from William Schrickel, Music Director:
Welcome to the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra’s 32nd Season. I’m particularly excited about our concert programs this year. We salute the 100th anniversary of Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring premiere and the 200th birthday of Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. Following on the heels of last season’s triumphant performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, we are thrilled to welcome back the magnificent Minnesota Chorale (Kathy Saltzman Romey, Artistic Director) to collaborate with the MSO in Mahler’s spectacular Resurrection Symphony. We honor Minneapolis composer Dominick Argento, feature music composed by his former student (and MSO violinist) Linda Tutas Haugen, and salute the memory of jazz great Dave Brubeck. We present two very different pieces inspired by mountains, Alan Hovhaness’s Mysterious Mountain and Modest Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain. Monumental works by two of the world’s greatest symphonists, Ludwig van Beethoven (his Symphony #3, the Eroica) and Dmitri Shostakovich (his Symphony #5) anchor programs that also include shorter works from the world of opera by Engelbert Humperdinck and Carl Maria von Weber. There’s even a charming, rarely performed Bassoon Concertino featuring MSO bassoonist Marta Troicki. All of our concerts are free. Please join us for what promises to be our best season ever!