ST. PETERSBURG, FL — With increased concert attendance and rave reviews for new Music Director Michael Francis, The Florida Orchestra is releasing a blockbuster lineup of concerts for its 2016-17 season, debuting at the end of September with Francis conducting Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and its glorious “Ode to Joy.” TFO’s 49th season also will include a special rock concert tribute to the late David Bowie and send cirque-style artists soaring over the orchestra for Cirque de la Symphonie.
And to keep up with demand for its overwhelmingly popular morning Coffee Concert series, the orchestra will add one concert at the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg, expanding the series from eight to nine. The Ruth Eckerd Hall Coffee series in Clearwater, which grew this season, will remain at four concerts.
For his second year as TFO music director, Michael Francis will delve into the power and beauty of Russian and French music, particularly in the orchestra’s core premier series of classical masterpieces, the Tampa Bay Times Masterworks.
“I have always been fascinated by the artistic relationships between countries.Russia and France have particularly enjoyed a long, intimate – and occasionally complicated – accord,” Francis said. “There is something about the mixture of Russian passion and French flair that is so magnetic. Hear the fervor of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff alongside the refined subtlety of Ravel and Debussy; the revolutionary insurgence of Stravinsky and Shostakovich alongside the elegant élan of Saint-Saens and Berlioz. The compositional schools may have been different, but when combined together… well, the fusion is positively electric!”
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