Afkham Conducts La Mer
Fri Apr 14 — Sat Apr 15, 2023
Orchestra Hall
Four pieces of orchestral artwork are showcased in this intensely expressionistic program led by acclaimed conductor and regular Minnesota Orchestra guest David Afkham. Ring of Fire and Love evokes an “earth-shattering, creative and cataclysmic moment,” as described by composer Outi Tarkianien. Richard Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder is a set of five musical love letters, sung here by soprano Emily Magee, followed by Lili Boulanger’s introspective and melancholic Of a Sad Evening. The Minnesota Orchestra musicians then create a kaleidoscope of swirling sound in Claude Debussy’s classic portrait of the sea.
A Few Things To Know
- This performance of Outi Tarkianien’s Ring of Fire and Love will be the United States premiere of the work.
- Of a Spring Morning, the companion piece to Lili Boulanger’s Of a Sad Evening, was performed earlier this season in concerts conducted by Thomas Søndergård.
- American soprano Emily Magee has earned critical acclaim for her interpretations of leading roles in Wagner operas, including Elsa in Lohengrin and Elisabeth in Tannhäuser. She last performed with the Minnesota Orchestra in 2003 as a soloist in Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand.
- Listen to the Minnesota Orchestra play La Mer in this clip from a performance in 2018.
Program
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TARKIAINEN
The Ring of Fire and Love
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WAGNER/Mottl
Wesendonck Lieder
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L. BOULANGER
Of a Sad Evening
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DEBUSSY
La Mer
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.
David Afkham has just been announced as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Orquestra y Coro Nacional de España from September 2019. This position will build on the success of his tenure as Principal Conductor of the orchestra since 2014, which has featured critically acclaimed performances of Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, Mahler’s Symphony No. 6, Bruckner Symphony No. 9, Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, Brahms’ Requiem, Haydn’s Die Schöpfung, as well as several world premieres and semi-staged projects with Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer, Strauss’ Elektra, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle. Born in Freiburg, Germany, in 1983, David Afkham is in high demand as a guest conductor with some of the world’s finest orchestras and opera houses, and has established a reputation as one of the most sought-after conductors to emerge from Germany in recent years.
Future highlights as a guest conductor include returns with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Münchner Philharmoniker, HR Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, Swedish Radio Symphony, Orchestra of Accademia Santa Cecilia and NHK Symphony Orchestra, as well as debuts with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra and Dresden Philharmonic.
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Additional services are available upon request.