“The Minnesota Orchestra will stage two weeks of homecoming concerts February 7 through 15, marking both the orchestra’s return to its home, the recently renovated Orchestra Hall, and the end of the labor dispute that locked the musicians out of that home for the last 15 months,” writes Kristin Tillotson in Friday’s (1/17) Star Tribune (Minneapolis). “The official season will launch later next month, with programs to be announced before the end of January. The homecoming concerts begin Feb. 7-8 with Conductor Laureate Stanislaw Skrowaczewski conducting Beethoven’s Third Symphony and his own orchestration of Bach’s D-minor Toccata and Fugue—the work that opened the first concert at Orchestra Hall in 1974. On Feb. 14-15, French conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier will lead an all-British program of Holst’s popular The Planets, with the women of the Minnesota Chorale, and Elgar’s Cello Concerto featuring virtuoso soloist Steven Isserlis. All concerts will be are preceded by a free open house at Orchestra Hall, with doors opening at 4 p.m. The public is invited to come and see the renovated facility whether or not they are attending a concert…. Not featuring a soloist that first weekend was intentional, [Vice President and General Manager Robert Neu] said, because ‘we are featuring the musicians of the orchestra.’ ”
Posted January 21, 2014
