Happy 50th, Orchestra Hall. You don’t look a day over … OK, we know you’ve had some work done. In fact, you had a pretty complete makeover during last decade’s unfortunate lockout. But not until you opened in 1974 did the Minnesota Orchestra get the venue it deserved, one with excellent acoustics and sightlines. We try not to take you for granted.
We’re looking forward to celebrating the hall’s 50th anniversary during the Minnesota Orchestra’s 2024-25 season, announced Tuesday. But which concerts to choose among the many? We’re here for you. If you have the opportunity to catch only one concert a month, here’s what we’d recommend.
July: This year’s Summer at Orchestra Hall entices with the idea of pianist Jon Kimura Parker soloing on Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G (July 26). But if you’ve never caught the free, marvelously eclectic, multi-genre, 12-hour Day of Music in and around Orchestra Hall (July 27, featuring two concerts by the orchestra), you really should.
August: The orchestra is playing along with several cinematic offerings next season, but none is likely to sound better than George Gershwin’s sumptuous score for “An American in Paris,” arguably the quintessential MGM musical (Aug. 9-10).
September: Opening weekend finds music director Thomas Søndergård on the podium and Yunchan Lim — the youngest winner of America’s foremost piano competition, the Van Cliburn — at the ivories for Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto (Sept. 20-21).
October: Among piano competitions, an even bigger deal than the Cliburn is Poland’s Chopin Competition. Yulianna Avdeeva won that in 2010, and she’ll handle the demanding piano part in Leonard Bernstein’s Second Symphony, known as “The Age of Anxiety” (Oct. 18-19).
November: If you’ve been waiting for Søndergård to lead the Minnesota Orchestra, Minnesota Chorale and vocal soloists in some massive work for voices and orchestra, he’ll conduct Mozart’s “Requiem,” with two former Minnesotans among the vocal soloists (Nov. 22-23).
December: The music of J.S. Bach is reimagined by Gustav Mahler, Arvo Pärt and others in the company of master mandolinist Avi Avital, who makes his Minnesota Orchestra debut, as does conductor Jordan de Souza (Dec. 6-7).
