The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra clearly wants to see you at a concert.
Few major American orchestras make such a concerted effort to meet audiences where they’re at, be it geographically, economically or musically, offering magnificent musicianship at low prices at a venue near you.
The SPCO announced its 66th season Wednesday, and it presents a plethora of potentially marvelous music. Here’s a month-by-month rundown of some of the most promising concerts, either at the orchestra’s home hall, St. Paul’s Ordway Concert Hall, or one of eight other venues in four Minneapolis neighborhoods, St. Paul’s Summit Hill, Eden Prairie, Apple Valley and Mahtomedi.
September: The orchestra’s three artistic partners will each visit twice, starting with one of the world’s great violists, Germany’s Tabea Zimmermann. She’ll open the season with music by 20th-century Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz and Sergei Prokofiev before teaming up with concertmaster Steven Copes for a Mozart Sinfonia Concertante (Sept. 13-15).
October: If you’ve yet to experience the artistic imagination of South African cellist and SPCO artistic partner Abel Selaocoe, you really should. You might end up singing, dancing, chanting or just being transported by the music, which, for these concerts, will be by Giovanni Sollima and Selaocoe himself (Oct. 18-20).
November: While a conductor-less take on Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony (Nov. 1-3) should be thrilling, check out the all-American program featuring George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Aaron Copland (“Appalachian Spring”) and Minneapolis-based mezzo Clara Osowski singing songs by Charles Ives (Nov. 29-Dec. 1).
December: It’s a holiday tradition for the orchestra’s musicians to perform five of J.S. Bach’s “Brandenburg” Concertos, but this year’s edition features a baroque music master in SPCO artistic partner Richard Egarr (Dec. 13-15). Speaking of baroque, the best local interpretation of Handel’s “Messiah” oratorio is always the SPCO’s, this year conducted by Patrick Dupré Quigley of Miami-based early music ensemble Seraphic Fire (Dec. 19-22).
January: Israeli pianist Roman Rabinovich will be the soloist for Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 on a program that also features baritone John Moore singing Francis Poulenc’s “Le bal masque (The Masked Ball)” (Jan. 17-19).
