Review: Jon Kimura Parker bids farewell to Summer at Orchestra Hall in memorable concert

It’s been a pretty safe summer at Orchestra Hall. No, I’m not talking about crime rates in the southwest corner of downtown Minneapolis, which has never felt like a particularly dangerous part of town. I refer to the music that the Minnesota Orchestra’s been performing over the past month.

Romanticism has been the theme of the 2025 edition of Summer at Orchestra Hall, with such emotionally effusive composers as Johannes Brahms and Peter Tchaikovsky each represented on three concerts and Antonin Dvořák on two more. And if the intention was to show off what this orchestra can do with familiar, full-voiced, heart-on-its-sleeve repertoire, consider this summer a success.

The final curtain fell on the festival Friday night, but not before its creative partner, pianist Jon Kimura Parker, took to the keys for one last ultra-Romantic piano concerto, the one composed by Norway’s Edvard Grieg in 1868. It proved an exquisite centerpiece for a concert that embraced the emotionalism of the Romantics, but never became overwrought or melodramatic. And, in the final concert of his six-summer tenure, Parker sent audiences off with a performance to remember.

While the evening began with a rather tepid take on Brahms’ “Variations on a Theme by Haydn,” the orchestra’s former associate conductor, Akiko Fujimoto, was soon guiding the musicians in a crisp and dynamically varied interpretation of the Grieg Piano Concerto. Just as on Robert Schumann’s concerto a week earlier, Parker seized upon his first opportunity to slow the tempo and explore the composer’s reflective side.

The pianist interacted with multiple musicians in dialogue, with flutist Greg Milliren and principal French horn Jaclyn Rainey proving particularly engaging partners in song. Parker’s first-movement cadenza underlined his ambition to emphasize Grieg’s more meditative inclinations, while the concerto’s slow movement laid his lines atop a soft pillow of strings.

The finale found Fujimoto sculpting beautiful waves of sound that surged and dissipated, especially during a dreamy slow section. And the stormy conclusion brought the almost-capacity crowd to its feet, its appreciation of Parker’s artistry rewarded with an achingly tender take on Grieg’s “Notturno” that seemed like the ideal sad goodbye as Parker’s partnership with the orchestra concluded.

But he wasn’t the only one saying farewell on Friday. Heading off into retirement were two long-tenured members of the orchestra, principal trumpeter Manny Laureano — after 44 years in the position — and third French horn Ellen Dinwiddie Smith. And what a fine send-off they received in Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony, which featured some bracing fanfares from Laureano and fellow trumpeter Charles Lazarus, as well as some flamboyant flourishes from the French horns as the symphony thundered toward its explosive finish.

The bracing performance brimmed with exceptionally well-executed shifts in dynamics, most memorably during a period of quiet menace in the slow movement that was interrupted by an urgent cry from the horns. And the finale exuded glee before settling into a sweet lullaby from the clarinet of Gabriel Campos Zamora.

As on the Grieg, conductor Fujimoto really leaned into the most contemplative moments, reminding us that the Romantics were as expressive in their whispers as in their shouts. Sure, this summer’s concerts were stocked with crowd-pleasing 19th-century favorites, but it was a pleasure to hear them played so well.