Minnesota Orchestra Returns with Homecoming Concerts, 2/7

Return to Orchestra Hall with the Musicians and Conductor Laureate Stanislaw Skrowaczewski for concerts February 7th and 8th featuring Beethoven's Third Symphony. The homecoming continues February 14th and 15th as Yan Pascal Tortelier conducts Holst's Planets and the Elgar Cello Concerto with soloist Steven Isserlis

Tickets on-sale beginning January 22. The official season launches later in February with a complete season announcement to follow later this month. The public is invited to attend a free open house at Orchestra Hall before each homecoming concert.

The Minnesota Orchestra today announced plans for two weeks of homecoming concerts February 7 through 15, offering audiences the first chance to hear the orchestra perform in renovated Orchestra Hall.

The Orchestra's return begins February 7 and 8 with a pair of historic concerts led by the ensemble's eminent Conductor Laureate Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, highlighted by Beethoven's heroic Third Symphony and Skrowaczewski's own powerful orchestration of Bach's D-minor Toccata and Fugue-the work that opened the first concert at Orchestra Hall in 1974.

French conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier continues the musical homecoming February 14 and 15 with a set of Valentine's weekend concerts that includes an all-British program of Holst's popular The Planets and Elgar's Cello Concerto, the latter featuring virtuoso soloist Steven Isserlis.

All concerts begin at 8 p.m., and all are preceded by a free public open house at Orchestra Hall, with doors opening at 4 p.m. Members of the community are invited to become acquainted with the renovated facility, while subscribers may survey seat locations and renew series tickets. No tickets or reservations are required to attend the open house.

"We are thrilled to return to Orchestra Hall, our home, and the home for world class symphonic music in this community. Stanislaw Skrowaczewski conducting Beethoven'sEroica Symphony will be a triumphant moment for the Minnesota Orchestra," said Tony Ross, principal cellist.

Skrowaczewski's artistic relationship with the Minnesota Orchestra extends more than five decades, nearly half of the ensemble's history, and it is fitting for him to lead our homecoming to the Hall he helped build, reopening just as it opened 40 years ago: with his own orchestration of a Bach masterpiece.

The homecoming concerts, held at Orchestra Hall in downtown Minneapolis, are performed on Friday, February 7; Saturday, February 8; Friday, February 14; and Saturday, February 15, with each concert beginning at 8 p.m. and preceded by a free public open house beginning at 4 p.m.

Tickets to these concerts will be available online at minnesotaorchestra.org starting at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, January 22.

Ticket holders will receive a copy of the Minnesota Orchestra's Grammy-nominated recording of Sibelius' Symphonies No. 1 and 4 with their order.

The four homecoming concerts are a prelude to the full 2014 Minnesota Orchestra season. Additional announcements about the season will be forthcoming later this month.

Minnesota Orchestra Homecoming Concerts:

BEETHOVEN'S THIRD SYMPHONY: EROICA

Friday, February 7, 2014, 8 p.m. / Orchestra Hall
Saturday, February 8, 2014, 8 p.m. / Orchestra Hall
Minnesota Orchestra
Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, conductor

BACH/Skrowaczewski Toccata and Fugue in D minor
STRAUSS Don Juan
BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3, Eroica

Conductor Laureate Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, the Minnesota Orchestra's music director from 1960 to 1979, welcomes the ensemble and the community back to Orchestra Hall with concerts that begin with the first music heard at the Hall's opening in 1974-his own orchestration of J.S. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Also on the program are the Richard Strauss tone poem Don Juan and Ludwig van Beethoven's heroic Third Symphony.

Tickets: Available online at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, January 22. Ticket holders will receive a copy of the Minnesota Orchestra's Grammy-nominated recording of Sibelius' Symphonies No. 1 and 4 with their order.

HOLST'S PLANETS AND ELGAR'S CELLO CONCERTO

Friday, February 14, 2014, 8 p.m. / Orchestra Hall
Saturday, February 15, 2014, 8 p.m. / Orchestra Hall
Minnesota Orchestra
Yan Pascal Tortelier, conductor
Steven Isserlis, cello
Women of the Minnesota Chorale

ELGAR Cello Concerto
HOLST The Planets

French conductor Yan Pascal Tortelier continues the Minnesota Orchestra's homecoming, leading a program of two British masterworks-Edward Elgar's exquisite Cello Concerto, featuring the composer's countryman Steven Isserlis as soloist; and Gustav Holst's The Planets, an astrological sojourn of music ranging from warlike to jovial, with an ethereal close that includes the women of the Minnesota Chorale, the Orchestra's principal chorus.

Tickets: Available online at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, January 22. Ticket holders will receive a copy of the Minnesota Orchestra's Grammy-nominated recording of Sibelius' Symphonies No. 1 and 4 with their order.

Tickets will be available starting at 5 p.m. on January 22, 2014, at minnesotaorchestra.org. Tickets can be purchased online or in person at the Minnesota Orchestra Administrative Office, International Centre, 5th floor, 920 Second Avenue South, Minneapolis (open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; offices are closed on January 20 for the Martin Luther King holiday). The Orchestra Hall Box Office will be open beginning at 4 p.m. on days of the homecoming concerts. Prices listed do not include a $5 service charge per transaction for online orders. There are no service charges for in-person transactions at the Minnesota Orchestra Administrative Office or Orchestra Hall Box Office. A non-discountable $5 facility fee is included in the price of each individual ticket. No refunds. Tickets to homecoming concerts are non-exchangeable. All sales are final.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant.