Symphony #5
• James Conlon; Yuja Wang, piano / Britten: Sinfonia da Requiem; Prokofiev: Piano Concerto #2; Dvorak: Symphony #7
• Semyon Bychkov; Katia & Marielle Labeque, pianos / Ravel: Rapsodie espagnole; Dubugnon: Concerto for Two Pianos and Double Orchestra (world premiere); Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances
• Esa-Pekka Salonen; Emanuel Ax, piano; Anne Sofiie von Otter, mezzo-soprano; Los Angeles Master Chorale / Beethoven: Leonore Overture #2; Beethoven: Piano Concerto #2; Hillborg: new work for chorus, soloists, and orchestra (world premiere)
• Thomas Wilkins / "Pacific Standard Time: The Hollywood Sound" (program of film music)
• Miguel Harth-Bedoya; Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano / Dvorak: Hussite Overture; Liszt: Piano Concerto #2; Saint-Saens: Symphony #3 ("Organ")
• Pablo Heas-Casado; Martin Chalifour, violin / Beethoven: Egmont Overture; Matheson: Violin Concerto (west coast premiere); Strauss: Ein Heldenleben
• Neeme Jarvi; Alisa Weilerstein, cello / Dvorak: Carnival Overture; Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme; Respighi: Adagio con Variazioni; Shostakovich: Symphony #5
• Osmo Vanska; Martin Frost, clarinet / Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier Suite; Aho: Clarinet Concerto; Sibelius: Symphony #6
• James Gaffigan; Andre Watts, piano / Respighi: Trittico botticelliano; Bartok: Miraculous Mandarin Suite; Grieg: Piano Concerto
• Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos; Pepe Romero, guitar / Turina: Danzas fantasticas; Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez; Brahms: Symphony #2

"Pacific Standard Time" is a six-month long arts festival devoted to Los Angeles art from 1945-1980. Weilerstein's appearance is part of the Piatigorsky Cello Festival; the Dvorak/Shostakovich part of the concert will be given three times, each time with a different solo cellist performing a different work (or in Weilerstein's case, works).

So I get lots of new music, some not-quite warhorses from composers I like (Britten, Rachmaninovv, Respighi), and a few pieces that I have particular weakness for (Egmont, the Rodrigo concerto). Should be a fun season.