Classical music: A fall preview

Osamu Honda, Associated Press

Leon Fleisher sits at a piano during a news conference on March 31, 2004, at Carnegie Hall in New York. Fleisher who for years was able to perform using only his left hand because of focal dystonia, but returned to two hand playing after surgery and years of therapy, has canceled a performance at Tanglewood in Lenox,Mass., Sunday, July 22, 2007,because of an inflammation of both hands.

By Larry Fuchsberg, Special to the Star Tribune

Last update: September 8, 2008 - 4:38 PM

Leon Fleisher and the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota

Somebody ought to turn Leon Fleisher's life into an opera (although it would be nearly impossible to cast). At 80, this legendary pianist/teacher/conductor/mensch -- who lost the use of his right hand for some 35 years, until botox injections relieved his dystonia -- is enjoying a glorious late efflorescence. In his third appearance with the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota, Fleisher and duo partner Katherine Jacobson will play Ravel's "La Valse" and Schubert's F-minor "Fantasie" (the latter being, to my mind, the greatest piece in the four-hand repertoire); the program concludes with Brahms' Schubertian Piano Quartet, Op. 26. 4 p.m. Sept. 14. $15-$25. Ted Mann Concert Hall, 2128 S. 4th St., Mpls. 651-450-0527 or www.chambermusicsocietymn.org.

Opera: Talk about casting challenges! Verdi's scorching "Il Trovatore" needs, as Enrico Caruso observed, "only the four best singers in the world." Minnesota Opera has had the clever idea of raiding the remarkable ensemble assembled by conductor Valery Gergiev at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg; the results, give or take a Slavic accent or two, should be electrifying.

8 p.m. Sept. 20; 7:30 p.m. Sept. 23, 25 and 27; 2 p.m. Sept. 28. $20-$150. Ordway Center, 5th and Washington Sts., St. Paul. 612-333-6669 or www.mnopera.org.

More pianists: Who says the piano recital is kaput? The Schubert Club launches its season with French-Canadian hyper-virtuoso Marc-André Hamelin in an irresistible evening of Berg, Chopin and Charles-Valentin Alkan (perhaps the 19th century's most eccentric musician). And the Frederic Chopin Society presents Simone Dinnerstein, an intensely individual Juilliard dropout, in an afternoon of Bach and Beethoven (his last sonata, Op. 111).

Schubert Club: 8 p.m. Oct. 21. $22-$45. Ordway Center, 5th and Washington Sts., St. Paul. 651-224-4222 or www.schubert.org. Chopin Society: 3 p.m. Nov. 16. $12-$20. Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center, Macalester College, 130 Macalester St., St. Paul. 612-822-0123 or www.UptownTix.com.

More chamber music: Among the highlights of Music in the Park Series' busy 30th season is a weekend of six Beethoven string quartets, played by the young but formidable Pacifica Quartet. On the same weekend, you can also catch clarinetist Osmo Vänskä and members of the Minnesota Orchestra in music of Mozart, Shostakovich and, yes, Beethoven, in MacPhail Center's warm Antonello Hall.

Music in the Park: 4 p.m. Nov. 8 (Quartets Nos. 6, 11, 15) and Nov. 9 (Nos. 2, 10, 14). $25 per concert, $40 for both. St. Anthony Park United Church of Christ, 2129 Commonwealth Av., St. Paul. 651-645-5699 or www.musicintheparkseries.org. Minnesota Orchestra: 7 p.m. Nov. 9. $10-$40. MacPhail Center for Music, 501 S. 2nd St., Mpls. 612-371-5656 or www. minnesotaorchestra.org.

Orchestras: Circle Nov. 13-16 in red. That's when Osmo Vänskä's slow traversal of Anton Bruckner's symphonic output with the Minnesota Orchestra reaches No. 4, the composer's breakthrough piece. It's also when Peruvian-born guest conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya pilots the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra through a terrific assortment of American musics (by Revueltas, Villa Lobos, Ives and Gershwin, among others). Minnesota Orchestra: 11 a.m. Nov. 13, Orchestra Hall, 11th St. and Nicollet Mall, Mpls.; 8 p.m. Nov. 14, Cathedral of St. Paul, 239 Selby Av., St. Paul. $21-$83. 612-371-5656 or www.minnesotaorchestra.org. SPCO: 10:30 a.m. & 8 p.m. Nov. 14-15, Ordway Center, 5th and Washington Sts., St. Paul; 2 p.m. Nov. 16, Ted Mann Concert Hall, 2128 S. 4th St., Mpls. $11-$59. 651-291-1144 or www.thespco.org.

Voices: The Rose Ensemble kicks off its season with a characteristically imaginative selection of "Music for the End of Time," including pieces from the Hebrew, Coptic and Latin chant traditions, Renaissance motets and a new work by resident composer John Rommereim. Soprano Dawn Upshaw, pianist Stephen Prutsman and members of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra join forces for a similarly inclusive survey of music rooted in folk song -- English, Spanish, Polish, Hungarian and American. And the VocalEssence Chorus and Ensemble Singers, the St. Olaf Choir, tenor Dan Dressen and conductor Philip Brunelle (not to mention 12 harps) converge for an all-French program crowned by Berlioz's massive "Te Deum" -- part of VocalEssence's 40th-anniversary festivities.

Rose Ensemble: 8 p.m. Oct. 10, Cathedral of St. Paul, 239 Selby Av., St. Paul; 8 p.m. Oct. 11, Basilica of St. Mary, 88 N. 17th St., Mpls.; 7:30 p.m. Oct. 12, Wayzata Community Church, 125 E. Wayzata Blvd., Wayzata. $17-$35. 651-225-4340 or www.RoseEnsemble.org. SPCO: 8 p.m. Oct. 17-18, $11-$59. Ordway Center, 5th and Washington Sts., St. Paul. 651-291-1144 or www.thespco.org. VocalEssence: 8 p.m. Oct. 17, $20-$40. Cathedral of St. Paul, 239 Selby Av., St. Paul. 612-371-5656 or www.vocalessence.org.

New and old: Long domiciled in Belgium, Frederic Rzewski is one of the more imposing musicians this country has produced -- an original composer and an overwhelming pianist. Hear him with St. Paul-based Zeitgeist, a group that knows him well, in a free concert on Macalester College's New Music Series. The following evening, put yourself in the historically informed hands of the Lyra Baroque Orchestra, which devotes its season opener to the great French viola da gamba player and composer Marin Marais.

Rzewski: 8 p.m. Sept. 26,. Free. Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center, Macalester College, 130 Macalester St., St. Paul. 651-696-6808. Lyra: 8 p.m. Sept. 27. $6-$23. Sundin Hall, Hamline University, 1531 Hewitt Av., St. Paul. 651-209-6799 or www.UptownTix.com.