Minnesota Orchestra Returns with Two Weeks of Homecoming Concerts

MINNEAPOLIS, MN (January 17, 2014)—The Minnesota Orchestra today announced plans for two weeks of homecoming concerts February 7 through 15, offering audiences the first chance to hear the ensemble perform in the renovated Orchestra Hall. The Orchestra’s return begins February 7 and 8 with a pair of historic concerts led by the ensemble’s eminent Conductor Laureate Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, highlighted by Beethoven’s heroic Third Symphony and Skrowaczewski’s own powerful orchestration of Bach’s D-minor Toccata and Fugue—the work that opened the first concert at Orchestra Hall in 1974. French conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier continues the musical homecoming February 14 and 15 with a set of Valentine’s weekend concerts that includes an all-British program of Holst’s popular The Planets and Elgar’s Cello Concerto, the latter featuring virtuoso soloist Steven Isserlis.


All concerts begin at 8 p.m., and all are preceded by a free public open house at Orchestra Hall, with doors opening at 4 p.m. Members of the community are invited to become acquainted with the renovated facility, while subscribers may survey seat locations and renew series tickets. No tickets or reservations are required to attend the open house.


“We’re pleased to bring the music back to our audiences at Orchestra Hall with our musicians onstage and a dear friend on the conductor’s podium,” says Robert Neu, the Orchestra’s vice president and general manager. “Stanislaw’s artistic relationship with the Minnesota Orchestra extends more than five decades—nearly half of our ensemble’s history—and it’s fitting for him to lead our homecoming to the Hall he helped build, reopening just as it opened 40 years ago: with his own orchestration of a Bach masterpiece.”


Added Anthony Ross, the Orchestra’s principal cellist: “We are thrilled to return to Orchestra Hall, our home, and the home for world class symphonic music in this community. Stanislaw Skrowaczewski conducting Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony will be a triumphant moment for the Minnesota Orchestra.”


The homecoming concerts, held at Orchestra Hall in downtown Minneapolis, are performed on Friday, February 7; Saturday, February 8; Friday, February 14; and Saturday, February 15, with each concert beginning at 8 p.m. and preceded by a free public open house beginning at 4 p.m. Tickets to these concerts will be available to the public online only at minnesotaorchestra.org starting at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, January 22. Ticket holders will receive a copy of the Minnesota Orchestra’s Grammy-nominated recording of Sibelius’ Symphonies No. 1 and 4 with their order. Subscribers and donors will be contacted this weekend with a pre-public sale opportunity. For more information, visit minnesotaorchestra.org.


The four homecoming concerts are a prelude to the full 2014 Minnesota Orchestra season made possible by a recently ratified collective bargaining agreement between the Orchestra’s musicians and board of directors. Additional announcements about the season will be forthcoming later this month.


Minnesota Orchestra Homecoming


BEETHOVEN’S THIRD SYMPHONY: EROICA


Friday, February 7, 2014, 8 p.m. / Orchestra Hall

Saturday, February 8, 2014, 8 p.m. / Orchestra Hall


Minnesota Orchestra

Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, conductor


BACH/Skrowaczewski Toccata and Fugue in D minor

STRAUSS Don Juan

BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3, Eroica


Conductor Laureate Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, the Minnesota Orchestra’s music director from 1960 to 1979, welcomes the ensemble and the community back to Orchestra Hall with concerts that begin with the first music heard at the Hall’s opening in 1974—his own orchestration of J.S. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Also on the program are the Richard Strauss tone poem Don Juan and Ludwig van Beethoven’s heroic Third Symphony.


Tickets: Available online at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, January 22. [Subscribers and donors will be contacted this weekend with a pre-public sale opportunity.] Ticket holders will receive a copy of the Minnesota Orchestra’s Grammy-nominated recording of Sibelius’ Symphonies No. 1 and 4 with their order.


Minnesota Orchestra Homecoming


HOLST’S PLANETS AND ELGAR’S CELLO CONCERTO


Friday, February 14, 2014, 8 p.m. / Orchestra Hall

Saturday, February 15, 2014, 8 p.m. / Orchestra Hall


Minnesota Orchestra

Yan Pascal Tortelier, conductor

Steven Isserlis, cello

Women of the Minnesota Chorale


ELGAR Cello Concerto

HOLST The Planets


French conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier continues the Minnesota Orchestra’s homecoming, leading a program of two British masterworks—Edward Elgar’s exquisite Cello Concerto, featuring the composer’s countryman Steven Isserlis as soloist; and Gustav Holst’s The Planets, an astrological sojourn of music ranging from warlike to jovial, with an ethereal close that includes the women of the Minnesota Chorale, the Orchestra’s principal chorus.


Tickets: Available online at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, January 22. [Subscribers and donors will be contacted this weekend with a pre-public sale opportunity.] Ticket holders will receive a copy of the Minnesota Orchestra’s Grammy-nominated recording of Sibelius’ Symphonies No. 1 and 4 with their order.














Tickets will be available to the public online only starting at 5 p.m. on January 22, 2014, at minnesotaorchestra.org. Tickets can be purchased online or in person at the Minnesota Orchestra Administrative Office, International Centre, 5th floor, 920 Second Avenue South, Minneapolis (open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; offices are closed on January 20 for the Martin Luther King holiday). The Orchestra Hall Box Office will be open beginning at 4 p.m. on days of the homecoming concerts. Prices listed do not include a $5 service charge per transaction for online orders. There are no service charges for in-person transactions at the Minnesota Orchestra Administrative Office or Orchestra Hall Box Office. A non-discountable $5 facility fee is included in the price of each individual ticket. No refunds. Tickets to homecoming concerts are non-exchangeable. All sales are final.


All programs, artists, dates, times and prices subject to change.


This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through
a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a
legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.







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