Emanuel Ax performs on Tuesday, April 20, at Disney Hall. / photo courtesy of LA Phil

April starts out with a bang at Disney Hall. And that’s no joke. For three nights beginning on Thursday, April 1, Russian conductor Semyon Bychkov leads the LA Phil in performances of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony.

On Wednesday, April 14, the St. Louis Symphony under the direction of David Robertson, visits Disney Hall in a performance of two works by Igor Stravinsky (Danses Concertantes and the Violin Concerto) and two works by Mozart (the Violin Concerto  No. 2 and the Symphony N. 36, “Linz”). Gil Shaham will be the soloist in the two works for violin.

Beginning on Friday, April 16, Jaap van Zweden, the current music director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, will lead the LA Phil in a performance of the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 1, with pianist Simon Trpčeski, and the Brahms Symphony No. 4 in E minor.

On Tuesday, April 20, Emanuel Ax will return in a recital of works by Chopin and Schumann, with the West Coast premiere of Three Mazurkas by Thomas Adès.

Gustavo Dudamel then makes his first appearance of the spring on Thursday, April 22, in the “Americas and Americans” series. He will be joined by pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet in the Tocata for Percussion by Chávez and Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2, “The Age of Anxiety.” The concert repeats on Friday, April 23. The series continues throughout the month. On Saturday and Sunday, April 24 and 25, Dudamel conducts the orchestra in Golijov’s St. Mark Passion. He returns on Thursday and Friday, April 29 and 30, to lead the Phil in the Cantata Criolla by Estévez to close out the series.

Dudamel also squeezes in a Special Performances concert — a repeat of October’s inaugural concert — on Sunday night, April 25, when he conducts Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 and Adams’ “City Noir,” commissioned by the LA Phil.

Dudamel then conducts Dvorak’s Cello Concerto and the Symphony No. 6, “Pathétique,” by Tchaikovsky Thursday through Saturday, May 6-8.

The last orchestral concert of the season, Friday through Sunday, May 28-30, features Lionel Bringuier, Associate Conductor for the LA Phil, leading the orchestra in the Violin Concerto by Sibelius with soloist Julian Rachlin and the “Firebird Suite” by Stravinsky.

For details and tickets, visit www.laphil.com.