Minnesota Orchestra, Stutzmann bring standing ovations

When Nathalie Stutzmann comes to town, standing ovations seem to follow.

Now, mind you, the French conductor's 2017 and 2019 visits to Minneapolis' Orchestra Hall featured favorite works bound to bring crowds to their feet — especially the prone-to-praise audiences of the Minnesota Orchestra — such as symphonies by Beethoven and Brahms and Mozart's immensely popular Clarinet Concerto. But the performances have been solid, with Stutzmann confident in her interpretations and graceful in style.

So it should come as no surprise that those attending Friday night's Minnesota Orchestra concert stood and cheered both of the guaranteed crowd-pleasers on the program: Sergei Rachmaninoff's heartstring-tugging Second Piano Concerto and Antonin Dvorak's bold and brassy Ninth Symphony, nicknamed "From the New World."

The Rachmaninoff was given a palpably passionate performance, Czech pianist Lukas Vondracek as intensely engaged with the work as any soloist I've encountered. And the Dvorak featured all sorts of interesting fluctuations of tempo and volume without siphoning anything from the booming, big-shouldered fortissimos that burst forth frequently. So, if this was part of Stutzmann's audition to become Osmo Vänskä's successor as the Minnesota Orchestra's music director, there was surely much vox populi to support such a choice. Unlike the three conductors who appear to be her chief competition, she has the advantage of having built a relationship with the musicians and audiences over the course of four years.

But that's not to say that all went perfectly on Friday. Unlike Vänskä and most guest conductors, Stutzmann has an old-school style of cuing soloists and sections of the orchestra, her gestures coming as much as a full second before the accompanying sound.

Sometimes, that offered pleasing insight into her approach, as when a suggested attack and diminuendo were communicated by a grasp and withdrawal, as if snatching a fly from midair. Yet it also caused some entrances to be murkier than desired, as the musicians adjusted to her anticipatory rhythms.

Any such issues were eclipsed by the musicianship and showmanship of Vondracek on the Rachmaninoff concerto. He was suitably dramatic for such a quintessentially romantic work, recoiling as if jolted by an electric shock with every vehement strike of the keys, then singing sweetly in duets with the heart-swelling solos of principal French horn Michael Gast and clarinetist Gregory Williams.

The concerto's slow movement was the highlight of the evening, as Vondracek seemed to squeeze every drop of reflective melancholy from the music. His left hand sometimes appeared to be pleading with his right to bring more emotion to each note. While the phrases bandied about between sections of the orchestra could have been crisper on the finale, Vondracek's engaging expressiveness pushed aside the shortcomings.

The Dvorak Ninth proved a fine showcase not only for multiple musicians in the orchestra, but for Stutzmann's conducting style. Having established a career as an operatic contralto — which admirably continues at age 56 — Stutzmann clearly prizes theatricality, but never for the sake of entertainment alone. She milks pauses to build anticipation, cues big blasts of brass as if squaring to push a car out of a snowdrift, and sends her arms undulating like wildflowers in the wind when asking for a smooth beauty.

By the finale of the Dvorak, it was clear that she and the orchestra were clicking on all cylinders. Stutzmann let her playfulness emerge while dancing on the podium, and the music was precise and high-energy, every solo strong. Sure, the standing ovation was predictable, but it came with an evident outpouring of affection for this confident, charismatic conductor.

Rob Hubbard is a Twin Cities freelance classical music critic. He can be reached at wordhub@yahoo.com.

With: Conductor Nathalie Stutzmann and

pianist Lukas Vondracek

What: Works by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Antonin Dvorak

When, where: 8 p.m. Saturday, Orchestra Hall,

1111 Nicollet Mall, Mpls.

Tickets: $46-$72, available at 612-371-5656 or

minnesotaorchestra.org