The Minnesota Orchestra has announced its three-part “Inside the Classics” season for 2009-10 — and it’s really not just for young people, though the format certainly echoes the great young people’s concerts made famous by Leonard Bernstein more than a half-century ago.
The three programs in the upcoming series — presented once again by Assistant Conductor Sarah Hicks and violist/host Sam Bergman — all focus on music inspired by nature. Here’s the lineup:
Oct. 29-30: A look at Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, called “Pastoral,” though originally titled “Recollections of Country Life” by the composer. Hicks and Bergman will devote half of the concert to deconstructing the work and the other half to performing all five movements.
Jan. 27-28: Music as impressionism, including Debussy’s seascape masterpiece, “La Mer,” and his “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun.”
March 10-11: The seasons, including excerpts from Vivaldi’s familiar “Four Seasons” and the less-familiar “Four Seasons of Buenos Aires” by the Argentine tango composer Astor Piazzolla (though it’s more classical than tango). Also on the program is a work by contemporary Russian composer Alexander Raskatov that depicts the year’s first four months (all of them cold, no doubt).
The upcoming new season is being sold in three-concert subscription packages, starting at $55. To check out box-office details, go here.
Hicks and Bergman also write an active blog for the orchestra’s website.
The current “Inside the Classics” season concludes next week with a concert focusing on Jay Greenberg, the 17-year-old composer who already has produced six symphonies and seven concertos among more than 70 catalogued works. Greenberg will appear in the concerts on Wednesday and Thursday (March 18-19) to participate in a discussion of his compositional techniques. During the second half of the program, the orchestra will perform his Fifth Symphony, written when he was 13.
