Thomas Søndergård isn't all that's new at Orchestra Hall. Yes, the Dane will begin his tenure as the Minnesota Orchestra's music director in the fall, and he'll bring along a host of changes.
The orchestra announced its 2023-24 season on Tuesday, and there's good news for those looking for a cheap date on Saturday night — those concerts will have a "Choose your price" option. They'll also start earlier (7 p.m.), so you will still have much of the evening ahead of you afterward.
Oh, is that still too late for you? Well, Søndergård also will be conducting some Saturday afternoon concerts and sticking around to chat with the audience afterward.
In addition to classical concerts, there will be pops offerings, films accompanied by the orchestra, one-hour concerts, chamber music, concerts for kids and families, sensory-friendly programs, and wellness-oriented concerts. For those who prefer to stay home, there's some livestreaming, too.
Some of the most promising performances of the season:
September: Søndergård launches his tenure with two weeks of concerts, the first program featuring two Richard Strauss works sandwiched around a Mozart Oboe Concerto with soloist Nathan Hughes (Sept. 21-23), the second featuring some transporting French fare from Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel (Sept. 28-30).
October: This orchestra makes the symphonies of Dmitri Shostakovich deeply involving experiences, as you'll likely find when Juraj Valčuha conducts the composer's Fifth on a program that also features a trombone concerto by Scottish composer James MacMillan with Jörgen van Rijen as soloist (Oct. 13-14).
November: In addition to what should be a richly entertaining evening with one of America's greatest musical theater stars, Audra McDonald (Nov. 4), the orchestra also will host one of the classical world's hottest pianists, France's Bertrand Chamayou, performing Camille Saint-Saëns' Fifth Piano Concerto. His recording of that with the French National Orchestra won the Gramophone Award for Recording of the Year in 2019.
