The performances of Tosca, in May 2006, will be led by music director Osm‹ V‹nsk‹ and star soprano Deborah Voigt, tenor Carl Tanner, and baritone Greer Grimsley,
Other highlights include two weeks of Beethoven concerts in January; the same month, the orchestra will record the composer's Ninth Symphony as part of its cycle of Beethoven symphonies for the BIS label. The season opens on September 15 with a gala performance starring pianist Andr_ Watts, who will perform Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto.
Other visiting soloists include soprano Dawn Upshaw, pianist Alfred Brendel, and violinists Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and Christian Tetzlaff. In addition, eleven of the orchestra's principal players will serve as soloists in pieces including Strauss's Don Quixote and Bernstein's Serenade.
Among the guest conductors on the schedule are Charles Dutoit, Yakov Kreizberg, Andrew Litton, Hans Graf, and former music director Stanislaw Skrowaczewski.