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Orchestra Hall is decked out for Pride.
At the Minnesota Orchestra’s home hall, they’re handing out buttons to assist others with your pronouns, presenting an exhibit on local LGBTQ musical groups, screening a documentary on local gay rights history, even offering a reading room full of literature in the upstairs lobby. Clearly, Minnesota’s largest arts organization is moving well beyond lip service to the cause of equality.
And music director Thomas Søndergård has chosen to conclude his first season on the job with the music of gay and lesbian composers. It proved a very satisfying program midday Thursday, introducing most of the audience to the evocative voice of early 20th-century Englishwoman Dame Ethel Smyth, delighting with the playfulness of Francis Poulenc and concluding with a very exciting interpretation of a Tchaikovsky symphony.
The entry point to the program was the windswept sea Smyth created for her 1906 opera, “The Wreckers.” The strings were lush and emotive as they sailed across surging waves of lithe celebration and discomfiting menace. Sounding something like Benjamin Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from “Peter Grimes” 39 years before that work was written, it made me curious to experience Smyth’s opera in its entirety.
Pianist Francesco Piemontesi was slated to solo on Karol Szymanowski’s Fourth Symphony, but a Berlin bicycle accident last week left him with a broken collarbone. So Søndergård and the orchestra shifted gears and replaced their soloist with a duo, twin pianists Christina and Michelle Naughton, and brought another gay composer onto the program in Poulenc.
His Concerto for Two Pianos proved quite a brisk, lively conversation before morphing into a mesmerizing minor-key interlude, Michelle flamboyantly flowing up and down the keyboard before the two combined to create a peaceful dreamscape. The slow movement was full of rich orchestral colors, and the finale captured the composer at his most exuberant and the sisters’ chemistry at its more finely honed. Christina opened with a lightning-quick outburst of staccato notes, Michelle interjecting echoes of encouragement before her sister took flight on a jazz-flavored solo.
But the concert’s standout experience was Peter Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, delivered with nary a hint of the sentimentality and schmaltz that can too often afflict interpretations of the composer’s work. From the first notes of its gripping opening fanfare, there was a particularly admirable blend in the brass, a fascinating mix of forcefulness and subtlety. It introduced the idea that this would be a Fourth of drama, but without histrionics. Søndergård emphasized broadly ranging contrasts in mood and volume, the first movement’s lilting waltz remarkably quiet before the tumultuous strings almost drowned out the recurring fanfare with their full sound.
Each ensuing movement felt like further steps away from fate’s dark shadow, the sweeping main melody of the slow movement like a longed-for destination, the whispering plucked strings of the Scherzo a dance on tiptoes before the bright blast of the finale’s opening chords. But comforting quiet emerged even in that scintillating sprint of a movement.
If Søndergård is looking toward making Tchaikovsky a specialty of the house — this was the sixth of the composer’s works to find its way onto a program this season, including three of his symphonies — then this performance makes that a promising prospect.
Minnesota Orchestra
With: Conductor Thomas Søndergård and pianists Christina and Michelle Naughton
What: Works by Dame Ethel Smyth, Francis Poulenc and Peter Tchaikovsky
When: 8 p.m. Fri. and 7 p.m. Sat.
Where: Orchestra Hall, 1111 Nicollet Mall, Mpls.
Tickets: $25-$106, available at 612-371-5656 or minnesotaorchestra.org
Rob Hubbard is a Twin Cities classical music writer. Reach him at wordhub@yahoo.com.
Crews continued working Thursday to repair dozens of roads and highways washed out across northeast Minnesota by runoff from torrential rain on Tuesday.
Rivers also continue to rise across the state. And more rain, possibly heavy at times, is in the forecast for the coming days.
More than a half-foot of rain fell on parts of northern Minnesota earlier this week. All of that water continues to swell rivers and creeks across the region.
Parts of the city of Cook, north of the Iron Range, were inundated Wednesday by floodwaters from the Little Fork River. The flooding forced some downtown businesses to close Thursday.
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The St. Louis County Board is holding an emergency meeting Thursday morning in Virginia in response to this week’s flooding. County officials said the board will likely approve a local disaster declaration. The county reported more than 40 roads closed due to flooding.
To the east, the Minnesota Department of Transportation said State Highway 1 remains closed between Ely and the North Shore due to a couple of washouts.
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The Superior National Forest said some Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness entry points are inaccessible due to road washouts.
Officials issued an advisory for anyone traveling in the BWCA, saying visitors “should expect to encounter high and fast-moving water throughout the wilderness after recent rain events. Portage landings may be flooded, difficult to discern, and located near swift moving water. Consider the skills and abilities of your entire group when planning travel routes. If conditions exceed your group’s abilities, turn around and exit the wilderness. Remember to always wear your lifejacket.”
Rivers and waterfalls along the North Shore also are running high from the storm runoff, and state park officials urged visitors to use caution and watch for trail closures.
Southern Minnesota flooding
Flood warnings remain in place for stretches of the Minnesota, Mississippi, Crow and Cottonwood rivers in southern Minnesota.
The Crow River is forecast to crest at major flood stage in Delano this weekend. Earlier this week, the city said its public works employees “proactively placed portions of the floodwall outside of Bridge Avenue to reduce response time in case of an emergency.”
Along the Minnesota River, Highway 19 east of Henderson is closed due to water over the road. The Highway 41 crossing at Chaska is set to close Thursday morning.
All of that water will enter the Mississippi River at St. Paul, where a flood warning is also in effect. The National Weather Service says the river is forecast to crest next week in major flood stage, close to a level that would cause flooding at Harriet Island.
And there’s more heavy rain in the forecast over the coming days, which could cause flooding to worsen.
Find forecast updates on MPR Weather’s Updraft blog.
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