Beethoven will also be explored in three concerts by violinist Christian Tetzlaff and pianist Alexander Lonquich, part of the Y's inaugural In Focus series.
Actor/writer/director/producer Alan Alda returns to the Y with a "theatrical vision" of Saint-Saëns's Carnival of the Animals and Stravinsky's L'Histoire du soldat, performed by musicians including violinist Jaime Laredo, cellist Sharon Robinson and pianist Reiko Uchida.
The Y's long-running Art of the Guitar series kicks off in October with a recital by the Assad Brothers, performing Rameau, Villa-Lobos and Piazzolla, plus a new work by Egberto Gismonti. Other highlights of the guitar lineup include the New York debut of the Canadian Guitar Quartet, and the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet in a New Year's Eve bash. In January, the biennial Guitar Marathon, hosted by WNYC radio's John Schaefer, examines Brazilian guitar music. Uruguayan guitarist Alvaro Pierri performs a solo recital of Walton, Piazzolla and Ginastera, and in March, the Y celebrates the 75th birthday of the British guitarist and lutenist Julian Bream.
Cellist Steven Isserlis continues the Y's Family Music series with performances of Beethoven and Bach, while the Zukerman Chamber Players offer family concerts featuring music by Mendelssohn and Mozart. The even younger crowed (ages 3-6) can enjoy the Bash the Trash series, with with guests cellist Eric Jacobson and violinist Colin Jacobson.
Isserlis will also play a solo recital with pianist Kirill Gerstein of Shostakovich, Britten, Prokofiev and Janácek. Peter Serkin will perform a solo concert featuring the world premiere of a new work by Charles Wuorinen in a program that also features Messiaen, Bach and Brahms. Pianist Lang Lang gives a chamber music recital with members of the New York Philharmonic, and pianist Paul Lewis performs a solo recital of Mozart, Ligeti, Mozart and Schubert. Violinist Miriam Fried will play Bartok, Brahms and Janácek with her son, pianist Jonathan Biss.
The Orion Quartet begins its 20th anniversary celebrations with Mendelssohn, Bartok and Haydn, the same program with which it made it New York debut at the Y in 1987.
In its fifth season as the Y's quartet-in-residence, the Tokyo String Quartet presents the U.S. premiere of Lera Auerbach's Primera Luz, plus music by Haydn and Tchaikovsky. They will also perform the U.S. premiere of Blossoming for string quartet by Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa.
The quartet lineup also includes the Miami String Quartet, performing late 19th- and early 20th-century French music, and the Jerusalem Quartet, with clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein, in an all-Brahms program.
Pianist Leon Fleisher performs Schumann's chamber music with Laredo, Robinson and other colleagues. Violist Kim Kashkashian joins the Amsterdam Sinfonietta for the world premiere of Israeli composer Betty Olivero's Neharot for viola, strings, accordian, percussion and tape.
The season also features the New York premiere of Richard Danielpour's The Book of Hours for piano and strings, for which the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio will be joined by violinist Leila Josefowicz and violist Michael Tree.
