With grace and passion, Karina Canellakis leads Minnesota Orchestra in a splendid showcase

It was a tough night for escapism. As news poured in from Ukraine, the Minnesota Orchestra faced a considerable challenge in trying to offer comfort.

But Friday night's concert at Orchestra Hall actually served up some sense of perspective on current events. And if you weren't able to deeply engage with the music, guest conductor Karina Canellakis was there to do it for you.

A candidate to succeed Osmo Vänskä as the orchestra's music director, Canellakis displayed the same unflagging energy as on her most recent visit last summer, but had a considerably larger palette with which to work. Everything on Friday's program — which was livestreamed and can be viewed free through March 7 at minnesotaorchestra.org — was a fine showcase for a large orchestra.

Canellakis threw herself into the performance with grace and passion. As did cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, the soloist on Richard Strauss' wild ride of a tone poem/cello concerto hybrid, "Don Quixote." And a scintillating interpretation of Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Symphonic Dances" found conductor and orchestra seemingly developing an enthusiastic bond.

Canellakis' sharp focus was present from the first piece, "Short Piece for Orchestra," by 20th century American composer Julia Perry, whose music is well worth rediscovering. It's a work that explodes on arrival, but segues to a mellifluous melancholy before coming to a crashing climax.

Rather than distract me from the events in eastern Europe, "Don Quixote" led me to consider them in a new light. As Strauss' musical evocations of vignettes from Miguel de Cervantes' 17th-century novel unspooled from the stage, I imagined Russian President Vladimir Putin as similarly undertaking a quest rooted in delusion.

Various instrumentalists play characters from the novel, and Queyras captivatingly conveyed the conflicted inner landscape of the titular knight. Engaging portrayals could be found throughout the orchestra, such as principal violist Rebecca Albers' sympathetic Sancho Panza and the bassoonists as bantering monks and reverent pilgrims, but Queyras proved the scene stealer, especially on a meditative vigil and a powerful concluding death scene.

Throughout the complex and multi-faceted work, Canellakis appeared in command of the interpretation, confident in her choices and clear in her cues.

The New York native is a lithe and lively leader, using her whole body to convey the mood of the music, swaying like a windswept willow, swirling her arms about like a spell-casting conjurer, or punctuating with firm, sharp strokes.

Rachmaninoff's "Symphonic Dances" proved a fine forum for her deeply engaged approach to conducting and a developing chemistry with the orchestra. It came through on the delicate waltz at the work's center, the strings lush and layered, violinist Susie Park joining the evening's parade of exceptional soloists, and on a finale that covered a broad range of dynamics, never more memorably than on a whispering pianissimo section from which Timothy Zavadil's bass clarinet ominously emerged.

Yes, physicality and flamboyance are key to Canellakis' style, but they always seem in devoted service to the music. She's no showboat, though some might be daunted by her intensity. I found her a tremendously entertaining conductor to watch, and the results sounded splendid.

Minnesota Orchestra
With: Conductor Karina Canellakis and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras
What: Works by Julia Perry, Richard Strauss and Sergei Rachmaninoff
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: Orchestra Hall, 1111 Nicollet Mall, Mpls.
Tickets: $30-$99. 612-371-5656 or minnesotaorchestra.org

Rob Hubbard is a Twin Cities classical music writer. wordhub@yahoo.com.