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Kari Kriikku, clarinet
Kari Kriikku, clarinet | © Marco Borggreve

Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7

Fri Mar 3 — Sat Mar 4, 2023

Orchestra Hall

~2 hrs, including intermission

Antonín Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony is at once deeply emotional and profoundly glorious, created as a reflection of the composer’s own personal moments of grief and joy. Conductor Dima Slobodeniouk returns to Orchestra Hall to lead the Minnesota Orchestra in this stunning symphony. Clarinetist Kari Kriikku makes his much-anticipated debut in Kaija Saariaho’s symbolic D’OM LE VRAI SENS, but first the concert takes flight with George Walker’s Icarus in Orbit, a brief musical re-telling of the famous Greek myth.

The Friday night performance will be broadcast live on YourClassical Minnesota Public Radio. Find your station or listen online.

A Few Things To Know

  1. Kaija Saariaho’s latest opera, Innocence, premiered in France in July 2021. The work earned Saariaho France’s Victoires de la Musique Classique Award for composition.
  2. Five of the six movements of D’OM LE VRAI SENS are named after the five senses: sound, sight, smell, touch and taste. The work requires the soloist to move about the hall—learn more about how movement plays off of the senses in our recent blog. 
  3. In 1996, George Walker became the first Black composer to win the Pulitzer Prize in Music. In 2009, he published an autobiography titled Reminiscences of an American Composer and Pianist.
  4. Dvořák included a footnote in the score of the Seventh Symphony that simply said: “from the sad years.” After the death of his mother and eldest child in the years prior, his music turned inward, especially in this symphony.

Explore the concert extras

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Program

  • WALKER

    Icarus in Orbit

    1 min note

    One Minute Note

    In vivid musical colors, George Walker illustrates the ancient Greek myth of Icarus—the mortal who famously flew too close to the sun, melting his suit of wings—in music that ends with a falling flute line representing the protagonist’s fatal plummet.

  • SAARIAHO

    D’OM LE VRAI SENS, Clarinet Concerto

    1 min note

    One Minute Note

    Kaija Saariaho’s unique six-movement clarinet concerto, dedicated to this week’s soloist Kari Kriikku, explores the five well-known senses and a mysterious sixth sense—possibly emotion or love—as the soloist traverses the concert hall in a variety of locations on and offstage.

  • DVOŘÁK

    Symphony No. 7

    1 min note

    One Minute Note

    In Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony—lesser-known than his Ninth, but equally masterful—dark sonorities dominate the opening melody, yielding in the second movement to gentle, then bolder, themes. The Scherzo abounds with rhythmic vitality, and the Finale alternately builds and releases tensions before concluding with drama and brilliant harmonies.

Artists

Minnesota Orchestra

Dima Slobodeniouk

conductor

Kari Kriikku

clarinet

Plan your visit

  • Pre-concert activities
  • Valet Parking
  • Pre-order Beverages
  • Directions & Parking
  • Helpful Tips

Listen Ahead

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.

This concert is co-sponsored by Vicki and Chip Emery

Sponsored by

MSAB