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Gabriela Montero, Piano

Rapsodie Espagnole

Fri Feb 3 — Sat Feb 4, 2023

Orchestra Hall

~2 hrs, including intermission

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.

The Friday night performance will be broadcast live on TPT-2 and YourClassical Minnesota Public Radio as well as streamed live on the Minnesota Orchestra website.

Not sure what to expect? Read on about the experience.

A Few Things To Know

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

Explore the concert extras

Date & Time

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  • RAVEL

    Rapsodie espagnole

    1 min note

    One 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.

  • MONTERO

    Piano Concerto No. 1, Latin

    1 min note

    One 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.”

  • CHÁVEZ

    Symphony No. 2, Sinfonía India

    1 min note

    One 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.

  • FALLA

    Suite from The Three-Cornered Hat

    1 min note

    One 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

Minnesota Orchestra

Carlos Miguel Prieto

conductor

Gabriela Montero

piano

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.

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