Minnesota Orchestra's 2007- 08 Season At A Glance

This activity is made possible in part by a grant provided by the Minnesota State Arts Board through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

"¢ The Sounds of Cinema

Osmo Vänskä will lead the Orchestra in a two-week, six- concert January festival that explores great film scores. From silver screen classics to modern-day masterpieces, the featured films will include Citizen Kane and Vertigo (both with scores by Bernard Herrmann), The Hours (score by Philip Glass) and The Red Violin (John Corigliano). The festival will include a full-screen showing of Charlie Chaplin's City Lights, accompanied by live orchestra, as well as Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 classic The Battleship Potemkin, with a score by Shostakovich. Vänskä will conduct all festival programs with the exception of The Battleship Potemkin, which will be led by Finnish conductor Esa Heikkilä.

"¢ Crash! Bang! Boom! Percussion Festival

British percussionist Colin Currie will make his subscription debut performing James Macmillan's Veni, Veni, Emmanuel as the Orchestra presents a three-week emphasis on percussion music (May and June). Led by Vänskä, the festival will also feature the six-member Swedish percussion ensemble Kroumata- making their Minnesota Orchestra debut-in a performance of Finnish composer Kalevi Aho's Symphony No. 11, a work that Kroumata premiered with Vänskä and the Lahti Symphony in 1998. The Orchestra's own percussion section will get in the groove as well, offering Bizet's Carmen Suite arranged for percussion and orchestra.

"¢ Focus on Beethoven

In conjunction with the Orchestra's plans to record the complete Beethoven symphonies, the works of this master composer figure prominently throughout the 2007-08 season. In the second week of the season, Vänskä will lead performances of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with primarily the same soloists that sang on the Orchestra's critically-acclaimed 2006 CD, including Finnish soprano Helena Juntunen. October will bring performances of both Beethoven's Second and Seventh symphonies, led by Vänskä. The latter performance also features the debut of 26-year-old Russian piano phenomenon Yevgeny Sudbin, interpreting Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, the Emperor.

"¢ Cathedral Music: the Bruckner Project

Vänskä and the Orchestra will offer performances of Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 1 (November), as part of an ongoing cycle to explore the complete symphonies of the 19th-century Austrian composer over the course of a decade. The program is rounded out by two sublime Arvo Pärt works: Fratres, for Cellos and Como cierva sedienta (As the Hart Pants). Performances will be held in both Orchestra Hall and the Cathedral of Saint Paul.

"¢ Voices Raised! Masterworks with the Minnesota Chorale

Renowned choral conductor Helmuth Rilling will return for three May performances celebrating great choral works by Johannes Brahms. Showcasing the Minnesota Chorale, the Minnesota Orchestra's principal chorus, the concerts feature Brahms' Nänie,I Four Songs for Female Voices, Horns and Harp, and SchicksalsliedI (Song of Destiny). Prepared by Chorale Artistic Director Kathy Saltzman Romey, the ensemble will also appear with the Orchestra for performances of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (September), Pärt's Como cierva sedienta (November), Handel's MessiahI (December) and Paulus's To Be Certain of the Dawn (February).

"¢ Sir Neville Marriner returns, and a Skrowaczewski world premiere

Former Music Director Neville Marriner, who led the Orchestra from 1979 to 1986, will return to Minneapolis for the first time since the Orchestra's 2002-03 centennial season. Sir Neville will lead the Brahms Symphony No. 4 and the Elgar Violin Concerto, featuring Concertmaster Jorja Fleezanis (April).
Former Music Director Stanislaw Skrowaczewski also will return to the podium. A prolific composer as well as renowned conductor, Skrowaczewski-who led the Orchestra from 1960 to 1979 and now is Conductor Laureate-will lead the world premiere of his latest composition, a Flute Concerto with Principal Flute Adam Kuenzel as soloist. The program also includes Mozart's Symphony No. 41 and Brahms' Symphony No. 2 (October).

"¢ Andrew Litton and Truls Mørk

Sommerfest Artistic Director Andrew Litton will exchange his summer whites for black tails to lead three March concerts that open with William Walton's Scapino Overture and conclude with Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances. The acclaimed Norwegian cellist Truls Mørk will return to perform the beautiful Dvorák Cello Concerto.

