Conductor Juraj Valčuha returns to Minnesota: The week's best classical concerts

Slovakian conductor Juraj Valčuha made a highly acclaimed Minnesota Orchestra debut four years ago, and is a fancied contender to succeed Osmo Vänskä as the orchestra's music director in 2022. Valčuha gets a prime opportunity to impress this week in Richard Strauss' blockbusting Alpine Symphony, a work long considered the musical equivalent of a cheap postcard, now hailed for its eco-friendly celebration of nature's power and beauty. Violinist Leila Josefowicz plays Stravinsky's spiky Violin Concerto, and Webern's Im Sommerwind — an early work by the Austrian arch-minimalist — is also featured. (8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., Orchestra Hall, Mpls.; $12-$125, 612-371-5656 or minnesotaorchestra.org)

Can you name a composer who's written a concerto for double bass? It's difficult, but the on-trend American composer Missy Mazzoli has just added one to the repertoire. Titled "Dark With Excessive Bright" — a phrase from Milton's "Paradise Lost" — Mazzoli's concerto receives its U.S. premiere with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, played by the SPCO's outstanding principal bass Zachary Cohen. German conductor Ruth Reinhardt, a rising star on the international circuit, will lead this fascinatingly varied program including works by Schubert, Honegger and Grazyna Bacewicz. (8 p.m. Thu., Kracum Performance Hall, Carleton College, Northfield, free; 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., Ordway Concert Hall, St. Paul, $12-$50, 651-291-1144 or thespco.org)

A strong quartet of soloists including mezzo-soprano Clara Osowski and bass-baritone Dashon Burton joins the National Lutheran Choir for two performances of Mozart's Requiem, in the completion by American musicologist Robert Levin. Music by Arvo Pärt and Alice Parker also featured. (7:30 p.m. Sat., Wayzata Community Church, Wayzata; 4 p.m. Sun., St. Andrew's Lutheran Church, Mahtomedi; $42, nlca.com)

La Grande Bande is a new period-instrument ensemble based in Gaylord, Minn., and specializing in baroque music. For the second concert of its debut season, director Michael Thomas Asmus takes his group to Arlington for a program of works by Bach, Telemann and Bononcini in a casual restaurant setting. (7 p.m. Fri., Arlington Haus Too, Arlington, Minn.; $5-$7, lagrandebande.org)

Early music ensemble Consortium Carissimi celebrates All Souls' Day with a rare performance of Totentanz, a work by the German composer Hugo Distler made up of 14 short choral movements interspersed with recorder solos and spoken word passages. Motets by Heinrich Schütz are also featured, with guest conductor Kathy Saltzman Romey leading the performers. (7:30 p.m. Sat., Reformation Lutheran Church, St. Paul; 3 p.m. Sun., Trinity Lutheran Church, Owatonna, Minn.; $10-$25, consortiumcarissimi.org)

TERRY BLAIN