The Minnesota Orchestra has announced a 2009-10 classical season that includes a collaboration with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, a return of the popular "Sounds of Cinema" festival and an aggressive recording schedule. The program puts orchestra members up front at the expense of high-profile soloists, a conscious choice to promote local talent. If the season seems more circumspect, it may be in comparison to the current year, which features guest spots by Yo-Yo Ma and Joshua Bell and an eight-city European tour.
Music director Osmo Vänskä and
SPCO artistic partner Roberto Abbado will each conduct two concerts in a joint effort around the works of Igor Stravinsky in January 2010. The two groups will play several individual selections and then join together for Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring."
In that same month, Vänskä is reviving a festival that proved extraordinarily popular last January. Classic Hollywood scores will be performed while the films are screened. At the heart of the festival will be "Wizard of Oz" and "The Gold Rush."
In addition to the Stravinsky program, the orchestra will feature other Russian composers throughout the year. Included are Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet," Tchaikovsky's "Sleeping Beauty" and Mussorgsky's "A Night on Bald Mountain."
One of the major works of the season occurs in February 2010. Sibelius' "Kullervo" is a 75-minute symphonic poem for vocal soloists, chorus and orchestra. Vänskä conducts the work, which centers on a character from the Finnish epic "Kalevala." In the same vein, the orchestra plans a semi-staged production of German composer Engelbert Humperdinck's children's opera "Hansel and Gretel" during Thanksgiving week next year. It will feature Twin Cities singers Christina Baldwin and Jennifer Baldwin Peden in the title roles.
Conductor Laureate Stanislaw Skrowaczewski returns to Orchestra Hall in February 2010 to mark his 50th year on the artistic staff. He will conduct the world premiere of his latest composition, "Music for Winds."
The orchestra has ambitious targets for recording. Pianist Stephen Hough will perform on a CD project of in-concert recordings of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto and Concert Fantasia. Hough is already engaged to record Tchaikovsky's other major piano-orchestra works at concerts in May and June. The four-part cycle will be released by Hyperion in spring 2010.
Vänskä will ask Russian pianist Yevgeny Sudbin into the studio to record Beethoven's "Emperor" Piano Concerto for the BIS label. Separately, the orchestra will record Bruckner's Seventh Symphony for BIS. A boxed set of the orchestra's Beethoven symphony cycle will be released during the season as well.
