Minnesota Orchestra plans a grand finale year for conductor Osmo Vänskä

Osmo Vänskä will not go quietly.

For his 19th and final season as music director of the Minnesota Orchestra, the Finn who has helped shape the orchestra into one of enthusiastic international renown is tackling some big tasks on his way out the door.

The Minnesota Orchestra announced its 2021-22 season on Friday. It's an ambitious one that strikes an impressive balance of the ensemble's past, present and future.

Just as its recordings of the complete symphonies of Beethoven and Jean Sibelius will stand as lasting testaments to the success of Vänskä's tenure, so will those composers' music be a big part of its fall and winter concerts.

Then spring will remind us that Vänskä and the orchestra don't intend to rest upon memories, as they offer two more installments in their complete Gustav Mahler symphonic cycle before recording them for eventual release.

"We try to go back through my years with the Minnesota Orchestra and have some nostalgic points for what we played here or on tours," Vänskä said before a rehearsal Thursday morning. "And those recordings are a big part of the history here."

But it was clear from our talk that one of those three composers stands out in personal significance for Vänskä. When asked if there's a "bucket list" quality to any of the concerts — pieces he's really wanted to perform with the orchestra before his departure — he leaped straight to his countryman Sibelius.

"The Sibelius Festival begins on New Year's Eve and has four programs in three weeks," Vänskä said. "We're going to do two original versions that people are almost never hearing. You need permission from the family of Sibelius to do them."

Those would be Sibelius' original versions of his Violin Concerto and Symphony No. 5. In each case, the orchestra will perform both the original and the more familiar revised version. Elina Vähälä will be the soloist for both versions of the Violin Concerto (Jan. 7-8 for the earlier draft, Jan. 13-14 for the final version).

"And we'll perform the original version of the Fifth Symphony and then the final version" on Jan. 15-16, with Minnesota Orchestra violist Sam Bergman serving as host, Vänskä said. "I'm going to work with him to pull out examples of differences between the original and the final versions. … For people like me who love the music of Sibelius, that is going to be a great adventure.

"But I would also like to point out a concert in June. It's the world premiere of a symphony by Jaakko Kuusisto, a good friend who was the concertmaster of the Lahti Symphony [Vänskä's former orchestra in Finland] for a long time. He is a conductor now and composer. We played his Violin Concerto a few years ago with Elina Vähälä and it was a good experience for everyone. Now he is writing his first symphony and I wanted to give him a chance to premiere it here."

Kuusisto is also the brother of St. Paul Chamber Orchestra artistic partner Pekka Kuusisto. Those concerts will be June 2-4.

But there's another subplot to the season — Vänskä's successor has yet to be named. If you're looking for clues as to the finalists, note that four guest conductors are each scheduled to visit twice between this month and the end of the 2021-22 season: Nathalie Stutzmann, Karina Canellakis, Dima Slobodeniouk and Fabien Gabel.

Auditions and chemistry checks? Perhaps.

Here are some highlights of the orchestra's 2021-22 season, which also features several pops offerings and music-and-movie combinations (the sagas continue for "Star Wars" and "Harry Potter," with "Black Panther" joining them).

The journey down memory lane begins on opening night when Joshua Bell performs Max Bruch's "Scottish Fantasy" and Vänskä conducts Beethoven's Fifth Symphony (Sept. 23-24). Bell was the soloist the first time Vänskä conducted the orchestra, a guest appearance in 2000, two years before his hire.

Then Emanuel Ax solos on Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto, with David Afkham also conducting Dmitri Shostakovich's 10th Symphony (Oct. 29-30).

And many a murmur has pegged frequent guest conductor Juraj Valčuha as a music director candidate, but that's likely been scotched with this week's announcement that he'll take the same job with the Houston Symphony. Next season he'll conduct Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Minnesota Chorale and an impressive group of vocal soloists (Nov. 18-20).

You'll probably never have a better opportunity to dive deeply into the music of Finland's national composer than during this fortnight. Vänskä will conduct all seven of his symphonies, three of his songs (with soprano Helena Juntunen), and those double takes on the Violin Concerto and Fifth Symphony (Dec. 31-Jan. 16).

Sure, all four of those aforementioned guest conductors will visit in February and March. And there are some terrific soloists coming to town: violinist Augustin Hadelich (March 10-11) and pianist Sunwook Kim (April 28-30). But Vänskä and the orchestra performing Mahler's magnificent Ninth Symphony before recording it is one to circle on the calendar (March 17-19).

And the finale of Vänskä's tenure will be a grand one indeed, as he conducts Mahler's Eighth Symphony (June 10-12). Nicknamed "Symphony of a Thousand," it features four choirs and seven vocal soloists. A composer known for making big music didn't get any bigger than this.

The maestro plans to return in a future season to complete his Mahler cycle with the orchestra, performing and recording the Third Symphony.

Subscription packages for the 2021-22 season will be available beginning July 26. Individual tickets for fall concerts go on sale Aug. 16, with the rest of the season on sale Sept. 7. More information is available at minnesotaorchestra.org or at 612-371-5656.

Rob Hubbard is a freelance classical music critic. • wordhub@yahoo.com