"¢ Piano Greats

Emphasizing great piano works, the season will feature seven pianists at varying stages of major careers: Emanuel Ax launches the season with Chopin's Second Concerto (September), Garrick Ohlsson, returning for the first time in six years, offers the Grieg Piano Concerto (October) and German native Lars Vogt interprets the Schumann Piano Concerto (April). The legendary Alfred Brendel performs Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24 (March), and French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet presents the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (May). Newcomers Andrew Staupe, a St. Paul native and winner of the 2006 WAMSO Young Artist Competition, and Yevgeny Sudbin will perform, respectively, Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 1 (February) and Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 (November).

"¢ Orchestra Musicians in the Spotlight

Two consecutive weeks of November concerts feature a great variety of concertos, all performed by Minnesota Orchestra players and led by conductor Gilbert Varga: First Associate Concertmaster Sarah Kwak will play Bach's Concerto for Two Violins and String Orchestra (with the additional violinist to be announced); Principal Horn Michael Gast, Brian Jensen, Ellen Dinwiddie Smith and David Kamminga will perform Schumann's Conzertstück for Four Horns; Associate Principal Clarinet Greg Williams will offer Debussy's Première rapsodie for Clarinet and Orchestra; Principal Cello Anthony Ross will interpret both Dvorák's Silent Woods and Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme; Roma Duncan Kansara will play the Vivaldi Piccolo Concerto.

Other soloists for the season include: Concertmaster Jorja Fleezanis (Elgar Violin Concerto, April); Principal Flute Adam Kuenzel (Skrowaczewski Flute Concerto, October); Principal Clarinet Burt Hara (Messiaen's Abyss of the Birds, February); Associate Principal Cello Janet Horvath (Bruch's Kol Nidre, February); Principal Bass Peter Lloyd (Harbison Bass Concerto, February); Principal Bassoon John Miller (Mozart Bassoon Concerto, February), and the Orchestra's percussion section which will participate in the May percussion festival: Principal Brian Mount, Associate Principal Jason Arkis, Kevin Watkins and Principal Timpani Peter Kogan.

"¢ Minnesota Orchestra Debuts

Several guest artists will make their Minnesota Orchestra debuts during the 2007-08 season, including the 25-year old Latvian violinist Baiba Skride, who will perform the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in April, 26-year-old Russian pianist Yevgeny Sudin performing Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto (October) and the six-person ensemble Kroumata, performing in the percussion festival. Israeli conductor Ilan Volkov, who became the youngest-ever chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in 2003, debuts in an October program that includes Debussy's La Mer, and violinist Lisa Batiashvili makes her debut with the Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 2 (October).

"¢ Returning Guest Artists and Conductors

Guest Artists welcomed back to the Orchestra Hall stage for the 2007-08 season include pianists Emanuel Ax, Alfred Brendel, Garrick Ohlsson, Andrew Staupe, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Lars Vogt. Also returning are cellist Truls Mørk and percussionist Colin Currie. Celebrated vocalists include sopranos Janice Chandler-Eteme and Helena Juntunen; mezzos Christina Baldwin, Mary Phillips and Susan Platts; tenors Thomas Cooley and Daniel Norman; basses Neal Davies and Nathan Berg; and cantor Barry Abelson, as well as the Minnesota Chorale.

Guest Conductors returning to Minnesota are Andrew Litton, Sir Neville Marriner, Helmuth Rilling, Gilbert Varga, Mark Wigglesworth, and Associate Conductor Mischa Santora, who will conduct Jennifer Higdon's blue cathedral and Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony (February).

"¢ Close-to-Home Series in Mahtomedi

The Orchestra will launch its third season of concerts at St. Andrew's Lutheran Church in Mahtomedi-a space renowned for its 108-rank Casavant organ and warm acoustics-on Sunday, October 7, with Vänskä leading performances of Sibelius' Rakastava (The Beloved), and Beethoven's Second Symphony. The series, in which each 4 p.m. concert features a lively behind- the-scenes look at the music and a Q&A session with Vänskä, will conclude in March.

"¢ Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute

The Minnesota Orchestra and American Composers Forum, in cooperation with the American Music Center, will present the seventh annual Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute, October 22-27, 2007. Chaired by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and New Music Advisor Aaron Jay Kernis, the Institute offers emerging composers a unique, week-long intensive immersion into the world of the American symphony orchestra. At the end of the week, the composers' works will be performed in a public Future Classics! concert, Friday, October 26, conducted by Vänskä.

By www.minnesotaorchestra.org