Fabien Gabel Returns
Fri Dec 10 - Sat Dec 11, 2021
Orchestra Hall
Two stunning new church bells were recently donated to the Minnesota Orchestra, and they are the perfect pitches for the most resounding moments of Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique. Conductor Fabien Gabel returns to the podium for this remarkable work that breaks all the rules and blurs all the boundaries. Before the bells toll though, American violinist Tai Murray—whose sound is all at once striking, elegant, and virtuosic—stands in the solo spotlight for Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto.
A Few Things to Know
- The Orchestra’s new bells—a gift from Gary B. Cohen, a season subscriber since 2001—are tuned to play the pitches C and G, custom-cast for the Orchestra by the world-renowned Royal Eijsbouts foundry in the Netherlands.
- Now based in Europe, Tai Murray made her solo debut with the Chicago Symphony at age nine.
- French conductor Fabien Gabel has been the Music Director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec since 2012 and Music Director of the innovative Orchestre Français des Jeunes since 2017.
Program
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HUMPERDINCK
Königskinder, Concert Overture
1 min noteOne Minute Note
Like Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, Königskinder is a fairy-tale opera involving a witch—but in this case with a central romance between a king’s son and a goose girl. Although they meet a tragic end, this is not foreshadowed in the energetic overture, set in triple meter with regal undertones.
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MENDELSSOHN
Violin Concerto
1 min noteOne Minute Note
Felix Mendelssohn’s exquisite Violin Concerto maintains the transparent textures of a Mozart-Haydn orchestra, but it rings out with a splendor the earlier composers never dreamed possible. The solo violinist’s soaring lines, both graceful and impassioned, conclude in an exultant three-octave leap.
- INTERMISSION
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BERLIOZ
Symphonie fantastique
1 min noteOne Minute Note
In what musicologist Michael Steinberg called “the most remarkable First Symphony ever written,” Hector Berlioz breaks the rules and oversteps the boundaries, creating an exhilarating, one-of-a-kind journey: the story of an artist and his obsession with a woman.
Artists
The Grammy Award-winning Minnesota Orchestra, led by Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård—who is serving as music director designate during the 2022-23 season—is recognized for distinguished performances around the world, award-winning recordings and broadcasts, educational engagement programs, and commitment to building the orchestral repertoire of the future. Founded in 1903, the Orchestra has an extensive history of touring throughout Minnesota, nationally and abroad, including high-profile visits in recent years to Cuba, Europe and South Africa. Recording projects undertaken in the past two decades include complete cycles of symphonies by Beethoven, Sibelius and Mahler, all recorded under Osmo Vänskä, who is now the Orchestra’s conductor laureate.
Fabien Gabel has established an international career of the highest calibre, appearing with orchestras such as London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln Cologne, Tonkünstler-Orchester, Oslo Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Praised for his dynamic style and sensitive approach to the score, he is best known for his eclectic choice of repertoire ranging from core symphonic works to new music to championing lesser-known composers of the 19th and the 20th century.
Gabel begins the 2021-22 season giving the season opening concerts of the Tonkünstler-Orchester in Vienna. Other highlights of the season include his debuts with NDR Radiophilharmonie, Stavanger Symphony, Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, Malmö Symphony and Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, and his return to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra where he appears regularly. With the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia he gives the Spanish premiere of the complete version of Tomasi trumpet concerto with Håkan Hardenberger. In North America, he continues his established relationships with orchestras such as Minnesota Orchestra, Houston Symphony and Detroit Symphony. He is highly in demand in his native France with Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre Philharmonique du Capitole de Toulouse and Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo.
Winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2004, Tai Murray was subsequently named a BBC New Generation Artist. She has performed as guest soloist on the stages of such halls as the Barbican, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens and Shanghai’s Concert Hall, and with ensembles such as the Atlanta Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony and Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar. Highlights of her recent performances include engagements at the BBC Proms with BBC National Orchestra of Wales, a tour with the Orchester de Bretagne, and concerts with the Orchester de Picardie, the Chineke! Orchestra and the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra.
Your Concert Experience
Join us for Q&A’s, hosted discussions, exhibits and more. All free with your concert ticket!
The fantastique sounds and behaves like nothing ever heard before.”
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