Rapsodie Espagnole
Fri Feb 3 — Sat Feb 4, 2023
Orchestra Hall
Gabriela Montero, pianist, composer and activist, makes her Minnesota Orchestra debut as both composer and performer, playing her own Latin Piano Concerto, which Montero says “shows the complexities of South American life.” On the podium is conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto, who recorded the work with Montero in 2019. Exquisite colors and textures are braided throughout the entire program which also features Ravel’s Rapsodie espagnole, explores the music of indigenous Mexican cultures in Carlos Chávez’s Sinfonía India, and will have you dancing your way home after the brilliant Suite from The Three-Cornered Hat by Manuel de Falla.
A Few Things To Know
- Gabriela Montero was a featured performer at Barack Obama’s 2009 Presidential Inauguration and was awarded the 2012 Rockefeller Award for her contribution to the arts.
- Keep an eye and ear on the percussion section in this concert. Sinfonía India uses many special percussion instruments including a jicara de agua (a water gourd), guiro, cascabeles (a Yaqui metal rattle), and several Mexican drums that are not typically found in Western orchestral music.
- Carlos Miguel Prieto last appeared with the Minnesota Orchestra in 2017, stepping in at the last minute to conduct a program of Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra, Bloch’s Schelomo and Wagner’s Overture to Tannhäuser.
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RAVEL
Rapsodie espagnole
1 min noteOne Minute Note
Ravel grew up familiar with traditional Spanish music, and he drew on this for his Rapsodie. An understated Malagueña and a vigorous Habanera lead to a vigorous finale that overflows with melodic invention.
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MONTERO
Piano Concerto No. 1, Latin
1 min noteOne Minute Note
Venezuelan-born Gabriela Montero’s Latin Piano Concerto—performed this week with the composer as soloist—merges the European classical concerto form with idioms, traditions and characteristics of her native continent. Montero notes that her concerto reflects South America’s complexities and contradictions, from an opening Mambo that includes surface celebrations and elements of disruption, to a closing movement that cites the Venezuelan pajarillo dance, interrupted by reminders of forces that “hold our continent hostage to tyranny in its multiple guises.”
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CHÁVEZ
Symphony No. 2, Sinfonía India
1 min noteOne Minute Note
Carlos Chávez’s one-movement Sinfonía India is based on traditional melodies of Indigenous tribes from the western states of his home country of Mexico, fused with European classical elements. Of special note are a solo horn singing a tune from the Yaqui people of Sonora and a percussion section that employs several instruments of Indigenous origin.
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FALLA
Suite from The Three-Cornered Hat
1 min noteOne Minute Note
This suite, comprising selected movements from the composer’s Suites No. 1 and 2 selected by conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto, are a mosaic of vibrant dances and colorful melodies infused with the character and charm of the Spanish countryside.
Artists
The Grammy Award-winning Minnesota Orchestra, now in its second century, ranks among America’s top symphonic ensembles, with a distinguished history of acclaimed performances in its home state and around the world; award-winning recordings, broadcasts and educational engagement programs; and a commitment to intentionally build concert programs to feature more works by composers of color, exploring music both contemporary and historic. In September 2024, Danish conductor Thomas Søndergård began his second season as music director.
Carlos Miguel Prieto was born into a musical family of Spanish and French descent in Mexico City. His charismatic conducting is characterised by its dynamism and the expressivity of his interpretations. Prieto is recognised as a highly influential cultural leader and is the foremost Mexican conductor of his generation. He has been the music director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México, the country’s most important orchestra, since 2007. Prieto has also been music director of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra since 2006, where he has led the cultural renewal of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. In 2008 he was appointed music director of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería, a hand-picked orchestra which performs a two-month long series of summer programs in Mexico City. In 2022, Prieto was announced as music director designate of the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra from 2022-23, and will begin his tenure in 2023-24.
Gabriela Montero’s visionary interpretations and unique compositional gifts have garnered her critical acclaim and a devoted following on the world stage. Anthony Tommasini remarked in The New York Times that “Montero’s playing had everything: crackling rhythmic brio, subtle shadings, steely power…soulful lyricism…unsentimental expressivity.” Her first full-length composition, Piano Concerto No. 1, the Latin Concerto, was first performed at the Leipzig Gewandhaus with the MDR Sinfonieorchester and Kristjan Järvi, and subsequently recorded and filmed with the Orchestra of the Americas.
Plan your visit
- Pre-concert activities
- Valet Parking
- Pre-order Beverages
- Directions & Parking
- Helpful Tips
Plan Your Visit
An engaging performance awaits, and the fun doesn’t stop there. Make this visit your own with food and activity options. Browse these helpful tips, and when your concert date arrives, all you have to do is sit back and enjoy.
Directions & Parking
All the information you need to know for getting to and from Orchestra Hall. Parking is just steps away from Orchestra Hall in the city-owned and skyway-connected 11th and Marquette Ramp.
Pre-order beverages
Skip the lines at the bar! Pre-order your intermission beverage via the MN Orch App when you arrive at Orchestra Hall.
Accessibility Services
- Armless & Bariatric Chairs
- Assistive Listening Devices
- Large-Print Programs
- Noise-Cancelling Headphones
- Service Animals
- Wheelchair & Accessible Seating
Additional services are available upon request.